EG - 02

VARDHAMAN MAHAVEER OPEN UNIVERSITY, KOTA

Block I

Unit I 1 - 20
Bacon : Of Studies
Unit II 21 - 30
Bacon : Of Youth and Age
Unit III 31 - 42
Addison : Meditations in Westminister Abbey
Unit IV 43 - 49
Addison : Rural Manners
Unit V 50 - 65
Lamb : Modern Gallantry
Unit VI 66 - 80
Hazlitt : On Prejudice
Unit VII 81 - 94
Steele : Spectator Club
Unit VIII 95 - 124
Dickens : Oliver Twist
Unit IX 125 - 140
Maupassant : Necklace
Block II
Unit X 141 - 157
Katherine Mansfield : A Cup of Tea
Unit XI 158 - 172
Ravindranath Tagore : The Cast away
Unit XII 173 - 180
Kushwant Singh : The Portrait of a Lady
Unit XIII 181 - 193
R.K. Narayan : Engine Trouble
Unit XIV 194 - 204
O’Henry : The Gift of the Magi
Unit XV 205 - 213
Ruskin Bond : The Boy who broke the Bank
Unit XVI 214 - 223
Chinua : Marriage is a private Affair
Unit XVII 224 - 237
Amitav Gosh : The Ghat of the only World
Unit XVIII 238 - 245
Brooker T. Washington : My Struggle for an Education

Prose & Fiction

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Course Development Committee
Chairman
Prof. (Dr.) Naresh Dadhich
Vice Chancellor
Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota

Convenor Coordinator
Prof. (Dr.) Rajul Bhargava Dr. Kshamata Chaudhary
HOD Dept. of English Convenor, Dept. of English
Rajasthan University, Jaipur Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Kota
Members
1. Dr. Joya Chakravarty 2. Dr. Rajesh Shukla 3. Dr. Suresh Agarwal
Associate Professor (Eng.) Lecturer (Eng.) Associate Professor (Eng.)
University of Rajasthan, Government College, JRNRV University,
Jaipur Dausa Udaipur
4. Dr. S.P. Singh 5. Dr. Sarita Bang
Lecturer (English) Lecturer, Dept. of English
Agarwal College, Vedic Kanya PG College,
Jaipur Jaipur

Editor and Course Writers

Editor
Dr. Suresh Agarwal
Associate Prof. (English)
JRNRV University, Udaipur
Unit Writers Unit Number Unit Writers Unit Number
1. Dr. Rajesh Shukla (1) 2. Dr. S.P. Singh (5,6,9,10)
Lecturer English Lecturer English
Govt. College, Dausa Agarwal College, Jaipur
3. Dr. Arpana Sharma (16,18) 4. Dr. Kamlesh Bhatt (13,14,15)
Lecturer, Deptt. of English Sr. Lecturer (English)
B.N. PG College, Udaipur Arts & Commerce College,
Himmatnagar, Gujarat
5. Dr. Joya Chakravarty (3,8,11)
Associate Prof. (English) 6. Dr. Mukta Sharma (2)
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur Associate Prof. (English)
JRNV, Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Udaipur
7. Dr. Virendra Singh Tanwar (4,12,17)
HOD (English) 8. Dr. Rekha Tiwari (7)
Seth Moti Lal PG College, Lecturer (English)
Jhunjunu Guru Nanak PG College, Udaipur
Course Supervision and Production
Director (Academic) Director (Material Production & Distribution)
Prof. (Dr.) Anam Jaitly Prof. (Dr.) P.K. Sharma
Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University, Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University,
Kota Kota
Production Oct. 2007

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by mimeograph or any
other means,wihout permission in writing from the V.M.Open University, Kota.

Printed and published on behalf of V.M.Open University, Kota by Director (Academic).

 Block Introduction

Block - I
In this Block, we shall study the short stories as a literary forms and essays as a form of non-
fictional prose. We have brought stories who are rooted in different cultures.Such as Kushwant
Singh and Amitav Ghosh are Indians,Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand,but settled
in Britain and O’Henery an American.
Francis Bacon wrote the first English essays in 1597, which were short and epigrammatic
statements.Other selected Essayists like Steele, Addison, Hazlitt, Lamb, etc. portrayed so-
cial, political, literary and cultural aspectsof society through thier essays.
You are going to read some selected literary prose pieces and short stories. These selected
pieces shall also acquaint you with the varieties of English worldover such as British, American,
Indian, African; etc. Besides the text for intensive reading, each unit comprises a glossary of
difficult words, summary of the text, model explanations, etc. The self-assessment questions
and their answers are provided at the end of each unit to provide you a clear direction and to
enable you to understand the different features of prose and fiction employed by the prose
writers and story writers.
The editor and the contributors will be happy if the course material proves successful in making
the teaching and learning of English literature enjoyable.
Suggestions for the improvement are welcome.
 Unit – 1
Bacon : Of Studies
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Age and Author
1.2.1 About the Age
1.2.2 About the Author
1.2.3 Self Assessment Questions
1.3 Reading "of Studies"
1.3.1 The Essay : Of Studies
1.3.2 Glossary
1.3.3 Summary
1.3.4 Self Assessment Questions
1.4 Analysis
1.4.1 Critical Analysis
1.4.2 Theme
1.4.3 Structure
1.4.4 Style
1.4.5 Self Assessment Questions
1.5 Let's Sum Up
1.6 Answers to Exercises
1.7 Books Suggested
1.0 Objectives
In this unit our aim is to give you some practice in reading and understanding prose.
You will be required to answer questions set on the text provided for study by :
(a) giving you a thought provoking essay written by Francis Bacon,
(b) giving you a glossary of difficult words and phrases from the essay,
(c) discussing various literary devices used by Bacon in his prose writings,
(d) giving you questions to be answered.
In the section on Age and Author, we will give you ample information about prose
writing and development of English prose in successive centuries. The prose writing
in sixteenth century will be dealt with in detail. The special trends and practices
adopted by the men of letters and creative writers in the sixteenth century will be
explained in simple language.
A detailed summary would be given to bring forth hidden meanings in the text. This
will also emphasise the reason for the universal appeal of Bacon’s essays.
To make you understand the text in a better way, short and objective type questions
are being given at appropriate places in this unit.
After reading and understanding various sections of this unit you will be able to :
(a) understand the text in its totality,
(b) develop the ability to read between the lines and understand the real motive of
the author in writing this essay.
(c) appreciate and evaluate the given text.

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1.1 Introduction
Poetry was considered more respectable than prose. Gradually prose also developed
and acquired an equal status with poetry. The first name in the history of English
prose is that of Alfred (848-901), who belonged to the Anglo-Saxon period. The
oldest historical record in English and the best monument of early English prose is
the Anglo-Saxon ‘Chronicle’.
Next followed the Anglo-Norman period. A major work of this period is ‘Ancren
Riwle’ (Rule of the Anchoresses). It is regarded as the most beautiful piece of old
English prose ever written. English was not a major language in the world at that
time. Major works in twelfth and thirteenth century consist of works of small value
and slight quality. This period is of transition from French and Latin. English prose
was considered as a medium for translation.
The modern English prose, according to George Saintsbury began from 1350. This
period witnessed the great turning point which was partly due to the concentration
of English patriotic sentiments saroused by the military conquests of Edward III.
New English prose made a real start almost for the first time. Four writers of prose
are noteworthy in this period – Chaucer the poet, Wyclif the controversialist, Trevisa
the Chronicler, and the shadowy personage long known as Sir John Mandeville. All
these were basically translators in a less or greater degree, and also were the
founders of English prose writing.
Malory and Berners top the list of writers of English prose in the fifteenth century.
It was a period of experiments where conscious efforts were made to develop a
prose style following the path of Chaucer and Wyclif. Prose was written in several
different branches of literature, history, law, politics, theology, philosophy, sermons,
and letters etc. But it mostly depended on translations.
Europe witnessed the Renaissance in the field of creative writings in the fifteenth
century. People developed interest in classical writings of ancient Greece and Rome.
The influence of the new learning was not at first beneficial, on the whole writers
were overladen with their new acquisitions and did not know what to do with them.
Classical allusions became abundant. And, there was a danger for English to loose
its separate identity, its spelling, diction, syntax, versification and style in the process
of being overburdened with classicism, but the translations kept up English prose on
the path of development.
This time period also witnessed the invention of printing from moveable fonts. It in
fact proved to be a social and literary revolution. After the first book printed by
William Caxton in 1477, the printing enlarged the bounds and influence of literature.
The Reformation led to a further increase in the number of writers and readers and
to a certain facility in composition. The reformation produced models of magnificent
prose in English scriptures and in such works as Foxe’s Ace Monuments. The

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 famous voyages of Columbus Sebastian Cabot and Vasco de Gama, all between
1490 to 1500 turned the thoughts of men to larger views of the physical universe
and brought into English life and letters the spirit of adventure that breathes through
many of the best works of the spacious times of great Elizabeth.
In the development of literature, the revival of learning worked in two ways : it did
much to emancipate thought from the bondage of medieval theology by restoring the
generous spirit and ideals of pagan antiquity; and it presented writers with masterpieces
of literature which they might take as models for their efforts. For these two reasons,
the Renaissance is nightly taken as a chief source in the making of modern European
literatures. England now began to share in these liberalising movements. Before the
century was out, the new learning was firmly established at Oxford and Cambridge.
The Reformation which occurred in the middle of the Sixteenth century was the
work of a preacher, Hugh Latimer (1485-1555), whose energy and good sense
produced some of the most pungent English prose of the period. Then there is the
religious literature of the time. William Tyndale’s English New Testament (1525),
the Complete English Bible of Miles Coverdale (1535) and Cromwell’s Great
Bible (1535) show the steady growth of popular interest in the scriptures. These
works exerted considerable influence on the development of a standard English
prose.
Poetry dominated the whole of the Renaissance. Prose, simple, restrained and clear,
fit not to impassion but to instruct, not to father the imagination but to satisfy the
reason, is very much exceptional in this age.
1.2 Age And Author
In this section we will try to familiarize you with the sixteenth century literary scenario
of England. We will discuss the main trends and literary currents of the age to which
Francis Bacon belonged.
We will discuss and make you aware about the author i.e. Bacon. We will look into
the main events of the life of Francis Bacon and his rise as a literary genius. We will
also acquaint you with the major qualities of Bacon and his important works. We
will also discuss the temperament, philosophy and style of Bacon to make you
understand Bacon in a better way.
At the end of this section we will provide you with questions. These objective type
and short answer type questions have been designed to check your progress and
understanding by yourself. Your self assessment will develop a confidence in you
and you will be able to pursue the further study with confidence and understanding.
1.2.1 About the Age
The intellectual trends and opinions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
are more directly shown in the prose of the period than in its poetry.

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Pamphleteering of all kinds, polemical religious argument, political educational
and literary theorizing, flourished now as never before, with the result that
the literary historian had to deal with a mass of miscellaneous prose most of
which could hardly be called strictly “literature”, yet which in addition to
providing an occasional work of real literary merit, provided an interesting
view of the state of English prose style and the various ways in which English
prose was being exercised and developed.
Besides this large quantity of miscellaneous prose writings, there were
devotional works, sermons, translations of many different kinds, histories,
biographies, accounts of ceremony events and prose fiction.
We are talking here only about the writings in prose in the sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries. Two factors are seen at work in most of these varied
prose writings. First, the breakthrough of colloquial speech, with its vigour
and raciness, into the written word, and second, the attempt to mould a
consciously artistic English prose style. These two factors are, surprisingly
enough, often found in conjunction with colloquial vigor and over elaborate
parallels or antithesis alternating in the same work.
No permanent resolution was achieved in the sixteenth or early seventeenth
centuries in spite of the occasional prose triumphs of the age, though an
impersonal devotional prose developed, descending from the devotional prose
of Rolle and Hilton in the fourteenth century and a Biblical prose was
wrought by the English translators of the Bible from Tyndale to the translators
of the Authorized Version of 1611. It remains true that nearly all prose
writers of the Elizabethan and immediately subsequent period wrote a highly
idiosyncratic prose : there was, except for prayer and Biblical translations no
common tradition of prose style of which individual writers could play their
own variations, as eighteenth century writers had from Addison on; every
prose writer had first to solve the problem of creating his own style.
We can see colloquial prose disciplining itself into effective writings, while
wholly informal and unliterary, they have style – the style of fluent, educated
speech, only slightly less discursive than actual speech would be. The prose
on the whole is naive, unsuited for any heaviex burden than that of exchange
of family news.
The Elizabethan settlement, completed with the establishment of thirty-nine
articles in 1571, produced the church of England, Catholic in profession but
national in character, repudiating the authority of the pope but episcopal in
organization, a national Catholic Church stripped of the abuses of Rome but
resisting the demands of Puritans for extreme simplicity and severity in worship,
for the abolition of episcopacy and for granting spiritual authority to individuals
who claimed it on the grounds of grace vouchsafed to them and of preaching

4
 ability.
The settlement provided a wide roof under which different shades of opinion
could shelter together as later divisions of ‘high’ and ‘low’ church were to
testify; but it left out both Roman Catholics and the more extreme Puritans.
The Puritans to whom preaching the word was a sacred obligation would
have had a greater effect on English preaching if they had not eventually
been forbidden to preach by the repressive legislation introduced in support
of the establishment of Archbishop.
Fortunately, the Church of England produced early in its history a succession
of learned and able ecclesiastics who brought preaching in England in the
late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to a new level of literary art.
The puritan preachers who re-emerged under the Commonwealth and later
strongly influenced the style of non conformist preaching are important in the
history of the spoken sermons, but the great Anglican preachers are of more
concern to the literary historians.
If religious and other controversies helped to stimulate the development of
a polemical prose style, a more profound shaping of English prose was going
on at the same time by means of the discipline of translation. Thomas North,
Sir Thomas Hoby, Sir John Cheke, William Painter, Geoffrey Fenton, George
Pettie, William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale were some of those prose
writers and translators who strove hard to give Elizabeth unprose an identity
of its own.
History and biography were also fields in which Elizabethan prose exercised
itself. It was the best narrative prose with a flow and control which leaves
its permanent mark in the literary annals. The balanced sentences, alliteration
and other stylistic devices make the prose artful.
1.2.2 About the Author
Francis Bacon was born on January 22, 1561 in London. His family was
very powerful and very close to Queen Elizabeth. His father Sir Nicholas
Bacon was Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. His mother was the daughter
of Sir Anthony Cooke and Sister-in-law of Sir William Cecil, the Lord of
Burghley.
He was a protected child. His early childhood was spent at his father’s
country palace. He was devoted to studies in a grave manner even at the
tender age of ten. He was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge with his elder
brother at the age of thirteen. He came back after three years and was then
admitted to Gray’s Inn on June 27, 1576.
But only after a few months not liking the legal profession, he went alongwith

5
the English Ambassador to France and thus began his career in diplomacy.
After his father’s death, he came back to England and again joined Gray’s
Inn. In 1584, he entered the Parliament as representative of Malcombe
Regis. He was again elected for parliament in 1586 and 1589, he advocated
for a middle course between popular privilege and royal prerogative,
moderation in secular reform with toleration in religion. This policy he
supported in two pamphlets published in 1585 and 1589. In both of them
he pleaded for greater elasticity in matters of doctrine and of discipline.
In 1591, Bacon attached himself to the Earl of Essex, who was very close
to Queen Elizabeth. In 1593 Bacon entered the Parliament from Middlesex.
He severely criticised the Government’s policy of demand for a triple subsidy
to help meet the expenses of the Spanish War. The Queen was annoyed and
did not appoint him Attorney General in 1594. The Earl of Essex always
tried to favour and make recommendations for Bacon, but the Queen paid
no need to them. Somehow he was made Learned Counsel. Bacon played
a major role in securing Essay’s conviction, when he was being tried for
treason. As a result of his conviction, Essex's was executed. Bacon incurred
much ill feeling for this. In 1604, he published an Apology for this action.
The first edition of his Essays was published in 1597. It had ten essays. Its
popularity was great, almost from the very day of issue.
In 1603, King James I ascended to the English throne. Bacon tried to win
the new King’s favour by every wit he could employ, he was ultimately
successful and managed to get Knighthood in July, 1603. In 1604 he was
confirmed as Learned Counsel and in 1607 became Solicitor General.
In 1605 Bacon published his Advancement of Learning and dedicated it to
the King. This great philosophical work was later expanded and translated
in Latin. In 1606, Bacon got married to Alice Branham, daughter of a
London alderman. In 1607 and 1612 new editions of his Essays were
published with several additions. Cogitata et Visa, In felicem memorium
Elizabethae and De sapientia veterum and Wisdom of the Ancients were
published between 1607 and 1609. In 1613 he was made Attorney General.
In the Parliament of 1614, he sat for Cambridge University.
From 1612 onwards his counsels did not attract the King’s attention and he
was in the process of being marginalised. But Bacon soon made up for his
decending position and became Lord Keeper in March 1617. In January
1618 he was promoted to Lord Chancellor and in July 1618 he was made
Baron Verulam. A further honour was conferred upon him in January 1621
when he was created Viscount St. Albans.
The Parliament met after seven years and his enemies seized the opportunity
to bring charges of bribery and corruption against Bacon. He was found
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 guilty and after considerable discussions the House of Lords passed sentence
against him on May 3, 1621. The sentence was, however, not fully carried
out, but he was barred to sit in the Parliament.
The remaining five years of his life were spent in work for more valuable to
the world than anything he had accomplished in his high office. From the
literary and philosophical point of view, this last period was, indeed, the
most precious. Smitten by his disgrace he turned with much eagerness to
intellectual pursuits that had been interrupted by his official duties.
His retirement from politics enabled him, indeed, to make his literary reputation
more firm and enduring. He devoted himself with amazing energy to literature
and science. During this period he produced histories, De Augments, New
Atlantis and the final edition of Essays, which contained fifty eight essays.
In March 1626 while travelling near highgate in London, he performed an
experiment, which was an anticipation of the modern process of refrigeration,
but it caused his death. He decided to discover whether snow would delay
the process of putrefaction, he stopped his carriage, purchased a hen, and
with his own hands stuffed it with snow. As a result he caught a chill and
fever. He was taken to the house of the Earl of Arundel, where he died on
April 9, 1626. He was buried in St. Michael’s Church at St. Albans. Bacon
was intellectually great but morally weak. Pope called him as “the wisest,
brightest, but the meanest of mankind.” His marvellous versatility renders it
difficult to present a critical estimate which embraces all the varied aspects
of his personality as lawyer, politician, scientist, philosopher, historian, and
essayist. He took all knowledge for his province.
The works of Fancis Bacon
- The Advancement of Learning (1605)
- History of Henry VII (1622)
- Essays (1597, 1612 and 1625)
- The New Atlantis (1622 and 1626)
- Magna Instauratio (in six volumes)
- Novum Organum (in four volumes)
1.2.3 Self Assessment Questions
You have studied about the development of prose writing in Elizabethan age
and about the life and works of Francis Bacon. We have also discussed the
literary writings during the age under discussion. You have also learnt about
trends and practices adopted by writers of this period.
Now to make your understanding more clear, here is a revision of the things
which you have read and understood. Answer the questions given in these

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exercises to check your progress.
Exercise-1
Each question in this exercise has three alternatives, read the question and
choose the right answer from these three alternatives.
1. Alfred belonged to :
(a) Anglo-Saxon period
(b) Victorian period
(c) Elizabethan period
2. Ancren Riwle is a representative work of :
(a) Anglo-Saxon period
(b) Ancient prose
(c) Anglo-Norman period
3. Sir John Mandeville was basically a
(a) prose writer
(b) essayist
(c) translator
4. Fifteenth Century was a period of :
(a) great prose writings
(b) experiments
(c) translations from Latin
5. People developed interest in classical writings of ancient Greece and
Rome during
(a) Renaissance
(b) Elizabethan age
(c) Classicalage
6. Devotional prose was written in
(a) Fourteenth century
(b) Fifteenth century
(c) Sixteenth century
7. The Puritan preachers re-emerged under :
(a) Elizabethan period
(b) Church of England
(c) Common Wealth
8. Francis Bacon was admitted to Gray’s Inn in
(a) 1576
(b) 1586
(c) 1589
9. Francis Bacon represented Cambridge University in the Parliament in:
(a) 1612
(b) 1603
(c) 1614

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10. The first edition of Bacon’s ‘Essay’s was published in :
(a) 1603
(b) 1596
(c) 1597
Exercise-2
Now try to answer the following questions in two to three sentences each.
1. What do you know about the early English prose?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
2. Describe the Renaissance.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
3. What effect did the Reformation have on the literary circles?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
4. Comment on the revival of learning.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
5. What type of writings were produced in early sixteenth century in
England?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
6. What do you know about the style of English prose of the sixteenth
century?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
7. What was Elizabethan settlement?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
8. What do you know about the early life of Francis Bacon?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

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 9. What did Bacon write after James the first became the King of England?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
10. When did Bacan excel as a writer?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
1.3 Reading Text
In this section we will give you practice to read and understand the essay Of
Studies. We will adopt an analytical approach to the understanding of Bacon’s of
Studies.
1.3.1 Text
Given below is original text of Francis Bacon’s essay Of Studies.
1. Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for
delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornaments, is in discourse; and for
ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can
execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general
counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that
are learned. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to sue them too
much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules,
is the humour of a scholar.
2. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience; for natural abilities are
like natural plants, that need proyning by study; and studies themselves do
give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by
experience. Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise
men use them. For they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom
without them, and above them, won by observation.
3. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor
to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to
be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
That is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not
curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by
others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the
meaner sort of books: else distilled books are, like common distilled waters,
flashy things.
4. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact

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 man and, therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory;
if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he
had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.
5. Histories make men wise, poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural
philosophy deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend; Abeunt
studia in mores; nay, there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may
be wrought out by fit studies, like a diseases of the body may have appropriate
exercises : bowling is good for the stones and reins, shooting for the lungs
and breast, gentle walking for the stomach, riding for the head, and the like;
so, if a man’s wits be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in
demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again;
if his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the
schoolmen, for they are cymini sectores.
6. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call upon one thing to prove
and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers’ cases. So every defect of
the mind may have a special receipt.
1.3.2 Glossary
1. delight : pleasure
privateness : a state of aloofness
discourse : conversation and discussion
expert : experienced
execute : to implement
plots : plans
marshalling : arrangement
discourse : discussion
sloth : laziness
humour : eccentricity or particular bias of mind
scholar : one who exclusively devotes himself to
learning and who is normally not much
acquainted with practical life.
2. natural abilities : inherited mental traits
proyning : pruning or trimming by looping of
superfluous growth of a small tree.
too much at large : to vague
bounded in : corrected, limited
crafty : cunning
admire : wonder at
without : outside
above them : this ability to apply theory to practice

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 observation : practical experience of life
3. confute : to prove false
granted : to be accepted in entirity
weigh : to evaluate
tasted : read in parts
swallowed : merely read through curiously
digested : to be read very thoroughly
curiously : in much detail
would be : ought to be, with great care
distilled books : summaries
flashy : insipid
4. full-man : well informed person
ready man : quick witted person
present wit : presence of mind
that : what
natural philosophy : physics, chemistry, mechanics etc.
5. witty : imaginative
logic : science of reasoning
thetoric : the art of persuasive speaking
contend : attempt to induce another to agree with
one’s opinion
abeunt studia in mores : studies pass into the character
stone : hinderance
wit : mind
wrought out : removed
bowling : playing at bowls
reins : kidneys
shooting : archery
wondering : unable to concentrate
never so little : no matter how little
schoolmen : philosophers and theologists of the middle
ages, who were very keen on their hair-
splitting logical distinctions on debates etc.
Cymini Sectores : Antonius Plus was called Cymini sector, a
carver or divider of cumin seed which is
one of the least seeds, hence the phrase is
equivalent to ‘hair splitting’ or persons gifted
with excessive subtlety in debates.
6. lawyers cases : lawyers have to depend on precedents
relative to cases in hand.
apt to beat over matters: good at going over the ground of.
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1.3.3 Summary
Studies are a source of pleasure. They have an ornamental value and also
add to one’s ability.
This essay deals with some of the uses of study and offers some sound ideas
relating to this theme. The pleasure of study can best be enjoyed by a man
leading a life of aloofness and retirement. The ornamental value of study lies
in enabling a man to become a good talker. He who spends too much time
in studies is temporarily lazy. He who makes too much use of reading for
purposes of conversation, is trying to make a vain display of his learning. If
a man’s judgment is governed wholly by rules, he has learned from books,
it shows his eccentricity.
Studies makes one develop one's abilities with ease Studies by themselves
provide guidance, but without practical experience this is abstract. Men who
are cunning, do not approve of the studies, but those who are simple, feel
an admiration for studies. Men who are basically wise, make use of studies
for their progress.
One should not read books only to contradict others. All things written in
books should not be followed in life. One should ponder over what he reads
and how he uses it.
Some books are to be read in parts only. Some may be read quickly and
hastity. There are only a small number of books that are worth close and
detailed study. In the case of some books, a man may engage somebody
else to read them and then tell him what they contain and also give him
extracts from them. But this method should be adopted in the case of the
meaner sort of books only. No man can be satisfied with a mere summary
or synopsis of a good book.
Reading develops the whole personality of a man. Conversation makes a
man witty. Different kinds of books have different effects upon the reader.
History man a man wise, Poetry makes a man imaginative, Mathematics
develops subtelity in a man, Natural science enables a man to look, deep
into the things, Logic and art of public speaking develop a person’s
communicative skills.
Various capabilities are developed by effective and useful reading. If a man’s
mind wonders too much, he should be made to study Mathematics to develop
concentration; if a man is unable to make distinctions amongst things, he
should study the literature produced in the Middle Ages.
Studies are a cure for mental deficiency. Just as bowling is good for kidneys,
shooting for the lungs, walking for digestion and riding for the head, so also

13
 mathematics is good for wondering wits. Every defect of a man’s mind can
be cured through studies.
1.3.4 Self Assessment Questions
You must have understood Bacon’s ideas about studies. You must have
understood the uses and disadvantages of study. You have also come to
know about rules and modes of study.
Exercise – 3
Now answer the following questions by choosing the correct answer from
the three alternatives given below each question.
1. Bacon’s essay entitled Of Studies is a passage to be:
(i) chewed and digested
(ii) read with main points
(iii) studied thoroughly
2. One who makes too much use of his readings for conversational
purposes makes:
(i) things haphazard
(ii) vain display of his learnings
(iii) proper use of books
3. One should take extracts from :
(i) books of high value
(ii) meaner sort of books
(iii) remedial books
4. Books worth a closer and thorough reading :
(i) are smaller in number
(ii) are written by famous writers
(iii) are text books
5. Logic and rhetoric develops :
(i) man’s debating powers
(ii) man’s thinking power
(iii) man’s power to interact
Exercise – 4
Now try to answer the following questions in sentences of your own :
1. What type of books are to be chewed and digested?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

14
 2. What do you think is the proper use of study?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
3. What is the use of the study of natural philosophy?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
4. How can a man acquire ability to perfection?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
5. For what we should not read books?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
1.4 Analysis
In this section we will discuss various aspects related to the essay. First of all we
will presenta critical analysis and then discuss the theme, structure and style of
Francis Bacon.
1.4.1 Critical Analysis
This essay deals with different kinds of books and their effect on the reader.
The uses of studies are classified by Bacon under three heads – the use of
studies for delight; the use of studies for ornament and the use of studies for
ability. Bacon also gives us some excellent advice as to why or how one
should read. He tells us that different studies have varied effects on the
human mind.
Various mental defects can be remedied by various kinds of studies. The
need of experience to supplement and perfect studies has duly been
emphasised in the essay. Bacon would not be satisfied with more bookish
knowledge. The wisdom won by experience is as necessary as the wisdom
gained from books.
But it is not only the ideas that are so important in this essay. We find Bacon
displaying his talent for using the maximum economy of words in order to
express his ideas. The essay is a masterpiece of brevity and terseness. Some
of his sentences read like proverbs.

15
 Bacon’s essays abound in very appropriate and original similes. We have
one such simile here when Bacon says that “distilled books are, like common
distilled waters, flashy things”.
We could say, without any exaggeration, that it is one of the finest essays
in English prose. It gives us a number of sound maxims and a number of
sentences that we can use as quotations when occasion demands. Some of
the sentences, indeed, cling to our memory without any mental effort on our
part to memorise them. This is one of the best known essays from the pen
of Bacon.
1.4.2 Theme
The Elizabethan Age is the most creative period in English Literature. The
foreign wars were over and the Englishmen had for the first time the leisure
to devote their energies to interests other than war upon their neighbours.
Fortunately, just at this time, the great wave of the Renaissance, the new
birth of letters, having spent itself in Italy and crossing over France and
Spain reached the shores of England.
With Francis Bacon begans philosophical reflections upon life, in the style of
Plutarch’s “Morals” and the “Essays” of Mointaigne. Bacon’s mind was
catholic in its range, but the subjects of moral thought that interest him are
comparatively few and generalized.
The method used by Bacon is to reduce reflection to the lowest terms to try
to discover the fundamental principles of conduct, the influence and the
actions of men. His essays reflects his experiences of learning. His observations
do not clear his likes or dislikes. They are austere, brief to the point of
crudeness.
In the essay Of Studies, a life-long student, Bacon describes his craft. He
was no plodder upon books though he read much and that with great
judgment. The subject of this essay was the one that revolved longest in the
edition of his “Essays”.
1.4.3 Structure
One peculiarity of this essay which deserves notice is the frequency with
which Bacon repeats himself. Thus essay has each sentence carefully selected
and strung together, Bacon has gems of thought and language, but he does
not scatter them about with uncalculating profusion of a Shakespeare, non
‘like wealthy men who care not how they give, but rather like those who are
spending their story with care'.
Bacon is not an optimist. He has no sentiment to lead the reader astray.. He
writes with brevity and compactness. To the careless reader much of what

16
 he has written will seem common-place enough. But to the serious reader,
his thoughts are universal. The sentences are compact and simple.
1.4.4 Style
The passage is compressed, bold, full of condensed thought and utterly
devoid of ornamentation. The sentences run smooth. Force and precision
are its main characteristics. The sustained passage has easy eloquence, and
sentences here and there are of singular and unaffected beauty and not thrust
in but flowing continuously with the rest. Bacon writes with an air of modesty.
His passages bear the mark of a grand and confident self-esteem sometimes
directly assertive, sometimes condescending, sometimes scornful, sometimes
disguised under a transparent affectation of modesty.
There is one special characteristic of Bacon’s manner which does not admit
of being illustrated except at a prohibitive length, his long magnificent roll of
sentence after sentence. Each falling into its place, each adding new weight
to what has gone before it, and all together uniting to complete the entire
effect.
His style has simplicity, strength, brevity, clearness and precision. Simplicity
cannot be said to be a characteristics in its strict sense, of his style. His
passage is simple in the sense of being free from all affection, free from any
studied elegance in the choice of words and in the structure of sentences.
He avoids with equal care both pedantry and vulgarity, though he has no
scruple in using homely illustrations, where such illustrations would be more
telling.
That the quality of strength in Bacon’s style is intellectual rather than emotional.
1.4.5 Self Assessment Questions
In this section you have understood the structure, style and theme 'Of Studies'.
You have also gone through the hidden meaning and motive of Bacon in
writing this essay.
Exercise-5
Now try to answer the following questions :
1. How did Bacon classify the books?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
2. What are special qualities of this essay?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

17
 3. Comment on the theme of this essay.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
4. Discuss the peculiarity of structure of this essay.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
5. Discuss the main qualities of Bacon’s style.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
1.5 Let's Sum Up
In this unit you have learnt about
· Ideas described in Bacon’s essay entitled Of Studies.
· Literary atmosphere of Elizabethan Age.
· Prose writings in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
· The word pictures created by Bacon.
· The different meaning of words as used by Bacon.
· Analysing Critically a paragraph of prose.
1.6 Answers To The Exercises
Exercise - 1
1. (a) Anglo-Saxon period
2. (c) Anglo-Norman period
3. (c) translator
4. (a) experiments
5. (a) Renaissance
6. (a) Fourteenth Century
7. (b) Church of England
8. (a) 1576
9. (c) 1614
10. (c) 1597

18
Exercise-2
1. English prose proved its existence in the Anglo Saxon period. It gradually
developed.
2. Europe witnessed Renaissance in the field of creative writings in the fifteenth
century. People developed interest in classical writings of ancient Greece and
Rome during this period.
3. The Reformation produced models of magnificent prose in English.
4. Revival of learning did much to emancipate thought from the bondage of medieval
theology by restoring the generous spirit and ideals of pagan antiquity and
alongwith it also presented masterpieces of literature which could be taken as
models.
5. Translations of the Testament. The Great Bible, devotional works, sermons,
histories, biographies and prose fiction were produced during this period.
6. These writings had a style of fluent, and educated speech. The prose was naive,
unsuited for any heavier burden.
7. The Elizabethan settlement, completed with the establishment of thirty one articles
in 1571, produced the Church of England.
8. Bacon was a protected child in his early childhood. He had great inclination for
studies. At the age of thirteen he joined Trinity College and three years after that
he joined Gray’s Inn to become a lawyer.
9. Bacon wrote Advancement of Learning in 1605 and dedicated it to the King.
10. Bacon excelled as a writer in the last phase of his life, when he left all his
political and legal assignments and totally devoted himself to higher pursuits of
learning.
Exercise-3
1. (i) chewed and digested
2. (ii) vain display of his learning
3. (ii) meaner sort of books
4. (i) are smaller in number
5. (i) man’s debating powers
Exercise-4
1. The books which have knowledgeable contents should be read thoroughly and
understood properly.
2. We study for personal enjoyment and for cultivation of social charm through the
cultivation of the power of exposition in speech and to develop ability for
judgment of facts and circumstances.

19
 3. It enables the reader to understand things in a better way and reach to the
depth of subject matter.
4. It can be acquired when knowledge gained from books is supplemented with
practical experience.
5. One should not read books to contradict others.
Exercise-5
1. Bacon classified books under three major categories. Some books are for
personal enjoyment, others are to be read to develop conversational qualities
and some others are to develop power of judgment.
2. Some of these qualities are maximum economy of words, straight forward
presentation, brevity, terseness and use of sentences as proverbs.
3. Bacon tries to discover fundamental principles of conduct influence and actions
of men.
4. Each sentence is carefully selected and strung together. The essay shows brevity
and compactness.
5. The essay of Bacon is compressed, full of condensed thought and utterly devoid
of ornamentation. The sentences in the paragraph run smooth.
1.7 Books Suggested
1. Daiches, David, A Critical History of English Literature Allied, New Delhi,
1984.
2. Gibson, S., Bacon’s Essay Longmans, New Delhi, 1976.
3. Sampson, George, A Concise Cambridge History of English Literature CUP,
London, 1972.
4. Selby, F.G., Essays at Bacon Macmillan, New Delhi, 1977.

20
 UNIT - 2
Bacon : Of Youth and Age
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 About the Author
2.3 Reading the Text
2.3.1 The Essay : Of Youth and Age (Text)
2.3.2 Glossary
2.3.3 Summary
2.4 Some Model Explanations
2.5 Let us Sum Up
2.6 Suggested Readings
2.7 Questions
2.8 Answers
2.0 Objectives
This unit aim to generating interest in you regarding the essays of Francis Bacon.
The highly personal essays of today maybe more readable but are not inspired by
the high purpose which motivated Bacon and his contemporaries. An effort has
been made to realize this objective by presenting a discussion on one of the essays
entitled ‘Of Youth and Age’ written by Bacon.

2.1 Introduction
While the age of Shakespeare found its chief imaginative outlet in drama, it can not
be said that it was not was also active in the field of prose. England now felt the
stimulus of the Renaissance on the intellectuals as well as on the artists and the result
was the production of a great many prose works dealing with various subjects in
which thoughtful people were then interested. Most of these belong to the special
history of such subjects rather than to the general history of literature. But a few
writers claim a place in our record, and among them Bacon, the principal prose
master of his time holds an important place.
Francis Bacon is the first English essayist. His essays are filled with stupendous
learning and thought. They have to be read slowly and thoughtfully, not because the
style is obscure but because they are extremely condensed and the thought is
profound. The essay ‘Of Youth and Age’ is one of the best essays of Bacon in
which he compares the two ages, youth and (old) age. The essay deals with the
advantages and disadvantages of both the ages. Bacon says that both the ages
should be taken into totality, and compounding the characteristics of both the ages,
i.e. youth and old age can help in getting success.

2.2 About the Author

The second son of a famous lawyer and statesman, Francis Bacon was born on 22

21
 January 1561. As a boy his wit and precocity attracted the attention of the queen,
who used to call him her ‘young lord keeper’ – his father then being the keeper of
the Great Seal of England. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in
preparation for a Career of statesmanship was sent to Paris in suite of the English
ambassador. After his father’s death in 1579, he chose law as his profession and
was called to the Bar in 1589. By this time he had also made his mark as an orator
in the House of Commons. After the accession of James I he rose rapidly in favour
and fortune. He was knighted in 1603; became Attorney General in 1631, Privy
Counciller in 1616; Lord Keeper in 1617; Lord Chancellor and Baron Verulam in
1618; Viscount St. Albans in 1621. He wrote voluminously on many subjects and
his greatest work—Advancement of Learning and Novum Organum in which he
sets forth, and illustrates the inductive or Baconian method of studying nature –
place him in the front rank of the world’s epoch-makers. His principal contribution
to general literature is his little collection of “Essays” or Counsels Civil and Moral”
first published in 1597, and in much enlarged editions in 1612 and 1625.

