Read the passage given below and answer teh questions: (From 151 to 160) ... Upon more closely examining the place, I surmised that for an indefinite period Bartleby must have ate, dressed, and slept in my office, and that too without plate, mirror, or bed. The cushioned seat of a rickety old sofa in one corner bore the faint impress of a lean, reclining form. Rolled away under his desk, I found a blanket; under the empty grate, a blacking box and brush; on a chair, a tin basin, with soap and a ragged towel; in a newspaper a few crumbs of ginger-nuts and a morsel of cheese. Yes, thought I, it is evident enough that Bartleby has been making his home here, keeping bachelor's hall all by himself. Immediately then the thought came sweeping across me, what miserable friendlessness and loneliness are here revealed! His poverty is great; but his solitude, how horrible!.. For the first time in my life, a feeling of overpowering stinging melancholy seized me. Before, I had never experienced aught but a not-unpleasing sadness. The bond of a common humanity now drew me irresistibly to gloom. A fraternal melancholy! For both I and Bartleby were sons of Adam. I remembered the bright silks and sparkling faces I had seen that day, in gala trim, swan-like sailing down the Mississippi of Broadway; and I contrasted them with the pallid copyist, and thought to myself, Ah, happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay; but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none. These sad fancyings––chimeras, doubtless, of a sick and silly brain–––led on to other and more special thoughts, concerning the eccentricities of Bartleby ...... Revolving all these things, and coupling them with the recently discovered fact that he made my office his constant abiding place and home, and not forgetful of his morbid moodiness; revolving all these things, a prudential feeling began to steal over me. My first emotions had been those of pure melancholy and sincerest pity; but just in proportion as the forlornness of Bartleby grew and grew to my imagination, did that same melancholy merge into fear, that pity into repulsion. So true it is, and so melancholy merge into fear, that pity into repulsion. So true it is, and so terrible too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill. To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain. succor, common sense bids the soul rid it. What I saw that morning persuaded me that the scrivener was the victim of innate and incurable disorder. I might give alms to his body; but his body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not reach . ...
Which of the following best explains the reason for the transformation of the narrator's pity into repulsion and melancholy into fear?
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A.
Most human beings are inherently selfish by nature.
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B.
The narrator was helpless because Bartleby's illness was beyond his ability and power to alter.
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C.
Ah, happiness courts the light, so deem the world is gay; but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none.
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D.
Bartleby's body was in as much pain as his soul.
Correct Answer:
B. The narrator was helpless because Bartleby's illness was beyond his ability and power to alter.
Explanation:
The narrator felt powerless to help Bartleby because Bartleby's illness was beyond the narrator's control, as stated in the final paragraph of the passage. Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.
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