Which of the following inferences about Maria Consuegra is best supported by
paragraph 7 of "Living to Tell the Tale"?
The town dignitaries came to Maria Consuegra's house to offer her their
condolences for having killed the thief. I went that night with Papalelo, and
we found her sitting in an armchair from Manila that looked like an
enormous wicker peacock, surrounded by the fervor of her friends who
listened to the story she had repeated a thousand times. Everyone agreed
with her that she had fired out of sheer fright. It was then that my
grandfather asked her if she had heard anything after the shot, and she
answered that the first she had heard a great silence, then the metallic
sound of the picklock falling on the cement, and then a faint, anguished
voice: "Mother, help me!" Maria Consuegra, it seemed, had not been
conscious of this heart-breaking lament until my grandfather asked her the
question. Only then did she burst into tears.
Oa) Maria feels terrible shame for what she's done.
Ob) Maria is stunned for a long time after she shoots the intruder.
Oc) Maria had threatened to shoot the thief the last time he'd broken into her
house.
Od) Maria did not own the gun she used to shoot the thief.

what motivates odysseus to tell a lie to the cyclops

with mrs. linde, nora reveals her insensitivity and lack of shame about the forgery she committed. she implies that mrs. linde has obviously aged since they last met 10 years earlier, which accounts for nora’s inability to recognize her old friend. although nora seems sympathetic to mrs. linde’s plight, she can’t seem to control herself from boasting about her three children, her husband’s recent promotion, and how good she feels to finally have some money to spend. in a way, she seems to be flaunting her good fortune in front of mrs. linde who, deprived of all these benefits, has come to ask nora for . it is also through her interactions with mrs. linde that we realize something deeper lies under nora’s seemingly childish exterior. she reveals the secret of her forgery to mrs. linde and seems to see herself as quite resourceful for having done it.

in the company of dr. rank, nora is freer than she is with her own husband. she openly laughs with joy at knowing that all the other bank employees will be under her husband’s control. she offers dr. rank a macaroon, apparently forgetting that he knows she is forbidden to eat them. she then quickly covers for herself by claiming that mrs. linde brought them. nora seems much more assertive and free with these other characters, as well as unabashedly willing to scheme, lie, and justify her transgressions as altruistic.  

krogstad provides an interesting parallel to nora. like nora, he too is guilty of committing forgery, for which torvald condemns him and decides to fire him. although krogstad is a man and nora a woman, their crimes of forgery unite them. in fact, krogstad might represent what nora would be like if she were a man and were not strictly scrupulous like her husband is. for example, she tells mrs. linde that "a barrister's profession is such an uncertain thing, especially if he won't undertake unsavoury cases; and naturally torvald has never been willing to do that." perhaps nora would have delved into the unsavory, given how opposite she is to her husband. krogstad's is also the only harsh voice of reality that nora is forced to hear, and that is because he blackmails her for her regaining his job at the bank. finally, torvald’s reaction to krogstad’s forgery seems to foreshadow his harsh and cold reaction to nora’s forgery.