2.3 Reading the Text

Now read the essay and try to comprehend it:
2.3-1 Of Youth and Age (Text)
A man that is young in years may be held in hours, if he have lost no time. But that
happeneth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the
second. For there is a youth in thoughts as a well as in ages. And yet the invention
of young men is more lively than that of the old; and imaginations stream into their
minds better, and as it were more divinely. Nature that have much heat, and great
and violent desires and perturbations, are not ripe for action till they have passed
the meridian of their years: as it was with Julius Caesar, and Septimius Severus. Of
the latter of whom it is said, Juventutem egit erroribus, imo furoribus, plenam.
And yet he was the ablest emperor, almost of all the list. But reposed natures may
do well in youth. As it is seen in Augustus Caesar, Cosmus, Duke of Florence,
Gaston de Foix, and others. On the other side, heat and vivacity in age is an
excellent composition for business. Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter
for execution than for counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business.
For the experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth them;
but in new things, abuseth them. The errors of aged men amount but to this, that
more might have been done, or actions embrace, more than they can hold; stir more
than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees;
pursue some few principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to
innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and,
that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready
horse, that will neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long,
adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full
period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly, it is good to
compound employments of both; for that will be good for the present, because the
virtues of either age may correct the defects of both; and good for succession, that
young men may be learners, while men in age are actors; and lastly, good for extern

22
accidents, because authority followeth old men, and favour and popularity youth.
But for the moral part, perhaps youth will have the prominence, as age hath for the
politic. A certain rabbin, upon the text, Your young men shall see visions, and
your old men shall dream dreams, inferreth that young men are admitted nearer
to God than old because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And certainly,
the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age doth profit
rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will and affections.
There be some have an over-early ripeness in their years, which fadeth betimes.
These are, first such as have brittle wits, the edge whereof is soon turned; such as
was Hermogenes the rhetorician, whose books are exceeding subtile, who afterwards
waxed stupid. A second sort is of those that have some natural dispositions which
have better grace in youth than in age; such as is a fluent and luxuriant speech, which
becomes youth well, but not age: so Tully saith of Hortensius, Idem manebat,
neque idem docebat. The third is of such as take too high a strain at the first, and
are magnanimous more than tract of years can uphold. As was Scipio Africanus, of
whom Livy saith in effect Ultima primis cedebant. [Lord Verulam—The Essays of
Francis Bacon.]
2.3-2 Glossary
rarely : not often
youth : young age
invention : creation
lively : cheerful
apt : appropriate
imagination : the ability of mind to form ideas or images in mind
stream : small narrow river
divinely : belonging to God
violent : fierce
perturbation : disturbance
ripe : matured
meridian : mid period
reposed : peaceful
vivacity : animation
excellent : very good
composition : mixture
judge : to form an opinion about
execution : put into action
counsel : advise
project : plan

23
settled : established
compass : circle
directeth : give direction
abuseth : treat wrongly
ruin : destroy
manage actions : management of activities
embrace : accept
stir : move
quiet : stable
consideration : idea
means : resources
degrees : quantity
pursue : follow
chance : happen
absurdity : unreasonable
innovate : introduce new methods, ideas
draws : creates
inconveniences : difficulties
extreme : to the highest degree
remedies : solution
acknowledge : accept
retract : abandon
unready : unwilling
object : oppose
consult : take advice
adventure : an unusual daring, exciting experience
repent : regret
content : satisfy
mediocrity : of only average or fairly low quality
compound : mix
employments : activities
virtue : quality
succession : lineage
extern : outward

24
accident : mishappening
authority : influence
favour : approval or liking
popularity : the state of being liked and supported by many
people.
pre-eminence : superiority
politic : sensible and wise in the circumstances
rabbin : teacher of Jewish laws
conclude : bring to an end, arrive at an opinion by reasoning
revelation : revelation of something unknown
drinketh of world : knows about the world.
intoxicateth : to excite or cause to feel very happy
profit : benifit
affection : love
ripeness : maturity
fadeth : passes away
betimes : by the passing of time
brittle : which breaks easily
edge : end
rhetorician : an expert in powerful and persuasive public speaking
exceed : surpass
subtile : sensitive
waxed : grew, increased
sort : a category of people or things with a common feature
or features
dispositions : temper
grace : glory
fluent : continuous
luxuriant : giving pleasure to senses / growing thickly and
strongly
florid : over elaborate
strain : tension
magnanimous : noble
tract : region
uphold : support
25
1. Juventutem, etc. He spent a youth that was crowded with mistakes.
2. Cosmus, Duke of Florence: Cosmos dei Medici (1389-1464) who for thirty
years was master of the Florentine Republic: the title Duke was adopted by
his descendants but not by him.
3. Gaston de Foix (1331-91) – represented by Froiss art as the beau ideal of
knighthood.
4. Hermogenes, a rhetorician of Tarsus in the days of the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius. When he was fifteen, he became professor of Greek eloquence at
Rome and wrote a book on Oratory. It is said he lost his memory and then
his mind at the age of twenty five .
5. Hortensius – A Roman orator, friend and rival of Cicero (i.e. Tully) whom
Bacon quotes as saying of him, “He did not change though his teaching did.”
6. Scipio Africanus – The Roman general who conquered Carthage. Livy’s
remark means that he was more honourable in youth than towards the end
of his life.
2.3.3 Summary
The essay ‘Of Youth and Old Age’ is one of the most popular essays of
Lord Bacon. In this essay Bacon presents a comparative study of the nature
of youth age and old age. He says that both the stages of life have their own
merits and demerits. Bacon is of the view that the compounding of the
characteristics of young age and old age can help in getting success especially
in business.
Bacon first describes the drawbacks of youth. He says that although a young
man may attain more experience than many old men, it is rare. Generally
young people have certain shortcomings in them. He says that youth is liable
to foolish thoughts. The errors of youth often prove fatal. It is because of
certain characteristic weaknesses of youth such as attempting too much
thinking only about the end, ignoring the means, holding on to imperfect
principles, reckless innovations, extreme remedies and reluctance to
acknowledge errors. Describing the merits of youth Bacon says that youth
has lively invention and imagination. Though youth is not so well fit to judge
or deliberate, it is fitter to invent and execute. A man that is young in years
may be old in hours, if he has lost no time. Young men have a moral
freshness, which the old lack in. They are full of adventures and would not
tolerate partial success. They are better capable of taking immediate decisions.
Thus young people have many advantages over old people.
Describing the drawbacks of old age Bacon says “Men of age object too
much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon and seldom
drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a
mediocrity of success.” While describing the merits of old age he says that
old men are more experienced than the young men and they are guided in
their action by their experience. But they are less imaginative, they argue too

26
 much, consult too long, are less adventurous, repent too soon and seldom
push an affair right through the end. Even a little success satisfies them.
According to Bacon the wise course is the course of golden mean. He
advises that the merits of both young and old men should be employed in
business which requires immediate efficiency, efficiency in future, external
success. This requires combination of the moral freshness of youth and the
political sagacity of old age. When both old men and young men are employed,
young men will learn from their elders and will themselves grow older and
thus have the advantages of old age also.
In this essay Bacon brings to light an important fact about young people. He
gives examples from ancient history to illustrate this view. He points out that
youth sometimes fails to fulfill its early promise. There are some, who have
an early maturity, but their powers also fail early and then they do not justify
their promise. This happened with Hermogenes, the rhetorician, who lost-all
his mental powers by the time he was twenty-five year old. Secondly, there
are persons who have some natural qualities, which are more becoming in
youth than in age like Hortensius. He had a florid, passionate style. In
oratory this style suited him better as a young man than when he was old.
He remained the same even in his old age. Then there are those who begin
with very high standards but are unable through a long period of years to
maintain themselves at the height of greatness, which they have reached. This
was the case with Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hanibal at Zama in
201 B.C. Scipio’s early career in Spain and Africa was very brilliant. At the
time of his great victory in Zama he was only thirty-five years of age. His
later career in Asia Minor was not so brilliant.

2.4 Some Model Explanations

(a) A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he has lost no time. But
that happenth rarely. Generally youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise
as the second. For there is a youth in thoughts as well as in ages. And yet
the invention of young man is more lively than that of the old, and imaginations
stream into their minds better, and as it were more divinely.
Exp. In these lines Bacon says that a man who does not waste time may gain a
lot of experience even in young age. A man who utilizes all his time becomes
more experienced than his age. But such men are found rarely. Bacon
compares age with thoughts and finds that young age is like the first preliminary
thoughts which cannot be so wise as the second thoughts i.e. the matured
thoughts which we find in old age. Meditation improves our ideas. The
reason behind it is that young age is as much mental as physical. Young men
are not able to think wisely. And yet, the new thoughts and views of young
men are more lifelike than those of old people. The imaginative ideas flow
in the minds of the young men an they are driven by divine inspiration. They
flow fast and young people act fast.
(b) Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for
counsel and fitter for new projects than for settled business. For the

27
 experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it directeth them;
but in new things, abuseth them.
Exp. In these lines Bacon says that certain things are not within the range of young
men. They are only apt to invent because they are less experienced. They
are capable of executing a thing because they have more vigour and vitality.
But they are unable to give advice because their thoughts are not always so
matured. They are fit for new projects because they have enthusiasm and a
craze for new things. But they are not meant for settled business because
there is no use of their imaginative power and craze for action. The experience
of age guides the young people properly. Young men are more imaginative
and active but they lack in ripeness. They may commit blunders in executing
a work, which may ruin the whole thing.
(c) A certain Rabin, upon the text, your men shall see visions and your old men
shall see dreams inferreth that young men are admitted nearer to God than
old because vision is a clearer revelation than a dream. And certainly, the
more a man drinketh of the world, the more it intoxicateth; and age both
profit rather in the powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the will and
affections.
Exp. Bacon says that a certain Rabin (an expert on Jewish Laws) said that young
men see visions while old men only dream. That is to say that young men
are nearer to God than the old. A vision is a clearer expression than a
dream. A dream is a sleeping imagination while a vision is an awaking
description. A man who lives more in the world, knows more secrets of the
world. Old age profits a man in the power of understanding. An old man is
experienced rather than passionate. Bacon says that the effect of age and
experience on a man is that it increases his power of understanding. A young
man has greater power of will, which enables him to execute a job better.
Their thoughts and feelings are purer. They have a moral freshness, which
the older people lack in. This is youth’s advantage over age which benefits
their ability to act.

2.5 Let’s Sum Up

In this unit we have thrown light on Bacon, a great literary figure and his contribution
to the field of English prose. Besides the text of “Of Youth and Age,” the unit
consists of difficult word meanings and summary.

2.6 Suggested Readings

C.H. Lockitt ed. : The Art of the Essayist, Orient Longman Ltd., New Delhi.

2.7 Questions
(a) Answer the following questions in two-three lines each:
i) Why do the errors of young men often prove fatal?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
28
 ii) What are the general merits and demerits of the old age?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
iii) “Certainly, it is good to compound employments of both…” Why?
_______________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________
iv) Who are those young men who fail to fulfill their promise?
_______________________________________________________
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(b) Answer to the following question should not exceed 300 words.
i) What are the basic qualities of youth? Compare the qualities of youth with
old age.
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
2.8 Answers
a) (i) The errors of young men often prove fatal because they undertake more
than they can carry through. They want to achieve their aims hurriedly
without considering their means. They are rash and use extreme remedies
at the very beginning and are unwilling to acknowledge their errors.
ii) The old men are more experienced than the young men and their actions
are guided by their experiences. Old men argue too much, consult too
long, are not adventurous, repent too soon and are less imaginative. They
are satisfied with little success.
iii) Bacon says it is good to compound the qualities of both youth and old age
because this combination will be good for the present, future and exernal
affairs. Old men take decisions in matters which they understand whereas
young men are rash so the young men may learn what to do from old men.
iv) The young men who fail to fulfill their promise are the ones whose wits are
weak. Those young men also fail who begin with a high standard and are
unable through a long period of years to maintain themselves at the height
of greatness, which they have reached.
b) (i) Bacon has described certain basic qualities of youth. First of all he says
that youth is like first thoughts which are not so good as second thoughts.
Young age is a mental as a well as a physical state. Young men are more
imaginative. Ideas flow in the minds of young men as they are inspired by
divine inspiration. Young men are fit to invent than to judge. They undertake

29
new projects than the settled business. Young men in the management of
actions accept more burdens than they can carry through. They act
inconsiderately. They try to achieve their aims hurriedly. Young men do not
acknowledge their mistakes. Thus they are like a badly trained horse
which neither stops nor turns. Bacon compares the different qualities of
youth and old age. Youth is the first cogitation while the old age is the
second one, therefore more wise. Young men are fit to invent, to execute
whereas old men are apt to judge and to advise. Old men are not for
adventure, on the other hand, young men are adventurous. Old men have
the influence while young men have the popularity. Young men give preference
to moral principles while old men care little for moral principles and are
more clever and prudent. Young men are nearer to God than old.

30
 UNIT - 3
Joseph Addison : Meditations in Westminister Abbey
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Summary of the Essay
3.3 The Essay : Meditations in Westminister Abbey (Text)
3.4 Let’s Sum Up
3.5 Books Suggested
3.6 Questions
3.7 Answers

3.0 Objectives
The purpose of this unit is to give you practice in understanding a brief composition
that undertakes to discuss a matter, express a point of view, or persuade us to
accept a thesis on any subject whatever. It is an essay that discusses. Addison’s
thoughts that strike his mind when the visits the Westminister Abbey.Its subject is
non-technical and appealing

3.1 Introduction
(A) About the Author (Joseph Addison)
Addison was a new literary type – the man who rose to political power and
fame by his pen. He was poor and unrecognized, but rose suddenly to fame
by a poem called The Addison’s political dome Cato – 1719. As a literary
effort the poem is feeble; but the subject – Marl borough’s victory at Blenheim
– appealed to the Whigs, who were afraid of the fact that the war was becom-
ing unpopular. In a short time Addison was a prop of the Whig cause. He was
appointed as Secretary of State in 1717. He wrote one poor drama, Cato
(1719), which because of its political allusions callused something of a sensa-
tion.
1. His Essays : Addison’s claim to literary greatness rests almost entirely
upon his essays, which appeared chiefly in The Tatler and The Spectator,
which were founded by his friend Steele.
In April 1709 Steele published the first number of The Tatler, a paper which
was to appear thrice in a weeky. Addison, who read and liked the first
number, offered his services as a contributor, and his first essay appeared
in Number 18. Henceforth he took a large share in the management of the
paper. In January 1711 The Tatler came to an end, and in March of the
same year The Spectator was started. This paper, which was edited almost
on the same lines as its predecessor, ran till December 1712. In 1713 they

31
 The Guardian which continued for only 175 numbers. For Addison wrote
42 essays, for The Spectator 274, and for The Guardian 53-a total of
nearly 400 essays.
2. Features of this Essays: (a) Their uniform length. They were com-
posed to fill a prescribed space in the paper, and Addison kept wonderfully
close to the specified limits.
(b) Their miscellaneous subjects: All types of articles – political, reli-
gious, allegories, dissertations, ‘editorials’ – were written. In particular,
the series dealing with Sir Roger de Coverley gave tone and coherence
to the long array of papers.
(c) Their general literary level is astonishingly high. Addison wrote hardly
any bad essay; he wrote many a good ones, and the vast majority are
of splendid workmanship- well finished scholarly, and sane. One’s ad-
miration deepens when one reflects that they were written with unfailing
regularity and often in the midst of engrossing political and personal
matters.
(d) Addison’s essays are marked with a fine clear style, agreeable humour,
and tireless industry.
(e) The moral and social purpose of his essays should not be overlooked.
As a matter of fact, Addison set out to “enliven morality with wit, and
to temper wit with morality.” He did much to break down the prevailing
license in the literary world.
3. Sir Roger de Coverley : For the modern reader the best part of his
essays lies in the set of papers dealing with this old knight. Steele first hit
upon the idea of having a running narrative based upon the adventures of
this amusing personage, and Addison developed it. In the course of the
series of essays Sir Roger comes to London, joins the Spectator Club, and
has several diverting experiences.
The literary importance of this essay series lies first in the fact that it is an
approach to the regular novel. In a way each essay is a chapter of the
novel; the characters of the members of the Club form the basis of the usual
novel-characters ; and the manners of the time, touched upon with a light
but accurate skill, form an agreeable background to the story. If the plot
had been developed only a little farther, we should have had that modern
favourite – the serial story.
B. ABOUT THE ESSAY :
In this essay, the writer, Joseph Addison, talks about his sense of humour, which
is of a serious kind, meaning thereby that he preferred a serious humour.
Whenever he was in a serious mood owned often walk up to Westminster
Abbey, a gloomy, grave place, where exists an atmosphere of sadness and
silence.

32
 In this essay Addison reflects upon the graves and the inscriptions and writings
as remembrances on them, in the abbey. He believes that “ Death levels All”,
and thus the human desire to pretend as imposters with kinds of inscription are
of no use. After death there is no distinction on the basis of upper or lower
classes. It is all man created distinctions which carry senseless meanings and
tends to distinguish man from man. According to Addison death levels all,
whatever caste or creed. In the graves it is simply a promiscuous heap of matter
and nothing. This essay is a critical analysis of Addison on the human instinct
to differentiate for no justified reasons.

3.2 Summary Of Text

Addison visits the Westminster Abbey and amuses himself with the tomb-stones and
inscriptions of the dead whenever he is in a serious mood. He notices that only the
dates of birth and death are recorded without anything about the achievement of
some men. He is reminded of persons mentioned in heroic poems who have high
sounding names given to them for no other reason than that they were knocked on
their head. He thinks that incomplete records on the tombstone are a sort of satire
upon the departed persons.
During of this visit to the abbey, Addison entertained himself with the digging of a
grave. He sees pieces of bones mixed up with a kind of fresh moldering earth. The
dead bones and skulls of innumerable people lie under the pavement of that ancient
cathedral. He considers how artificial distinction of caste and colour are leveled up
in the graveyard. Men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers are
blended together in the same common mass.
After surveying the tombs, Addison examines the inscriptions very closely and finds
many extravagant epitaphs. Some epitaphs are excessively modest. Some inscrip-
tions are written in Greek and Hebrew. Again, there are some tombs which have
no monuments. There are some tombs which are erected to the memory of persons
whose bodies are buried elsewhere.
Addison is however, delighted with several modern epitaphs. These have been
written with refinement and do honour to the dead. Addison thinks that all inscrip-
tions should be submitted to the perusal of learned men before being put execution.
Epitaphs should be true to the dead. They should represent the characters of the
persons concerned faithfully, Sir cloudlessly Shovel’s monument gives Addison great
offence. Sir Shovel is represented as a beau instead of a brave, rough English
admiral that he was. The Dutch appear to him better than the English in this respect.
Addison derives lesson of mortality from the graves. He is filled with melancholy,
thought and solemn recollection. He feels greatly enriched by his visit. Every emo-
tion of envy dies in him. He sees the vanity of grieving for those we are soon to
follow. He reflects with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions
and debates of mankind. When he sees the dates on the tombs of some that died
yesterday and some six hundred years ago he thinks of that great day when we all
shall be contemporaries, and make our appearances together.

33
3.3 Joseph Addison : Meditations In Westminister Abbey
1. When I am in a serious mood humour, I very often walk by myself in Westminster
Abbey, where the gloominess of the lace, the use to which it is applied, with
the solemnity of the building, and the condition of the people who lie in it, are
apt to fill the mind with a kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is
not disagreeable. I yesterday passed a whole afternoon in the churchyard, the
cloisters, and the church, amusing myself with the tombstones and inscriptions
that I met with in those several regions of the dead. Most of them recorded
nothing else of the buried person, but that he was born upon one day, and died
upon another; the whole history of his life being comprehended in those two
circumstances that are common to all mankind. I could not but look upon these
registers of existence, whether of brass or marble, as a kind of satire upon the
departed persons; who had left no other memorial of them, but that they were
born and that they died. The put me in mind of several persons mentioned in
the battles of heroic poems, who have sounding names given hem, for no other
reason but that they may be killed and are celebrated for nothing but being
knocked on the head.
The life of these men is finely described in holy writ by “the path of an arrow,”
which is immediately closed up and lost.
2. Upon my going into the church, I entertained myself with the digging of a grave;
and saw in every shovelful of it that was thrown up, the fragment of a bone or
skull intermixed with a kind of fresh mouldering earth, that some time or other
had a place in the composition, of a human body. Upon this I began to consider
with myself what innumerable multitudes of people lay confused together under
the pavement of the ancient cathedral; how men and women, friends and en-
emies, priests and soldiers, monks and prebendaries, were crumbled amongst
one another, and blended together in the same common mass; how beauty,
strength and youth, with old age, weakness, and deformity, lay undistinguished
in the same promiscuous heap of matter.
After having thus surveyed this great magazine of mortality, as it were, in the
lump; I examined it more particularly by the accounts which I found on several
of the monuments which are raised in every quarter of that ancient fabric. Some
of them were covered with such extravagant epitaphs, that, if it were possible
for the dead person to be acquainted with them, he would blush at the praises
which his friends have bestowed upon him. There are others so excessively
modest, that they deliver the character of the person departed in Greek or
Hebrew, and by that means are not understood once in a twelvemonth. In the
poetical quarter, I found there were poets who had no monuments, and monu-
ments which had no poets. I observed, indeed, that the present war had filled
the church with many of these uninhabited monuments, which had been erected
to the memory of persons whose bodies were perhaps buried in the plains of
Blenheim, or in the bosom of the ocean.
3. I could not but be very much delighted with several modern epitaphs which are

34
 written with great elegance of expression and justness of thought, and therefore
do honour to the living as well as to the dead. As a foreigner is very apt to
conceive an idea of the ignorance or politeness of a nation from the turn of their
public monuments and inscriptions, they should be submitted to the perusal of
men of learning and genius, before they are put in execution. Sir Cloudesley
Shove’s monument has very often given me great offence: instead of the brave
rough English Admiral ,which was the distinguishing character of that plain
gallant man, he is represented on his tomb by the figure of a beau, dressed in
a long periwig, and reposing himself upon velvet cushions under a canopy of
state. The inscription is answerable to the monument; for instead of celebrating
the many remarkable actions he had performed in the service of his country, it
acquaints us only with the manner of his death, in which it was impossible for
him to reap any honour. The Dutch, whom we are apt to despise for want of
genius, sow an infinitively greater taste of antiquity and politeness in their build-
ings and works of this nature, than what we meet with in those of our own
country. The monuments of their admirals, which have been erected at the
public expense, represent them like themselves; and are adorned with rostral
crowns and naval ornaments, with beautiful festoons of seaweed, shells, and
coral.
4. But to return to our subject. I have left the repository of our English kings for
the contemplation of another day, when I shall find my mind disposed for so
serious an amusement. I know that entertainments of this nature are apt to raise
dark and dismal thoughts in timorous minds and gloomy imaginations; but for
my own part, though I am always serious, I do not know what it is to be
melancholy; and can therefore take a view of nature in her deep and solemn
scenes, with the same pleasure as in her most gay and delightful ones. By this
means I can improve myself with those objects which others consider with
terror. When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies
in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes
out; when I meet with grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with
compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents themselves, I consider the
vanity of grieving for those whom we must quickly follow: when I see kings
lying by those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by
side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes,
I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and
debates of making. When I read the several dates of the tombs. of some that
died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when
we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.
Glossary
Humour : mood form
Gloominess : dejection, sadness
apt : fit, suitable
memorial : in remembrance of
innumerable multitudes : uncountable and many
heap of matter : dead bones of left overs

35
 melancholy : sad
Pallida mors, etc.: despite the growing dislike of pedantry, these essays still, we
note, carry their Lating motto. This well-known verse of Horace means: “Pale death
beats with impartial foot at the hovels of the poor and the castles of kings. O happy
Sestius,, the brief span of life forbids us to entertain a long hope. Even now, night,
and storied ghosts and the cheerless house of Pluto will press upon thee.”
Sir Cloudesley Shovel: (1650-1707) an admiral of the time of Queen Anne. As a
young man he is said to have swum under the enemy’s fire with dispatches in his
mouth. He perished in a shipwreck.

3.4 Let‘s Sum Up

Addison’s was that he was an accomplished scholar, a man of pure eloquence and,
a consummate painter of life and manners. It was due, above all, to the great satirist
who alone knew how to use ridicule without abusing it, who without inflicting a
wound, effected a great social reform and who reconciled wit with virtue after a
long and disastrous separation, during which wit had been led astray by profligacy
and virtue by fanaticism. This is a remarkable contribution of Addison to life and
literature. He was a great social critic and reformer who brought about a revolu-
tionary change in the quality of life in contemporary England through his contribu-
tions.
After reading this essay, now you are aware of the contexts and meanings of the
words that have been used in the essay. You are requested to use the dictionary at
every stage, to understand the surface meaning of the pregnant lines of the essay.
Now answer the questions that are given below and check your answer with those
that are given at the end.

3.5 Books Suggested

C.H. Lockitt : The Art of the Essayist
Edward Albert : A short History of English Literature
M.H. Abrams : A Glossary of Literary Terms
3.6 Questions
Please answer the following questions:
1. What was the great source of entertainment for Addison when he was in a
serious mood?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
2. What does the essay Meditations in Westminster Abbey discuss about?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
3. What are the circumstances that Addison finds common to all mankind?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
36
 ___________________________________________________________
4. What did Addison find when he dug the grave?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
5. Why does the writer criticize the modern epitaphs?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
6. What is the common idea that the essayist wants to convey?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
7. Write a paragraph on the identity of Addison as a great essayist?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
8. Summarise the essay.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
9. Write a note on Addison’s view’s about the inscriptions on the tomb-stones in
the Westminster Abbey.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
10. “The life of these men is finely described in the Holy writ by the path of an
arrow which is immediately closed up and lost”. Explain.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
11. Describe the thoughts that comes to Addison’s mind when he visits the
Westminster Abbey?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
12. Write five sentences about Joseph Addison. Also mention the dates of his age?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
13. What is a Satire?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
14. Constnut five sentences each on the following:
(i) Simple Sentences

37
(ii) Interrogative Sentences
(iii) Exclamatory Sentences
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
15. Write the meanings of the following terms / words:
i. Humour
ii. Disagreeable
iii. Gloominess
iv. Solemnity
v. Cloisters
vi. obscurity
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
16. Write some memorable quotations from the Essay Meditations In Westminster
Abbey.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

38
 ___________________________________________________________

3.7 Answers
1. In his serious humour, Addison preferred walking all alone in the Westminster
Abbey, a gloomy place known for its solemnity and melancholic atmosphere.
2. The essay deals with Addison’s views on human mistakes created at a point
where it is almost stupidity and immoral. He talks about artificial notions, set in
the mind of the people of high and lower classes. Addison through his essays
rebukes man to create any kind of distinctions because he believes that “Death
Levels All”.
3. Those two circumstances were, the inscriptions that mentioned the date of the
dead man in two ways: the dates that he was born one day, and died upon
another day.
4. He saw in every shovelful of it that was thrown up, the leftovers of bones or
skull intermixed which was once upon a time a human body. At this he began
to think that how men and women, friends and enemies, priests and soldiers,
monks and probendaries, were intermixed in the mud. It is now considered a
heap of matter without any consideration for beauty, weakness, strength, old
age or young age meaning that Death levels all.
5. The modern epitaphs were written with great elegance of expression and just-
ness of thought and therefore do honour to the living as well as to the dead.
6. He wishes to convey that we should not distinguish one another for silly man
made differences. Death levels all and it does not consider any kind of richness
or poverty.
7. Addison may be said to have almost created and wholly perfected English
prose as an instrument for the expression of social thought. He took features
of his style from almost all his predecessors. He assumed the character of an
essayist moralist, philosopher and critic, and he blended them altogether in his
new capacity of a journalist. His essay represents the delightful plasticity, the
delightful nuances of mood and fancy.
Addison took great care in selecting words from a rich stock and was careful
not to tire his readers by repetitions. He laboriously polished his phrases.
Addison aimed deliberately at the beauty of execution and employed the pe-
destrian form. His essay ‘Meditations In the Westminster Abbey’ is more natu-
ral and ornated.
8. Addison visited the Westminster Abbey in a serious humour. In this essay,
which is one of his well known essays, he describes the thoughts that came to
his mind in the Abbey. The main thoughts of the essay may be stated thus:
Death levels all distinctions. Inscriptions which record nothing else except births
and deaths are a sort of satire upon the departed soul. Epitaphs should rep-
resent the dead faithfully. Mr. W.E. Williams makes the following comment

39
 about Addison’s style, “It is miraculous and elaborate. His paragraphing is a
model of precision, the balance and antithesis of sentences are as carefully
contrive as a stone mason’s or a carpenter’s. His diction again is as formal as
the costume of his day; never replacing into a full-blooded colloquialism never
robust in its humour.”
9. Addison once visited the Westminster Abbey. He read the inscriptions on the
tombstones in the Abbey. He did not like most of them. He found that most of
the inscriptions said nothing else about the dead person except the dates of their
birth and death. Addison regards this as useless. The two events are common
to all mankind. He said that such inscriptions were a satire upon the departed
souls. They showed as if they did nothing worth remembering in the world
except that they were born on a particular day and died on another.
Upon certain tombs he found extravagant epitaphs. Addison thought that they
were so extravagant that even the persons concerned would blush to read them
if they were to come to life. Some epitaphs were excessively modest and
inadequate. Many of them were written in Greek or Hebrew which none could
read. Thus the epitaphs were rendered useless.
He found many monuments and tombs which did not contain the remains of the
dead. They had died elsewhere. It had not been possible to bring their remains
here. So these monuments were just memorials. There were some graves which
had no tomb-stones on them.
Some inscriptions misrepresented the dead. It was so in the case of Sir Cloudsley
Shovel. Sir Cloudsley Shovel was a great English Admiral. In his life he had
been rough, brave and simple. He was a great patriot. The inscription did not
show these qualities of Sir Shovel. Instead he was represented as a beau with
a long periwig and reposing upon a velvet cushion under a canopy. The inscrip-
tion mentioned the manner of his death. Nothing in the inscription did honour
to Sir Shovel. Addison says that the inscriptions should represent the true
character of the dead persons.
Addison saw some modern inscriptions. These were written with great elegance
of expression and justness of thought. These did honour to the dead.
Addison says that a foreigner is likely to form an opinion about the character
of the people of the country by reading these inscriptions. He suggests that all
inscriptions should be subjected to the perusal of men of learning before they
are carved on the tomb-stones. He appreciates the Dutch for writing good
inscriptions on the tomb-stones.
10. Addison says that the lives of many of the so called great men are untraceable
after their death. They leave nothing in the world worth remembering. The path
traversed by an arrow is untraceable immediately after it leaves. No track is left
after it passes though the air. In the same way some men leave no trace of their
life after death. It appears that they were born and they immediately died. We
do not remember them for they do nothing worth remembering.

40
11. The essay ‘Mediations in Westminster Abbey’ describes Addison’s impressions
and thoughts. One day Addison was in a thoughtful mood. He was quite
serious. In such a mood he visited the Westminster Abbey. He examined the
various tombs there. He did not like the inscriptions on most of them. He found
that most of the memorials only mentioned the year of birth and death. He says
that from this one is made to think that the man did nothing in his life worth
remembering.
Some tombs had extravagant epitaphs. Some epitaphs were very inadequate.
Some were written in Greek and Hebrew. So very few persons could read and
understand them.
There were some monuments and tombs which were just memorials. The persons
had died elsewhere. Some tombs had no memorials. Some monuments did not
suitably represent the dead person. For example, Addison did not like the Sir
Cloudesley Shovel’s monument. Shovel was a great English Admiral. He was
a brave, simple man who scarified his life for an ideal. But he is represented
as a fashionable young man. Addison praises the Dutch for showing better taste
in their monuments.
Addison praises some modern inscriptions. They describe the persons cor-
rectly. They do honour to the persons concerned and the writer. Addison says
that foreigners form an opinion about us by reading these inscriptions. So these
should be carefully checked and Men of learning should be consulted in this
matter.
Addison’s visit to the Westminster Abbey was very rewarding. He realized the
transitoriness of life when he saw tombs of the great. He realized that we should
not be envious of the so called great men.
We should not be proud of our wealth power and beauty. All persons great or
small, poor or rich must die one day. We should not quarrel over petty things.
Friends and enemies, priests and soldiers all are blended together in the com-
mon mass in the end.
12. Joseph Addison was born on May1, 1672. He studied at Queen’s College,
Oxford. He was also associated with Magdalen College. Very soon, he ac-
quired an immense scholastic reputation. Johnson praised him for his Latin
Poem. He was married to the Countess of Warwick, but it was not a happy
marriage. In 1718 his health began to fall. He died in 1719 at the early age of
forty-seven.
Addison is famous for the sweetness of his style. “Never.” Said Macaulary.
“had the English language been written with such sweetness, grace and falicity
as by Addison”. Whatever he wrote, appealed to the common reader. His
essays are not scholarly, they Addison’s essay are familiar, easy and simple.
13. Satire is literary device of diminishing a subject by making it ridiculous and
evoking towards it attitudes of amusement, contempt, indignation or scorn.
14. I Simple Sentences:

41
 (i) Ram plays football.
(ii) Sita sings a song.
(iii) Ravi dances in the hall.
(iv) The Sun sets in the West.
(v) The boys go to School.
II Interrogative Sentences:
(i) What is your name?
(ii) Where do you live?
(iii) How old are you?
(iv) Which girl is going there?
(v) Whom did you tell the story?
III Exclamatory Sentences:
(i) Hurray! We have won the match.
(ii) Wowe! What a great deal.
(iii) Alas! He is dead.
(iv) Ah! What a great story?
(v) How delicious the food is!
15. Please refer to the dictionary.
16. (1) Most of them recorded nothing else of the buried person but that he was
born one day and died upon another.
(2) The life of these men is finely described in Holy Writ by the path of an
arrow, which is immediately closed up and lost.
(3) In the poetical quarter, I found there were poets who had no monuments
and monuments which had no poets.
(4) When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotions of envy dies in
me.
(5) When I read the several dates of the tombs – of some that died yesterday,
and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall
all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together.

42
 UNIT - 4
Joseph Addison : Rural Manners
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 About the Author
4.3 Reading the Text
4.3.1 The Essay : Rural Manners (Text)
4.3.2 Annotations
4.3.3 Summary
4.4 Some Model Explanations
4.5 Let‘s Sum Up
4.6 Suggested Readings
4.7 Questions
4.8 Answers
4.0 Objectives
The purpose of this unit is to enable you to comprehend the difference, as stated
by Addison in the essay Rural Manners, between the manners prevailing in London
and those in the countryside. The countryside is generally very much behindhand in
this respect. Many of the elaborate courtesies and formalities that have passed out
of fashion in the city are still current in the countryside. In the past the distinguishing
sign of a gentleman’s conversation was that he was very careful to avoid any
expression which had either a vulgar or an obscene association. Now-a-days the
fashion in the town is to speak with a degree of freedom on such matters which
would have put even a clown to shame. Fortunately, this fashion of talking loosely
has not yet percolated to the countryside. In matters of dress, the country folk have
always been backward as compared to those living in the city. Fashions which are
out of vogue in the town are prevalent in the countryside for as much as half a
century.

4.1 Introduction
The essay throws light on the conception of good manners current in Addison’s
times. It also tells us of the way in which life in the town makes an impact on country
life. In the age which had just elapsed, good manners consisted in a display of over-
formal politeness, which can only be called excess of good breeding. The country
which is at least quarter of a century behind the town in matters of fashion still
conforms to the earlier notion of politeness. In fact matters of ceremonial precedence
are carried to an extreme in the countryside, where they become a positive nuisance;
for example it takes so much time to sit and wait the guests according to the strict
requirements of protocol that by that time the dinner becomes cold. The country,
says Addison, has so far been safe from one perversion of polite conversation in
the town of which Addison seems to be full of horror that is, talking in a licentious
manner.

43
4.2 About the Author
By now you know Addison as an essayist. Here we intend to tell you the merits of
Addison’s character which made him a popular figure of his time. Thereafter, we
shall describe the faults which lessened his popularity as a person. Addison was a
lively conversationalist; his conversation in the circle of his intimate friends was more
enjoyable than his writings. Pope and Swift were compelled to acknowledge the
superior gifts of Addison. His fault as a person was that he would always like to
be surrounded by his known admirers. All these men were far inferior to him in
ability and some of them had serious faults. No doubt Addison could see through
the faults of his friends yet it was impossible to escape entirely the vitiating influence
of such constant adulation.

