Read the passage and answer the question:
This is an age-old tale. A mother and her daughter Satto, lived in a village. During that time, the forests were full of fruits and flowers. The women and girls of the village used to go and pluck these fruits and flowers. All of them used to pluck the sweet flowers of the mahua (Bassia Latifolia) tree, stored them at home and consumed them later.
One day, all of them plucked the sweet flowers and kept them in their rooms without drying them. Satto's mother was not at home. Satto dried the sweet flowers. As the flowers dried, they shrank. Later on when Satto's mother came home, she found very little flowers and thought that either Satto had eaten the flowers or she had given them to the village girls. In her blind rage, she beat her daughter to death. The women and girls of the village told her that she killed her daughter for such a trivial issue. They asked her to soak the flowers in water. When she soaked the mahuas, they swelled up and the entire room was filled with the flowers. Satto's mother was full of remorse. She regretted the fact that she killed her daughter without thinking. She died because of grief.
She was reborn as the pandak bird. The pandak bird still sings this song-
'Daughter Satto, the mahuas were in proper quantity...'
The antonym of the word 'remorse' is:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Rejoice
- Remorse means deep regret and sorrow for a wrong one has done. Satto's mother felt it after killing her daughter over a trivial matter.
Example: The thief was filled with remorse and returned the money. - Rejoice means to feel or show great joy. Joy and delight are the opposite of the sorrow and guilt of remorse, so it is the antonym.
Example: The whole village rejoiced at the birth of the baby.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: Regret — Incorrect. Regret is a feeling of sadness about something one has done; it is close in meaning to remorse, not opposite.
Example: I regret speaking so harshly to my brother.
Option 3: Repentance — Incorrect. Repentance is sincere sorrow for a wrong and the wish to change, a synonym of remorse.
Example: His tears showed true repentance for his mistake.
Option 4: Grief — Incorrect. Grief is deep sadness, especially at a death; it is a feeling of sorrow, not its opposite.
Example: She was overcome with grief when her grandfather died.