4.3 Reading the Text

4.3.1 Now read the Essay: Rural Manners (Text)
The first and most obvious reflections which arise in a man, who changes
the city for the country, are upon the different manners of the people whom
he meets with in those two different scenes of life. By manners I do not
mean morals, but behaviour and good breeding, as they shew themselves
in the town and in the country.
And here in the first place, I must observe a very great revolution that has
happened in this article of good breeding. Several obliging deferences,
condescensions, and submissions, with many outward forms and ceremonies
that accompany them, were first of all brought up in the politer part of
mankind, who lived in courts and cities, and distinguished themselves from
the rustic part of the species ( who acted on all occasions bluntly and
naturally) by such a mutual complaisance and intercourse of civilities. These
forms of conversation by degrees multiplied and grew troublesome; the
modish world found too great a constraint in them, and have, therefore
thrown most of them aside. Conversation, like the Roman religion, was so
encumbered with show and ceremony, that it stood in the need of a
reformation to retrench its superfluities, and restore it to its natural good
sense and beauty. At present, therefore, an unconstrained courage, and a
certain openness of behaviour, are the height of good breeding. The
fashionable world is grown free and easy; our manners sit more loose upon
us. Nothing is so modish as an agreeable negligence. In a word, good-
breeding shews itself most, where to an ordinary eye it appears the least.
If after this we look on the people of the mode in the country, we find in
them the manners of the last age. They have no sooner fetched themselves
up to the fashion of the polite world, but the town has dropped them and
are nearer to the first state of nature, than to those refinements which
formerly reigned in the court, and still prevail in the country. One may now
know a man that never conversed in the world by his excess of good
breeding. A polite country esquire shall make you as many bows in half an
hour, as would serve a courtier for a week. There is infinitely more to do

44
about place and precedency in a meeting of justices’ wives, than in any
assembly of duchesses.
This rural politeness is very troublesome to a man of my temper, who
generally takes the chair that is next me, and walk first or last, in the front
or in the rear, as chance directs. I have known my friend Sir Roger’s dinner
almost cold before the company could adjust the ceremonial, and be prevailed
upon to sit down; and have heartily pitied my old friend when I have seen
him forced to pick and cull his guests as they sat at the several parts of his
table, that he might drink their healths according to their respective ranks
and qualities. Honest will Wimble, whom I should have thought had been
altogether uninfected with ceremony, gives me abundance of trouble in this
particular. Though he has been fishing all the morning, he will not help
himself at dinner until I am served. When we are going out of hall, he runs
behind me; and last night, as we were walking in the fields, stopped short
at a stile till I came up to it, and upon my making signs to him to get over,
told me, with a serious smile, that sure I believed they had no manners in
the country.
There has happened another revolution in the point of good breeding, which
relates to the conversation among men of mode, and which I cannot but
look upon as very extraordinary. I was certainly one of the first distinctions
of a well-bred man, to express everything that had the most remote
appearance of being obscene, in modest terms and distant phrases; whilst
the clown, who had no such delicacy of conception or expression, clothed
his ideas in those plain homely terms that are the most obvious and natural.
This kind of good manners was perhaps carried to an excess, so as to
make conversation too stiff, formal and precise; for which reason as hypocrisy
in one age is generally succeeded by atheism in another conversation is in
a great measure relapsed into the first extreme; so that at present several
of our men of the town, and particularly those who have been polished in
France, make use of the most coarse uncivilized words in our language, and
utter themselves often in such a manner as a clown would blush to hear.
This infamous piece of good-breeding, which reigns among the coxcombs
of the town, has not yet made its way into the country; and as it is impossible
for such an irrational way of conversation to last long among a people that
makes any profession of religion, or show of modesty, if the country gentleman
gets into it, they will certainly be left in the lurch. Their good- breeding will
come too late to them, and they will be thought a parcel of clowns, while
they fancy themselves talking together like men of wit and pleasure.
As the two points of good-breeding, which I have hitherto insisted upon,
regard behaviour and conversation, there is a third which turns upon dress.
In this too the country are very much behindhand. The rural beaus are not
yet got out of the fashion that took place at the time of the Revolution, but
ride about the country in red coats and laced hats; while the women in many
parts are still trying to outvie one another in the height of their head dresses.

45
 But a friend of mine, who is now upon the western circuit, having promised
to give me an account of the several modes and fashions that prevail in the
different parts of the nation through which he passes, I shall defer the
enlarging upon this last topic till I have received a letter from him, which I
expect every post.
4.3.2 Annotations
This article : This point or aspect
Complaisance : Exchange of polite attentions
Modish : Fashionable
Constraint : Inhibition, lack of naturalness
Encumbered : Burdened
Retrench : Get rid of
Unconstrained carriage : Natural and affected behaviour
Agreeable negligence : A lack of formality which is pleasing.
Our manners sit….us : We do not observe rigid formalities.
Excess of good-breeding : Extravagant observance of politeness
Precendency : Preference according to rank or
status
Cull : Choose
Stile : Small gate in the fence
Obscene : Contrary to decorum, vulgar
First extreme : Here it means ‘Looseness’
Coxcombs : Conceited young men
Left in the lurch : Left without any support
Behindhand : Backward
Outvie : Outdo, excel
4.3.3 Summary

One major distinction between the manners in the town and the country is
that many formalities and ceremonials, which once formed a part of civilized
life in the city, but are no more in vogue now- are still observed in the
countryside. The mark of good breeding in the city now, says Addison, is
the unaffected behaviour rather than an overformal courtesy. In the countryside
good breeding is carried to ridiculous extremes, so that it becomes
troublesome at social occasions like dinners as one is expected to sit
according to the rigorous precedence of mark and status. A country gentleman
might make one as many bows as would last courtier for a whole week.
According to Addison, wives of country justices make more ado on this
score than even duchesses. It does not matter that by the time the seating
problem is resolved, the dinner might have become cold.
Even a sensible man like Will Wimble has been infected with the extravagant
formality of country life. He may have been fishing all morning, but he will
not help himself until the spectator has been served.

46
 A revolutionary change has occurred in the field of polite conversation. It
used to be the chief distinction of the conversation of a well-bred man that
he scrupulously avoided all terms which had the least tincture of vulgarity.
Only the clown could speak in an obscene language. Now the pendulum
has swung to the other extreme. Fashionable men of town now take pleasure
in speaking in a coarse and uncivilized manner. In fact a clown would blush
at their lack of restraint and decorum in speech. We are fortunate, says
Addison, that this piece of good breeding has not so far reached the country.
In matters of dress the country people are very much behindhand. The
countryside women are trying to excel each other by wearing the tallest
head dresses which have already passed out of fashion in the town. On this
matter the author promises to write in detail in a later essay.

4.4 Some Model Explanations

(i) Several obliging……………..of civilities. ( Para - 2)
Addison believes that a great revolution has recently taken place with regard
to the conception of good manners in polite town circles. In the preceding
age good manners were supposed to be directly proportionate to the amount
of good breeding which a person displayed in his behaviour or conversation.
At that time the chief distinction between a man of the town and one from
the country was that the latter was more blunt and unaffected in the expression
of his thoughts. In time this grew to absurd extremes. The natural reaction
was that the conception of good manners underwent a radical change, and
it became a fashion to behave in an unconstrained way, and good breeding
came to be reflected not in its own display but in lack of obtrusion.
(ii) One may……………………..duchesses. (Para3)
Countrymen are very much behindhand in their conception of good manners.
They cling to a notion which has become outdated, i.e. good breeding must
be plainly reflected in one’s way of behaviour. The current notion is that one
should be free and unconstrained in one’s behaviour. In the country excessive
attention is still being paid to ceremonial matters. In fact one can distinguish
a man who has moved in polite circles from one who has not by the fact
that the latter will be found to display excessive good breeding. A country
squire will make as many bows in greeting a person as would suffice a
courtier for a whole week. The wives of country justices are more squeamish
in matters of precedence than even duchesses would be in a town gathering.

4.5 Let‘s Sum up

In this unit we have discussed the essay Rural Manners in detail so as to enable
you to understand the major distinction, as pointed out by Addison, between the
manners observed in a town and the countryside area. You should, by now, be able
to understand that the present essay is a social document because it throws light on
the manners prevalent in the contemporary times.

47
4.6 Suggested Readings
1. Fowler, J. H. Essays from Addison, Cambridge University Press
2. Myers, O. M. The Coverley Papers from the Spectator, OUP
3. Walker, Hugh The English Essay and Essayists, OUP

4.7 Questions
Attempt the following questions:
1. In which category can you put the essay Rural Manners?

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2. Point out the main idea in the essay.

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3. Who, according to Addison, are much behindhand in their conception of
good manners?

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4. Who has been infected with the extravagant formality of country life?

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5. What is the change that has occurred in the field of polite conversation?

____________________________________________________________________

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6. On the basis of your reading the essay, point out the main features of the
contemporary society.

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 ____________________________________________________________________

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4.8 Answers
1. The essay can be considered a social document.
2. The essay deals with the distinction of manners in a town and a country life.
3. The countryside people are much behind in their conception of good manners.
4. Will Wimble
5. Fashionable men of town take pleasure in speaking in a coarse and uncivilized
manner.
6. For answer to this question, refer to the section 3.3.3 ( Summary)

49
 UNIT - 5
Charles Lamb : Modern Gallantry
Structure
5.0 Objectives
5.1 Study Guide
5.2 Charles Lamb: Modern Gallantry
5.2.1 About the Age: Romantic Period
5.2.2 Literary Device : The Essay
5.2.3 About the Author : Charles Lamb
5.2.4 About the Essay : Modern Gallantry
5.2.5 The Essay : Modern Gallantry (Text)
5.2.6 Glossary
5.2.7 Model Explanations
5.3 Key Words
5.4 Let Is Sum Up
5.5 Questions
5.6 Suggested Rendings
5.7 Answers
5.8 Some General Questions
5.0 Objectives
In this Unit we have given you an essay by Charles Lamb. We aim at equipping you
with the basic understanding of an essayist in the context to his period, in this case
Romantic period. After completing this Unit you will be able to
1. Know certain literary terms which are necessary to understand English literature
in general.
2. Have an idea about the art of essay writing and how it os different from other
genres.
3. Understand and have details about Romantic period in English literature, and
how it was a reaction against its preceding era i.e. neoclassical age.
4. Know Charles Lamb as an essayist on the basis of his essay Modern Gal-
lantry.
5. Explain certain lines with reference to context by adding critical notes on matter
and style.

5.1 Study Guide

In this Unit we aim at discussing with you an essay by Charles Lamb. You have
been given some details about the age i.e. Romantic era to which the essayist
belongs. You will find meanings of the difficult words of the essay in the section
Glossary. Key works used in the Unit have been explained to you so that you may
understand the Unit in a batter way and in less time.

50
 You should read about the author so that you may have an idea about his personal
and social life, and the important works written by him.
You should study the Section About the Age. This section will provide you details
about the Romantic era to which Lamb and Hazlitt belong. This will help you
understand the writers i.e. their essays included in Unit No. 3 and Unit No. 4 for
you. You should try to locate the general trends of the era of these writers pre-
scribed for you. You will find that they share many elements of Romanticism namely
contrast with neoclassicism, role of imagination, autobiographical details and a felling
of recluse or reble with society. The essays chosen for you in Unit 3 and Unit 4 are
didactic ones and reflect the reaction of the essayist against the society.
The section About the Essay provides you the critical summary of the essay so that
you may understand it in line with the summary given. You should notice how certain
lines are explained with reference to the context. You have been given model
explanations in Section 3.2.7.
You should try to answer the questions given in the Section 3.5. For answers you
should consult Section 3.7. You can rephrase the answers or write them in your own
words but the gist or the information should be correct as given in the essay by the
writer. Section 3.3 Key words and Section 3.6 Suggested Readings are meant for
improving your study of English literature, particularly this Unit. If you understand
the Key Words which are lime and again used in this Unit, you will be able to
understand the Unit in a better way. They are a great help at your level. An exercise
has been given for you in the form of some general questions at the end.

5.2 Charles Lamb : Modern Gallantry

5.2.1 About the Age: Romantic Period
The Romantic period in English literature in usually considered to have begun
from 1789 (The beginning of the French Revolution) or 1798 (The Publi-
cation of the Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge) and continued
the beginning of the Victorian era. This is considered a great literary period
with a strong contrast with the Neoclassical period (From Restoration 1660
to the beginning of the Romanticism) in theme and style. Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Blake, Byron, Shelley, Keats as poets; Lamb, Hazlitt, De Quincey
and Leigh Hunt as essayists; Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott as novelists
are well-known writers of this age.
Ryden, Pope, Addison, Swift, Johnson, Goldsmith and Edmund Burke are
important writers of neoclassicism who imitated the classical writers in form
& style; and had high respect for the Roman writers who acted as their
models. The Romantic writers of the first three decades of the 19th Century
differ from the neoclassical writers in their approach of ideals and writings.
Their materials, forms and style of literature are different from their prede-
cessors. The Romantic manifesto or statement of revolutionary aims come
into being with the publication of the Lyrical Ballads (1798) by Wordsworth
rejected the use of artificiality in theme and style, Common man from the

51
 country side in common man’s language become the subject matter and the
style of Wordsworth’s poetry. This was in contrast with the urban ideas and
artificial diction of the neoclassical writers. Use of Supernatural element
become one of the other innovations in the poetry of Colleridge and Keats.
Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley acted as the poet-prophets of the era.
In his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Worldworth defines poetry as the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. Thus it
is free from artificial rules and traditions of the neoclassic predecessors.
Keats said “If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had
better not come at all”. Thus the Romantics were against artificiality in theme
and style. Imagination played an important role in the poetic process of the
Romantics.
Mature, he landscape alongwith its flora and fauna become the subject
matter of Romantic poetry. Wordsworth is considered the high priest of
nature. Accurate description and sensuousness become the integral part of
the poetry of Keats. Nature become an important medium for human think-
ing and human problems. Nature become an important theme against the
fever and fret of this world, against the evils of industrialization which
deserted the solitude of the countryside, the evils of urban life and the satanic
mills.
Much of the Romantic works are full of autobiographical details representing
the poet himself. While the works of the neoclassicists were mainly about
other men. Most of the Romantic poems reflect the life and mood of the
poet, for example Wordsworth’s Prelude or odes of Shelley of Keats or
Byron’s Childe Harold. Similarly we find autobiographical details in the
personal essays of Lamb and Hazlitt. In all these works the writer appears
as a solitary figure, socially non- conformist or outcast. He is usually away
from society. Many a times the chief character of a Romantic work is a
rebel, whether for good or evil.
While the new classical writers rejoiced in perfect accomplishment of from
and style in the manner of their Greco-Roman models, the Romantics pre-
ferred the glory of the imperfect. The Romantics rejoiced the notion of
unachievable ideals. The poet’s faculty of imagination leads limitless aspira-
tions. The French Revolution ideals of fraternity, liberty, quality and humanity
affected the Romantics to a great extent and thus the Romantic era became
an age of new beginning and great possibilities in subject matter as well as
in style.
5.2.2 Literary Device : The Essay
Essays like dramas, novels, short stories and other types of literature act as
an important vehicle to convey our thoughts. Essayists have written essays
on various topics and in different styles. Their levels of difficulty may be
different. Their aims may be different. These two Units 3 and 4 deal with
didactic type of essays meant for instruction as well as pleasure. Hey are not

52
 too long to tire your brain and lead you to boredom.
While studying these essays you should know how an essay is different from
other types of literary genres. When you are asked to write an essay in your
examination, do you express your views in such a language as used in these
essays? Perhaps not. Here lies the charm of personality of the essayist.
Personality of the essayist is reflected in the essay though the essay may not
be an autobiographical one.
One more important point t note is how these essayists have begun their
essays. Do you feel it is a matter of chance that both these essays, chosen
in Unit No. 3 and Unit No. 4, begin with a definition of the key word of
the title? If you know what the title mean, it becomes easy to write or to
understand the essay.
5.2.3 About the Author: Charles Lamb.
Charles Lamb (1775-1834) is a famous essayist who wrote under his pseud-
onym of Elia. He pseudonym Elia was borrowed from the surname of a
fellow clerk in the South Sea House where Lamb worked for quit a long
time. He was then transferred to East India House. This is reflected in
autobiographical details in his essays. For a short time in 1795-96 he was
mentally deranged, and the threat of madness become a shadow on his life.
His sister, Mary, under the severe attack of insanity killed her own mother
in 1796. His love affair with Ann Simmons of Hertfordshire was unsuccessful
and unfortunate.
Lamb’s literary criticism is scattered and small in volume, though A.C. Bra-
dley regarded him as the greatest critic of his century. Lamb had mastered
the art of brief and accurate characterization. His comments are generalized
but perceptive. This has made his word original and illuminating. He was a
well-known letter writer of great charm and quality.
Lamb tried to write poetry and dramas also but he is chiefly known for his
essays. Lamb’s Essays of Elia appeared in 1823, his most remarkable
work, which made him “The Prince of the Essayists”. In this book he has
presented the criticism of life in his characteristic style laving wit and humour.
In these essays lamb. Presents himself as Elia, and his sister Mary as
“Cousin Bridget”. Some of his famous essays are:
1. Dream Children: A Reverie
2. The Praise of Chimney Sweepers.
3. Imperfect Sympathies.
4. All Fools’ Day
5. The Old Familiar Faces.
6. A Bachelor’s Complaint Against the Behaviour of Married People.
7. The Old and the new School Master.
8. Poor Relations.

53
 9. Witches, and Other Night Fears.
As has already been mentioned, Lamb got the pseudonym Elia from the
name of an Italian who worked as his colleague at the South Sea House.
Most of Lamb’s essays are depply personal and autobiographical. These
essays are a good vehicle for self-revelation. The first person singular pro-
noun in the essays stands for the writer and is not a persona.
Lamb’s essays are full of wit and homour. He makes fun of himself as well
as of others. His wit and humour are usually not full of hatred or personal
revenge.
Pathos is closely related to Lamb’s humour. Lamb was unmarried and there-
fore the question of having children does not arise. Pathos is some kind of
Catharsis and brings happiness to the writer. At the back of pathos is lamb’s
won tragic life.
His essays are full of brief character-sketches. Lamb’s remarkable charac-
terization makes his characters memorable. Some of them are master pieces
of humour. Lamb has keen observation and masterly power of representing
contemporary manners and moods.
Lamb’s essays are full of anecdotes. In Modern Gallantry also he has con-
veyed his ideas of regard and respect for ladies through the story of Susan
Winstanley and Joseph Paice. These anecdotes provide a narrative appeal
to his essays and become a part and parcel of his essays.
The structure of Lamb’s essays is loose as he indulges in digressions too
much. His essays are not so compact and precise as those of Bacon.
5.2.4 About the Essay: Modern Gallantry
According to Hugh Walker, “Lamb has wisdom as one of his greatest
qualities.” He is considered as one of the wisest persons of his limes. His
essays are full of philosophical, tersa, pithy, proverbial, aphoristic and didac-
tic lines which can be explained in detail. But there is a difference between
Bacon and Lamb on the issue. Bacon provides worldly wisdom which may
sometimes be immoral or illegal. Lamb provides the wisdom which is ex-
pected from a genius. In the essay Modern Gallantry lamb has expressed his
dissatisfaction over the behaviour and attitude of men towards the women
of his age. He has given many examples of his observations on different
occasions and in different capacities where men missed the mark of paying
respect to their counterpart i.e. females as females. Wealth, beauty, age,
rank, relation and circumstances are vital factors which decrease or increase
amount of reverence towards the female members of society. Lamb ob-
serves the bad habits not only of men folk but also of the ladies. By way
of advice he has suggested the women to first learn to pay respect them-
selves and their sex. If this happens, others will also pay respect to them.
There cannot be any thing more direct and emphatic than the concluding
lines of the essay:

54
 What a woman should demand of a man is courtship, pr after it, is
First respect for her as she is a woman ; and next to that – to be
respected by him above all other women. Let her first lesson be to
reverence her sex.
This is a bitter truth for both the parties – the male as well as the female.
Moreover the essence of the essay has universal appeal for all times to
come. This is applicable in every kind of society throughout the world and
is away from recial prejudice. Here lies the real estimate of Lamb’s views
about the respect to ladies as ladies.
5.2.5 The Essay: Modern Gallantry (Text)
In comparing modern with ancient manners, we are pleased to compliment
ourselves upon the point of gallantry ; a certain obsequiousness, or defer-
ential respect, which we are supposed to pay to females, as females.
I shall believe that this principle actuates our conduct, when I can forget, that
in the nineteenth century of the era from which we date our civility, we are
but just beginning to leave off the very frequent practice of whipping females
in public, in common with the coarsest male offenders.
I Shall believe it to be influential, when I can shut my eyes to the fact that
in England women are still occasionally – hanged.
I shall believe in it, when actresses are no longer subject to be hissed off a
stage by gentlemen.
I Shall believe in it, when Dorimants hands a fish-wife across the kennel ;
or assists the apple woman to pick up her wandering fruit, which some
unlucky dray has just dissipated.
I shall believe in it, when the Dorimants in humbler life, who would be
thought in their way notable adepts in this refinement, shall act upon it in
places where they are not known, or think themselves not observed – when
I shall see the traveler for some rich tradesman part with his admired box
coat, to spread it over the defenseless shoulders of the poor woman, who
is passing to her parish on the roof of the same stage coach with him,
drenched in the rain—when I shall no longer see a woman standing up in
a pit of a London theatre, till she is sick and faint with the exertion, with men
about her, seated at their ease, and jeering at her distress ; till one, that
seems to have more manners or conscience than the rest, significantly de-
clares “She should be welcome to his seat, if she were a little younger and
handsomer.” Place this dapper worehouseman, or that rider, in a circle of
their own female acquaintance, and you shall confess you have not seen a
politer-bread man in Lothbury.
Lastly, I shall begin to believe that there is come such principle influencing
our conduct, when more than one-half of the drudgery and coarse servitude
of the world shall cease to be performed by women.

55
Until that day comes I shall never believe this boasted point to be anything
more than a conventional fiction ; a pageant got up between the exes, in a
certain rank, and at a certain time of life, in which both find their account
equally.
I shall be even disposed to rank it among the salutary fictions of life when
in polite circles I shall see the same attentions paid to age as to youth, to
homely features as to handsome, to coarse complexions as to clear – to the
woman, as she is a woman, not as she is a beauty, a fortune, or a title.
I shall believe it to be something more that a name, when a well-dressed
gentleman in a well dressed company can advert to the topic of female old
age with exciting, and intending to excite, a sneer—when the phrases “an-
tiquated virginity,” and such a one has “overstood her market,” pronounced
in good company, shall raise immediate offence in man, or woman, that shall
hear them spoken.
Joseph Paice, of Bread-street-hill, merchant, and one of the Directors of the
South Sea company – the same to who Edwards, the Shakespeare com-
mentator, has addressed a fine sonnet – was the only pattern of consistent
gallantry I have met with. He took me under his shelter at an early age, and
bestowed some pains upon me. I owe to his precepts and example what-
ever there is of the man of business (and that is not much) in my compo-
sition. It was not his fault that I did not profit more.
Though bred a Presbyterian, and brought up a merchant, he was the finest
gentleman of his time. He had not one system of attention to females in the
drawing-room and another in the shop, or at the stall. I do not mean that
he made no distinction. But he never lost sight of sex, or overlooked it in
the casualties of a disadvantageous situation. I have seen him stand bare-
headed —smile if you please — to a poor servant-girl, while she has been
inquiring of him the way to some street — in such a posture of unforced
civility, as neither to embarrass ger in the acceptance, not himself in the offer,
of it.
He was no dangler, in the common acceptation of the word, after women
; but he reverenced and upheld, in every form in which it came before him,
womanhood. I have seen him—nay, smile not—tenderly escorting a market-
woman, whom he had encountered in a shower, exalting him umbrella over
her poor basket or fruit, that it might receive no damage, with as much
carefulness as if she had been a countess. To the reverend form of Female
Eld he would yield the wall (though it were to an ancient beggar woman)
with more ceremony that we can afford t show our grandams. He was the
Preux Chevalier of Age ; the Sir Calidore, or Sir Tristan, to those who have
no Calidores or Tristans to defend them. The roses, that had long faded
thence, still bloomed for him in those withered and yellow cheeks.
He was never married, but in his youth he paid his addresses to the beautiful
Susan Winstanley – old Winstanley’s daughter of Clapton – who dying in the

56
early days of their courtship, confirmed in him the resolution of perpetual
bachelorship. It was during their short courtship, he told me, that he had
been one day treating his mistress with a profusion of civil speeches – the
common gallantries – to which kind of thing she had hitherto manifested no
repugnance – to which kind of thing she had hitherto manifested no repug-
nance – but in this instance with no effect. He could not obtain from her a
decent acknowledgement in return. She rather seemed to resent his compli-
ments. He could not set it sown to caprice, for the lady had always shown
herself above that littleness.
When he ventured on the following day, finding her a little better humoured,
to expostulate with her on her coldness of yesterday, she confessed with her
usual frankness, that she had no sort of dislike to his attentions ; that she
could even endure some high – flown compliments ; that young woman
placed in her situation had a right to expect all shorts of civil things said to
her ; that she hoped she could digest a dose of adulation, short o fin
sincerity, with as little injury to her humility as most young women ; but that
– a little before he had commenced his compliments – she had overheard
him by accident, in rather rough language, rating a young woman, who had
not brought home his cravats quite to the appointed time, and she thought
to herself, “As I am Miss Susan Winstanley, and a young lady – a reputed
beauty, and known to be a fortune, — I can have my choice of the finest
speeches from the mouth of this very fine gentlemen who is courting me –
but if I had been poor May Such a one (naming the milliner), — and had
failed of bringing home the cravats to the appointed hour — though perhaps
I had sat up half the night to forward them – what sort of compliments
should I have received them ? – And my woman’s pride came to assistance
; and I thought – that if it were only to do me honour, a female, like myself,
might have received handsomer usage ; and I was determined not to accept
any fine speeches to the compromise of that sex, the belonging to which was
after all my strongest claim and title to them.”
I think the lad discovered both generosity, and a just way of thinking, in this
rebuke which she gave her lover ; and I have sometimes imagined, that the
uncommon strain of courtesy, which through life regulated the actions and
behaviour of my friend towards all of womankind indiscriminately, owed its
happy origin to this seasonable lesson from the lips of his lamented mistress.
I wish the whole female world would entertain the same notion of these
things that Miss Winstanley showed. Then we should see something of the
spirit of consistent gallantry; and no longer witness the anomaly of the same
man – a pattern of true politeness to a wife – of cold contempt, or rudeness,
to a sister – the idolater of his female mistress the disparager and despiser
of his no less female aunt, or unfortunate – still female – maiden cousin, Just
so much respect as a woman derogates from her own sex, in whatever
condition placed – her hand-mind, or dependent – she deserves to have
diminished from herself on that score ; and probably will fell the diminution,
when youth, and beauty, and advantages, not inseparable from sex, shall

57
 lose of their attraction. What a woman should demand of a man in courtship,
or after it, is first – respect for her as she is a woman — and next to the
– to be respected by him above all other women. But let her stand upon her
female character as upon a foundation; and let the attentions incident to
individual preference, be so many pretty advisements and ornaments – as
many, and as fanciful, as you please to that main structure. Let her first
lesson be with sweet Susan Winstanley – to reverence her sex.
5.2.6 Glossary
gallantry : respectfulness shown by men towards women.
obsequiousness : humbleness
derential : an attitude of respectfulness
deferential : punishing with lash attached to a short or long stick.

coarest : roughest, most vulgar

offenders : criminals
dorimant : a young fashionable man, a character in Sir George
Etherge’s comedy The man of Mode, or Sir Fopling
flutter.
fishwife : a woman selling fish.
kennel : here it is used in the sense of gutter.
dray : low cart without sides for heavy loads.
dissipated : dispersed, dispelled.
adepts : skilled performers, experts.
box coat : a kind of thick overcoat worn by a traveler sitting on
the box seat of a stage coach
pit : part of theatre meant for common people
distress : difficulty
dapper : smart or well-dressed man
warehouseman : worker in a building where goods are stored.
Lothbury : a part of London known for its business houses

drudgery : dull, laborious, distasteful work.

servitude : slavery
pageant : show, pretence
salutary : modes of behaviour having a wholesome effect refer
or turn to the subject
antiquated virginity : a woman grown old without having been able to get
married.

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 precepts : maxims, moral instruction
presbyterian : a follower of National Church of England.
distinction : making of a difference.
posture : position of body.
dangler : a person tempting others, hovering after.
escorting : accompanying another for protection or guidance.

Female Eld : elderly or old women.

Preux Chevalier : brave, gallant knight.
Sir Calidore : a virtuous knight in Spenser’s Faerie Queene
Sir Tristan : a brave knight of King Arthur
courtship : love affair
perpetual : constant
profusion : a large quantity
caprice : sudden change of mind or conduct.
expostulate : make protest, argue
milliner : dress maker
indiscriminately : without any difference
anomaly : irregularity of behaviour.
disparager : bringer of discredit, a person speaking slightingly.

derogates : detracts, takes away part from.

diminution : act of diminishing
additaments : additions
5.2.7 Model Explanations
(a)In comparing modern with ancient manners, we are pleased to com-
pliments ourselves upon the point of gallantry; a certain obsequious-
ness, or deferential respect, which we are supposed to pay to fe-
males, as females.
These lines have been taken from the essay Modern Gallantry written by
charles Lamb. Lamb is well- known essayist belonging to the Romantic
period. He has written many autobiographical essays. But this essay is
not autobiographical. Lamb expresses his views about gallantry of his age
i.e. the beginning of the 19th Century
Lamb says that his contemporary British congratulate themselves on the
point of being more gallant during the modern age. He defines what
gallantry means. Gallantry is the social respect, humbleness shown by
males towards females as females. People considered that moderns age

59
 has became more civilized and cultured and therefore shows more re-
spect to females because they are females.
Lamb does not agree to the idea of being more civilized and cultured in
modern times. He cites many situations where people do not show re-
spect to females as females but the respect shown to females depends
upon their rank, beauty, wealth, age, relation and many other factors.
Thus, according to him, womanhood is not paid respect irrespective of
others factors.
These are the opening lines of the essay where the writer defines gal-
lantry. He has noted down the general feelings of congratulation on the
point of gallantry. But in the rest of the essay he has rejected the common
point of view. The definition at the very beginning of the essay makes the
title very clear and the subject matter of the essay can be guessed at the
very start. The prose of Lamb is terse, pithy, aphoristic. The essay is
didactic one and has universal appeal due to its subject matter and style.
(b)What a woman should demand of a man in courtship, or after it, is
first -respect for her as she is a woman — and next to that - to be
respected by him above all other women.
This is an extract from the essay Modern Gallantry by Charles Lamb.
Lamb has written many essays which are autobiographical and reveal his
personal life. But this essay is didactic one and has universal appeal. the
writer has provided a good advise to the women-folk if they wish more
respect from the men-folk.
The woman in love is usually jealous of others and becomes selfish. She
wants more and more respect for herself individually but not for females
in general. That diminishes respect for individual female also. According
to the essayist, a woman in lover should ask for respect for her because
she is a woman. Being a woman is her foundation, solid ground on which
additions can be made. Those additions are like ornaments. Demand of
respect above all other women comes next. If a woman detracts respect
from her own sex, she detracts that much respect for herself also. Re-
spect for female should be demanded on the basic ground of being a
female, and not because of beauty, rank, age, wealth, position, or any
other such factor.
The writer has conveyed his ideas on gallantry in a very precise, brief,
aphoristic and terse manner. He had directly advised females how to
demand more and more respect from men and that must be the best
method for all types of women belonging to any category, rank, society
or position.

5.3 Key Words

wit - a kind of verbal expression which is brief, deft intended to
produce a shock or surprise.

60
 genre - a broad literary form or type.
era - age or period
didactic - providing advice
essay - A composition on any particular subject
pathos - quality in speech, writing, events etc. that excites pity or sad-
ness.
humour - any element in literature intended to amuse or excite mirth in the
mind of the reader.
Romanticism - The Romantic Movement, a literary movement marked with a
profound shift in sensibility, which took place in Britain and
throughout Europe roughly between 1770 & 1848.
Classicism - rules or norms adopted by the Greeks or Romans in art and
literature.
Neoclassicism - imitation of the Greek or Roman artists and writers in matter
and style by the British artists and writers.

5.4 Let’s Sum Up

In this Unit you have learnt how the study of a particular period is important to
understand a writer because the main trends of the period affect the works of the
writer. This Unit has provided you material about the Romantic period as against
the neoclassic period in matter and style. You must have also noted Lamb’s reaction
against the claim of his age to have become gallant.

5.5 Questions
1. Do you think Lamb agrees to the point that the nineteenth century people have
become more gallant than their predecessors?

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2. Name some of the practices which are discourteous to ladies?

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3. What category of females was revered by the men of fashion in the Nineteenth
century?

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4. Give famous examples of gallantry as cited by Charles Lamb.

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5. Who was Joseph Paice?

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6. What are the writer’s ideas about coarse servitude?

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7. Narrate the story of Susan Winstanley affair.

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8. What should a woman demand from her lover in courtship?

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9. What does the writer mean by foundation and main structure?

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10. What should be the first lesson of a woman?

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11. Why doesn’t the writer agree to the notion of modern gallantry?

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12. What does the writer wish?

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 13. Comment on the style of the essay.

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5.6 Suggested Readings
1. A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H.A brams.
2. Lines Composed upon the Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
3. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by S.T.Coleridge.
4. The Art of the Essayist by A.C.Benson.
5. Dream Children: A reverie by Charles Lamb.
A Bachelor’s Complaint Against the Behaviour of Married People by
Charles Lamb.
6. Of Married and Unmarried People by Francis Bacon.
7. On Going a Journey by William Hazlitt.

5.7 Answers
1. No. because he thinks that true respect to the female sex is not given to them
irrespective of relation, colour, age, money, beauty or rank.
2. Whipping females in the public, hissing off the stages of the actresses, coarse
servitude done by the ladies are some of the practices which prevailed in the
nineteenth century and were considered bad for them.
3. Lamb says that only rich, beautiful, young and well - ranked ladies were given
respect by the fashionable men who claimed for gallantry in the 19th Century.
4. The writer gives the examples of true gallantry shown by Preux Chevalier, Sir
Tristan & Sir Calidore. They have become the symbols of gallantry.
5. He was merchant by profession and one of the directors of the South Sea
Company. He wanted to marry Susan Winstanely. Joseph Paice is considered
a model of gallantry.
6. Coarse servitude is rough, monotonous and hard work of the domestic world.
Most of this drudgery and rough work is done by women. This, according to
the writer, is not the case of gallantry in modern times.
7. Sir Joseph Paice wanted to marry Susan Winstanley. She was young, smart,
rich and aristocratic. On one occasion Joseph Paice paid high compliments in
her praise but the lady rebuked him mildly. Susan had overheard him rating a

64
 young woman who had not brought home his cravats (part of dress material)
to the appointed time. This made clear in the mind of Susan that Joseph was
courteous to her because she had youth, beauty, wealth and rank. Otherwise,
he was not respectful to female sex in general. She taught a good lesson to
Joseph by not marrying him. Thus Joseph remained a bachelor; and revered
and upheld womanhood in every form.
8. A woman should demand from her lover first - respect for her as a woman, and
next to that - to be respected by him above all other women.
9. The writer by foundations and main structure means female as a female and not
as a wife, or a mistress or a sister. Theses are additional ornaments to decorate
the main structure.
10. Her first lesson must be - to revere her sex, pay respect to her as she is a
female.
11. Because he can see the practice of whipping females in public, woman being
hissed off a stage, a fish wife or the apple women being helpless, a women
being in distress in theatres, coarse servitude being done by women. Women
are differentiated on the basis of relation, age, beauty, colour, wealth and rank.
12. The writer wishes that all women should have the same thoughts about gallantry
as those of Susan Winstanley. They should not accept any anomaly in the
behaviour of their male partners on the basis of beauty, age, colour, wealth or
rank.
13. The writer has written this essay in a style different from the style of his other
essays. There are no autobiographical details or arousing of pathos, satire or
humour. The essay has been written in a didactic way. First he has catalogued
a number of practices prevailing in the Nineteenth century which are against the
thought of gallantry or civilized behaviour. The use of future time at the begin-
ning of many paragraphs shows that the writer is not yet ready to accept that
we have become more civilized as far as gallantry (respect to female as female)
is concerned. He has appropriately given the example of courtship of Joseph
Paice and Susan Winstanley to prove his point of view. The last paragraph
becomes aphoristic, terse and didactic in a direct manner. At the end he has
used a strong metaphor for basic female character. It is compared to a foun-
dation and main structure and rest of the things or demands by women as
additions to the main thing.

5.8 Some General Questions

1. Wrote the salient features of the Romantic Age in English Literature.
2. How is an essay different from a novel?
3. Sum up Lamb’s views about modern gallantry.
4. What is the piece of advice given by the writer to ladies?
5. Comment upon the prose style of Charles Lamb.

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 Unit - 6
William Hazlitt : On Prejudice
Structure
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Study Guide
6.2 William Hazlitt : On Prejudice
6.2.1 About the Age : Romantic Period
6.2.2 The Essay : Its Development
6.2.3 About the Author : William Hazlitt
6.2.4 About the Essay : On Prejudice
6.2.5 The Essay : On Prejudice (Text)
6.2.6 Glossary
6.2.7 Model Explanations
6.3 Key Words
6.4 Let’s Sum Up
6.5 Questions
6.6 Suggested Readings
6.7 Answers
6.8 Some General Questions

6.0 Objectives
In this unit we aim at giving you details about what an essay is and how it is different
from other literary forms. You have been given a short history of the development
of the essay as a literary form. By the end of this unit you will be able to
1) tell what the important elements of an essay are.
2) know about important essayists from Greco-Roman times to the modern era.
3) know about William Hazlitt as an essayist of the Romantic period.
4) learn the ideas of Hazlitt about a general human feature i.e. prejudice.
5) explain certain lines with reference to context adding critical notes about subject
matter, theme and style.

6.1 Study Guide

In this unit you have been given details about what makes an essay. You will find
development of essay from Plato to the Modern period with an emphasis on im-
portant writers and their main characteristics. The essay On Prejudice by William
Hazlitt has been discussed as a sample. You should try to know how to study a
literary essay. You have been provided short definitions of key words used in the
unit which will help you understand this form of literature in a better way. Glossary,
model explanations and answers to questions are given to help you develop your
own vocabulary and composition skills. An exercise has been given for you in the
form of some general questions at the end.

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6.2 William Hazlitt : On Prejudice
6.2.1 About the Age : Romantic Period
As William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb belong to the same era i.e Romantic
Period, therefore the details about the age have been given in Unit 3. This
section given in Unit 3 is therefore common for Unit 3 and 4.
6.2.2 The Essay : Its Development
An essay is the author’s response to any given subject. It has the appear-
ance of a casual and unpremeditated ease. It is an expression by a writer
of what he feels as a man. It is free and spontaneous approach of a writer
to any subject. As a subject any topic is sufficient. It comes directly from
his mood and reflects his personality. It is not fiction, not drama, not history,
no story but is has the elements of all these in some way. The essay provides
pleasure to the reader. According to Dr. Johnson an essay is “a loose sally
of the mind, an irregular, undigested piece, not a regular and orderly com-
position.” According to Murray’s Dictionary it is a “composition of moderate
length on any particular subject or branch of a subject... originally implying
want of finish, but now said of a composition more or less elaborate in style,
though limited in rage”. It is not exhaustive. Thus, it is a trial of a subject,
or an attempt towards it, and not in the least a complete or thorough analysis
of it. Thus the author’s mind and character play an important role because
any theme or subject matter under the sun can be the matter of discourse.
This unlimited freedom in the choice of subject matter leads to a wide range
of topics— from personal, autobiographical to philosophical treatise. Style
is the matter of author’s personality i.e. how he deals with the material
available to his sensitive mind. The essayist is a minute and sensitive spec-
tator of life. A.C. Benson says that “an essay is a thing which someone does
himself, and the point of the essay is not the subject, for any subject will
suffice, but the charm of personality”. According to him “the essayist, then,
is in his particular fashion an interpreter of life, a critic of life. He does not
see life as the historian or as the philosopher or as the poet or as the
novelist; yet he has a touch of all these.”
A.C. Benson in his essay The Art of the Essayist says that Plato’s dialogues
have a dramatic colouring and therefore cannot be called essay because the
essential condition for the essay is soliloquy. Montaigne (333-392) is con-
sidered the first important essayist. Bacon took this form from Montaigne
and developed it into terse, proverbial, aphoristic style. He is famous for
providing worldly wisdom through is essays by arguing on both sides of the
given topic and giving examples from the Bible, Greco-Roman history and
contemporary British history. Charles Lamb (1775-1834) like Bacon wrote
in compact, concise, epigrammatic and proverbial style. His essays are full
of autobiographical details which provide humour and pathos. His contem-
porary William Hazlitt (1778-1830) wrote on various topics but his essays
are full of verbosity, digressions and rambling. Most of his essays are unlike
that of Lamb in style and subject matter.
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 Richard Steele (472-1729) and Joseph Addison (472-1719) wrote in a new
literary form which is known as the periodical essays. Their main aim was
to instruct as well as to please the readers. Their essays primarily appeared
in the Tatler and the Spectator and they represent the contemporary society
well. Wit, humour and satire are the important elements of their prose style.
John Dryden (431-1700) wrote literary critical essays, for example, Of
Dramatic Poesy.
Johathan Swift (467-1745) also wrote periodical essays but he is famour
more for his other prose works. Daniel Defoe (461-1731) developed his
essays into news paper editorial articles.
Dr. Johnson (1709-1784) contributed essays to periodicals namely. The
Rambler, The Guardian and The Idler. He wrote literary critical essays
also. Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) is popular for his periodical essays
collected in the Citizen of the World. R.L. Stevenson, A.C. Benson, E.V.
Lucas, G.K. Chesterton, Robert Lynd, J.B. Prestley, Aldoux, Huxley and
George Orwell are some of the other famous English essayists.
6.2.3 About the Author : William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) was born at Maidstone. He was the son of a
Unitarian minister. His father has strong liberal views which were inherited
by the son. Most of his youth was spent near Shrewsbury. He came under
the influence of S.T. Coleridge and chose writing as his career. He was
introduced to other literally persons by Charles Lamb who became his friend
in London. Hazlitt started his career as a prolific journalist, parliamentary
reported, dramatic and literary critic, essayist and lecturer. He showed his
concern for his country and was supporter of the French Revolution. He
was married to Sarah Stoddard in 1808. Later on in 1819 he fell in love
with Sarah Walker which resulted into some kind of insanity. In 1882 he got
divorce from his wife. In 1823 he was arrested for debts. In 1824he was
married to Isabella Bridgewater. After 1812 he wrote profusely for various
periodicals including Edinburgh Review. His writings turned from political
journalism to literary criticism and essay. Some of his works are enlisted
below :
A view of the English Stage - 1818
Lectures on the English Poets - 1818
Lectures on the English comic writers - 1819
Table Talk - 1821-22
The Spirit of the Age - 1825
Life of Napoleon - 1828-30
Hazlitt’s great achievement is that he made his livelihood from criticism. He
disliked formulas of criticism. He was severely criticized and was called a
‘mere quack’ or a member of the cockney school of poetry. The critics,
however, admit that he was a voracious reader and his immense contribution
as a critical historian to the field of English Literature cannot be denied.

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6.2.4 About the Essay : On Prejudice
Like Francis Bacon Hazlitt has written the essay in a very lucid, clear,
precise, terse and proverbial style. There are many aphoristic lines in the
essay which need detailed explanation; these lines constitute his minute
observations about human nature regarding prejudice.
Hazlitt has described the nature of prejudice, the factors which are respon-
sible for causing it. All these have been written in a systematic way. The
emotions are very common in human nature and can be noticed in all races
and cultures all over the world. That speaks of the universality of the theme
of this essay.
The writer begins the essay by defining prejudice which means prejudging
i.e. coming of conclusion about something without facts, figures, reasons or
logics. The factors leasing to prejudging are ignorance, hatred and self-
willingness. If we are ignorant about some matter, we are inclined to decide
on the basis of pre-existing ill-founded ideas on the subject. Those who are
in the habit of taking decision under introversion are liable to be prejudiced
because a limited knowledge of the proposition may lead them to decide in
an unjustified way. This happens in the case of religion, form of Government,
different social norms of various communities or geographical regions. Nar-
row-mindedness and short vision lead to prejudice and ill-judging. The notion
of majority and minority also puzzles our vision. Some people think majority
is always right but we know many a times, it is made of fools. Numbers
should not decide what is right or what is wrong. Majority is equally liable
to commit errors. We always wish that others should surrender to our whims
without reason or rhyme. But we are not ready to accept that our conclu-
sions can be wrong and fatal.
6.2.5 The Essay : On Prejudice (Text)
Prejudice, in its ordinary and literal sense, is prejudging any question without
having sufficiently examined it, and adhering to our opinion upon it through
ignorance, malice, or perversity, in spite of every evidence to the contrary.
The little that we know has a strong alloy of misgiving and uncertainty in it
; the mass of things of which we have no means of judging, but of which we
form a blind and confident opinion as if we were thoroughly acquainted with
them, is monstrous.
Prejudice is the child of ignorance; for as our actual knowledge falls short
of our desire to know, or curiosity and interest in the world about us, so
must we be tempted to decide upon a greater number of things at a venture;
and having no check from reason or inquiry, we shall grow more obstinate
and bigoted in our conclusions, according as they have been rash and pre-
sumptuous. The absence of proof, instead of suspending our judgment, only
gives us an opportunity to make things out according to our wishes and
fancies; mere ignorance is a blank canvas on which we lay what colours we
please, and paint objects black or white, as angels or devils, magnify or

69
diminish them at our option: and in the vacuum either of facts or arguments,
the weight of prejudice and passions falls with double force, and bears down
everything before it.
If we enlarge the circle of our previous knowledge ever so little, we may
meet with something to create doubt and difficulty; but as long as we remain
confined to the cell of our native ignorance while we know nothing beyond
the routine of sense and custom, we shall refer everything to that standard,
or make it out as we would have it to be, like spoiled children who have
never been away from home, and expect to find nothing in the world that
does not accord with their wishes and notions. It is evident, that the fewer
things we know, the more ready we shall be to pronounce upon and con-
demn what is new and strange to us; that is, the less capable we shall be
of varying our conceptions, and the more prone to mistake a part for the
whole. What we do not understand the meaning of must necessarily appear
to us ridiculous and contemptible; and we do not stop to enquire, till we
have been taught by repeated experiments and warnings of our own fallibil-
ity, whether the absurdity is in ourselves or in the object of our dislike and
scorn.
The most ignorant people are rude and insolent, as the most barbarous are
cruel and ferocious. All our knowledge at first lying in a narrow compass
(bounded by local and physical causes) whatever does not conform to this
shocks us as out of reason and nature.
The less we look abroad, the more our ideas are introverted : and our
habitual impressions, from being made up of a few particulars always re-
peated, grow together into a kind of concrete substance, which will not bear
taking to pieces, and where the smallest deviation destroys the whole feeling.
Thus the difference of colour in a black man was thought to forfeit his title
to belong to the species, till books of voyages and travels, and old Fuller’s
quaint expression of “God’s image carved in ebony”, have brought the two
ideas into a forced union, and Mr. Murray no longer libels men of colour
with impunity.
The word republic has a harsh and incongruous sound to ears bred under
a constitutional monarchy; and we strove hard for many years to overturn
the French republic, merely because we could not reconcile it to ourselves
that such a thing should exist at all, notwithstanding the examples of Holland,
Switzerland, and many others. This term has hardly yet performed quaran-
tine: to the loyal and patriotic it has an ugly taint in it, and is scarcely fit to
be mentioned in good company. If, however, we are weaned by degrees
from our prejudices against certain words that shock opinion, this is not the
case with all; for those that offend good manners grow more offensive with
the progress of refinement and civilization so that no writer now dare venture
upon expressions that unwittingly disfigure the pages of our elder writers,
and in this respect, instead of becoming callous or indifferent, we appear to
become more fastidious every day. There is then a real grossness which
does not depend on familiarity or custom.
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This account of the concrete nature of prejudice, or of the manner in which
our ideas by habit and the dearth of general information coalesce together
into one indissoluble form, will show (what otherwise seems unaccountable)
how such violent antipathies and animosities have been occasioned by the
most ridiculous or trifling differences of opinion or outward symbols of it’;
for, by constant custom, and the want of reflection, the most insignificant of
these was as inseparably bound up with the main principle as the most
important, and to give up any part as to give up the whole essence and vital
interests of religion, morals, and government. Hence we see all sects and
parties mutually insist on their own technical distinctions as the essentials and
fundamentals of religion, and politics, and, for the slightest variation in any
of these, unceremoniously attack their opponents as atheists and blasphem-
ers, traitors and incendiaries. In fact, these minor points are laid hold of in
preference, as being more obvious and tangible, and as leaving more room
for the exercise of prejudice.
Another thing that makes our prejudices rancorous and inveterate, is, that as
they are taken up without reason, they seem to be self-evident; and we
thence conclude, that they not only are so to ourselves, but must be so to
others, so that their differing from us is willful, hypocritical, and malicious.
The Inquisition never pretended to punish its victims for being heretics or
infidels, but for avowing opinions which with their eyes open they know to
be false. That is, the whole of the Catholic faith, ‘’that one entire and prefect
chrysolite”, appeared to them so completely without flaw and blameless; that
they could not conceive how anyone else could imagine it to be otherwise,
except from stubbornness and contumacy, and would rather admit ( to avoid
so improbable a suggestion) that men went to a stake for an opinion, not
which they held, but counterfeited, and were content to be burnt for the
pleasure of playing the hypocrite. Nor is it wonderful that there should be
so much repugnance to admit the existence of a serious doubt in matters of
such vital and external interest, and on which the whole fabric of the church
hinged, since the first doubt that was expressed on any single point drew all
the rest after it ; and the first person who started a conscientious scruple,
and claimed the trial by reason, threw down, as if by magic spell, the
strongholds of bigotry and superstition, and transferred the determination of
the issue from the blind tribunal of prejudice and implicit faith to a totally
different ground, the fair and open field of argument and inquiry.
On this ground a single champion is a match for thousands. The decision of
the majority is not here enough : unanimity is absolutely necessary to infal-
libility; for the only secure plea on which such a preposterous pretension
could be set up is, by taking it for granted that there can be no possible
doubt entertained upon the subject, and by diverting men’s minds from ever
asking themselves the question of the truth of certain dogmas and mysteries,
any more than whether two and two make four. Prejudice in short is
egotism : we see a part, and substitute it for the whole; a thing strikes us
casually and by halves, and we would have the universe stand proxy for our

71
 decision, in order to rivet it more firmly in our own belief; however insuf-
ficient or sinister the grounds of our opinions, we would persuade ourselves
that they arise out of the strongest conviction, and are entitled to unqualified
approbation; slaves of our own prejudices, caprice, ignorance, we would be
lords of the understandings and reasons of others; and (strange infatuation
!) taking up an opinion solely from our own narrow and partial point of view,
without consulting the feelings of others, or the reason of things, we are still
uneasy if all the world do not come into our way of thinking.
6.2.6 Glossary
adhering : supporting firmly, remaining faithful to
malice : active ill will, desire to harm others
perversity : willingly choosing a wrong course, feelings contrary
to reason
mass : crowd
means : methods
monstrous : very large, devilish
venture (N) : an undertaking which has risk
bigoted : intolerant and narrow-minded
presumptuous : too bold or self-confident (of behaviour)
confined : limited, imprisoned
condemn : dislike, criticize
contemptible : worth hatred
fallibility : likelihood to commit an error
absurdity : strangeness
compass : range, area
introverted : turned inwards upon ourselves
deviation : change
forfeit : lose
fuller : Thomas Fuller (408-61), an English author and
moderate royalist
quaint : strange
ebony : black
Murray : the publisher, he has disliked by the Romantics as
he was the editor of the magazine Quarterly Re-
view
libels : anything that brings discredit upon or fails to do
justice to

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impunity : freedom from punishment
Holland, Switzerland : two famous republics of Europe
quarantine : free from collection
taint : colour
venture (v) : come upon
fastidious : hard to please, quick to find fault
dearth : shortage
coalesce : come together and unite into one group
antipathies : strong, dislikes
animosities : strong dislikes active enmities
insignificant : unimportant
blasphemers : persons who speak in disrespectful way about God
and sacred things, use violent language about some-
one or something
tangible : clear and definite
rancorous : full of deep and long lasting feeling of bitterness

inveterate : deep rooted, long established

hypocritical : falsely making oneself appear to be virtuous and
good
Inquisition : the infamous Spanish institution which punished
heretics
heretics : persons who told an unorthodox opinion, persons
having belief or opinion contrary to generally ac-
cepted ones
infidels : persons with no belief in a religion
chrysolite : a precious stone (refers to Shakespeare’s Othello,
V, ii, 145)
contumacy : obstinate resistance, stubborn disobedience
hinged : turned or depended on something else
conscientious : guided by one’s sense of duty, done carefully or
honestly
scruple : uneasiness of conscience
preposterous : absurd, completely contrary to reason or sense

pretensions : claim to possess skills, qualities, etc.

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 dogmas : beliefs, systems of belief put forward by some au-
thority to be accepted as true without questions

egoxism : practice of talking too often or too much about

oneself
stands proxy for : guarantees
sinister : evil
conviction : faith
approbation : approval, sanction
caprice : sudden change of mind or behaviour that has no
obvious cause; tendency to change suddenly with-
out any apparent cause
infatuation : full of wild and foolish love
6.2.7 Model Explanations
(a) Prejudice is the child of ignorance
This is a proverbial line from the essay On Prejudice written by William
Hazlitt. He has written many essays which are verbosity, digressions
and rambling in subject matter and ideas. This essay falls into a differ-
ent category as it is bereft to verbosity and digressions. In this essay,
the writer has explained what causes prejudice.
One of the main reasons to be prejudiced against something or some-
one is ignorance. Prejudice means prejudging which excludes coming
to a conclusion based on reason. But if we do not know the thing or
the idea, we try to decide in our own favour without knowing the facts
on the other side. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and thus
ignorance causes prejudice in favour or against any idea concerning
religion, politics or day to day life.
The writer has tried to convey his ideas about prejudice in a very lucid,
terse, aphoristic and proverbial style. The essay is a good example to
prove that Hazlitt can write in the style of Bacon. The subject matter
is unlike the other essays of Hazlitt which deal with contemporary and
autobiographical details. It is not meant for any individual, but like
Bacon’s proverbial lines has a universal appeal.
(b) The most ignorant people are rude and insolent as the most bar-
barous are cruel and ferocious.
This is an extract from the essay On Prejudice written by William
Hazlitt. He has written many essays and most of them are full of
autobiographical details and contemporary references. But this essay is
different from most of the other essays as it has been written in the
style of Bacon.

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 Commenting on the role of ignorance leading to prejudice, Hazlitt says
that ignorance makes a person rude and insolent. Ignorant people are
not ready to understand the point of view of other people. They have
little knowledge of the given topic and judge things according to their
own whims and notions. They are intolerant towards the view ex-
pressed by the other party and thus become rude and insolent. This is
explained by a comparison of such people with barbarous people who
are cruel and terrible. Uncivilized people are hard-hearted and uncul-
tured and therefore become cruel and terrible towards others.
This is an important universal observation applicable to all nations and
all times. The line is a good example of terse, aphoristic and proverbial
style. The simile used is very appropriate. Hazlitt has written in the vein
of Bacon and thus has universal applicability instead of autobiographi-
cal or personal and individualized references. This is away from ver-
bosity and rambling manner which is quite usual with Hazlitt. Thus the
subject matter and the style of the present way are different from those
of the other essays.

6.3 Key Words

autobiographical : writing about oneself; works which reveal the life of the writer
treatise : a book etc. deals systematically with one subject
style : the manner a writer expresses his notions. It varies from writer
to writer depending upon the use of literary devices.
soliloquy : speech made by a single character on the stage. The character
talks to himself / herself so that the audience can know what
is going on in his / her mind.
periodical : magazine, general or any other publication which appears at
regular intervals. From the beginning of the 18th century until
the Second World War the literary periodicals flourished, and
contributed significantly to the development of creative writing
and criticism.
criticism : evaluation of the works of art. It is not negative only as often
understood
novel : extended work of prose fiction. Its length permits a greater
variety of characters, incidents and plot construction
universal appeal : if the artistic and literary work has some value for all the com-
munities of the world instead of a particular person, place or
community, it has real value for humanity. Thus its appeal is
universal. However, if the incident or idea is of some impor-
tance to an individual or a category of people only, it cannot
be generalized and thus loses its universal appeal.

75
6.4 Let Us Sum Up
In this unit you have studied about the essay as a literary genre and its various
elements. You have also known the development of this form of literature in short.
Besides, you have studied Hazlitt as an essayist in his historical context and have
learnt something about the universal appeal of the essay On Prejudice. You have
also read some model explanations which will help you interpret a line or passage
given from any piece of literary work and in particular from On Prejudice.

6.5 Questions
1) Define prejudice.

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2) What leads to prejudice ?

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3) Describe how ignorance results into prejudice.

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4) Point out the simile used in Para 4 of the essay on Prejudice.

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5) How does a little knowledge spoil our personality ?

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6) What do certain things appear ridiculous and contemptible to us?

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7) Why are the most ignorant people rude and insolent ?

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8) What do you mean by the two ideas about black colour ?

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9) Why did we strive hard to remove the French republic ?

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____________________________________________________________________
10) Who became more offensive with the progress of civilization ?

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11) Why do all parties and sects insist upon their own technical distinction ?

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12) Why did the Inquisition punish their victims ?

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13) Why is majority not necessary to decide a prejudice ?

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14) Explain : Prejudice is egoxism.

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 ____________________________________________________________________
15) Comment on the style of the essay.

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16) Comment on the universal appeal of the essay.

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6.6 Suggested Readings

1) A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams.
2) The Art of the Essayist by A.C. Benson.
3) On Going a Journey by William Hazlitt.
4) Confessions of an English Opium - Eater by Thomas De Quincey.
5) Essays in the History of Ideals by A.O. Lovejoy.
6) A Study of English Romanticism by Northrop Frye.

6.7 Answers
1) It means prejudging. We want to have our own point of view contrary to the
evidence available.
2) Ignorance, malice or perversity may lead to prejudice. Insufficient examination
of the question under consideration tempts us into prejudice.
3) We cannot have actual knowledge of many things in this world. We do not have
any check of reason or enquiry. As a result, the absence of proof gives us an
opportunity to decide things according to our own whims and fancies.
4) In para 4 the writer has used a simile, comparing persons of native ignorance
to spoiled children who have never been away from home.
5) If we know fewer things, we will not be able to judge impartially the things
which are new and strange to us. We are prone to commit mistakes and decide
unreasonably in our own favour.

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 6) Because we do not understand the right, impartial meaning of certain things or
ideas. Human beings are fallible too.
7) Because our knowledge has a narrow compass and we are shocked to see
whatever does not suit our personality or our own veins.
8) The two ideas about colour refer to that of the blackness of sin and that of the
dark colour of human beings; that is the Blacks.
9) We thought that republic and constitutional monarchy cannot go side by side
though we had seen the successful examples of Holland, Switzerland and many
other countries.
10) Those who offend good manner become more offensive with the progress of
civilization.
11) Because giving up any part is considered as giving up the whole essence and
vital interests of religion, morals and movement. As a result of it, they call their
opponents traitors or atheists.
12) Because they considered the victims to be the followers of falsehood.
13) Because the truth or falsehood of an opinion does not depend on the numerical
strength of its followers or opponents.
14) A thing may strike us casually or incompletely true but we insist that our casual
impression is as good as a total and well-considered view. We want the world
to be with us. Thus prejudice leads to egoxism.
15) The prose used by the writer is lucid and precise. The nature of prejudice and
factors responsible for it are examined in a scientific and systematic manner.
There are least Biblical or historical allusions and the subject matter is not
autobiographical or personalized.
16) This essay in subject matter and style is not like other essays of Hazlitt. it has
no autobiographical or verbose or rambling details. It is one of the didactic
essays written in compact, lucid, aphoristic style which is not the usual way of
historical examples except a few. Thus is has universal appeal for all times; past,
present and future. It is written in the style of Bacon with some arguments to
prove a proposition but is lacks in the worldly-wisdom of Bacon.

6.8 Some General Questions

1) Comment on the prose style of William Hazlitt. How is it different from that the
Lamb?
2) Describe the development of Literary Essay as a genre.
3) Compare and contrast Francis Bacon with William Hazlitt on the point of
instruction and wisdom.
4) Write an essay on some of the prejudices existing in your society.
5) Suggest certain ways to remove prejudices from your society.

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 UNIT - 7
Richard Steele : The Spectator Club
Structure
7.0 Objectives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 About the Author
7.3 Reading the Text
7.3.1 The Essay : The Spectator Club (Text)
7.3.2 Glossary
7.3.3 Summary
7.4 Some Model Explanation
7.5 Let’s Sum Up
7.6 Suggested Readings
7.7 Questions
7.8 Answers
7.0 Objectives
The purpose of this unit is to stimulate your interest in the writings of Steele and his
writing skill, which is easy and familiar. Steele was very much involved in the social
scene of the time and had a desire for the reformation of morals and manners. ‘The
Spectator Club’ is perhaps Steele’s finest achievement.

7.1 Introduction
‘The Spectator Club’ is perhaps Steele’s finest achievement. This essay was published
in The Spectator. The first essay in The Spectator was contributed by Addison.
The second essay – The Spectator Club was Steele’s contribution. In this essay
Steele has given an account of the members of the Club. These members represent
important sections of society. Steele describes six of the members of the Club they
are Sir Roger de Coverley, Captain Sentry, Sir Andrew Freeport, Will Honeycomb,
the Clergyman and the Student of Law.

7.2 About the Author

Richard Steele was born in Dublin, Ireland and educated at the Charter house and
Oxford. He left before taking his degree and joined the army in 1694. In 1713 as
a staunch Whig, he became the Member of Parliament. Steele owes his reputation
to his effort as an essayist. The Tatler which he started in 1709, constitutes a
landmark in English prose literature. His easy familiar style, humour, gentle irony,
and scholarship made him just the man to adapt the essay and the “characters” of
Earle to the needs of an age that was marked by levity of conduct and thought, but
at the same time eminently reasonably. Steele is sentimental and warm hearted, but
always urbane. He has also a delicate sense of humour. Comparison between Steele
and Addison has a strong critical relevance. We may find Steele to be greater
funded with knowledge of life. He has also a more sympathetic heart. Addison on

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 his part has much greater refinement and delicacy of wit. Addison’s prose is also
more balanced and lively. The common feature in both these essayists is their
involvement in the social scene of the time and their desire for the reformation of
morals and manners.

7.3 Reading the Text

Now read the essary carefully:
7.3.1 The Spectator Club (Text)
The first of our society is a gentleman of Worcestershire, of ancient descent,
a baronet, his name Sir Roger de Coverley. His great-grandfather was
inventor of that famous country-dance which is called after him. All who
know that shire are very well acquainted with the parts and merits of Sir
Roger. He is a gentleman that is very singular in his behaviour, but his
singularities proceed from his good sense, and are contradictions to the
manners of the world only as he thinks the world is in the wrong. However,
this humour creates him no enemies, for he does nothing with sourness or
obstinacy; and his being unconfined to modes and forms makes him but the
readier and more capable to please and oblige all who know him. When he
is in town, he lives in Sohosquare. It is said, he keeps himself a bachelor by
reason he was crossed in love by a perverse beautiful widow of the next
country to him. Before this disappointment, Sir Roger was what you call a
fine gentleman, had often supped with my Lord Rochester and Sir George
Etherege, fought a duel upon his first coming to town, and kicked bully
Dawson in a public coffee-house for calling him youngster. But being ill-used
by the above-mentioned widow, he was very serious for a year and a half;
and though his temper being naturally jovial, he at last got over it, he grew
careless of himself and never dressed afterward. He continues to wear a
coat and doublet of the same cut that were in fashion at the time of his
repulse, which, in his merry humours, he tells us, has been in and out twelve
times since he first wore it …. He is now in his fifty-sixth year, cheerful, gay
and hearty; keeps a good house both in town and country; a great lover of
mankind, but there is such a mirthful cast in his behaviour, that he is rather
beloved than esteemed.
He tenants grow rich, his servants look satisfied, all the young women
profess love to him, and the young men are glad of his company. When he
comes into a house he calls the servants by their names, and talks all the way
upstairs to a visit I must not omit, that Sir Roger is a justice of the Quorum;
that he fills the chair at a quarter-session with great abilities and three months
ago gained universal applause, by explaining a passage in the game act.
The gentleman next in esteem and authority among us is another bachelor,
who is a member of the Inner Temple, a man of great probity, wit, and
understanding; but he has chosen his place of residence rather to obey the
direction of an old humoursome father, than in pursuit of his own inclinations.
He was placed there to study the laws of the land, and is the most learned

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of any of the house in those of the state. Aristotle and Longinus are much
better understood by him than Littleton or Coke. The father sends up every
post questions relating to marriage-articles, leases, and tenures in the
neighbourhood; all which questions he agrees with an attorney to answer
and take care of in the lump. He is studying the passions themselves when
he should be inquiring into the debates among men, which arise from them.
He knows the argument of each of the orations of Demosthenes and Tully,
but not one case in the reports of our own courts. No one ever took him
for a fool, but none, except his intimate friends, know he has a great deal
of wit. This turn makes him at once both disinterested and agreeable: as few
of his thoughts are drawn from business, they are most of them fit for
conversation. His taste of books is a little too just for the age he lives in; he
has read all, but approves of very few. His familiarity with the customs,
manners, actions and writings of the ancients, makes him a very delicate
observer of what occurs to him in the present world. He is an excellent
critic, and the time of the play is his hour of business; exactly at five he
passes through New Inn, crosses through Russell-court, and takes a turn at
Will’s till the play begins; he has his shoes rubbed and his periwig powdered
at the barber’s as you go into the Rose. It is for the good of the audience
when he is at a play, for the actors have an ambition to please him.
The person of next consideration is Sir Andrew Freeport, a merchant of
great eminence in the city of London; a person of indefatigable industry,
strong reason and great experience. His notions of trade are noble and
generous, and (as every rich man has actually some sly way of jesting, which
would make no great figure were he not a rich man) he calls the sea the
British Common. He is acquainted with commerce in all its parts, and will
tell you that it is a stupid and barbarous way to extend dominion by arms;
for true power is to be got by arts and industry. He will often argue, that
if this part of our trade were well cultivated, we should gain from one nation;
and if another, from another. I have heard him prove, that diligence makes
more lasting acquisitions than valour, and that sloth has ruined more nations
than the sword. He abounds in several frugal maxims, amongst which the
greatest favourite is, ‘A penny saved is a penny got.’ A general trader of
good sense is pleasanter company than a general scholar and Sir Andrew
having a natural unaffected eloquence, the perspicuity of his discourse gives
the same pleasure that wit would in another man. He has made his fortunes
himself; and says that England maybe richer than other kingdoms, by as plain
methods as he himself is richer than other kingdoms, by as plain methods as
he himself is richer than other men; though at the same time I can say this
of him, that there is not a point in the compass, but blows home a ship in
which he is an owner.
Next to Sir Andrew in the club-room sits Captain Sentry, a gentleman of
great courage, good understanding, but invincible modesty. He is one of
those that deserve very well, but are very awkward at putting their talents
within the observation of such as should take notice of them. He was some
years a captain, and behaved himself with great gallantry in several

83
engagements and at several sieges; but having a small estate of his own, and
being next heir to Sir Roger, he has quitted a way of life in which no man
can rise suitably to his merit, who is not something of a courtier as well as
a soldier. I have heard him often lament, that in a profession where merit is
placed in so conspicuous a view, impudence should get the better of modesty.
When he had talked to this purpose, I never heard him make a sour
expression, but frankly confess that he left the world, because he was not
fit for it. A strict honesty, and an even regular behaviour, are in themselves
obstacles to him that must press through crowds, who endeavour at the
same end with himself, the favour of a commander. He will, however, in his
way to talk excuse generals, for not disposing according to men’s desert, or
inquiring into it; for, says he, that great man who has a mind to help me, has
as many to break through to-come at me, as I have to come at him;
therefore he will conclude, that the man who would make a figure, especially
in a military way, must get overall false modesty, and assist his patron against
the importunity of other pretenders, by a proper assurance in his own
vindication. He says it is a civil cowardice to be backward in asserting what
you ought to expect, as it is a military fear to be slow in attacking when it
is your duty. With this candour does the gentleman speak of himself and
others. The same frankness runs through all his conversation. The military
part of his life has furnished him with many adventures, in the relation of
which he is very agreeable to the company; for he is never overbearing,
though accustomed to command men in the utmost degree below him; nor
ever too obsequious, from a habit of obeying men highly above him.
But that our society may not appear a set of humorists, unacquainted with
the gallantries and pleasures of the age, we have amongst us the gallant will
Honeycomb, a gentleman who according to his years, should be in the
decline of his life, but having been very careful of his person, and always had
a very easy fortune, time has made but very little impression, either by
wrinkles on his forehead, or traces on his brain. His person is well turned,
and of a good height. He is very ready at that sort of discourse with which
men usually entertain women. He has all his life dressed very well, and
remembers habits as others do men. He can smile when one speaks to him,
and laughs easily. He knows the history of every mode, and can inform you
from which of the French king’s wenches our wives and daughters had this
manner of curling their hair, that way of placing their hoods…. and whose
vanity to show her foot made that part of the dress so short in such a year.
In a word, all his conversation and knowledge has been in the female world.
As other men of his age will take notice to you what such a minister said
upon such an occasion, he will tell you, when the Duke of Monmouth
danced at court, such a woman was then smitten—another was taken with
him at the head of his troop in the Park. In all these important relations, he
has ever about the same time received a kind glance, or a blow of a fan from
some celebrated beauty, mother of the present Lord Such -a -one ….This
way of talking of’ his very much enlivens the conversation among us of a
more sedate turn; and I find there is not one of the company, but myself,

84
 who rarely speak at all, but speaks of him as of that sort of man who is
usually called a well-bred fine gentleman. To conclude his character, where
women are not concerned, he is an honest worthy man.
I cannot tell whether I am to account him whom I am next to speak of as
one of our company; for he visits us but seldom; but when he does, it adds
to every man else a new enjoyment of himself. He is a clergyman, a very
philosophic man, of general learning, great sanctity of life and the most exact
good breeding. He has the misfortune to be of a very weak constitution, and
consequently, cannot accept of such cares and business as preferments in his
function would oblige him to; he is therefore among divines what a chamber-
cousellor is among lawyers. The probity of his mind, and the integrity of his
life, create him followers, as being eloquent or loud advances others. He
seldom introduces the subject he speaks upon; but we are so far gone in
years, that he observes, when he is among us an earnestness to have him
fall on some divine topic, which he always treats with much authority, as one
who has no interest in this world, as one who is hastening to the object of
all his wishes and conceives hope from his decays and infirmities. These are
my ordinary companions.
7.3.2 Glossary
singular : here outstanding strangely peculiarly
sourness : enmity, bitterness
contradictions : opposed to, against
obstinacy : stubbornness
unconfined to modes & forms : free from common fashion
humour : ruling passion, disposition
soho-square : lying to the south of Oxford street, it was
fashionable residential area in Steele’s days

perverse : ill-natured
Lord Rochester : John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647-
1680), poet, wit and man of fashion of
the Restoration
Etherage : (1635-1691) author of several comedies.
Bully Dawson : a notorious ruffian of the restoration
period.
mirthful : full of joy
esteemed : honoured
quorum : a fixed number of members
universal : general
applause : Praise

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quarter-session : a criminal court held quarterly by the
Justice of the Peace
bachelor : an unmarried person
probity : honesty
humoursome : whimsical
passion : deep feeling
Aristotle : famous Greek philosopher
Longinus : Greek philosopher and grammarian of the
third century A.D.
Littleton or Coke : Sir Thomas Littleton (1422-81) was a
judge who wrote a treatise on the law of
property. Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
published a commentary on Littleton under
the title of Institutes.
every post : by every dispatch of the post office.
marriage articles : a legal agreement regarding the property
of a person about to marry.
lease : a contract by which a leaser gives land or
house to a lessee for a certain period of
time.
tenures : right or title to property
Demosthenes : Athenian orator and patriot
Tully : (106-43 B.C.) Roman orator, author and
politician; his full name was MarcusTullins
Cicero
familiarity : close touch
critic : one who can judge the quality of a thing
Russell-Court : a narrow street
Will’s : The coffee-house in Russell Street,
frequented by men of letters and politicians
periwig : artificial hair
The Rose : a tavern frequented by actors
eminence : importance
British Common : Sir Andrew means that the sea belongs to
the British as the enclosed wasteland in a
village belongs to the entire community
By arms : by conquest with the help of weapons
diligence : constant hard work

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 frugal maxims : proverbs encouraging thrift
perspicuity : clarity
discourse : speech
invincible : overpowering
conspicuous : attracting attention
impudence : disrespect
importunity : making repeated requests
vindication : show or prove the truth
candour : saying freely what one thinks.
obsequious : too eager to obey or serve
wenches : mistresses
hood : head dress
vanity : proud
Duke of Monmouth : (1649-1685) an illegitimate son of Charles
II, who organized a rebellion against James
II
Preferment : higher appointments
Chamber Counsellor : a lawyer who gives opinions in private
and does not argue in court.
integrity : straight forwardness
Divines : clergymen
7.3.3 Summary
Steele talks about the first gentleman of his company whose name is Sir
Roger de Coverley. The people, who knew about the county of Sir Roger,
knew Sir Roger. Sir Roger was a man of extra ordinary nature and had a
good sense. He always found fault with the ways of the world but this
unusual nature never made him any enemies. Sir Roger had a unique capacity
to please others. Sir Roger was a bachelor because he was disappointed in
the love of a beautiful widow. Before this disappointment Sir Roger was a
normal happy young man. He moved in society of important persons like
Lord Rochester and Sir George Etherege. However, after being ill-used by
the widow he lost all his joviality and interest in social life for more than a
year. He became very serious. Gradually his joviality returned. However, he
grew careless about his dress. He wore a coat and jacket of a cut, which
was in fashion at that time. Now Sir Roger was fifty-six years old but was
quite hale and hearty. He had a house in village and town. He had such a
good nature that people loved him. He also treated his servants well. He
was also the justice of the quorum and showed his judicial abilities on the
chair of the justice at a quarter- session.

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After this, Steele has described another companion of the club. He is a
lawyer. He was also a bachelor. He was a man of sharp wit and clear
understanding. He chose his occupation rather to obey the direction of his
old father than to incline to his own tendencies. He took to the study of law
in obedience to his father. He was more interested in the study of drama and
dramatic criticism. The philosophers like Aristotle and Longinus were well
understood by him. His father used to send to him various questions on law
in order to ensure his son’s progress in legal studies. The son outwitted the
father by getting them answered through a lawyer whom he had engaged for
the purpose. No body took him as a fool but only his friends knew that he
had a great wit. He liked to read the books, which were not of the age he
lived. He was familiar with the writings, customs, actions and manners of
ancient writers, which made him a keen observer of the worldly affairs. He
was a good critic. His real hour of business was the time of the play. The
presence of an able critic among the audience would rouse the actors to give
the best performance possible.
Next the author has discussed about Sir Andrew Freeport who was is a
good businessman of London. He was very laborious, experienced and had
a great understanding. His knowledge of commerce was extensive. He had
his own ideals of the ways of enlarging a country’s trade. He was of the
opinion that a dominion may be extended by art and industry than by power.
Diligence or industry alone would help the country to gain things of permanent
value, and sloth or idleness more than the sword had caused the ruin of
many nations. He knew many short maxims. He had a unique art of speech.
he was a self made person and believed that England too could become
richer than other kingdoms, by methods which had so benefited him.
After Sir Andrew, the author has described the merits of Captain Sentry. He
was very courageous intelligent and had good understanding. He was such
a man who had not received good consideration of his abilities. He had been
Captain in military for some years and fought bravely on fronts. He left the
army because even though he rendered meritorious service, which any one
could see and appreciate, promotion did not come to him. He used to say
that only that man could hold a position in military who gets over his false
modesty. He was of the opinion that it is cowardice to stand back modestly.
Similarly a man who failed to assert himself and demand what was his due
was a coward. He was frank in speaking about the weaknesses of his
officers. This frankness was a part of his character. Though he commanded
many persons in military, he was never haughty. He never became a flatterer,
although he obeyed his superiors.
The author then talks about Will Honeycomb. Though he was old, there
were no traces of the passage of time in his brain or in his person. He had
an attractive personality and could impress women by his talk. He dressed
well and was well acquainted with the history of every fashion that remained
in vogue in England. Will Honeycomb was always interested in matters
pertaining to women. In his conventions he talked mostly of women, their

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 dresses, their manners and their fashions. He had a good knowledge of
history. He could tell that the hairstyles or hats of our wives and daughters
resemble to those of the wenches of French Kings. But the author says that
he was a gentleman. Leaving the relations of women he was an honest and
worthy man.
At the end of the essay, the author tells us about one of his companions who
seldom waited him. He was a philosopher and clergyman. He lived a sacred
life. He was very weak in constitution. Because of ill health, he could not
fulfill the responsibilities which promotion in the church might have brought
him. He spoke on divine topic with authority. He wished for the good of the
world even after his death.

7.4 Some Model Explanations

(i) His tenants grew rich, his servants look satisfied, all the young women
profess to love him, and the young men are glad of his company. When
he comes into a house he calls the servants by their names, and talks
all the way upstairs to a visit. I must not omit, that Sir Roger is a
justice of the quorum, that he fills the chair at a quarter-session with
great abilities, and three months ago gained universal applause, by
explaining a passage in the game act.
Exp. Sir Roger got disappointed in his love of a beautiful widow. He decided not
to marry and stayed a bachelor. Before this disappointment he was a normal
happy young man. He was a sincere gentleman and loved everyone and was
good to them. He also treated his servants well. He was a well-behaved
gentleman. He was a justice of the quorum and showed his judicial abilities
on the chair of the justice at a quarter-session. He was praised by everyone
for wisely explaining a passage of the Game Act.
(ii) He was placed there to study the laws of the land, and is the most
learned of any of the house in those of the stage. Aristotle and Longinus
are much better understood by him than Littleton or Coke. The father
sends up every post questions relating to marriage articles, leases and
tenures in the neighbourhood, all which questions he agrees with an
attorney to answer and take care of in the lump. He is studying passions
themselves when he should be inquiring into the debates among men,
which arise from them. He knows the arguments of each of the orations
of Demosthenes and Tully but not one case in the reports of our own
courts.
Exp. Next in importance to Sir Roger de Coverley was a lawyer who was also
a bachelor. He was an intelligent man, with sharp wit and clear understanding.
His father wanted him to study law but he was more interested in the study
of drama and dramatic criticism. The philosophers like Aristotle and Longinus
were well understood by him than Littleton or Coke. His father used to send
by every post various questions on law in order to ensure his son’s progress
in legal studies. The son outwitted his father by getting them answered

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 through a lawyer whom he had engaged for this purpose. He knew everything
about the orations of Demosthenes and Tully but not a single case in the
reports of the English courts. He was not looked upon as a fool, but only
a few friends knew his real merit.
(iii) He is an excellent critic and the time of the play is his hour of business;
exactly at five he passes through New Inn, crosses through Russell-
court, and takes a turn at Will’s till the play begins; he has his shoes
rubbed and his periwig powdered at the barber’s as you go into the
Rose. It is for the good of the audience when he is at a play, for the
actors have an ambition to please him.
Exp. Lawyer, who is the member of the Spectator Club, was more interested in
poetry and drama than law. His real home of business was the time of the
play. Exactly at five he passed through New Inn, crossed through Russell-
Court and took a turn at Will’s before the play began in the theatre. He was
a good critic of the stage and never missed any performance. The presence
of an able critic would encourage the actors to give the best performance
possible.
(iv) I have heard him prove, that diligence makes more lasting acquisitions
than valour, and that sloth has ruined more nations than the sword. He
abounds in several frugal maxims, amongst which the greatest favourite
is, ‘A penny saved is a penny got.’
Exp. After describing Sir Roger and the student of law, Steele tells us about
another member of the Club, who belonged to their business community. He
was Sir Andrew Freeport. He was an eminent merchant in the city of
London. He is a man of great understanding and experience. His knowledge
of commerce was extensive. He had his own ideals of the ways of enlarging
a country’s trade. He was of the opinion that a dominion can be extended
by art and industry rather than by power. Military power might enable one
country do attack and subdue another, but such submission would never be
a lasting acquisition. Diligence or industry alone would help the country to
gain things of permanent value, and sloth or idleness more than the sword
had caused the ruin of many nations. He knew many short maxims. He often
said that if one wanted to become rich one must save money. According to
him ‘A penny saved is a penny got.’ He meant that saving was as important
as earning.

7.5 Let’s Sum Up

In this unit we have discussed Steele’s essay The Spectator Club describing all the
six members of the Club. (i) Sir Roger de Converley, a typical country squire
represents the landed interest (ii) Captain Sentry, Sir Roger’s heir, stands for the
military officers as a class (iii) The Merchants of London, is presented in the form
of Sir Andrew Freeport (iv) Will Honeycomb is a fashionable man of the town (v)
The legal profession is are represented by the student of law (vi) The clergyman is
an ecclesiastical charouter.

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7.6 Suggested Readings
1. C.H. Lockitt ed. : The Art of the Essayist, Orient Longman Ltd., New Delhi
2. Susanta K. Sinha : English Essayists, Oxford University Press, Calcutta.
7.7 Questions
(1) Give a brief description of the members of the Spectator Club as given by
Richard Steele in his essay.
(2) Write a short note on Steele’s style.
(3) The members of the Spectator Club are called a “set of humorists.” Illustrate.
7.8 Answers
(1) Richard Steele’s finest achievement is possibly his essay entitled ‘The
Spectator Club’ published in the The Spectator started by Joseph Addison.
In the first essay Addison has given an account of The Spectator. All the
essays in the periodical are supposed to be written by him. He is a member
of the Club and the periodical is said to be run by the Club. Besides The
Spectator, there were six other members of The Spectator Club.
Sir Roger de Converley – He was the doyen of The Spectator Club. His
great grandfather was the inventor of that famous country-dance which is
called after him as Converley dance. He was a man of extra ordinary nature
and had a good sense. He never made any enemies because of his unusual
nature. He had a unique capacity to please others. Sir Roger was a bachelor
because he was disappointed in the love of a beautiful widow. Before this,
Sir Roger was a normal happy young man. However, after being ill-used by
the widow he lost all his joviality and interest in social life for more than a
year. Gradually, he got over it. But this incident in his life made him careless
of himself and his dress. He was a sincere gentleman and a great lover of
mankind and was very much loved by every one. He also treated his servants
well. He was a justice of the quorum and showed his judicial abilities on the
chair of the justice at a quarter-session.
The Lawyer - Next in importance to Sir Roger de Coverley was again a
bachelor. He was a lawyer and a member of the Inner Temple. He studied
law only because he was forced by his father to do so. He was also a
bachelor. He was a man of sharp unit and clear understanding. He chose his
occupation rather to obey the direction of his old father than to incline to his
own wishes. He was more interested in the study of drama and dramatic
criticism. The philosophers like Aristotle and Longinus were well understood
by him. His father used to send to him by every post various questions on
law in order to ensure his son’s progress in legal studies. The son outwitted
the father by getting them answered through a lawyer whom he had engaged
for the purpose. He was not looked upon as a fool, but only a few friends
knew his real merit. He was familiar with the writings, customs, actions and
manners of ancient writers, which made him a keen observer of the worldly

91
affairs. He was a good critic of the stage and never missed any performance.
Sir Andrew Freeport – was an eminent merchant of London ranked next
in importance. He was very labourious, experienced and had a great
understanding. His knowledge of commerce was extensive. He had his own
ideals of the ways of enlarging a country’s trade. He was of the opinion that
a dominion may more be extended by art and industry than by power.
Diligence or industry alone would help the country to gain things of permanent
value, and sloth or idleness more than the sword had caused the ruin of
many nations. He knew many short maxims. He had a unique art of speech.
Since he had made his fortune himself, he believed that England too could
become richer than other Kingdoms by methods, which had so benefited
him.
Captain Sentry – Another important member of the Spectator Club was
Captain Sentry. He sat next to Sir Andrew in the club-room. He was noted
for his modesty and for his courage. He was very courageous, intelligent and
had good understanding. He had won reputation for himself in the army and
he fought bravely on fronts. But he left the army because even though he
rendered meritorious service, which any one could see and appreciate,
promotion did not come to him. He was of the opinion that those who were
pushing and assertive without any sense of false modesty could hope to rise
in the army. Similarly a man who failed to assert himself and demand what
was his due was a coward. He was frank in speaking about the weaknesses
of his officers in failing to do what was right and giving him due promotions.
This frankness was a part of his character. He commended many persons
in military, and was never haughty. He never became a flatterer, although he
obeyed his superiors.
Will Honeycomb - The Spectator Club was not merely a set of humorists
unacquainted with the gallantries and pleasures of the age. There was a
gallant among them. His name was Will Honeycomb. Though he was old,
there were no trace of the passage of time in his brain or in his person. He
had an attractive personality and could impress women by his talk. He was
always mentally alert. He was always well dressed and was well acquainted
with the history of every fashion that remained in vogue in England. He knew
the various styles of curling the hair or wearing the hood. He could talk
about women most easily. He could say when the Duke of Monmouth
danced at court and who fell in love with him then. His conversation was
always pleasing, and he was generally spoken of as a well-bred fine
gentleman.
The Clergyman - The last member of The Spectator Club was a Clergyman.
He rarely attended the meetings of the Club. He was known for his wide
knowledge, sanctity and good breeding. He was very weak in constitution.
Because of ill-health he could not fulfill the responsibilities which promotion
in the church might have brought to him. He was among the divines as the
counsel chamber among the lawyers. He spoke on divine topic with authority.

92
 He wished for the good of the world even after his decay.
(2) Sir Richard Steele, like Addison has the distinction of not merely founding
the English essay, but also of making it a vehicle of gentle criticism, refined
humour and kind satire. His essay on The Spectator Club’ is an example of
this skill.
The character sketch of the various members of the Spectator Club invites
criticism both of social types and individuals. Sir Roger, the lawyer, Sir
Andrew Freeport, Captain Sentry, Will Honeycomb and the Clergyman not
merely represent various classes and professions but are also interesting as
individuals. They are ‘humorists’ either in exaggerating their class characteristics
or in deviating from them. Sir Roger is defective in taste like a typical
country square, but he shows it only in actions prompted by good feeling.
Captain Sentry has none of the sycophancy of careerist in the army. The
lawyer is more interested in literature and drama than in law, while the
Clergyman is unworldly to an extreme extent. In ‘The Spectator Club’ we
have representative men from all walks of life who entertain us and we
cannot help loving them at the same time.
Steele’s object in presenting these characters as representatives of society
is to refine manners and cure the society of its follies and shortcomings. This
object is fulfilled in a perfect manner.
(3) Steele says that the members of The Spectator Club are a “set of humorists.”
Humorist means an eccentric person. Sir Roger de Converley is the most
eccentric among the members of The Spectator Club. He values morals
above manners and prefers kindliness and goodness to soulless conventions
and insincere etiquettes. He was very close to the servants of the house and
had a genuine interest in them although it was required of him according to
social convention to keep a distant reserve with servants. He was disappointed
in the love of a beautiful widow and stayed a bachelor throughout his life.
Though at one time he was a man of fashions and he moved in the best
circles of society. However, after being ill-used by the widow he lost all his
joviality and interest in social life for more than a year.
Thus Sir Roger brings out the defects as well as the virtues of the country
squire. He was defective in taste like a typical country squire.
Another member of the Club is a lawyer. He took to the study of law in
obedience to his father. He was more interested in the study of drama and
dramatic criticism. His father used to send to him by every post various
questions on law in order to ensure his son’s progress in legal studies. The
son outwitted the father by getting them answered through a layer whom he
had engaged for this purpose.
Sir Andrew Freeport, an eminent businessman of London, represents the
commercial classes. He is a standing illustration of the prudence as well as
the narrow self complacency of the successful businessman. He knew many
short maxims. He had neither wit nor learning. He had a unique art of
speech.

93
Captain Senry is Sir Roger’s nephew. His eccentricity lies in his refusing to
play the courtier to his superior officers. He was not a flatterer and he retired
from the army because of his own innate modesty and honesty. He was of
the opinion that it is cowardice to stand back modestly.
Will Honeycomb is the gallant of the company forming The Spectator Club.
He was considered “a well- bred fine gentleman.” His talk was always about
women and fashions. He was honest and worthy only where women were
not concerned.
The Clergyman is also a member of The Spectator Club who rarely visited
the Club. He lived a sacred life. He was among the divines as the counsel
chamber among the lawyers. He wished for the good of the world even after
his decay. The Clergyman’s eccentricity was his extreme unworldliness.
The Spectator shows a nice sense of judgement and discrimination by
describing the eccentricities of the members of the Club. The sketch of the
various members of The Spectator Club is an attempt at comprehensive
criticism both of social types and individuals.

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 UNIT : 8
Charles Dickens : Oliver Twist
Structure
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Reading Oliver Twist
8.2.1 The Life of Charles Dickens
8.2.2 Historical Background to the Novel
8.2.3 The Story in Brief
8.2.4 Important Characters in the Novel
8.2.5 Social Criticism in the Novel
8.3 Key Words
8.4 Check your progress
8.5 Let’s Sum Up
8.6 Books Suggested
8.7 Answers

8.0 Objectives
In this unit you will study about the Novel, Oliver Twist Written by Charles Dickens.
After having gone through this unit, you will be able to
• Understand the background to the Novel
• Understand about the life, background and ideas of the Novelist Charles Dickens
• Understand the story, structure and characters in the Novel
• Write in your own words about any aspect of the Novel.

8.1 Introduction
In this unit you will study about the Novelist, the Novel, the background and context
of the Novel. Through key words and exercises given, you will reinforce your
understanding of the unit.
8.2.1 The Life Of Charles Dickens
Birth and parentage: Charles Dickens, the most popular novelist of the
nineteenth century England, was born on 7th February, 1812 at Portsea. His
father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. He was an
affectionate and generous man, but lacked in thrift and foresight. Not much
is known about Dickens’s mother except that she was gentle and virtuous
and had a gift for mimicry. Charles was the second of six children and was
the eldest among the sons. In his childhood, one could often see him perched
on some chair or table singing comic songs in an atmosphere of perpetual
applause. A touch of illhealth prevented him from participating in the usual
children’s games. He had to amuse himself by reading novels. His family was
not particularly literary; but they had a good collection of novelsthe major

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works of Defoe, Cervantes, Smollet Fielding and Goldsmith. Charles would
often crawl up into a lonely garret and lose himself in reading these classics.
He was specially fond of Humphrey Clinker and Tom Jones.
Warren’s Blacking Factory: In 1822, John Dickens was transferred to
London. He had always been handling his financial affairs rather clumsily.
But now, he was faced with an acute financial crisis. Charles was forced to
accept work in a blackingfactory, on the Thames waterfront. His job was
to cover and label the pots of blacking, i.e. bootpolish. Charles was then
just twelve and receptive and hyper sensitive. He felt tormented to mix with
the coarse boys gloating in foul language throughout the day. He worked in
this factory for barely four or five months, but he could never fully recover
from the humiliation of this episode. And he could never forgive his parents
for forcing him to work in the squalid, ratinfested factory. He also developed
excessive sympathy for deprived children like himself who would be
condemned by their circumstances to such an inhuman task.
John Dickens in the Debtors Prison: Charles Dickens had just started
working in the Warrens b1acking factory when his father was arrested for
debt and removed to the Debtors Prison at the Marshalsea. His mother,
along with the other members of the family, joined him in the prison. Charles
was the only one left outside. He was not keeping good health. In addition,
he had to remain hungry four or five times a week. Sometimes he would
drop down groaning while at his work. This was perhaps the most miserable
period of his life. It ended when John Dickens got a small legacy which
enabled him to leave the prison and to send his son to a school at Hampstead.
Charles remained in this school for two to three years.
Early career: Dickens began his career as a lawyer’s clerk at the age of
fifteen in 1827. It was a modest beginning. But he had his aspirations and
was endowed with initiative and drive. Besides, he had the energy and zeal
to put in real hard work. He began to learn shorthand in his spare time.
Sometimes, he would forego even sleep and continue practicing shorthand.
In love with Maria Beadnell: It was at this time that he fell in love with
Maria Beadnell. He was working hard to lift himself above the trap of
poverty and obscurity and Maria’s love would have sustained him in his
struggle. But she ridiculed and spurned his suit. Dickens was disappointed
but determined to ride on. Later Dickens immortalised Maria by making her
Dora in David Copperfield.
Journalism: In 1832 Dickens left law and embarked upon a career of
journalism. He was a natural reporter’s flair for descriptive writing. He had
an eye for detail which enabled him to present lively accounts of whatever
he had seen. He began by covering cases in the ecclesiastical courts but
soon worked his way up to Parliament; he gained reputation as an efficient
parliamentary reporter but was personally disillusioned with the proceedings
of that august house. He was amazed by the stupid pomposity of parliamentary
warfare, and for the rest of his life held the legislature in contempt.

96
Preparation to be a novelist: Dickens was a man of divergent interests.
He was also possessed extraordinary energy which enabled him to pursue
several interests at once. He frequented theatres, learnt acting and narrowly
missed entering this profession. He also regularly went to the British Museum
Library and furthered his selfeducation. Thus, by the age of twentyone, when
his first published work appeared, Dickens had acquired a solid knowledge
of those subjects which run like thread through all his novels: the law, the
theatre, and above all the city of London and its inhabitants.
First sketches and marriage In 1833, Dickens published his first sketch
in the Old Monthly Magazine; Other sketches followed and in 1834, he
published them in a bookform under the penname of Boz. The book was
an instantaneous success. The same year, he married Catherine Hogarth, the
daughter of a fellow journalist.
Early novels: Sketches by Boz (1836) was followed by Pickwick Papers
(183637), Dickens full length work, which brought him resounding success.
Pickwick Papers was followed by four novels in quick succession () Oliver
Twist (183739), Nicholas Nickleby (18389), The Old Curiosity Shop
(1840.1) and a historical novel, Barnaby Rudge (1841). All these novels
appeared in monthly instalments.
The first tour of America and Canada: In 1842, Dickens, accompanied
by his wife, went on a tour of America and Canada. His reputation as a
novelist had already reached there and he was given a rousing welcome
wherever he went. He based his next two works American Notes (1842)
and Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) on his impressions gathered during this tour.
These works reflect the life in America in a rather uncomplimentary manner.
The novels of the middle phase: Martin Chuzzlewit was followed by A
Christmas Carol (1843), the most famous of his five ‘Christmas Books’.
These books were shorter pieces appearing in the next few years. Next
came Dombey and Son (18468) and David Copperfield (184950). David
Copperfield, the most popular of Dickens’s novels, marks a turning point,
in his productive activity; for thematically and structurally, the novels following
David Copperfield are much different from the earlier works. It has special
interest for the readers, for it contains a good deal of autobiographical
materials.
Later novels: The novels written before 1842 were rather formless. They
abounded in episodes which, hilarious in themselves, tended to loosen the
construction. His readers loved him for such episodes, but the enlightened
ones expected something aesthetically more satisfying from him. He felt
infuriated if someone pointed out the absence of organic structure and
coherence in his works, but somewhere in his heart of hearts he was also
becoming aware of the need of imposing an artistic design on his novels. As
he grew older, he started paying greater attention to the form of his novels.
He also took longer to write them. It is not a mere coincidence that his
contemporaries loved his earlier writings whereas it is his later novels that

97
 have been more favorably received by the modern readers. These later
novels include Bleak House (18523), Hard Times (I854) and Little Dorrit
(18557).
Unhappy domestic life: Comparatively little is known of Dickens’s wife
Catherine, except that she failed to bring him the happiness he might have
expected his wife to bring him. As time passed, Dickens’s outside
commitments went on increasing and life at home became miserable. A stage
came when he just could not endure more. He separated from his wife after
having spent twentytwo years in her company and having got ten children.
Dickens treated al1 his children with affection and concern.
The last novels: On account of domestic troubles, Dickens went through
a comparatively unproductive period following his Little Dorrit. But very
soon he wrote A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Great Expectations (18601)
and Our Mutual Friend (18645). Our Mutual Friend is his last complete
novel.
The second tour of America: On finishing Our Mutual Friend September
1865, Dickens devoted his attention to prepare new readings for public. The
scene of the murder of Nancy by Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist was the most
powerful reading in his repertory. In 1867, he went to America on a reading
tour. This was a very exhausting work but Dickens enjoyed it and continued
it even after his return from America. On March 15, 1870 he gave a final
reading in London.
Death: Dicken was now working on Edwin Droon which he had begun in
1869. On 9th June, 1870, he wrote fresh chapters for this novel. Then
suddenly he was taken suddenly ill. His sisterinlaws efforts to get him on the
sofa were unavailing. “On the ground”, he murmured, and shortly afterwards
passed away without recover-ing consciousness. He was buried at the
Westminster Abbey.
8.2.2 Historical Background To The Novel
Oliver Twist was Dickens’s second novel, the first being Pickwick Papers.
Pickwick Paper was a hilarious comedy, bordering on farce, written primarily
with the aim of entertaining the readers. However, in Dickens the reformatory
instinct was very strong and in the very next novel, his readers were surprised
to see him ruthlessly attacking the social evils, in particular the wretched
conditions in the workhouse. In his later novels he carried on a crusade
against other evils like the miserable conditions in the debtor’s prison in the
factories and shops, the corruption prevalent in the election system and
certain other evils caused by the rapid industrialisation of the country. In
order to understand these novels, including Oliver Twist, it is important to
have a fair idea of the historical background in which they were written. In
this chapter as much of this background is being discussed as is relevant to
Oliver Twist.

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Poor Laws: The first few chapters of Oliver Twist are a very strong protest
against the workhouse life that virtually dehumanized human beings. Certain
systems that initiated to bring relief to the poor people had gradually been
so corrupted that instead of giving them any solace, they had actually made
their life miserable. It was under Queen ElizabethI, that laws were made to
provide relief to those poor people who could not support them-selves.
There was a twofold arrangement. The old, the sick, the lame and the blind
were relieved at home; orphans were boarded out and then apprenticed to
a trade. The vagabonds were sent to the houses of correction.The theory
behind this arrangement was to provide work to the ablebodied poor and
to offer relief to the disabled. Special buildings were set up to provide work
to the poor people under supervision. These buildings were known as
work-houses. By an Act passed in 1722, the poor could be compelled to
live and work in these buildings in order to be eligible to get relief. In other
words, either a poor man was to live in the workhouse or he was to be
denied any relief. This was known as the workhouse test. At first there were
separate institutions for the different needs of children, old people or those
who were mentally or physically sick. But gradually the workhouse conditions
deteriorated; workhouse came to contain a mixture of able and disabled
alike and by the end of 19th century they became symbols of utter degradation.
In most workhouse husbands were separated from wives, children lacked
proper care, diseases were rife and food was inadequate.
In the late 18th century, laws were passed to allow outdoor relief to the
ab1eBodied so that the workhouses could house only the old or disabled.
The original plan was to offer minimum wage for the laborers. But later a
system known as ‘Speenhamland System’ was devised. According to it
relief based on the current prices of bread was given in addition to wages.
Once again the intention was to make the life of the poor people worth
living, but in practice it led to a general weakening of independence and self
respect of laborers and to an increase of pauperism in the long run. In the
early 19th century, therefore, the need was felt to effect reforms in the poor
laws. It was felt that a more suitable alternative solution was needed for the
practice of outdoor relief which had become both useless and corrupt.
Besides, the system of administering relief also needed to be overhauled.
The administration of relief: At this stage it would be useful to make a
note of the system of administering relief to the poor. Basically it was the
responsibility of the parish which was the main unit of local government in
ruling it. Apart from other officials, the parish had the ‘Justice of the Peace’
whose duty was to impose the compulsory rates (the poor rate) and to
appoint local overseers to administer actual relief. Another petty official was
the beadle. Originally the beadle was almost, but a towncrier. His main
function was to proclaim meetings but he was also expected to keep order
in Church and to punish petty offenders. Gradually the beagle came to yield
considerable power on small scale. In Oliver Twist there is one such beadle,
Mr. Bumble.

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Most of the parish officials were unfit for their jobs because of their own
lack of education, experience, and responsibility. Their positions were both
unpaid and compulsory. Therefore, it was rarely that really good people ever
got elected to them.
Poor law reforms: In 1832 a Commission was appointed to study the
entire issue of the Poor Law Reform. On the basis of the proposals put
forward by this Commission, the New Poor Law of 1834 came into being.
According to it a Central Authority was created, the Prior Law Commissions,
were given full powers to control local administration. One of the most
important changes made by the new poor laws was the replacement of the
Parish officers by elected local bodies known as Boards of Guardians.
These Boards were required to supervise petty officials such as the Matron
of the workhouse.
The inefficacy of the reforms: There is no doubt that the 1834 measures
were excellent in intention but they failed to prove effective. The poor people
continued to suffer. Howsoever humane might be the laws, it is actually their
efficient administration which can ultimately bring any benefit. A corrupt
administration will make a mockery of the best possible laws. Therefore,
Dickens has directed his criticism as much against the system as against the
individuals; if he is critical of the system that degraded human beings, he is
equally critical of the people who were responsible for evolving or running
such a system. In Oliver Twist we find that the workhouse incharge, Mrs
Mann, appropriates the greater part of the stipend given for the food of the
children and the children are mostly starved. Here it is Mrs Mann who is at
fault.
It should be noted that Dicken’s main concern was the individual as an
integral part of the system. A system without human beings would be lifeless
and even meaningless. Human beings without a system would tend to be
confused. So Dickens felt the need of basically good human beings working
under a system that was designed to serve the society. Of these two also,
he gave greater importance to the human beings. It is Mr Brownlow as an
individual who ultimately rescues Oliver from this system. Laws were pad,
the underworld, where people like Fagin ruled was also a dark world but
noble people like Mr Brownlow and the Maylies could rise above these
systems and do some good to the society.
Therefore, Dickens makes a very selective criticism in Oliver Twist. He
attacks the harsh regime of the workhouse with special regard to diet and
the utter neglect of the needs of the pauper children but more than that the
inefficiency and inhumanity of such officials as Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney.
These officials not only physical1y starved the children but often made them
emotional wrecks.
There has been a good deal of discussion among scholars as to whether
Dickens was attacking the Old Poor Laws or the New. But this discussion
is almost irrelevant. We should remember that the novel is more an attack

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 on the way the laws are administered rather than on the intention of the laws.
On paper most of the laws are just, but in practice they prove to be injurious
As K.J. Fielding points out, the novel was never intended as an attack on
mere institutions, but on the spirit behind them, which remains largely
unchanged.
It is hard to say if any reforms were really carried out as a result of Dickens’s
attack on these laws. In fact the protests made by writers are never so
quickly effective. But one thing is certain, this novel as well as the others to
follow definitely prepared a climate in which a genuine need was felt to have
a second look at the entire administrative setup and to change it.
8.2.3 The Story In Brief
Oliver is born. A child was born in a dark and dingy work-house about
seventyfive miles north of London. His mother’s name was not known. She
had perhaps undertaken a long journey on foot and had fallen unconscious
by the roadside near the workhouse. She died almost immediately after
giving birth to the child, leaving behind a locket and a ring as the only tokens
of the child’s identity. These too were stolen by old Sally, present at her
death. Sally was just an ordinary pauper, living in the workhouse.
Mr Bumble, the parish beadle and a bullying official of the workhouse
named the child, Oliver. Mr. Bumble named the children born in the workhouse
in the interesting order of an alphabetical system he had himself devised. On
Mr. Bumble’s list, Twist was the name falling between Swubble and Unwin.
So he was named Oliver Twist.
A reward of ten pounds was offered to anyone who could give helpful clues
about Oliver’s parents. But no useful information could be procured. Oliver
was sent to a nearby poor farm, where he passed his early childhood in
neglect and near starvation. At the age of nine, he was moved back to the
workhouse. The children in the workhouse were given very little to eat, so
virtually they were always hungry. One day Oliver was forced by other
children to ask for a second serving of porridge. The authorities were stunned
by this unusual and unprecedented demand. In order to give him deterring
punishment, they immediately put him in solitary confinement and posted a
bill offering five pounds to some master who would take him off the parish.
Apprenticeship at Sowerberry’s and departure for London : Oliver was
apprenticed to Mr Sowerberry, a coffin maker, to learn a trade. Since Oliver
cut a pathetic figure, Sowerberry finally made him an attendant at children’s
funerals. Noah Claypole, another employee of Sowerberry, once teased
Oliver about his parentage. Oliver patiently stood the insult but when he
could not endure more, he ran into a violent fury and fiercely hit Claypole.
It was with great difficulty that he was overpowered by Mrs Sowerberry,
Charlotte, a maid at Sowerberrys and Claypole, and locked in the cellar.
When Sowerberry returned, Oliver was given a severe thrashing. But later
he was released. That night Oliver packed his meagre belongings and left for

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London.
Fagin’s den and the art of pickpocketing : The journey to London was
tiresome and painful. When Oliver reached the out-skirts of London, he was
worn out walking and had become weak from hunger. He met Jack Dawkins,
popularly known as the Artful Dodgr, who offered him food and lodgings
in the city. Oliver soon found himself in the midst of a gang of young thieves
led by a miserly old Jew, Fagin. Here Oliver was trained as a pickpocket.
The first pickpocketing mission; the kindly Mr Brownlow : One day
the Artful Dodger, Charley Bates and Oliver were sent on a pickpocketing
mission. Oliver did not pick any pockets, but it was he who was caught and
taken to the police station. There he was rescued by kindly Mr Brownlow,
the man whose pocket Oliver was accused of having picked. This adventure
left a rude shock on young Oliver’s mind and for some time he was terribly
sick. He was carefully looked after by Mr Brownlow, his gruff friend Mr
Grimwig and the old housekeeper Mrs Bedwin. In the room where Oliver
was kept, there hung on one of the walls the portrait of a young woman, and
almost everyone marveled at the resemblance between young Oliver and the
lady in the portrait.
Oliver is back to Fagin : Mr Brownlow was sure that Oliver was a sincere
and honest boy but his friend Mr Grimwig thought otherwise. When Oliver
was fully recovered, he was one day given some money and books to take
to a bookseller. Grimwig wagered that Oliver would not return. Brownlow
was equally confident he would. Meanwhile Fagin and his gang had been on
the constant look-out for his appearance. So as soon as he left Mr.
Brownlow’s house, he was intercepted by Nancy, a young street girl
associated with the gang and brought back to Fagin’s den.
The villainous Mr Bumble appears again : Mr Brownlow still sure that
Oliver had been the victim of some unfortunate mishap advertised for his
recovery. This advertisement was seen by Mr Bumble, then in London on
some parochial business. Hoping to earn some profit, he hastened to Mr
Brownlow and reported that Oliver was incorrigible. The information made
Mr Brownlow an utterly dejected and unhappy person. He felt so miserable
that he refused to have Oliver’s name mentioned in his presence.
The Roberry at Chertesy : Oliver was once more back in the hands of
Fagin. During his absence the gang had been studying a house in Chertsey,
west of London, with a view to breaking into it at night. The time came for
his adventure and Oliver, much to his horror, was chosen to participate.
This daring robbery was to be attempted by Bill Sikes, the brutal young
coleader of the gang, Toby Crackit, another housebreaker and Oliver, who
had been chosen because of his short height. They thought he would be
handy to let into the house through a ventilator. The three met in the dark
of early morning and pried open a small window of the house. Oliver was
in no mood to be an accomplice in the robbery. He entered the window,
determined to warn the occupants. He fell on the floor with a thud and the

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robbers were discovered. All the three of them fled, but as he was running,
Oliver was wounded by a gunshot.
The entry of Monks into the story : It was not, possible to carry the
wounded Oliver with them. So Sikes, threw him into a ditch and covered
him with a cape. Toby Crackit returned to Fagin and reported the incident.
In the meantime one Monks had met Fagin and held with him an important
conversation about Oliver’s parentage. Monks wanted to got hold of the
boy and sought Fagin’s assistance. This conversation was overheard by
Nancy, who later played a very significant role in Oliver’s life.
Oliver goes to the Maylies : Oliver, left by Bill Sikes in the ditch, was
feeling weak and miserable. But he crawled back to the house into which
he had gone the night before. He was taken in by the owner, Mrs Maylie
and Rose, her adopted niece. Oliver’s story aroused their sympathy and he
was saved from police investigation by Dr Losberne, friend of the Maylies.
He had still not forgotten Mr Brownlow. After he had recovered, he
accompanied Dr Losberne to seek out Mr Brownlow but he was disappointed
to learn that the old gentleman and his friend Mrs Bedwin had gone to the
West Indies.
Mr Bumble marries Mrs Corney : Meanwhile Mr Bumble had been
courting the widow, MrsCorney. During one of their conversations, Mrs
Corney was called out to attend the death of old Sally, who had stood by
at the death of Oliver’s mother. After old Sally died, Mrs Corney removed
a pawn ticket from her hand. In Mrs Corney’s absence, Bumble appraised
her property to his satisfaction. He also proposed marriage to Mrs Corney.
Oliver accompanies the Maylies to the Countryside : The Maylies
moved to the country where Oliver studied gardening, read and took long
walks. During the holiday Rose Maylie fell sick and nearly died. After her
recovery, Harry Maylie, the son of Mrs Maylie joined the group. Harry, in
love with. Rose, proposed marriage to her. But Rose declined the proposal.
She said she could not marry him before she had discovered her real identity.
Secondly he must mend his ways before he married her. One evening Oliver
was frightened to see Fagin and. Monks peering at him through the study
window.
Monks destroys the tokens of Oliver’s parentage : Mr Bumble was
soon disillusioned with his wife, for the former Mrs Corney dominated him
completely. Monks went to the workhouse seeking information about Oliver.
He met Mrs Bumble and learnt that she had recommended a locket and a
wedding ring with the pawn that she had recovered from old Sally. Monks
bought the trinkets from Mrs Bumble and threw them into the river.
Nancy meets Rose Maylie with some clues about Oliver’s parentage
: Monks told Fagin that he had disposed of the tokens of Oliver’s parentage.
This conversation was again overheard by Nancy. She drugged Bill Sikes,
whom she had, been nursing after the robbery at Chertsey and went to Rose

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Maylie whose name and address she had overheard in the conversation
between Fagin and Monks. Nancy told Rose everything she had heard
concerning Oliver. Rose was unable to understand fully the various connections
of the plot nor could she see Monks’ connection with Oliver. She offered
the miserable girl the protection of her own home. But Nancy refused the
offer since she was in love with Bill Sikes and could never leave him. The
two young women, however, agreed on a time and place for a later meeting.
Oliver again meets Mr Brownlow : Oliver had seen Mr Brownlow in the
street. So he persuaded Rose to take him to the old gentleman. The reunion
of Oliver, Mr Brownlow and Mrs Bedwin was a joyous one. Even old Mr
Grimwig gruffly expressed his pleasure at seeing Oliver again. Rose acquainted
Mr Brownlow with the important facts in Nancy’s story.
Noah Claypole also joins Fagin : Noah Claypoie and Charlotte, maidservant
of the Sowerberrys, had in the meantime, run away from the undertaker and
arrived in London. They happened to go to the pubic house which was also
the haunt of Fagin and his gang. Fagin easily succeeded in persuading Noah
to join him. He was given the job of stealing small coins from children on
household errands.
Noah Claypole spies on Nancy : Nancy could not meet Rose Maylie at
the appointed time. Bill Sikes was still unwell and he did not let her move
from his side. Noticing Nancy’s impatience to go away, Fagin concluded
that she had got tired of Sikes and that she had another lover. Fagin hated
Sikes because Sikes wielded a strong power over the gang. He saw this
situation as an opportunity to get rid of Sikes. He asked Noah to spy on
Nancy.
Nancy is murdered by Sikes : The following week Nancy got free with
the aid of Fagin. She went to Rose and Mr Brownlow and revealed to them
the haunts of all the members of the gang except Sikes. Noah overheard all
this and reported it to Fagin who conveyed it to Sikes. Sikes was naturally
infuriated. He brutally murdered Nancy without knowing that the girl had
been faithful to him. But once the murder was over, he was haunted by the
vision of murdered Nancy’s eyes. He just kept running about but got no
peace. Apprehending that the presence of his dog might betray him, he
attempted to kill his dog. The dog ran away.
The puzzle is solved : On the basis of Nancy’s information, Monks was
soon apprehended. And he confessed to Mr Brownlow the plot against
Oliver. Oliver’s father, Edwin Leeford had married a woman older than
himself. Their son, Edward Leeford was the man now known as Monks.
The senior Mr Leeford separated from his wife after leading several years
of unhappy married life with her. Monks and his mother stayed on the
continent while Mr Leeford returned to England. Later he met a retired naval
officer and fell in love with his seventeen years old daughter. There was
another daughter aged three. Leeford contracted to marry the girl, but before
the marriage could be solemnised, he was called to Rome, where and old

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 friend had died. On the way to Rome, he stopped at the house of Mr
Brownlow, his best friend, and left with him a portrait of his betrothed. He
himself fell sick in Rome and died.
Mr Leeford’s former wife seized all his papers : The girl he was to
marry on his return was pregnant. When she heard of Leeford’s death, she
ran away to hide her condition. Soon afterwards, her father died and the
younger sister was eventually adopted by Mrs Maylie. She was Rose Maylie,
Oliver’s aunt. Monks squandered away much of the property left to him.
When his mother died, he went to the West Indies where Mr Brownlow had
gone in search of him. But Monks had already returned to England. He
wanted to find his half brother Oliver’s whereabouts so that he might
appropriate his part of the property. It was Monks who had offered the
reward at the work house for information about Oliver’s parentage, and it
was Monks who had paid Fagin to see that the boy remained with the gang
as a common thief.
The end of Sikes and Fagin : After the Artful Dodger had been seized,
Bill Sikes and the remainder of the gang met at Jacob’s Island in the Thames
River. They wanted to stay there in a deserted house till the hunt had died
down. But Sike’s dog led their pursuers to the hideout. Bill Sikes hanged
himself accidentally with the rope he was using as a means of escape. The
other robbers were captured. Fagin was hanged publicly at Newgate after
he had revealed to Oliver the location of the paper concerning the boy’s
heritage. Monks had entrusted these papers to the Jew for safekeeping.
The end of the story : Harry Maylie, who had become a minister, married
Rose Maylie. Mr Brownlow adopted Oliver and took up residence near the
church of Reverend Harry Maylie. Mr and Mrs Bumble lost their positions
in the parish and soon became inmates of the workhouse which once had
been their domain. Monks allowed to retain his share of the father’s property,
went to America and eventually died in prison. Charley Bates went to
Northamptonshire and reformed himself. Oliver’s years of hardship and
unhappiness were over.
8.2.4 Important Characters In The Novel
The characters in Oliver Twist can be roughly divided into three groups,
with Oliver and, to a certain extent, Monks acting as a link among them. The
characters through whom the callousness and cruelty of the workhouse
system are exposed include Mr Bumble, Mrs Mann, Mrs Corney, the
gentleman in the white waistcoat, Mr Gamfield the Chimney sweep, Mrand
Mrs Sowerberry, Noah Claypole and Charlotte. The second group belongs
to the crime world. It includes Fagin, Sikes, the Artful Dodger, Charley
Bates, Nancy, Toby Crackit, Tom Chiding and even the magistrate, Mr
Fang. Monks figures in this group as well. The third group belongs to the
middle class world in which Oliver ultimately finds a place. Mr Brownlow,

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Mr Grimwig, Mrs Maylie, Rose, Harry Maylie, Dr Losberne, Mrs Bedwin,
Giles and Brittles belong to this world. These characters, with the exception
of Giles and Brittles, are not very interesting and not very successfully drawn.
OLIVER
A symbolic character: Oliver is the central character of the novel. He is
also a link among the three different worlds depicted in the novel—the
workhouse, the crime world and the world of the genteel middle class
people. He is, as a matter of fact, more a symbol than a fully individualized
character. In the opening sentence of the Novel, Dickens describes him as
an item of mortality. Till the end of the novel nothing is specifically known
about his parents. The name that he bears is given to him just by chance.
All this suggests that Dickens wanted to make him an instrument of exposing
the inhumanity and the cal1ousness of the workhouse and the underworld.
He belongs to the class to which Huckleberry Finn and Becky Sharp belong,
that is to say, he belongs to no class. He is a mobile character and the
novelist makes him freely come across the different crosssections of the
society in order to expose them. In his Preface to the third edition of Oliver
Twist, Dickens says, “I wished to show in little Oliver the principle of Good
surviving through every adverse circumstance and triumphing at last”. So, in
a way, Oliver is symbolic of the principle of good. If we appreciate Oliver,
it is for his propensity towards always being good, and if we sympathise with
him, it is for his being a deprived and outcast child. In any case we accept
him less as a real child and more as a symbol.
Innocent and melancholy looks. It should be noted that Dickens has
nowhere fully described Oliver’s appearance. In fact, with the exception of
Rose Maylie, Oliver is the only major character whose appearance is not
well depicted. However, we come to understand that he is delicate and
handsome. He always looks innocent and the chief expression on his face
is that of melancholy. In chapter 5, Mr Sowerberry notices it and is convinced
that he will make a very effective mute. Soon after, he is given the responsibility
of accompanying the funeral processions, particularly when it is young children
that are being taken to be buried. The young melancholy, Oliver, dressed in
black quietly moving at the head of the procession, makes a very pathetic
appearance. Later in the novel, in chapter 22, Toby Crackit also observes
the same thing, “Wot an invalable boy that” I’l make, for the old ladies
pockets in chapels! His mug is a fortun to him.”
It is worth noticing that Oliver looks innocent because he is innocent.. Unlike
some other novels where external appearances are utterly deceptive, in
Oliver’s case there is a remarkable correspondence between his inward
nature and external appearance. Sikes is evil and he looks evil. The diabolical
and sinister nature of Fagin is adequately reflected on his face, and So is
Oliver’s innocence. When he collapses outside Mrs Maylie’s house, he
looks not only weak but also innocent. Rose is sure that a childlike Oliver
could never commit a robbery. Mr Brownlow low also does not need a
second thought to convince himself of Oliver’s innocence. Even the sceptical

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Mr Grimwig easily acknowledges his goodness.
Virtue uncontaminated: Another point to be noted about Oliver’s character
is that his virtue remains uncontaminated throughout the novel. Most of his
life is spent under the care of scoundrels like Mr Bumble, Mrs. Mann, the
inconsiderate Mrs Sowerberry, the sneakish rogue Noah Claypole, the devilish
Fagin, and the odious Sikes. Anyone living under the shadow of the wicked
characters would have either completely succumbed to and turned into a
rogue himself, but Oliver survives. In spite of all the effort made by Monks
to convert him into a thief, Oliver persists in his goodness. That is why it has
been said that he represents goodness. Dickens has made him so good that
on occasions he ceases to be a convincing character.
His courage: Apart from his almost incredible piety and irreproachable
conduct, his one positive characteristic that is conspicuously in evidence in
the early chapters is his courage. In chapter 2, we are told nature or inheritance
had planted a good sturdy spirit in Oliver’s breast which enabled him to
survive the cruel regime of Mrs Mann’s baby farm. In the same chapter, he
approaches the board and makes his famous demand, “please, sir, I want
some more”. It is true that he is as much prompted by his own courage as
by the fear or that domineering and bullying senior boy who had threatened
that he would eat raw the boy sleeping next to him, if he were not given an
additional helping of gruel. Still it must have taken tremendous courage to
approach the members of the boards in view of their inevitable fury. Further
evidence of his courage is seen in chapter 3 when he resists being apprenticed
to Mr Gamfield, the Chimney sweep and in chapter 6 when he gives a sound
thrashing to Noah Claypole. The charity boy is older than Oliver and enjoys
the patronage and help of Mrs Sowerberry and Charlotte. But once when
Oliver is provoked by the disparaging marks of Noah about his mother,
nothing can suppress his wrath, not even Mr. Bumble, who in spite of the
properly waxed cane in his hand, is frightened by Oliver’s audacity. His flight
from Mr Sowerbenys in chapter 7 is another proof of his being courageous.
But after he goes to London, he is almost swallowed by his circumstances
and after “this everything seems done to him and for him, and almost nothing
is done by him”.
Oliver’s half brother Monks: Monks is Oliver’s half brother. His real
name is Edward Leeford. For quite some time he remains in the background.
If at all he makes an appearance, he is more a mysterious force than a real
character. It is quite late in the novel, in chapter 40; that his real identity is
revealed. All the other aspects of his life are given much later.
Ugly and disfigured: subject to fits. In chapter 25 Monks is described as
a dark stranger. This vague impression of his personality persists untill chapter
46 when Nancy gives a very detailed account of his appearance. He is tall,
strong, with dark hair and eyes even his face is dark, his eyes are deeply
sunken and his whole personality looks almost disfigured. Nancy tells Mr
Brownlow that there is a mark like a burn or a scald which he tries to keep
covered with his handkerchief. He is subject to fits, most probably the fits

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of epilepsy. When he suddenly comes across Oliver in the innyard, he is
much taken by surprise that he curses the boy and then falls into a fit The
poor, frightened Oliver has to shout for help before he goes back. Because
of these fits, he is in the habit of biting his lips and hands. He has a lurking
walk and constantly looks over his shoulder as he goes along. He is completely
evilminded and his evil is fully reflected in his appearance.
Unstable and cowardly character: Monks is obviously unstable and
subject to uncontrollable fear. Although he pretends to be brave, he is rather
cowardly. While talking to Fagin, he notices a womanshadow moving along
the wainscot and is overpowered by a sense of fear. Fagin takes him round
the whole building but even then Monks is not satisfied. It becomes difficult
for the old Jew to hide his contempt for Monks’s cowardice. At other
moments also, very trivial provocations make him tremble and he throws
himself into violent outbursts. About Nancy, at one moment he says that he
would like to see her throttled, but the very next minute he declares thathe
won’t shed blood. It becomes difficult to reconcile these two aspects of his
character. In chapters 378, in his meeting with Mr Bumble and his wife, he
is in a position of command and he bullies them. But he easily succumbs to
Mrs Bumble and betrays his cowardly nature. He gets frightened during the
storm also. When Mr Brownlow interrogates him, he is sullen and defiant in
the beginning but almost immediately collapses under the weight of evidence
and blurts everything.
Incorrigibly wicked : Monks is incorrigibly wicked. It seems that he has
inherited this wickedness from his mother. Before her death his mother tells
him something about Oliver’s birth. He also knows that Oliver is to get his
father’s property, subject to the condition that he does not taint his life with
any evil action and from that day he makes it the sole purpose of his life to
convert Oliver into a thief. He is so much obsessed with this idea that his
personality becomes unstable. He pays quite a huge sum to Fagin and it is
mainly to satisfy him that Oliver is involved into the robbery at Chertsey
although he is furious when the robbery fails and Oliver is taken over by Mrs
Maylie. He tries to destroy all evidence about Oliver and his parentage and
feels triumphant when he throws the locket into the dark, surging water of
the river Thames. The kind and benevolent Mr Brownlow agrees to give him
half the property to allow him another opportunity to redeem himself but
Monks squanders the whole of the money and is imprisoned. He ultimately
dies in a jail, most probably as a result of his epileptic fits.
A device to link three worlds : It should be noticed that Monks is not so
much a character, like Oliver he is a device created by the novelist for the
purpose of linking the three worlds in which Oliver moves, the three worlds
represented by Mr. Bumble, Fagin and Mr Brownlow, and Oliver and Monks
are themselves linked up by their blood relationship. Thus Monks is a key
figure in the plot. He introduces a lot of suspense and mystery and provides
additional motivation to Fagin for his villainy. It is rather regrettable that
Dickens has not made him a more convincing character.

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Mr. BUMBLE
The Parish beadle : Mr Bumble is the parish beadle in the town where
Oliver Twist is born. He plays a prominent role in the early chapters of the
novel and makes recurrent appearances later. He is both a representative
character and an individual. In this first capacity, he helps to bring out the
inhuman workhouse system which was a bane of the Victorian era. As all
individuals, he is portrayed in a light vein and is the chief source of comic
relief in the novel.
Physical appearance : Mr Bumble’s appearance is invariably described in
terms of his dressthe official magnificent coat with its giltedged lapel and gold
laced cuff, and beauti-ful buttons in which Mr Bumble takes inordinate
pride. Without the beadles coat, plush breeches, cane and cocked Mr Bumble
is merely a fat man, for as Dickens remarks in chapter 37 “dignity, and even
holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than
some people imagine.”
Very cruel : Mr Bumble seems to enjoy inflicting pain on the poor little
orphans. He presents Oliver to the board after giving him a tap on the head
with his cane to wake him up and another on the back to make him lively.
On another occasion he gives him the benefit of exercise which is washing
himself in nice cold water under the pump where he privets his catching cold
by causing a tingling sensation to all his body by repeated application of the
cane. He is quite a terror to the inmates of the workhouse. When Oliver
misbehaves in a refractory manner at Mr Sowerberrys, it is Mr Bumble who
is summoned to control him.
Ironic Treatment : A very important point to be noted about Mr. Bumble
is that he has been treated very ironically by the novelist. The office of
beadle was an inferior position in the parish. But Mr Bumble’s selfimportance
is in inverse proportion to his actual status. The children feel overawed while
Mrs Mann fawns on him when he visits the workhouse. But later he is
reduced to his proper size by the Chairman of the board when he is rebukes
him, “hold your tongue, Beadle.” After this even though he continues to
assume the air of importance, there is no doubt left in the reader’s mind
about his true smallness and vulnerability.
The irony indulged in by the novelist at the expense of Mr Bumble is externally
effective and amusing. At one stage Mr Sowerberry is very appreciative of
the buttons of his coat. Mr. Bumble gratefully acknowledges this note of
appreciation and enlightens Mr Sowerberry that the buttons are embossed
with the parochial seal; “the good Samaritan healing the sick and bruised
man” and he tells him, I put it (coat) on, I remember, for the first time, to
attend the inquest on that reduced tradesman who died in a doorway at
midnight.” What a delightful irony and how happy Mr Bumble is to be
oblivious of it !
Very greedy : Basically Bumble is a very greedy man. When he comes
across the advertisement inserted by Mr Brownlow for some information

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about Oliver, he immediately approaches him and speaks against Oliver
thinking that it would help him. When later Mr Brownlow tells him that he
would have rewarded him very generously if he had reported favorably, he
is very regretful. His decision to marry Mrs Corney is also prompted by his
greed. He decides to marry her for her spoons, sugar tongs, some old
pieces of furniture, and may be a little money in case. It is much later that
he realises he sold himself dirt cheap. In Mrs Corney he catches a Tartar
and is completely humbled. Immediately after his marriage, he is divested of
his cocked hat without which he hardly appears like Mr Bumble.
Cowardly : Mr Bumble is also a big coward. When Oliver fights with Noah
Claypole and Mr Bumble is called for help, he goes there well prepared with
the waxend properly twisted round the bottom of his cane to flog Oliver.
However, the accounts of Oliver’s ferocity are so startling that he judges it
prudent to parley before opening the door. When Oliver persists in his
defiance, Mr Bumble does not have the courage to open the door and deal
with him. Instead he talks to Mrs Sowerberry in a philosophical mode. “It
is meat....... You have overfed him, Ma’ am You have raised an artificial soul
and spirit in him”.
A comic character : As remarked rightly in the beginning, Mr Bumble is the
chief comic character of this novel. To begin with, it is his self importance
that makes him a source of comedy, he appears utterly ridiculous in his
assumptions of dignity. His wooing of Mrs Corney is also comic. The novelist
puts him in a very funny situation when he plants a very impassioned kiss on
Mrs Corney’s chaste Dose or he puts his arms round her waist or he tastes
the medicine Mrs Corney prepares for herself. His counting the cutlery and
the furniture pieces and his opening of the chest of drawers and exulting in
the jingling sound of coins are also quite funny. His humiliation at the hands
of Mrs Bumble, in direct contrast to his earlier pomposity, has also been
depicted in a comic vein. Mrs Bumble at first resorts to shedding tears, but
immediately after this, she overpowers him, scratches his face ahd threatens
to douse him with soapsuds. She even insults him in the presence of old
ladies in the workhouse. Mr Bumbles ma1apropism also renders him a
comic character. His use of language betrays his ignorance.
A touch of humanity : Although Mr Bumble mostly beha-ves in a callous
manner, the novelist does give him at least one humanising touch. Mr Bumble
is seen to be moved by the heart-broken loneliness and weeping of the poor
Oliver as Oliver accompanies him, and he pretends to have a troublesome
cough. This little touch of humanity lifts Mr Bumble from the group of
caricatures and puts him in the category of realistic characters. Later when
Dickens degrades him completely and makes him an inmate of the workhouse
in which he has been tyrannizing so long, he also becomes one of those he
victimised. Poetic justice might have demanded this but the reader would
have been more thankful to the novelist if he had shown the same kind of
generosity to Mr Bumble as he had shown to Monks.
Noah Claypole : is a charity boy employed by Mr Sowerberry: He is

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senior to Oliver in age and superior to him in status because his parentage
is known. In his appearance he is largeheaded, smalleyed, of lumbering
make and heavy countenance. In a book which seeks to expose the miserable
conse-quences of malnutrition, he stands out as one character who is really
fond of eating. At Mr Sowerberrys, he is first shown to be having a feast
of bacon and later drinking wine and eating oysters.
When we first meet Noah Claypole, we see him bullying and persecuting
Oliver, but Dickens makes it very clear that he persecutes him not so much
through malice as through his need for a scapegoat. He has himself been
badly treated by the society. He has been exposed to a lot of humiliation and
when he gets an opportunity, he immediately transfers all this humiliation to
Oliver.
Claypole is a Coward : It is a psychological truth that those who are
bu1lies are also great cowards. Mr. Bumble is a bully and a coward, and
so is Noah Claypole. When Oliver Challenges him, he immediately starts
shouting and yelling for help. When Charlotte suggests that they should send
for the police officers, he says that they should preferably call the military.
He betrays the same cowardice in London when he tells Fagin that he would
like some work “something not too trying for the strength, and not very
dangerous, you know”. So in Noah Claypole cowardice and a tendency to
avoid work are both combined.
At the end of the novel Noah Claypole becomes a police informer. He is
given reprieve for having betrayed Fagin to the Police. Later he takes this
as a profession. In this work, Charlotte assists him as she has been assisting
him earlier in all his undertakings.
He is also a victim. Despite Noah’s all delinquent qualities, he ranks not with
the villains in Dickens’s gallery, but with the victims. He is simply a typical
product of the whole system Dickens was attacking and he ends up as the
most despised servant of that system, for having turned kings evidence
against Fagin, he finally goes into business as an informer.
Mrs Mann is an elderly lady incharge of the baby farm where Oliver spent
the first nine years of his life. She is, like Mr Bumble, one of the very petty
officials of the workhouse, and like him she is cruel and inhuman.
We just meet her twice, in chapter 2 and chapter 17, and on both occasions
she displays her lack of humanity. In chapter 2, Mr Bumble comes to visit
her and she tries to hatter him in order to please him. We are also told that
the major part of the stipend meant for the children is appropriated by Mrs
Mann, who is very clear about what is best for them. Dickens writes, “The
elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience; she knew what was
good for children, and she had a very accurate perception of what was good
for her self. So she, appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to
her own use, and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter
allowance than was originally provided for them”.

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She not only underfeeds the children but even thrashes them and locks them
in a coalseller for ‘presuming to be hungry’. In fact, when Mr Bumble comes
to meet her, she has already punished Oliver by imprisoning him in the
coalcellar. Mr Bumble’s verdict “You are a humane woman, Mrs Mann
............... You feel as a mother, Mrs Mann” is another example of Dickens’s
use of irony.
Fagin is the old man who provides shelter to 0liver on his arrival in London.
The Artful Dodger who meets Oliver on the outskirts of the capital takes him
to Fagin. Fagin is the leader of a gang of young pick-pockets, who also
deals in stolen goods and is quite willing to undertake any other villainy that
might offer him some material benefit. The Dodger, Charley Bates, Tom
Chiding and later Noah Claypole work for him. All these boys are enaged
in pick-pocketing. With Sikes, he plans robberies. It is Fagin who is entrusted
with the job of converting Oliver into a criminal by Monks.
When we first hear of him, he is referred to as a merry old gentleman and
later a number of other epithets like kind, merry, pleasant or playful are
applied to him. The initial inference is reinforced by his habit of calling
everyone my dear. But Fagin is one character who is painted in different
shades on different occasions, Frying sausages over the fire in the filthy room
of a dark house on a slum street, he appears a very old, shrivelled Jew,
whose villainousIooking and repulsive face was obscured by a quantity of
matted red hair.
Throughout the novel Fagin is described in terms of animal imagery. In
chapter 19 Dickens writes, “As he glided, stealthily along, creeping beneath
the shelter of the walls and doorways, the hideous old man seemed like
some loathsome reptile, engendered in the slime and darkness through which
he moved: crawling forth, by night, in search, of some rich offal for a meal.”
The expressions glided stealthily, creeping, loathsome reptile, slime and
darkness remind us immediately of Milton’s serpant, the ultimate corrupter
of mankind, the evil incarnate. So for Dickens, Fagin is the very essence of
evil. As Satan corrupted Adam and Eve and caused their fall from paradise,
Fagin corrupts innocent children, converts them into thieves and pick-pockets
and permanently condemns them to the accursed underworld. In chapter 44,
Sikes calls him a wolf and in chapter 47 when we see him biting his nails,
he discloses among the toothless gums such fangs as should have been a
dogs or rats. When he is ultimately arrested and put into the prison, he is
badly distracted and rocks from side to side with a countenance more like
that of a snared beast than the face of a man.
Apart from being described as a beast, Fagin has also been portrayed as
a creature of darkness, who lurks in the streets by night and spends the day
indoors. It is remarkable that we rarely see him in daylight. In chapter 18,
Oliver explores his house and he finds all the windows tightly closed and
“the only light which was admitted, stealing its way through the round holes
at the top: which made the room more gloomy, and fined them with strange
shadows.” In chapter 12 when Fagin goes to visit Sikes, it seemed just the

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night when it befitted such a one as the Jew to be abroad. The only time
he appears by day, it is when Oliver is half asleep at the Maylies and he finds
Fagin and Monks peeping through a window as if in a dream.
Dickens has made Fagin a Jew and throughout the novel he identifies himself
as a Jew. This might give one a feeling that Dickens was against the Jews.
He was himself once questioned on this point. But he said that he had no
such feelings of antisemitism. Fagin was the only Jew in the novel, but he
was not the only criminal. All other criminals are Christians. Besides, Fagin
is never attacked as a Jew, he is attacked as a criminal. Dickens simply
takes it for granted that a typical receiver of stolen goods in London at that
time would be a Jew.
Fagin is the focal point of the criminal activity with a number of juvenile
delinquents hovering around him. On the surface he talks very politely, but
basically he is a heartless schemer. When he finds it difficult to stand the
humiliating behaviour of Sikes, he decides to make Nancy an instrument of
his destruction. He sets Noah Claypole as a spy on Nancy and when he
realises that Nancy has disclosed some of the vital secrets to Mr Brownlow,
he incites Sikes to murder her. The tact with which he provokes Sikes is an
evidence of his scheming nature. He also contrives a scheme to convert
Oliver into a thief. He doesn’t trust anyone and he has no sympathies for
anybody.
Angus Wilson says that Fagin is the evil spirit that always keeps hovering
around Oliver. “With Fagin are associated three of the principal atmospheric
devices that have given the novel its unique power. It is his appearance with
Monks at the country cottage window which lies at the centre of the
Kafkaesque nigthmare effect of a net enclosing Oliver wherever he may be.
Not only does Fagin seek to keep Oliver for ever by making him an
accomplice in crime but it also seems that he has supernatural powers to
seek him out wherever his good friends may hide him. It is this sense of
pervasive evil embodied in Fagin that has made Mr Graham Greene
characteristically describe the novel as Manichean. Then again it is Fagin
ever on the move from one squalid, halfruined hideout to another, scuttling
along corridors, squatting in rooms that were once tenanted by ordinary
respectable people, who give that extraordinary sense of the criminal gang
as a population of rats, vermin living among us without our knowing it. And
at last Fagin at his trial is the culmination of the many passages, mostly
associated with Oliver himself. Fagin whom Dickens himself called such an
out and outer “I don’t know what to make of him”, makes nonsense of an
easy moral view of life. Fagin is our perpetual human conscience, for Fagin
too, as Oliver and the Dodger uncomfortably remind us, was once a boy.
As Mr Leslie Fiedler has entitled an essayWhat Shall We do with Fagin? It
is one of Societies’ more uncomfortable questions and Dickens, like many
of us, finds it easier to suggest that he is the devil.
Bill Sikes is the most terrifying figure in the novel. He is thief and house
breaker for whom there are no limits and no laws except his own self.

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Although he belongs to Fagin even Fagin is afraid of Him. In fact if Fagin
is afraid of anybody, it is Sikes.
Sikes’ outward appearance is fully described in chapter 13 when he first
enters, betraying his inner nature. Dirty, unshaven and scowling, he looks like
the criminal he is with the kind of legs which always look in an unfinished
and incomplete state without a set of fetters to complete them. Dickens tries
to reinforce this picture of Sikes with a number of adjectives like ‘savage’,
‘surly’, ‘bitter’, ‘fierce’, ‘harsh’, ‘furious’ and ‘desperate’. Sikes outward
appearance reveals Dickens’s belief that in human beings there is a kind
of correspondence between the inner nature and external appearance. Those
who are internally ugly also look ugly and those who are inwardly gentle and
noble look gentle and noble. Oliver’s innocence is reflected on his face and
so is the monstrosity of Sikes.
Right from the beginning, we are given indications that Sikes is almost inhuman.
He owns a dog but nowhere does he show any trace of affection towards
it. Nancy is sincerely in love with him and she persists in her loyalty towards
him in spite of his brutality. But he is equally rough with her. In fact he
habitually addresses her with a growl that he was accustomed to use when
addressing his dog. It is true that he has some respect for her in chapter 30.
He says that Nancy is an honour to her sex and in chapter 19 he expresses
his full confidence in her. Nevertheless these feelings of faith and respect are
nowhere revealed in his outward manner towards her. Instead, he displays
extreme ruthlessness and cruelty when he murders her. He doesn’t listen to
any of her entreaties. He defies the pleading look in her eyes and with utter
unconcern, he strikes her with a heavy club. With children as well he is
equally cruel. Throughout the burglary episode, he is rough and threatening
towards Oliver. He tells Oliver to be careful or he would shoot him. At one
moment he is almost close to carrying out his threats but is restrained by
Toby Crackit.
Sikes is a completely different man after Nancy’s murder. He is so frightened
that he starts running from place to place. He is haunted by the ghastly act
that he has committed and finds it extremely difficult to forget, in particular,
Nancy’s eyes. He feels he is being followed by Nancy’s apparition, the eyes
specially, and he does not find any rest anywhere. In the fire incident, he puts
all his energy in extinguishing the fire not because he has any sympathies for
the fire victims but because he is badly in need of some diversion and human
company. His crime has alienated him from humanity and he finds it very
difficult to restore the bonds that have once been snapped. The way Charley
Bates shouts at him and threatens to give him up is an evidence of his
isolation, and howsoever cruel he might have been, he is totally humbled by
this feeling. Dickens has given a masterly portrait of Sikes during his
wanderings from place to place as well as his ultimate end at Jacob’s Island.
In fact, his end is among the most powerful pieces of writing in the novel.
Sikes at this moment is not merely a hunted animal but a human being in the

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grip of terrible guilt; he suffers, in fact, from conscience and is thus finally
transformed from brute to man.
Sikes is an unconvincing character. It has often been said that Sikes is
overdrawn. It is really difficult to believe that there can exist in the world
people as brutal as Sikes., Dickens was, quite aware of this objection. So
he writes in the preface to the novel “It has been objected to Sikes.........that
he is surely overdrawn. But........of one thing I am certain: that there are such
men as Sikes, who, being closely followed through the same space of time
and through the same current of circumstances, would not give, by one look
or action of a moment, the faintest indication of a better nature” In the case
of Sikes, however, there are quite a few indications of a better nature, most
notably in the change which comes over him, after the murder of Nancy.
Although the overwhelming impression that he is a savage, coarse, vicious
creature who can scarcely be called a man. persists.
THE ARTFUL DODGER
The Artful Dodger, whose real name is Jack Dawkins, is Fagin’s chief pupil.
He is initially responsible for taking Oliver to Fagin’s den. He is also the
most prominent figure among a host of boys that include Charley Bates and
Tom. He is more resourceful than all the others and he stands out like a
splash of colour in the dark underworld.
The Artful Dodger is one of those characters whose external appearance is
fully described. This is how Dickens describes him, “...one of the queerest
looking boys that Oliver had ever seen. He was a snubnosed, flatbrowed
commonfaced boy enough, and as dirty a juvenile as one would wish to see;
but he had about him all the airs and manners of a man. He was short for
his age; with rather bowlegs, and little, sharp, ugly eyes. His hat was stuck
on the top of his head so lightly, that it threatened to fall off every moment
and would have done so, very often, if the wearer had not “had a knack of
every now and, then giving his head a sudden twitch, which brought it back
to its old place again. He wore a mans coat, which reached nearly to his
heels. He had turned the cuffs back half way up his arm to get his hands out
of the sleeves; apparently with the ultimate view of thrusting them into the
pockets of his corduroy trousers”. His face is peculiarly intelligent at al1
times. In contrast to Charley Bates, he is preeminently serious and seldom
gave way to merriment when it interfered with business not because he lacks
Charley Bates high spirits but because he is more self possessed.
The Dodger has no scruples . He is ready to desert a companion if need
be. He doesn’t think even for a moment. Oliver is arrested and is taken to
the Police Station. Fagin has taught the boys that their object is to take care
of number one and in this as in other matters, the Dodger is his outstanding
pupil. If he is to betray even his master in the process, he wouldn’t mind.
The Dodger has a peculiar wit which we can see in the trial scene. Fagin
has great confidence in him and he sends Noah Claypole to the court to see
how he conducts himself in his trial. His prestige among his associates is so

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high that when they learn that he been arrested they all feel sorry for him,
not so much because he will be transported for life but because it is on
charge of stealing only a snuff box. In the court he behaves in a peculiar
manner. In his broken English he asks why he has been brought there,
claims his privileges, calls to the Magistrate who is busy reading the
newspaper that he should first conduct his trial. After the trial is over and he
is found guilty and sentenced, he threatens the jailor and the Magistrate of
dire consequences, “Ah, (to the bench) its no use looking frightened, I won’t
show you no mercy, not a ha’porth. You’ll pay for this my fine fellers, I
wouldn’t be you for something. I wouldn’t go free, now, if you was to fall
down on your knees and ask me. Here, carry me off to prison”! Take me
away!”. His daring role deserves appreciation.
Arnold. Kettle writes, “it is an interesting instance of the power of Dickens’s
genius that he should have realised that in the Dodger he had created a
figure which the plot was quite incapable either of absorbing or obliterating
and so he is obliged to give the irrepressible boy his final fling (the trial
scene), a fling which raises the book into a serious art. The importance of
the Artful Dodger in the pattern of the novel is that he, almost alone of the
characters of the underworld, does stick up for himself, does continue and
develop the conflict that Oliver had begun when he asked for more.
CHARLEY BATES
Charley Bates, the unusual companion of the Artful Dodger is an important
member of Fagin’s gang. It is mainly these two young boys who are given
the joy of picking pockets and introducing other young people to take to a
life of crime. When Oliver is introduced to the gang, he is very soon advised
to take the Dodger and Master Bates as his models. Fagin tells him that
if he follows the two assiduously, he will soon prosper.
Charley Bates is always gay and mirthful. With his perpetual tendency to find
things uproariously funny, he helps a great deal to relieve the gloom and
tension of Fagin’s world, This is the one major difference between Bates and
the Dodger. The Dodger can never be as lighthearted and sprightly as Bates.
In chapter 9, he heartily laughs at Oliver’s display of ignorance. Oliver thinks
that the two young boys are engaged in some honest and hard work and he
makes a sincere promise that he will try to follow them. This makes Bates
burst into a loud peal of laughter again, and has a loud laugh when both he
and the Dodger escape after having picked Mr Brownlow’s pocket while
the poor Oliver is apprehended. Oliver’s recapture also throws him into a
violent outburst of joy. He looks at Oliver’s new suit and the beautiful books
that he was carrying and finds it a great occasion to feel happy. Dickens says
that he laid him self flat on the floor, and kicked convulsively, in an ecstasy
of joy. His attitude to their way of life is summed up when he declares that
it is such a jolly game.
Of all the characters in Fagin’s gang it is only Charley Bates who gets
disillusioned with it. The Dodger’s arrest makes him feel depressed and

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sobered. He is almost sure that the Dodger will be transported for life. It is
not the punishment that makes him feel sorry; it is the fact that the Dodger
has been caught for having stolen an ordinary cheap snuff box. Nancy’s cold
blooded murder by Sikes opens his eyes fully and when we next meet him,
we find him quite prepared even to risk his life to bring Sikes to justice. On
Jacob’s Island, it is he alone who proclaims that he is going to give Sikes
up and even strikes him violent1y. He doesn’t feel daunted by the fact that
Sikes is much stronger than he is and although Sikes shuts him into a room
he keeps shouting to the crowd to keep a watch on the rear of the house
and to capture him if he tries to escape from that side. It is mainly because
of his shouts that Sikes makes a perilous bid to escape and gets kil1ed in
the process.
His transformation. Of all Fagin’s gang, it is Charley Bates alone who
escapes the consequences of their crimes and who turns to an honest life.
In chapter 53 when Dickens is distributing rewards and punishments, we are
told that Charley Bates struggled hard; and suffered much, for sometime;
but, having a contented disposition and a good purpose, succeeded in the
end and from being a farmer’s drudge, and a carrier’s lad he is now the
merriest young grazier in all Northamptonshire.
Nancy : Nancy is a drab (prostitute) working for Fagin’s gang. Although this
fact is mentioned anywhere in the novel, it is taken for granted and almost
all the characters accept her as a drab and treat her accordingly. It is quite
a different matter that her conduct in the novel is raised to tragic heights and
her pathetic death sublimates her.
Nancy first enters with Bet who is a similar character but who does not play
any active role in the novel. Their appearance is described from Oliver’s
point of view: they wore a great deal of hair, not very neatly turned up
behind, and were rather untidy about the shoes and the stockings. They
were not exactly pretty, perhaps; but they had a great deal of colour in their
faces, and looked quite stout and hearty. Most probably the colour in their
face was an evidence of their habitual gin drinking. “Oliver thought them very
nice girls indeed. As there is no doubt they were.”
Although Nancy plays a very prominent role in the novel, she is not drawn
with the same exactitude as the other criminal characters. Only two aspects
of her nature are given prominenceher tender heart and her courage. She
agrees to recapture Oliver and bring him back to Fagin’s den, but when she
witnesses the cruel treatment meted out to him by all the members of the
gang, she gets furious; she is particularly angry when Sikes tries to set her
dog after the child. It is only she who has the courage to defy both Sikes
and Fagin and save Oliver. Later when she overhears the conspiracy being
hatched by Fagin and Monks, she decides to restore Oliver to the genteel
world from where she had captured him.
Nancy’s courage is revealed in several important episodes. Her defence of
Oliver against Fagin and Sikes has already been mentioned. Her decision to

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contact Rose Maylie even at the risk of her own life also reveals her courage.
She has to drug Sikes when she goes to meet Rose the first time and next
when she meets her on the London Bridge. She has some strange premonition
of death, but still she goes. Soon after she is murdered by Sikes.
Another prominent quality of Nancy’s character is her extremely sincere love
for Sikes. Sikes is a monster and he does not treat Nancy any better than
he treats his dog. The poor girl is willing to sacrifice her life for his sake. She
is offered material reward as well as asylum anywhere she likes whether in
England or outside, but she says that she loves someone, for whose sake
she must go back to the ignominious world to which she belongs. She
discloses only as much as is barely necessary to rescue Oliver but she takes
care that neither Sikes nor Fagin gets implicated. Her intention is to atone
for her earlier sin of having captured Oliver for Fagin but she can never
dream of betraying her group. This aspect of her character raises her in our
esteem as it lends her complexity and depth.
In depicting Nancy more than any other character, Dickens tries to show
what she might have been if she had grown up in a different environment.
She has great potentiality of goodness in her; simply this goodness remains
smothered for a very long time. She is herself quite aware of this and she
feels herself doomed by her past. She says to Rose, “thanks heavens upon
your knees, dear lady, that you had friends to care for and keep you in your
childhood and that you were never in the midst of cold and hunger, and riot
and drunkenness and... ...something worse than all...as I have been from my
cradle, I may use the word, for the alley and gutter were mine, as they will
be my death bed.” She blames Fagin for having trapped her into a life of
crime; “it is my living; and the cold, wet, dirty streets are my home; and
you’re the wretch that drove me to them long ago, and that’ll keep me there,
day and night, day and night, till I die.”
Towards the end of the novel, Dickens has sentimentalised Nancy’s character.
In particular when she meets Rose and Mr Brownlow on the London Bridge
with Noah Claypole overhearing them, she behaves in a very sentimental
manner. Her refusal to accept either money or any other kind of help is quite
acceptable, for she is not the type of lady who would behave in an undignified
manner. But when she insists on having some personal trifle of Rose and
accepts a white hand-kerchief, she behaves in a sentimental way. This is
repeated when she is being murdered by Sikes. When she is almost on the
verge of death, she takes out the handkerchief from her bosom, struggles to
her knees and raises her hands in prayer to God. This is a little too much
and this makes her character slightly unrealistic.
However, Dickens himself thought that he had not exaggerated Nancy’s
character in any way. He wrote, “It is useless to discuss whether the conduct
and character of the girl seems natural or unnatural, probable or improbable,
right or wrong. It is true. Everyone who was watched these melancholy
shades of life, must know it to be so from the first introduction of that poor
wretch, to her laying her bloodstained head upon the robber’s breast, there

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is not a word exaggerated or overwrought. It is emphatically God’s truth, for
it is the truth”.
Mr Brownlow is the kind old gentleman whom Oliver is accused of having
robbed. He is the representative of the middle class benevolent world. He
thinks kindly of Oliver and decides to take him home when the testimony
given by the owner of the book shop rescues him from being sentenced to
three months hard life in jail. When the resemblance between Oliver and the
lady whose portrait he finds in Mr Brownlow’s house is noticed, we have
a strong feeling that there is some connection between Oliver and the old
man although we do not discover until chapter 49 that he was in fact a very
close friend of Oliver’s grandfather.
Mr Brownlow is respectable, kind and courageous. He is very sincere in his
love and his greatest quality is that he is a man of strong and lasting
attachments. When the girl he wanted to marry dies, he does not marry
himself. He develops a great liking for her brother and does whatever he can
for his sake. Oliver’s father leaves a portrait of the girl he wanted to marry
and later Mr Brownlow makes every effort to help her and to help Oliver.
He goes to West Indies in search of Monks and in England also he
searches him out and compels him to make a confession. His kindness is not
confined only to Oliver; he tries to give an opportunity even to Monks so
that the latter might turn over a new leaf. If Monks loses this opportunity,
wastes the whole money and ultimately dies in prison, the fault lies with
himself.
Mr Brownlow is an example of what George Orwell called “that recurrent
Dickens figure, the good rich man.” Orwell goes on to say that of course
this is. a pure dream figure: “Even Dickens must have reflected occasionally
that anyone who was so anxious to give his money away would never have
acquired it in the first place.” It is really an interesting point that Mr Brownlow
has been extremely rich and it is difficult to believe that a man as generous
as he could also be as rich as he is. However, if we read his character
closely, we find him quite a wise and careful man. His being rich does not
appear to be improbable but we will have to acknowledge that he is a
dream figure. He is a masculine equivalent of a fairy godmother who appears
at exactly the right time. Ultimately he adopts Oliver as his own son and
settles down in the countryside at a small distance from the Maylies.
One point of interest about all the good characters portrayed by Dickens is
their tendency to shed tears readily. Dickens himself was emotionally
demonstrative and sometimes he wept as he wrote. Today this exercise in
waterworks appears ridiculous to us, but for Dickens it was almost a proof
of the ability to feel. In chapter 12, Mr Brownlow is moved to tears at the
very sight of Oliver and he has to pretend that he has caught cold. Even Mr
Bumble has to pretend once that he has a bad throat. There is nothing
strange about Mr Brownlow’s shedding tears. Dickens writes, “Mr
Brownlow’s heart, being large enough for any six ordinary old gentlemen of
humane disposition, forced a supply of tears into his eyes by some hydraulic

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 process which we are not sufficiently philosophical to be in a condition to
explain.” But whatever explanations may have been offered, it is to be
admitted that Dickens has not been able to make his genteel characters
including Mr Brownlow as convincing as the criminals like Fagin and Sikes.
8.2.5 Social Criticism In The Novel
Fierce protest against the contemporary world In Pickwick Papers Dickens
triumphs over the world in which he was born. Oliver Twist is his fierce and
indignant protest against it. Dickens showed himself a master of luminous
humour in the first book. Oliver Twist is the most gloomy book that he ever
wrote. It is a blazing melodrama where horror is fused with angry pathos.
Throughout there is an oppressive, lurid intensity of a claustrophobic world
of darkness The progression from the callous, cruel world of the workhouse
to the jeering Dodger, the insidious Fagin and the brutal Sikes is not fortuitous;
it comes from Dickens’s angry and bitter conviction that the world of the
workhouse brings forth its dreadful harvest of crime and vice. Oliver Twist
is a remarkable book revealing the stern side of the author here; if ever
anywhere else is angry Dickens, the fierce Satirist and the Social Reformer.
The workhouse world: The workhouse world is full of a bitter and pitiful
comedy. Here Dickens’s irony serves him as a sharpedged sword with
which he attacks the demons of cruelty and callousness. In the babyfarm
under the care of Mrs Mann twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against
the poor laws rolled about the floor all day, without the inconvenience of too
much food or too much clothing, under the parental superintendence of an
elderly female, who received the culprits at end for the consideration of
seven pence half penny per small head per week. She appropriated the
greater part of weekly stipend to her use and consigned the rising parochial
generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for
them, thereby finding in the lowest depth a deeper still, and proving herself
a very great experimental philosopher. Here children suffer unimaginable
crueltiesa child dies as he is overlooked in turning up a bedstead, another
is scalded to death when there happened to be a washing. The philosophers
managing the workhouse were very sage, deep, philosophical men and when
they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they found out at once,
what ordinary folks would never have discoveredthe poor people like it! It
was a regular place of public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern
where there was nothing to pay; public breakfast, dinner, tea and supper all
the year round; a brick and mortar Elysium, where it was all play and no
work”. The board, looking very knowing, established the rule, that all poor
people should have the alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they
of being starved by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out
of it. And so the diet was given with so much munificence and prodigality
that the bowls never wanted washing. The boys polished them with their
spoons till they shone again; and when they had performed this operation,
which never took very long, the spoons being nearly as large as the bowls),
they would sit staring at the copper with such eager eyes as if they could

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have devoured the very bricks of which it was composed ; employing
themselves, meanwhile, in sucking their fingers most assiduously, with the
view of catching up any stray splashes of gruel that might have been cast
thereon. And so naturally, when Mrs Sowerberry offers Oliver the cold bits
of meat which were left for the dog. Trip and when his eyes glisten at the
mention of meat, the angry Dickens burst out bitterly: “I wish some wellfed
philosopher, whose meat and drink turn to gall within him; whose blood is
ice, whose heart is iron; could have seen Oliver Twist clutching at the dainty
viands that the dog had neglected. I wish he could have witnessed the
horrible avidity with which, Oliver tore it asunder with all the ferocity of
famine there is only one thing I should like better; and that would be to see
the philosopher making the same sort of meal himself with the same relish”.
Indifference of the parish authorities over the death of the poor: The
description of the slum and the funeral scene are deeply moving. A poor
woman has died of starvation. Her old father and mother rave dementedlythe
funeral is arranged by Mr Sowerberry the priest is latethe bier is on the brink
of the gravethe ragged boys attracted by the spectacle play a noisy game
at hide and seek and jump backwards and forwards over the coffin. Mr.
Sowerberry and Bumble sit by the fire with the clerk and read the paperthe
old man and woman wait in the damp clay, with a cold rain drizzling downthe
clergyman comes after an hour, reads as much of the burial service as he can
compress in four minutes and walks awaythe old man falls down in a
swoonthey throw a can of cold water over him and after some time turn him
out of the churchyard. The undertaker asks Oliver how he likes all this. The
boy replies, “Not very much, sir.” “Ah, you’ll get used to it in time, Oliver”,
said Sowerberry. “Nothing when you are used to it”
The world of Fagin and Sikes: What a pitiful comedy! Wouldn’t the world
be better if men behaved more humanely and decently? And since they
don’t, what do they make of the unprotected, neglected, starved and beaten
children? The jeering Dodger, the reptilelike Fagin and the ferocious bully
Sikes are the answers. The intensity of imagination with which Dickens
endows life to these criminals and the nightmarish vividness that bathes the
slum world, is the measure of the anger of the otherwise most jovial and
laughing humanist. Dickens here creates a dark and confined world in which
lurks the smoky fetid thieves kitchen where the Artful Dodger leers and
Fagin grins in mirth through the greasy air. Almost all its interiors are bleak
and gloomy; the workhouse where halfstarved boys whimper with hunger in
the bare stone hall and scrawny hags hang over the beds of the dying, the
peep holed back room of the Three Cripples, the ruined warehouse where
Monks terrifies Bumble by night. Even when Oliver rests asleep at Mrs
Maylie’s, just beyond the window loom Fagin and Monks, darkening the
sunlight like two monstrous demons. Nancy lurks in black shadows on the
slimy steps of the London Bridge. Sikes wanders in horrorhaunted flight
away from and back to the city, the waving torches glimmer on the mud of
Folly Ditch while the murderer clambers over the tiles of the barricaded
house. And the end narrows in relentlessly with Fagin cowered in the

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 condemned cell, gnawing his nails and glaring at the close wall. In creating
all this Dickens seems to be bursting out the horrified protest; “What man
has made of man”.
Mr. Fang’s court: The scene of Mr. Fang’s court is a fine specimen of
Dickens’s rudimentary criticism of the social abuses of his times. Here the
‘insolence of office’ is subjected to an indignant attack. The insolent magistrate
is presented in his utmost impoliteness, haughtiness and callousness to the
sufferings of the wretches who have the misfortune of coming to his ‘dispensary
of summary justice’.
An angry protest on the moral plane: Oliver Twist is an angry warning
that any society that does not take care of its unfortunate children must face
the dismal problems of its Fagins and Sikes. It is an angry protest on the
moral plane. No concrete suggestions are offered to fight out the evils
described in the book. If there is any obvious lesson, Dickens the moralist
points it in these words at the end of the book:
I have said that they were truly happy ; and without strong affection and
humanity of heart; and gratitude to that Being whose code is Mercy, and
whose great attribute is Benevolence to all things that breathe, happiness can
never be attained.
Surely this is no answer to any social problem from any political angle ; it
is purely Christian morality.

8.3 Key Words

Chimney Sweeps – In early times in England, little boys who were used to clean
the chimneys were called ‘chimney sweeps’. A rope was tied around their waist and
they were lowered down inside the chimneys to clean the dark soot deposited on
the walls. They would come out covered in black soot all over. However, this form
of inhuman practice was later abolished by law.
Field Lane – In London ; Fagin’s hideout is here.
Chertsey – Outside London ; the residence of the Maylies.
Three Cripples – An inn in London ; the haunt of Monks.
Jacob’s Island – Sikes takes refuge here after his flight from London
Folly Ditch – A ditch in Jacob’s Island ; Sikes wanted to escape by jumping
into the ditch.
8.4 Check Your Progress
(a) Write in brief about on the life of charles Dickens.

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 .........................................................................................................................................
(b) Give a Historical Background to the Novel.

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(c) Draw a Charactersketch of Oliver Twist.

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(d) Write a note on the social criticism in the Novel

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8.5 Let’s Sum Up

In this unit, we have studied
• About the novelist
• About the novel, its background and the characters.
• About the critical interpretations of the text.

8.6 Books Suggested

Allen, Walter : The English Novel, 1954

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 Baker, E.A. : The History of the English Novel Vol. 7, 1936.
Butt, John and Tillotson K.: Dickens at Work, 1957
Cecil, Lord David : Early Victorian Novelists, 1984
Chersterton, G.K. : Charlies Dickens, 1907
Chesterton, G..K. (ed.) : Introduction to Oliver Twist, An Everyman
Paperback, 1907
Cockshut, A.O.Q. : The Imagination of Charles Dickens, 1961.
Collins, Philip : Dickens and Crime, 1962.
Collins, Philip (ed.) : The Critical Heritage, 1970
Dyson, A.E. (ed.) : Dickens (Modern Judgments), 1968.
Engel, Monroe : The Maturity of Dickens, 1959.
Fielding, K.J. : Charles Dickens : A Critical Introduction, 1958
Ford, George H. : Dickens and his Readers, 1955
Forster, John : The Life of Charles Dickens, 187274
Garis, Robert : The Dickens Theatre, 1965

8.7 Answers
(a) See 8.7.1 Life of Charles Dickens
(b) See 8.7.2 Historical Background to the Novel
(c) See 8.2.4 Important Characters in the Novel
(d) See 8.2.5 Social Criticism in the Novel

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 UNIT - 9

Maupassant : The Necklace

Structure
9.0 Objectives
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Reading The Necklace
9.2.1 The Author : Guy de Maupassant
9.2.2 The Story in brief
9.2.3 Introduction to the Story
9.2.4 The Story : The Necklace (Text)
9.2.5 The Title of the Story
9.2.6 Character of Mathilde
9.2.7 The Theme of Fatalism
9.2.8 Symbolism
9.3 Key Words
9.4 Check your progress
9.5 Let’s Sum Up
9.6 Books Suggested
9.7 Answers
9.0 Objectives
In this unit you will to study about the small The Necklace. After having gone
through this unit, you will be able to
• Understand the background of the Story
• Understand about the life, background and ideas of the Author
• Understand the story, structure and characters of the Story
• Write in your own words about any aspect of the Story.
9.1 Introduction
In this unit you will study about the author, the Story, the background and context
of the Story. Through key words and exercises given, you will reinforce your
understanding of the unit.

9.2.1 The Author : Guy De Maupassant

Guy de maupassant is quite possibly the greatest French short story writer
of all time. Much of the material that helped inspire his pessimistic writing
came from the many events in his life like his overbearing mother, his Norman
peasant life, the Franco-Prussian War, his time working as a public servant,
and the fashionable life of Paris.

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 According to his mother, Maupassant was born at the Chateau de
Miromesniel, Dieppe in 1850; however, these claims are often times disputed.
The marriage between his parents was very unstable, and when Maupassant
was eleven, they separated. At this time, he lived with his mother, who was
a controlling and overbearing woman. She was always concerned about
social appearances and had enduring self-delusions about the past. Her
personality and character helped Maupassant create a typical woman
archetype and many recurring themes in his writing. He grew up in Normandy,
and his time here helped influence his writings about the Normandy people
and the peasant lifestyle.
In 1869, Maupassant studied law in Paris, the fashionable lifestyle there
affected his writing. Many people say that all of Maupassant’s fictional
writing was influenced by his life. Paris is also the setting of The Necklace
where the fashionable and vain lifestyle plays a major role in the story. At
the age of twenty, Maupassant was enlisted in the Franco-Prussian War, and
after this embarrassingly short war, he returned to Paris.
In 1872 Maupassant served as a civil servant for the Ministry of Martine
affairs and the Ministry of Education for eight years. The time he spent at
the ministries are also incorporated into The Necklace, and this is evident
because Mathilde’s husband also worked at the ministry. Maupassant hated
working as a civil servant and this is potrayed by the difficult life Mathilde’s
husband has in the story. It was during this time that he published his first
stories. In the 1880’s, he prodigiously wrote about 300 short stories, six
novels, three travel books and a book of verse.
When he was twenty-six, Maupassant acquired syphilis from a prostitute,
which made him crazier and crazier as years went by. He used to be an
athletic and attractive young man, but after acquiring syphilis, it caused hair
to fall out and gave him open sores on his body (Barzun and stade 1761).
Maupassant tried to kill himself by cutting his throat in 1892, and after that
incident, he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for the remaining year of
his life.
9.2.2 The Story In Brief
During the course of Guy de Maupassant’s short story The Necklace, the
main character, Matilda Loisel, makes a number of ironic discoveries. In
addition, there are other discoveries that the reader makes but Matilda does
not. The discovery that forms the story’s climax concerns the true nature
of the necklace she has borrowed from her friend Mrs. Forestier. But this
is perhaps not the most important lesson of this story.
As the story opens, Matilda, a young middle-class wife who aspires to join
the upper ranks of society, is finally invited to a high society affair given by
her husband’s employer. Hoping to impress her guests and thus “fit in” she
borrowa a beautiful diamond necklace from her friend madame Forstier.
Unfortunately during the course of the evening the necklace is lost. Rather

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than confront her friend directly with the story of her carelessness, she and
her husband scrape together every bit of money they can.
As de Maupassant explains “(Mr.) Loisel possessed eighteen thousand franks
which his father had left him. He borrowed the rest. He borrowed it, asking
for a thousand francs of one five hundred of another five louis of this one
and three louis of that one. He gave notes ,made ruinous promises, took
money of usurers and the whole race of lenders. He compromised his whole
existence, in fact, risked his signature without even knowing whether he
could make it good or not, and harassed by anxiety for the future , by the
black misery which surrounded him, and by the prospect of all physical
privations and moral torture, he went to get the new necklace, depositing on
the merchant’s counter thirty-six thousand francs. “Matilda then places the
new necklace in the same case in which she had borrowed the old one, and
returns it to her friend without explanation, hoping against hope that the
deception will not be discovered—which it is not.
Now comes the task of paying back all the money that the Loisels have
borrowed. In order to do so, they sent away the maid ; they changed their
lodgings; they rented some rooms under a mansard roof. A mansard roof is
very steeply pitched, so that it is possible to have living quarters beneath it;
by implication living “under a mansard roof” means they live in the attic. No
longer is Matilda able to send her laundry out to be cleaned, or to employ
someone to wash the dishes and care for the house. Because houses in
those days had no running water, she has to haul the water up the stairs to
the attic herself. Her husband is forced to take on a second and even a third
job. However, they are conscientious and hard-working, and by the end of
ten years they have repaid every creditor.
But at what a cost! Matilda is no longer lovely and refined; she now looks
old, haggard, and common. When she meets Mrs. Forestier in the street, her
friend does not even recognize her. The story ends with Mrs. Forestier’s
revelation that the stones in the original necklace weren’t even really
diamonds— they were “paste,” or rhinestones. We have no way of knowing
if Mrs. Froestier was able to refund Matilda’s money. But would it matter?
Ten years of Matilda’s life have been robbed — and for what? - For an
evening of vanity and pride.
The central discovery of the story — that the jewels were fake — is,
therefore, not really the point of the story at all. The point of the story is that
pride goeth before a fall — and in fact, that a fall is precisely what pride will
bring about. Matilda felt dissatisfied with her husband and his lifestyle because
she was vain; she felt she was entitled to something better than the petty,
bourgeois existence his income offered her. She felt she could not attend the
Minister’s party without a stylish dress and jewels because she was vain; she
should never have sought to borrow a necklace so opulent she could not
afford to replace. She felt she could not tell Mrs. Forestier about the loss
of the necklace — even after it had been replaced — because she was too

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 proud, and also, by that time, too frightened. Over the ten years that it took
Matilda to earn thirty-six thousand francs, she undoubtedly learns much
about the hardships of life, but does she learn what has caused these
hardships?
There is no real evidence that she does. As she sits, prematurely aged,
before her window, she is not thinking of how vain and silly she had been
as a young woman; she is daydreaming about how lovely and glamorous the
Minster’s party had been — “of that ball where she was so beautiful and
so flattered.” She is not angry with herself for having been so stupid; she is
simply puzzled at the way life works itself; “How would it have been if she
had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How singular is life,
and how full of changes! How small a thing will ruin one!” Matilda does not
see her ruination as in any way being her own fault, but considers it a
particularly cruel trick of fate.
Here is the point at which the reader’s understanding of the story departs
from Matilda’s. We see only too clearly the reason for Matilda’s downfall;
she does not. We see that her vanity led her to seek to borrow the necklace
to begin with; we see that her pride led her to try to conceal the fact from
her friend. We see that the loss of Matilda’s comfortable existence is due
entirely to factors that could have been easily avoided. She does not. All
Matilda understands at the end of this story was that life has played a cruel
trick on her, and she has suffered ten long years for nothing. We, on the
contrary, come to know the depth to which vanity and pride has to drive
one, and the terrible price one can pay.

9.2.3 Introduction To The Story

Guy de Maupassant’s short story The Necklace (“La parure”) was first
published in the Paris newspaper Le Gaulois on February 17, 1884, and
was subsequently included in his 1885 collection of short stories Tales of
Day and Night (Contes dejour et de la nuit). Like most of Maupassant’s
short fiction, it was an instant success, and it has become his most widely
read and anthologized story. In addition to its well-rounded characters, tight
plotting, wealth of detail, and keen social commentary, The Necklace is
conspicuous for its use of the “whip-crack” or “O. Henry” ending, in which
a plot twist at the end of the story completely changes the story’s meaning.
Although Maupassant rarely made use of the device, its presence in this
work has tied him to it irrevocably. Although it is not known where Maupassant
got the idea for his story, certain connections may be made between The
Necklace and the novel Madame Bovary, written by Maupassant’s mentor
and friend, Gustave Flaubert. Both stories feature a young, beautiful woman
in a social situation that she finds distasteful. Like Madame Bovary, Mathilde
Loisel attempts to escape her social station in life, but her scheming actions
ultimately doom her.

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9.2.4 The Text Of The Story
The Necklace
by Guy de Maupassant
She was one of those pretty and charming girls who are sometimes, as if by
a mistake of destiny, born in a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no
expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded, by any
rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a little clerk at
the Ministry of Public Instruction.
She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was as
unhappy as though she had really fallen from her proper station; since with
women there is neither caste nor rank; and beauty, grace and charm act
instead of family and birth. Natural fineness, instinct for what is elegant,
suppleness of wit, are the sole hierarchy, and make from women of the
people the equals of the very greatest ladies.
She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for all the delicacies and all the
luxuries. She suffered form the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched
look of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains.
All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have
been conscious, tortured her and made her angry. The sight of the little
Breton, who made this humble home, aroused in her regrets which were
despairing, and distracted dreams. She thought of the silent ante-chambers
hung with Oriental tapestry, lit by tall bronze candelabra, and of the two
great footmen in knee-breeches who sleep in the big armchairs, made drowsy
by the heavy warmth of the hot-air stove. She thought of the long salons
fitted up with ancient silk, of the delicate furniture carrying priceless curiosities,
and of the conquettish perfumed boudoirs made for talks at five o’clock with
intimate friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all women envy
and whose attention they all desire.
When she sat down to dinner, before the round table covered with a table-
cloth three days old, opposite her husband, who uncovered the soup tureen
and declared with an enchanted air, “Ah, the good pot-au-feu! I don’t know
anything better than that,” she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silverware,
of tapestry which peopled the walls with ancient personages and with strange
birds flying in the midst of a fairy forest; and she thought of delicious dishes
served on marvelous plates, and of the whispered gallantries which you listen
to with a sphinx-like smile, while you are eating the pink flesh or a trout or
the wings of a quail.
She had no dresses, no jewels, nothing. And she loved nothing but that; she
felt made for that. She would so have liked to please, to be envied, to be
charming, to be sought after.
She had a friend, a former schoolmate at the convent, who was rich, and
whom she did not like to go and see any more, because she suffered so
much when she came back.
But, one evening, her husband returned home with a triumphant air, and

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holding a large envelope in his hand.
“There,” said he, “here is something for you.”
She tore the paper sharply, and drew out a printed card which bore these
words:
“The Minister of Public Instruction and Mme. Georges Ramponneau request
the honor of M. and Mme. Loisel’s company at the palace of the Ministry
on Monday evening, January 18th.”
Instead of being delighted, as her husband hoped, she threw the invitation
on the table with disdain, murmuring:
“What do you want me to do with that?”
“But my dear, I though you would be glad. You never go out, and this is such
a fine opportunity. I had awful trouble to get it. Every one wants to go; it
is very select, and they are not giving many invitations to clerks. The whole
official world will be there.”
She looked at him with an irritated eye, and she said, impatiently:
“And what do you want me to put on my back?”
He had not thought of that; he stammered:
“Why the dress you go to the theater in. It looks very well, to me.”
He stopped, distracted, seeing that his wife was crying. Two great tears
descended slowly from the corners of her eyes towards the corners of her
mouth. he stuttered:
“What’s the matter? What’s the matter?”
But, by a violent effort, she had conquered her grief, and she replied, with
a calm voice, while she wiped her wet cheeks:
“Nothing. Only I have no dress, and therefore I can’t go to this ball. Give
you card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I.”
He was in despair. He resumed:
“Come, let us see, Mathilde. How much would it cost, a suitable dress,
which you could use on other occasions, something very simple?”
She reflected several seconds, making her calculations and wondering also
what sum she could ask without drawing on herself an immediate refusal and
a frightened exclamation from the economical clerk.
Finally, she replied, hesitatingly:
“I don’t know exactly, but I think I could manage it with four hundred
francs.”
He had grown a little pale, because he was laying aside just that amount to
buy a gun and treat himself to a little shooting next summer on the plain of
Nanterre, with several friends who went to shoot larks down there, on a
Sunday.
But he said:

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“All right. I will give you four hundred francs. And try to have a pretty
dress.”
The day of the ball drew near, and Mme. Loisel seemed sad, uneasy,
anxious. Her dress was ready, however. Her husband said to her one evening:
“What is the matter? Come, you’ve been so queer these last three days.”
And she answered:
“It annoys me not to have a single jewel, not a single stone, nothing to put
on. I shall look like distress. I should almost rather not go at all.”
He resumed:
“You might wear natural flowers. it’s very stylish at this time of the year. For
ten francs you can get two or three magnificent roses.”
She was not convinced.
“No; there’s nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women
who are rich.”
But her husband cried:
“How stupid you are! Go look up you friend Mme. Forestier, and ask her
to lend you some jewels. You’re quite thick enough with her to do that.”
She uttered a cry of joy:
“It’s true. I never thought of it.”
The next day she went to her friend and told of her distress.
Mme. Forestier went to a wardrobe with a glass door, took out a large
jewel-box, brought it back, opened it, and said to Mme. Loisel:
“Choose, my dear.”
She saw first of all some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian
cross, gold, and precious stones of admirable workmanship. She tried on
the ornaments before the glass, hesitated, could not make up her mind to
part with them, to give them back. She kept asking:
“Haven’t you any more?”
“Why, yes. Look. I don’t know what you like.”
All of a sudden she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace of
diamonds;; and her heart began to beat with an immoderate desire. her
hands trembled as she took it. She fastened it around her throat, outside her
high-necked dress, and remained lost in ecstasy at the sight of herself.
Then she asked, hesitating, filled with anguish:
“Can you lend me that, only that?”
“Why, yes, certainly.”
She sprang upon the neck of her friend, kissed her passionately, then fled
with her treasure.
The day of the ball arrived. Mme. Loisel made a great success. She was
prettier than them all, elegant, gracious, smiling, and crazy with joy. All the

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men looked at her, asked her name, endeavored to be introduced. All the
attaches of the Cabinet wanted to waltz with her. She was remarked by the
minister himself.
She danced with intoxication, with passion, made drunk by pleasure, forgetting
all, in the triumph of her beatuty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of
cloud of happiness composed of all this homage, of all this admiration, of all
these awakened desires, and of that sense of complete victory which is so
sweet to a woman’s heart.
She went away about four o’clock in the morning. Her husband had been
sleeping since midnight, in a little deserted ante-room, with three other
gentlemen whose wives were having a very good time.
He threw over her shoulders the wraps which he had brought, modest
wraps of common life, whose poverty contrasted with the elegance of the
ball dress. She felt this and wanted to escape so as not to be remarked by
the other women, who were enveloping themselves in costly furs.
Loisel held her back.
“Wait a bit. You will catch cold outside. I will go and call a cab.”
But she did not listen to him, and rapidly descended the stairs. When they
were in the street they did not find a carriage; and they began to look for
one, shouting after the cabmen whom they saw passing by at a distance.
They went down towards the Seine, in despair, shivering with cold. At last
they found on the quay one of those ancient nocturnal coupes which,
exactly as if they were ashamed to show their misery during the day, are
never seen round Paris until after nightfall.
It took them to their door in the Rue des Martyrs, and once more, sadly,
they climbed up homeward. All was ended for her. And as to him, he
reflected that he must be at the Ministry at ten o’clock.
She removed the wraps, which covered her shoulders, before the glass, so
as once more to see herself in all her glory. But suddenly she uttered a cry.
She had no longer the necklace around her neck!
Her husband, already half-undressed, demanded:
“What is the matter with you?”
She turned madly towards him:
“I have--I have--I’ve lost Mme. Forestier’s necklace.”
He stood up, distracted.
“What! -- how? -- Impossible!”
And they looked in the folds of her dress, in the folds of her cloak, in her
pockets, everywhere. They did not find it.
He asked:
“You’re sure you had it on when you left the ball?”
“Yes, I felt it in the vestibule of the palace.”

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“But if you had lost it in the street we should have heard it fall. It must be
in the cab.”
“Yes. Probably. Did you take his number?”
“No. And you, didn’t you notice it?”
“No.”
They looked, thunderstruck, at one another. At last Loisel put on his clothes.
“I shall go back on foot,” said he, “over the whole route which we have
taken, to see if I can’t find it.”
And he went out. She sat waiting on a chair in her ball dress, without the
strength to go to bed, overwhelmed, without fire, without a thought.
Her husband came back about seven o’clock. He had found nothing.
He went to Police Headquarters, to the newspaper offices, to offer a reward;
he went to the cab companies -- everywhere, in fact, whither he was urged
by the least suspicion of hope.
She waited all day, in the same condition of mad fear before this terrible
calamity.
Loisel returned at night with a hollow, pale face; he had discovered nothing.
“You must write to your friend, “ said he, “that you have broken the clasp
of her necklace and that you are having it mended. That will give us time to
turn round.”
She wrote at his dictation.
At the end of a week they had lost all hope.
And Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:
“We must consider how to replace that ornament.”
The next day they took the box which had contained it, and they went to
the jeweler whose name was found within. He consulted his books.
“It was not I, Madame, who sold that necklace; I must simply have furnished
the case.”
Then they went from jeweler to jeweler, searching for a necklace like the
other, consulting their memories, sick both of them with chagrin and with
anguish.
They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds which
seemed to them exactly like the one they looked for. It was worth forty
thousand francs. They could have it for thirty-six.
So they begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days yet. And they made
a bargain that he should buy it back for thirty-four thousand francs, in case
they found the other one before the end of February.
Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. he
would borrow the rest.
He did borrow, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of another,

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five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes, took up ruinous obligations,
dealt with usurers, and all the race of lenders. He compromised all the rest
of his life, risked his signature without even knowing if he could meet it; and,
frightened by the pains yet to come, by the black misery which was about
to fall upon him, by the prospect of all the physical privations and of all the
moral tortures which he was to suffer, he went to get the new necklace,
putting down upon the merchant’s counter thirty-six thousand francs.
When Mme. Loisel took back the necklace Madame Forestier opened the
box Mme. Forestier said to her, with a chilly manner:
“You should have returned it sooner, I might have needed it.”
She did not open the case, as her friend had so much feared. If she had
detected the substitution, what would she have thought, what would she
have said? Would she not have taken Mme. Loisel for a thief?
Mme. Loisel now knew the horrible existence of the needy. She took her
part, moreover, all on a sudden, with heroism. That dreadful debt must be
paid. She would pay it. They dismissed their servant; they changed their
lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof.
She came to know what heavy housework meant and the odious cares of
the kitchen. She washed the dishes, using her rosy nails on the greasy pots
and pans. She washed the dirty linen, the shirts, and the dish-cloths, which
she dried upon a line; she carried the slops down to the street every morning,
and carried up the water stopping for breath at every landing. And, dressed
like a woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher,
her basket on her arm, bargaining, insulted, defending her miserable money
sou by sou.
Each month they had to meet some notes, renew others, obtain more time.
Her husband worked in the evening making a fair copy of some tradesman’s
accounts, and late at night he often copied manuscript for five sous a page.
And this life lasted ten years.
At the end of ten years they had paid everything, everything, with the rates
of usury, and the accumulations of the compound interest.
Mme. Loisel looked old now. She had become the woman of impoverished
households -- strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew,
and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes
of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down
near the window, and she thought of that gay evening of long ago, of that
ball where she had been so beautiful and so feted.
What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? How life is
strange and how changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or
to be saved!
But, one Sunday, having gone to take a walk in the Champs Elysees to
refresh herself from the labors of the week, she suddenly perceived a woman
who was leading a child. It was Mme. Forestier, still young, still beautiful,

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 still charming.
Mme. Loisel felt moved. Was she going to speak to her? Yes, certainly. And
now that she had paid, she was going to tell her all about it. Why not?
She went up.
“Good-day, Jeanne.”
The other, astonished to be familiarly addressed by this plain good wife, did
not recognize her at all, and stammered:
“But -- Madame! -- I do not know -- you must have mistaken.”
“No. I am Mathilde Loisel.”
Her friend uttered a cry.
“Oh, my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!”
“Yes, I have had days hard enough, since I have seen you, days wretched
enough -- and that because of you!”
“Of me! How so?”
“Do you remember that diamond necklace which you lent me to wear at the
ministerial ball?”
“Yes Well?”
“Well, I lost it.”
“What do you mean? you brought it back.”
“I brought you back another just like it. And it has taken ten years to pay
for it. You can understand that it was not easy for us, us who had nothing.
At last it is ended, and I am very glad.”
Mme. Forestier had stopped.
“You say that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine?”
“Yes. you never noticed it, then! They were very like.”
And she smiled with a joy which was proud and naive at once.
Mme. Forestier, strongly moved, took her two hands.
“Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was paste. It was worth at most
five hundred francs!”

9.2.5 The Title Of The Story

Maupassant used the simple title The Neeklace to introduce his famous
short story about a woman who loses her friends necklace and spends ten
years of her life paying for the jewel. The simplicity of the title is common
in many of Maupassant’s novels. He likes to pick out an element for the
reader to focus on as significant. The necklace is significant for many reasons.
It is symbolic of the materialism that misguides the main character, and it also
reveals Maupassant’s theme of fatalism.
Maupassant uses the title The Necklace to pinpoint the necklace as a

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 noteworthy element of the story because it is a coveted object. By picking
a possession as the title of the story, Maupassant is intending to point out
that materialism is a focal point of the story. The necklace is representative
of the riches and expensive material possessions that Mathilde wastes her
time pining after. Importantly, the necklace that Mathilde borrows from her
friend, instead being glamorous and satisfying, dooms her into a state of
poverty and despair. Maupassant expresses Mathilde’s greed saying that
when she first saw the necklace, “her heart began to beat covetously”, but
Mathilde only enjoyed a very temporary satisfaction. Mathilde got the
satisfaction of one night of being accepted among rich people, which in the
end left her with ten years of suffering. Maupassant foreshadows the gloomy
future saying that when the night ended “it was the end for her” and that the
characters felt “appalled at the agonizing face of the future, at the black
misery about to fail upon (them)”. The story is pessimistic and upsetting, and
the emphasis is on the necklace, especially as the title reveals that emphasizing
material things is harmful and fruitless.
The title encourages the reader to focus on the symbolism of the necklace
in the story. The theme of fatalism is emphasized in this title, for each time
the necklace is brought into the plot of the story, it involves an event where
“fate had blundered” over some characters. The first time the necklace is
brought up, Mathilde is borrowing the necklace from her friend, so that she,
doomed into a middle class social status, can pretend for one night to be
part of a more fortunate class of people. The next time the necklace is
spoken of, it is the cause of a “fearful catastrophe”, its unfortunate
disappearance which causes Mathilde lots of grief. Then, the final time the
necklace is brought up, Mathilde discovers that, as fate would have it, the
necklace she spent so long replacing was worthless. Fate interacts with the
characters every time the necklace comes into the story, and the title helps
to focus the reader in on the necklace’s implications.
Titles are often used to introduce the main idea of the work, and The
Necklace is no different. Maupassant carefully chose to use an object as the
main idea for the purpose of signalling the object out as important. The main
idea is not expressed through the statement of the object itself ; it is expressed
through the purpose and through the necklace in the story. In this short story,
there are many motifs and themes. However, the important ones, materialism
and fatalism, are easily recognized because they revolve round the necklace.
The reader knows to focus on these themes because they revolve round the
necklace. The reader knows to focus on these themes because the title
encourages the reader to analyze the interaction of the necklace in the plot.
9.2.6 Character Of Mathilde
Mathilde’s character is introduced as having the belief that she should have
been born into a higher class, which results in her profound desire to, at the
least, appear to lead a life of luxury.
It is clear right away that Mathilde feels she deserves more than a “little clerk

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 in the Ministry of Education” for a husband. Her desire to live a life of luxury
consumes her and prevents her from finding satisfaction with any aspect of
her life. Her husband goes through a great deal of trouble to obtain an
invitation to a fancy party; however, when he tells her the news, she replies
coldly, “What do you want me to do with this?”. He is brokenhearted, and
makes every effort to convince her to go to the party and even sacrifices his
savings for her to buy a new dress.
Mathilde is so concerned with her appearance at the beginning of the story
that she is not satisfied with a new dress; she also needs jewels to feel
socially acceptable. Madame Forestier, the one who lends her the necklace,
treats her with kindness and lets her choose any piece of jewelry to borrow.
After rummaging through Madame Forestier’s jewel collection, Mathilde
chooses the one that she expects will draw the most attention. Mathilde only
cares about other’s feelings when they are directed towards her.
Without realizing Mathilde loses the necklace at the party, and for the next
ten years, she and her husband work very hard to pay off debts incurred
for replacing it. Although the change is gradual, Mathilde does grow and
change as a person over the years, making her a dynamic character. Not
only does her appearance change, for she grows old during the painstaking
decade, but she also changes as a person and finally learns the meaning of
hard work. For once in her life, she takes responsibility for her mistake.
Even at the end, Mathilde continues to have a slightly self-centered attitude,
which is exemplified best by her meeting with Madame Forrestier. After
Madame Forrestier comments on the changes in her appearance, Mathilde’s
response is, “Yes, I’ve had some hard times since I saw you last; and many
sorrows..... and all on your account”. Her experience helps her learn that
honesty is more important in the long run than her outward appearance.
In a way, Mathilde is both the protagonist and the antagonist. The events of
the story revolve around and seem to be set in motion by her, making her
the protagonist. She is also the antagonist because she is struggling with her
own desire to have a life of luxury, which causes the whole conflict of the
lost necklace. The end also shows that she is the protagonist because despite
the fact that she causes the conflict, she is the one who works to resolve it
as well by finally telling Madame Forrestier the truth.
9.2.7 The Theme Of Fatalism
In the short story the Necklace, Maupassant draws on the recurring theme
that humans are victims of fatalism, especially women in the mid-nineteenth
century.
Mathilde’s marriage and middle class existence are great examples of how
women in the nineteenth century were governed by fate. Mathilde’s fate
was that she was born into a poor family, so she was doomed to be poor
all her life for two reasons. First, women in the mid-nineteenth century were
discriminated against by the ideology of domesticity, where they were expected

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 to look after the household and the kids, but they were restricted from
entering the work force. Mathilde did not have the authority to get a job,
education, or change to climb the economic ladder. Thus, she had no way
of obtaining the dazzling things that lucky women like her rich friend Madame
Forestier enjoyed. Secondly, though her family being poor, she did not have
enough of a dowry to entice a rich man to wed her. The author presents
Mathilde’s situation well by stating, “she had no marriage portion, no
expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded
by a man of wealth and distinction”. With the helplessness of Mathilde’s
character realized, her actions become more justifiable, and fate, not Mathilde,
emerges as the antagonist of the story.
The lost necklace serves to broaden the theme of fatalism to human beings
of any day or age. Mathilde had no control over the disastrous disappearance
of the necklace, and neither would any other person. The fact that this one
event ruined the lives of the couple for ten years shows how cruel fate can
be. Mathilde’s character expressed this realization wondering. “what would
have happened if she had never lost those jewels [……] how strange life
is, how fickle! how little is needed to ruin or save”. Just when Mathilde felt
like she had some power over her life, because she bought a dress, borrowed
a necklace, and successfully earned an admirable reputation among the
upper class, fate struck a tiny blow and shattered her life to pieces.
Guy de Maupassant’s main theme is that fate can be cruel, but at the end
he shows that fate can only bring one down to the extent that he or she
allows it to. Guy de Maupassant explicitly portrays his negativity towards
fate in the novel explaining that from the very beginning of Mathilde’s life
“fate had blundered over her”. However, if Mathilde had just told her friend
that she lost the necklace, she would not have had to spend several years
suffering because of the misfortune. Here, Guy de Maupassant is saying that
if we accept our fate, and do not try so hard to change it, we will not have
to suffer so much.
9.2.8 Symbolism In The Story
In The Necklace, Mathilde Loisel, the main character, is symbolic of many
reasons. Primarily she represents a woman living a common lifestyle of the
nineteenth century. The author, Guy de Maupassant stated, “For women
have no caste or class, “ which notes the lack of stature that women, like
Mathilde, endured. Mathilde felt herself “born for every delicacy and luxury”.
In today’s society, women who aspire to have many material possessions
may achieve their goal by working hard and/or getting an education. However,
in the 19th century, these opportunities were often ridiculed, because it was
the belief of society that women were meant to cook, and mother children.
Therefore, Mathilde symbolizes the lack of power that women of her era
had, because she seemingly stuck in her rank by the standards of society.
Mathilde’s marriage is symbolic of the average marriage in the 19th century.
Marriage was considered a necessity and women were wed at a very young

138
 age (before twenty). Single women were scorned and often ostracized by
the general public. Mathilde’s marriage to “a little clerk in the ministry of
Education” was probably not her choice, but rather a decision made for
social acceptance and economic support. Mathilde felt that, “she had married
beneath her,” because she was “ one of those pretty and charming girls
born”. Women during this time were forced into marriages unrelated to love,
and Mathilde’s unhappiness accentuates this problem.
Mathilde’s callous and bitter persona depicts the true feelings of women in
the 19th century. Mathilde suffered from her rank in society and her undesired
marriage. Furthermore, one exception of Mathilde’s marriage versus the
average marriage is that she appears not to have had any children. This
factor was of great importance in the 19th century society. Her lifestyle and
lack of ability to contribute to her family through salary and children changed
her inside and outside. In the end, Madame Forestier noticed the
transformation of Mathilde and this change (from young beauty to aged
distress) might have been noticeable in many women of Mathilde’s time.

9.3 Key Words

Tureen – a large deep dish with a lid from which soup is served
Nocturnal – Active (or found) at night
Coupe – An enclosed four-wheeled - horse drawn carriage used in former times
Usurers – Persons who lend money at an unfairly high rate of interest

9.4 Check Your Progress

(a) Write briefly about Guy de Maupassant.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(b) Write the Story in brief.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(c) Give an Introduction to the story.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(d) Describe the Character of Mathilde.
___________________________________________________________

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 ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(e) Write a note on the theme of fatalism in the story.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(f) Write a note on Symbolism in the story.
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

9.5 Let’s Sum Up

In this unit, we have studied
• About the author
• About the story , its background and the characters.
• About the critical interpretations of the text.

9.6 Books Suggested

Barzun Jacques, and George Stade, eds. European Writers: The Romantic Century.
New York : Scribner’s, 1985.
Cooper, Jamer F., et al. Courtship and Marriage. Women’s History. 10 April 2003.
Early Attitudes Toward Women. 1995. Women’s International Center. 10 April
2003
Guy de Maupassant – Biography and works. The Literature Network. 8 Apr.
2003
Maupassant, Guy de. The Necklace. 4 Nov. 1997. B&L Associates. 31 March
2003
Stade, George . Guy de Maupassant. European Writers : the Twentieth Century
13 (1998) : 1759-1769.
Steegmuller, Francis. Maupassant. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism 1
(1981) : 462-464.
Vermeer: The Complete Works. 1996. My Studios. 15 April 2003

9.7 Answers
(a) See 9.2.1 The Author : Guy de Maupassant
(b) See 9.2.2 The Story in Brief
(c) See 9.2.3 Introduction to the Story
(d) See 9.2.7 Character of Mathilde

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 UNIT - 10
Katherine Mansfield : A Cup of Tea
Structure
10.0 Objectives
10.1 Study Guide
10.2 Katherine Mansfield: A Cup of Tea
10.2.1 About the Author: Katherine Mansfield
10.2.2 About the Story : A Cup of Tea
10.2.3 The Story : A Cup of Tea (Text)
10.2.4 Glossary
10.2.5 Model Explanations
10.3 Let’s Sum Up
10.4 Questions
10.5 Suggested Readings
10.6 Answers
10.7 Some General Questions
10.0 Objectives
By the end of this Unit you will be able to know
1) about Katherine Mansfield, a short story writer from New Zealand.
2) that certain passions are common in human beings world over e.g. Jealousy.
3) that certain passions are there in all sections of society; poor or rich, young or
old.
4) that there exists a big difference between thinking and execution and that altruism
does not always go without hurdles.
10.1 Study Guide
In this unit you have been given the life history of Katherine Mansfield. Before going
directly to the original story, you should study the background material of the story
given in 7.2.2. For your help a detailed summary and glossary have been provided.
Model explanations will help you understand the story better and help you attempt
questions in the exams. You can write these explanations and answers to questions
in your own language, and tally with those given for your help. Some general
questions given in 7.7 are a kind of exercise for you. You should attempt these
questions for the purpose of your examinations and composition practice.

10.2 Catherine Mansfield : A Cup Of Tea

10.2.1 About the Author
Catherine Mansfield is one of New Zealand’s was most famous writers, who
was closely associated with D.H. Lawrence and something of a rival of
Virginia Woolf. Mansfield’s creative years were burdened with loneliness,
illness, jealousy, alienation — all this is reflected in her work with the bitter

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depiction of marital and family relationships of her middle-class characters.
Her short stories are also notable for their use of stream of consciousness
technique. Like the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, Mansfield depicted trivial
events and subtle changed in human behaviour.
Katherine Mansfield was born in Wellington, New Zealand, into a middle-
class colonial family. Her father, Harold Beauchamp, was a banker and her
mother, Annie Burnell Dyer, was of genteel origins. She lived for six years
in the rural village of Karori. Later on Mansfield said “I imagine I was
always writing. Twaddle it was, too. But better far write twaddle or anything,
anything, than nothing at all.” At the age of nine she had her first text
published. As a first step to her rebellion against her background, she withdrew
to London in 1908 and studied at Queen’s College, where she joined the
staff of the College Magazine.
During her stay in Germany she wrote satirical sketches of German characters,
which were published in 1911 under the title In a German Pension. Earlier
her stories had appeared in The New Age. On her return to London in
1910, Mansfield became ill with an untreated sexually transmitted disease,
a condition which contributed to her weak health for the rest of her life. She
attended literary parties without much enthusiasm: “Pretty rooms and pretty
people, pretty coffee, and cigarettes out of a silver tankard... I was wretched.”
In 1911 Mansfield met John Middleton Murray, a Socialist and former
literary critic, who was first a tenant in her flat, then her lover. Mansfield co-
edited and contributed to a series of journals. Until 1914 she published
stories in Rhythm and The Blue Review. During the war she travelled
restlessly between England and France. In 1915 she met her brother
“Chummie”. When he died in World War I, Mansfield focused her writing
on New Zealand and her family. ‘Prelude’ (1916), one of her most famous
stories, was written during this period. In 1918 Mansfield divorced her first
husband and married John Murray. In the same year, she was found to have
tuberculosis.
In her last years, Mansfield lived much of her time in southern France and
in Switzerland, seeking relief from tuberculosis. As a part of her treatment
in 1922 at an institute, Mansfield had to spend a few hours every day on
a platform suspended over a cow manger. She breathed odors emanating
from below but the treatment did no good. Without the company of her
literary friends, family or her husband, she wrote much about her own roots
and her childhood. Mansfield died of a pulmonary hemorrhage on January
9, 1923. Her last words were: “I love the rain. I want the feeling of it on
my face”.
Mansfield was greatly influenced by Anton Chekhov, sharing his warm
humanity and attention to small details of human behaviour. Her influence on
the development of the short story; a form of literature was also notable.
Among her literary friends were Aldous Huxley, Virginia Woolf, who
considered her over-praised, and D.H. Lawrence, who later turned against

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 Murray and her. Mansfield’s journal, letters, and scrapbook were edited by
her husband.
10.2.2 About the Story
The chief quality of Catherine Mansfield’s short stories is their psychological
realism which reminds the reader of Maupassant, the great French short
story writer. She writes in a flowing, racy style, but bringing in a great deal
of the dramatic in her technique takes the reader by surprise. ‘A Cup of Tea’
deals with an upper-class woman. The female protagonist Rosemary Fell, is
a bundle of social snobberies. But Mansfield shows that whatever the status,
a woman of Rosemary’s type is a woman after all, frail, and jealous, in spite
of her desire to appear otherwise. Mansfield’s method makes the best of the
medium, though limited in its scope.
The story begins with a depiction of the chief characteristics of the female
protagonist- Rosemary Fell. She was pretty, young, brilliant, extremely
modern, extra ordinarily well dressed, amazingly well read. She was very
rich and organized parties; and her parties were the most delicious mixture
of the really important people. Her shopping used to be very expensive and
choosy.
One winter afternoon Rosemary went inside a little antique shop in Curzon
Street. This was the usual shop where the shopkeeper was ridiculously fond
of serving her. The man on the counter showed her “an exquisite little enamel
box” with a very fine glaze as if baked in cream. The shopman was much
interested to sell this creamy box to her as he would gain a big margin. As
the box was too expensive, priced twenty eight guineas, Rosemary asked
the shopkeeper to keep it for her.
The weather, too, on that winter afternoon was not fine. It was rainy and
dark. Rosemary also felt a cold bitter taste in the air and thought of having
an extra special tea at home. At that very instant a young thin, dark, shadowy,
a little battle poor creature - a beggar girl- later named Miss Smith asked
for the price of a cup of tea, in a very sobbing.
Rosemary thought of extra ordinary more than extra ordinary adventure. She
brought that shivering thin beggar girl to her big cosy house though the poor
girl was very apprehensive. Rosemary wanted to prove to that girl that
wonderful things happen in life, that fairy god mothers (like her) were real,
that rich people (like her) had hearts that “woman were sisters”.
The poor beggar girl felt much uncomfortable in her new surroundings amidst
warmth, softness, high a sweet scent, beautiful big bedroom, curtains, wonder
furniture, gold cushions and comfy chair of Rosemary’s house. After much
difficulty Rosemary could handle that poor girl and make her take a slight
meal of sandwich, bread and butter, and tea. The slight meal had a big effect
upon the poor beggar girl.

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 At this juncture Philip, Rosemary’s husband entered their room and wanted
to know all about this real pick up. He tried hard to make Rosemary
understand the difficulties in her plans to be nice to this pick up girl, and he
explained that Rosemary’s plans were just not feasible. But Philip had to
adopt some other method to get rid of this poor beggar girl. He aroused
feelings of jealously in Rosemary’s mind by praising beggar girl’s beauty. He
called her ‘pretty’ ‘absolutely lovely’. Now Rosemary considered the beggar
girl her rival in beauty and love. Rosemary did not want to lose her husband.
She paid the poor little girl a present of money and sent her out. Rosemary
dressed up herself - by doing her hair, darkening her eyes and putting on her
pearls - in order to look attractive. As she talked to her husband her tone
became husky and troubled. Now she could see the danger in her fascinating
plan.
Thus Katherine Mansfield succeeds in depicting and working out the theme
of womanly jealously in this interesting narrative “Cup of Tea”. At the end
of the story there is a twist. The writer has used mild satire and irony to the
convey his message vividly. Rosemary, the female protagonist, had to dispose
of the beggar girl whom she had brought home to provide food and tea. She
had to give her money which initially she denied. Philip could succeed in
arousing womanly jealously in the mind of extremely rich lady Rosemary
against the extremely poor beggar girl. At the end Rosemary had to make
efforts to look prettier than her rival the poor beggar girl. Thus it proves a
Woman of Rosemary’s type is a woman after all, frail and jealous in spite
of her desire to appear otherwise.
10.2.3 The Story : A Cup of Tea
Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. No, you couldn’t have called her
beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces... But why be so cruel as
to take anyone to pieces? She was young, brilliant, extremely modem,
exquisitely well dressed, amazingly well read in the newest of the new books,
and her parties were the most delicious mixture of the really important
people and... artists - quaint creatures, discoveries of hers, some of them
too terrifying for words, but others quite presentable and amusing.
Rosemary had been married two years. She had a duck of a boy. No, not
Peter- Michael. And her husband absolutely adored her. They were rich,
really rich, not just comfortably well off, which is odious and stuffy and
sounds like one’s grandparents. But if Rosemary wanted to shop she would
go to Paris as you and I would go to Bond Street. If she wanted to buy
flowers, the car pulled up at that perfect shop in Regent Street, and Rosemary
inside the shop just gazed in her dazzled, rather exotic way, and said: “I want
those and those and those. Give me four bunches of those. And that jar of
roses. Yes, I’ll have all the roses in the jar. No, no lilac. I hate lilac. It’s got
no shape.” The attendant bowed and put the lilac out of sight, as though this
was only too true; lilac was dreadfully shapeless. “Give me those stumpy
little tulips. Those red and white ones.” And she was followed to the car by

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a thin shop-girl staggering under an immense white paper armful that looked
like a baby in long clothes....
One winter afternoon she had been buying something in a little antique shop
in Curzon Street. It was a shop she liked. For one thing, one usually had
it to oneself. And then the man who kept it was ridiculously fond of serving
her. He beamed whenever she came in. He clasped his hands; he was so
gratified he could scarcely speak. Flattery, of course. All the same, there
was something...
“You see, madam,” he would explain in his low respectful tones, “I love my
things. I would rather not part with them than sell them to someone who
does not appreciate them, who has not that fine feeling which is so rare...”
And, breathing deeply, he unrolled a tiny square of blue velvet and pressed
it on the glass counter with his pale finger-tips.
To-day it was a little box. He had been keeping it for her. He had shown
it to nobody as yet. An exquisite little enamel box with a glaze so fine it
looked as though it had been baked in cream. On the lid a minute creature
stood under a flowery tree, and a more minute creature still had her arms
round his neck. Her hat, really no bigger than a geranium petal, hung from
a branch; it had green ribbons. And there was a pink cloud like a watchful
cherub floating above their heads. Rosemary took her hands out of her long
gloves. She always took off her gloves to examine such things. Yes, she liked
it very much. She loved it; it was a great duck. She must have it. And,
turning the creamy box, opening and shutting it, she couldn’t help noticing
how charming her hands were against the blue velvet. The shopman, in some
dim cavern of his mind, may have dared to think so too. For he took a
pencil, leant over the counter, and his pale, bloodless fingers crept timidly
towards those rosy, flashing ones, as he murmured gently: “If I may venture
to point out to madam, the flowers on the little lady’s bodice.”
“Charming!” Rosemary admired the flowers. But what was the price? For
a moment the shopman did not seem to hear. Then a murmur reached her.
“Twenty-eight guineas, madam.”
“Twenty-eight guineas.” Rosemary gave no sign. She laid the little box down;
she buttoned her gloves again. Twenty-eight guineas. Even if one is rich...
She looked vague. She stared at a plump tea-kettle like a plump hen above
the shopman’s head, and her voice was dreamy as she answered: “Well,
keep it for me will you? I’ll...”
But the shop man had already bowed as though keeping it for her was all
any human being could ask. He would be willing, of course, to keep it for
her for ever.
The discreet door shut with a click. She was outside on the step, gazing at
the winter afternoon. Rain was falling, and with the rain it seemed the dark
came too, spinning down like ashes. There was a cold bitter taste in the air,
and the new-lighted lamps looked sad. Sad were the lights in the houses

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opposite. Dimly they burned as if regretting something. And people hurried
by, hidden under their hateful umbrellas.
Rosemary felt a strange pang. She pressed her muff against her breast; she
wished she had the little box, too, to cling to. Of course the car was there.
She’d only to cross the pavement. But still she waited. There are moments,
horrible moments in life, when one emerges from shelter and looks out, and
it’s awful. One oughtn’t to give way to .them. One ought to go home and
have an extra-special tea. But at the very instant of thinking that, a young
girl, thin, dark, shadowy - where had she come from? - was standing at
Rosemary’s elbow and a voice like a sigh, almost like a sob, breathed:
“Madam, may I speak to you a moment?”
“Speak to me?” Rosemary turned. She saw a little battered creature with
enormous eyes, someone quite young, no older than herself, who clutched
at her coat-collar with reddened hands, and shivered as though she had just
come out of the water.
“M-madam, stammered the voice. Would you let me have the price of a cup
of tea?”
“A cup of tea?” There was something simple, sincere in that voice; it wasn’t
in the least the voice of a beggar. “Then have you no money at all?” asked
Rosemary.
“None, madam,” came the answer.
“How extraordinary!” Rosemary peered through the dusk and the girl gazed
back at her. How more than extraordinary! And suddenly it seemed to
Rosemary such an adventure. It was like something out of a novel by
Dostoevsky, this meeting in the dusk. Supposing she took the girl home?
Supposing she did do one of those things she was always reading about or
seeing on the stage, what would happen? It would be thrilling. And she
heard herself saying afterwards to the amazement of her friends: “I simply
took her home with me,” as she stepped forward and said to that dim
person beside her: “Come home to tea with me.”
The girl drew back startled. She even stopped shivering for a moment.
Rosemary put out a hand and touched her arm. “I mean it,” she said, smiling.
And she felt how simple and kind her smile was. “Why won’t you? Do.
Come home with me now in my car and have tea.”
“You - you don’t mean it, madam,” said the girl, and there was pain in her
voice.
“But I do,” cried Rosemary. “I want you to. To please me. Come along.”
The girl put her fingers to her lips and her eyes devoured Rosemary. “You’re-
you’re not taking me to the police station?” she stammered.
“The police station!” Rosemary laughed out. “Why should I be so cruel?

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No, I only want to make you warm and to hear - anything you care to tell
me.”
Hungry people are easily led. The footman held the door of the car open,
and a moment later they were skimming through the dusk.
“There!” said Rosemary. She had a feeling of triumph as she slipped her
hand through the velvet strap. She could have said, “Now I’ve got you,” as
she gazed at the little captive she had netted. But of course she meant it
kindly. Oh, more than kindly. She was going to prove to this girl that -
wonderful things did happen in life, - that fairy godmothers were real, that
- rich people had hearts, and that women were sisters. She turned impulsively,
saying’. “Don’t be frightened. After all, why shouldn’t you come back with
me? We’re both women. If I’m the more fortunate, you ought to expect...”
But happily at that moment, for she didn’t know how the sentence was going
to end, the car stopped. The bell was rung, the door opened, and with a
charming, protecting, almost embracing movement, Rosemary drew the other
into the hall. Warmth, softness, light, a sweet scent, all those things so
familiar to her she never even thought about them, she watched that other
receive. It was fascinating. She was like the rich little girl in her nursery with
all the cupboards to open, all the boxes to unpack.
“Come, come upstairs,” said Rosemary, longing to begin to be generous.
“Come up to my room.” And, besides, she wanted to spare this poor little
thing from being stared at by the servants; she decided as they mounted the
stairs she would not even ring to Jeanne, but take off her things by herself.
The great things were to be natural!
And “There!” cried Rosemary again, as they reached her beautiful big
bedroom with the curtains drawn, the fire leaping on her wonderful lacquer
furniture, her gold cushions and the primrose and blue rugs. The girl stood
just inside the door; she seemed dazed. But Rosemary didn’t mind that.
“Come and sit down,” she cried, dragging her big chair up to the fire, “m
this comfy chair. Come and get warm. You look so dreadfully cold.”
“I daren’t, madam,” said the girl, and she edged backwards.
“Oh, please,” - Rosemary ran forward - “you mustn’t be frightened, you
mustn’t, really. Sit down, when I’ve taken off my things we shall go into the
next room and have tea and be cozy. Why are you afraid?” And gently she
half pushed the thin figure into its deep cradle.
But there was no answer. The girl stayed just as she had been put, with her
hands by her sides and her mouth slightly open. To be quite sincere, she
looked rather stupid. But Rosemary wouldn’t acknowledge it.
She leant over her, saying:
“Won’t you take off your hat? Your pretty hair is all wet. And one is so much

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more comfortable without a hat, isn’t one?”
There was a whisper that sounded like “Very good, madam,” and the crushed
hat was taken off.
“And let me help you off with your coat, too,” said Rosemary.
The girl stood up. But she held on to the chair with one hand and let
Rosemary pull. It was quite an effort. The other scarcely helped her at all.
She seemed to stagger like a child, and the thought came and went through
Rosemary’s mind, that if people wanted helping they must respond a little,
just a little, otherwise it became very difficult indeed. And what was she to
do with the coat now? She left it on the floor, and the hat too. She was just
going to take a cigarette off the mantelpiece when the girl said quickly, but
so lightly and strangely: “I’m very sorry, madam, but I’m going to faint. I
shall go off, madam, if I don’t have something.”
“Good heavens, how thoughtless I am!” Rosemary rushed to the bell.
“Tea! Tea at once! And some brandy immediately!”
The maid was gone again, but the girl almost cried out: “No, I don’t want
no brandy.* I never drink brandy. It’s a cup of tea I want, madam.” And
she burst into tears.
It was a terrible and fascinating moment. Rosemary knelt beside her chair.
“Don’t cry, poor little thing,” she said. “Don’t cry.” And she gave the other
her lace handkerchief. She really was touched beyond words. She put her
arm round those thin, bird-like shoulders.
Now at last the other forgot to be shy, forgot everything except that they
were both women, and gasped out: “I can’t go on no longer like this. I can’t
bear it. I can’t bear it. I shall do away with myself. I can’t bear no more.”
“You shan’t have to. I’ll look after you. Don’t cry any more. Don’t you see
what a good thing it was that you met me? We’ll have tea and you’ll tell me
everything. And I shall arrange something. I promise. Do stop crying. It’s so
exhausting. Please!”
The other did stop just in time for Rosemary to get up before the tea came.
She had the table placed between them. She plied the poor little creature
with everything, all the sandwiches, all the bread and butter, and every time
her cup was empty she filled it with tea, cream and sugar. People always
said sugar was so nourishing. As for herself she didn’t eat; she smoked and
looked away tactfully so that the other should not be shy.
And really the effect of that slight meal was marvelous. When the tea-table
was carried away a new being, a light, frail creature with tangled hair, dark
lips, deep, lighted eyes, lay back in the big chair in a kind of sweet languor,
looking -at the blaze. Rosemary lit a fresh cigarette; it was time to begin.

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“And when did you have your last meal?” she asked softly.
But at that moment the door-handle turned.
“Rosemary, may I come in?” It was Philip.
“Of course.”
He came in. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said, and stopped and stared.
“It’s quite all right,” said Rosemary, smiling. “This is my friend, Miss ”
“Smith, madam,” said the languid figure, who was strangely still and unafraid.
“Smith,” said Rosemary. “We are going to have a little talk.”
“Oh yes,” said Philip. “Quite,” and his eye caught sight of the coat and hat
on the floor. He came over to the fire and turned his back to it. “It’s a
beastly afternoon,” he said curiously, still looking at that listless figure, looking
at its hands and boots, and then at Rosemary again.
“Yes, isn’t it?” said Rosemary enthusiastically. “Vile.”
Philip smiled his charming smile. “As a matter of fact,” said he, “I wanted
you to come into the library for a moment. Would you? Will Miss Smith
excuse us?”
The big eyes were raised to him, but Rosemary answered for her: “Of
course she will.” And they went out of the room together.
“I say,” said Philip, when they were alone. “Explain. Who is she? What does
it all mean?”
Rosemary, laughing, leaned against the door and said: “I picked her up in
Curzon Street. Really. She’s a real pick-up. She asked me for the price of
a cup of tea, and I brought her home with me. “
“But what on earth are you going to do with her?” cried Philip.
“Be nice to her,” said Rosemary quickly. “Be frightfully nice to her. Look
after her. I don’t know how. We haven’t talked yet. But show her - treat
her - make her feel -”
“My darling girl,” said Philip, “you’re quite mad, you know. It simply can’t
be done.”
“I knew you’d say that,” retorted Rosemary. Why not? I want to. Isn’t that
a reason? And besides, one’s always reading about these things.I decided-
”
“But,” said Philip slowly, and he cut the end of a cigar, “she’s so astonishingly
pretty.”
“Pretty?” Rosemary was so surprised that she blushed. “Do you think so?
I - I hadn’t thought about it.”

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 “Good Lord!” Philip struck a match. “She’s absolutely lovely. Look again,
my child. I was bowled over when I came into your room just now.
However... I think you’re making a ghastly mistake. Sorry, darling, if I’m
crude and all that. But let me know if Miss Smith is going to dine with us
in time for me to look up The Milliner’s Gazette.”
“You absurd creature!” said Rosemary, and she went out of the library, but
not back to her bedroom. She went to her writing-room and sat down at
her desk. Pretty! Absolutely lovely! Bowled over! Her heart beat like a
heavy bell. Pretty! Lovely! She drew her check-book towards her. But no,
checks would be no use, of course. She opened a drawer and took out five
pound notes, looked at them, put two back, and holding the three squeezed
in her hand, she went back to her bedroom.
Half an hour later Philip was still in the library, when Rosemary came in.
“I only wanted to tell you,” said she, and she leaned against the door again
and looked at him with her dazzled exotic gaze, “Miss Smith won’t dine with
us to-night.”
Philip put down the paper. “Oh, what’s happened? Previous engagement?”
Rosemary came over and sat down on his knee. “She insisted on going,”
said she, “so I gave the poor little thing a present of money- I couldn’t keep
her against her will, could I?” she added softly.
Rosemary had just done her hair, darkened her eyes a little and put on her
pearls. She put up her hands and touched Philip’s cheeks.
“Do you like me?” said she, and her tone, sweet, husky, troubled him.
“I like you awfully,” he said, and he held her tighter. “Kiss me.”
There was a pause.
Then Rosemary said dreamily: “I saw a fascinating little box to-day. It cost
twenty-eight guineas. May I have it?”
Philip jumped her on his knee. “You may, little wasteful one,” said he. But
that was not really what Rosemary wanted to say.
“Philip,” she whispered, and she pressed his head against her bosom, “am
I pretty?”
10.2.4 Glossary
adored : loved passionately
antique shop : shop dealing in ancient things of historical interest
battered : broken up
blaze : bright flame; roaring fire
bowled over : easily won over; captivated
Bond Street : a famous shopping centre in London

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 carven : dark cave; here deep recess (of the mind)
cherub : one of the orders of angels depicted as a plump and
winged child.
clutched : held tightly or eagerly
dazed : left in a state of shock and suspense.
dazzled : confused ( by the beautiful variety in the shop)
devoured : ate up; looked wise-eyes.
Dostoevsky : (1821-81) great Russian novelist; author of Crime and
Punishment, The Brothers Karamozov, The Idiot, etc.
Dostoevsky’s novels are famous for their subtle
character analysis and psychological realism.
exquisitely : made to artistic perfection; made delicately refined
exotic : strange and extraordinary
glaze : brightness of a glassy surface; flowers
geranium : a plant with red, white or purple flowers
husky : choked with emotion; hoarse or whispery
lacquer : gold-coloured varnish used for wooden furniture
languid : lacking in energy (adjective of languor)
langour : a dreamy laziness, displaying weakness
listless : spiritless; tired looking
mantelpiece : the ornamental shelf over a fire place
muff : fur which keeps hands warm
Milliner’s gazette : a journal giving details about millinery, i.e. women’s
headdresses, hats, etc.
Odious : hateful
pang : sharp pain
pick-up : a find; chance acquaintance or one picked up
plied : offered attractive things in order to engage
skimming : gliding fast and smooth
staggering : swayingunsteadily
stammered : uttered hesitantly
startled : drew back shocked
stuffy : dull and warm
stumpy : short and thick
tangled : uncombed and lying in curls
tulips : plants with bulbous flowers
vile : wicked; horrible
10.2.5 Model Explanations
a) She was going to prove .... women were sisters.
This extract has been taken from the story A Cup of Tea written by
Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield is a famous story writer from New Zealand.
In these lines”the writer has depicted how the females protagonist of the
story Rosemary Fell behaves towards the beggar girl at the beginning of
their meeting.
The beggar girl Miss Smith asks for some money so that she may have
a cup of tea. Instead of giving her money, Rosemary wants to bring her
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 to her home and prove that rich people are kind hearted and want to help
the poor. Moreover, in this case, both were women and Rosemary wants
to prove that all women are like sisters.
The irony involved in these lines becomes clear when Rosemary, towards
the end of the story, moves the beggar girl out of her home out of
jealousy. They do not remain sisters but become rivals when Rosemary’s
husband arouses sense of jealously in her mind when he fails to make her
understand his point of view about the beggar girl. These lines reflect that
Rosemary is completely impractical and impulsive.
b) Rosemary had just done her hair .................. Philip’s cheeks
This exact forms the concluding part of the story A Cup of Tea by
Katherine Mansfield. Katherine Mansfield is a well story writer from
New Zealand. Out of Jealousy the female protagonist of the story, story,
Rosemary Fell, moves the poor beggar girls Miss Smith out of her house
who she herself invited to prove that women are sisters and rich people
are kind hearted and fortunate ladies should help the poor ladies.
Rosemary counbs her hair, darkens are eyes, puts her pearls and prepares
herself in every sense to look pretty. After moving out the beggar girl, she
approaches her husband Philip to impress him. She feels that she has
been impractical in bringing the beggar girl at her home and helping her
by giving bath, tea, breakfast etc. Philip can easily arouse feelings of
jealously in Rosemary’s mind by calling the girls “astonishingly pretty”.
This extract reflects that jealously is a basic emotion in woman to whatever
category, caste, religion, social status, rank or geographical area she
belongs. The irony lies in the fact that Rosemary takes the beggar girl as
her own rival.

10.3 Let Us Sum Up

In this unit you have studied about a short story writer from New Zealand. The short
story A Cup of Tea is not much different from Indian stories in theme, structure and
atmosphere. This incident might happen anywhere in the world. The glossary,
explanations must have helped you to study the story in a better way.

10.4 Questions
1) Was Rosemary’s family well-to-do?
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2) How did Rosemary buy flowers?
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3) Why did she refuse to have lilac?
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4) How did the man on the counter in Curzon Street behave with Rosemary?
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5) What did the beggar girl look like?
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6) What was her request to Rosemary?
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7) What sudden idea did Rosemary have?
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8) What was the beggar girl’s apprehension?
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9) What is the author’s opinion about hungry people?
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10) What were Rosemary’s feelings when the girl joined her?
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11) What did she want to prove to her?
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12) Why did Rosemary never think of warmth, softness, light, etc?
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13) How did the girl behave when Rosemary invited her to sit on her ‘comfy chair’?
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14) Why is the chair described as a ‘deep cradle’ when the girl was pushed into it?
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15) What were Rosemary’s feelings when the girl was passive as her coat was
taken off?
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 16) What did the girl look like after tea?

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17) What advice did Philip give to Rosemary?

____________________________________________________________________

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18) What did Philip mean when her remarked “Story, darling, if I am crude and all
that”?

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19) How did Rosemary finally get rid of the girl?

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20) Why did Rosemary get rid to the beggar girl?

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10.5 Suggested Readings
1) A Cup of Tea (A Novel) by Amy Ephron.
2) Katherine Mansfield : A Study of Her Shorter Fiction by J.F. Kobler,
1990.
3) Critical Essays on Katherine Mansfield ed. by L. Rhoda B. Nathan,
1993.

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10.6 Answers
1) Rosemary’s family was extremely rich. The family was much well of.
2) She used to go to famous streets or even to countries to buy the things of her
choice. Money was no consideration for her. She would go to Paris to buy
flowers.
3) When the Shopkeeper showed her lilacs, she out rightly rejected them. In the
opinion of Rosemary, the lilacs had no extraordinary shape. That is why she
hated them.
4) The man of the counter of a little antique shop in Curzon street was very fond
of Rosemary. He was overjoyed whenever she went there for shopping. He felt
gratified. He watched the beauty of Rosemary and flattered her. He would sell
his articles only to those who appreciate them and he meant Rosemary had that
artistic sense.
5) The beggar girl was young, of the age of Rosemary, had big eyes but she was
a little battered by weather and lack of food. She was too weak.
6) She requested Rosemary to give her some money for a cup of tea so that she
might get some energy, as she was very weak and thin.
7) Rosemary though of taking that beggar girl to her own big, beautiful comfortable
home. She would give her something to eat and drink; and thus later on she
would narrate the incident to her rich friends and guests.
8) The poor girl though that Rosemary would take her to some police station and
get her locked up for begging. She was terrified on the though to it.
9) The author comments that hungry people are easily led astray. They follow the
instructions of others. The poor girl’s going with Rosemary proves that.
10) Rosemary had the feeling of triumph. She felt that she would make the girl go
with her, as she desired.
11) Rosemary wanted to prove that wonderful things happened in the life of a
human being, that the rich and aristocratic people also had hearts and that all
women, poor or rich, were like sisters. They helped each other in need.
12) As Rosemary always lived in warmth, softness and comfort of the cosy
atmosphere, she did no feel that because it was much normal and routine for
her.
13) She felt very uncomfortable because she was not habituated to such luxuries.
She never expected that much comfort, freedom and liberty. She denied to sit
on the sofa as the was too fine for her.
14) The structure of the body of the beggar girl is too thin and weak. therefore, she
looked like a small being in a big thin, so sofa became a deep cradle for her.
15) Rosemary felt strange at the behavior of the beggar girl. She thought that the

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 beggar girl should have co-operated in her project. But the girl was so passive
as Rosemary had to do al owrk for her. Rosemary felt that people should
respond a little otherwise it became very dfficult for the helper to help.
16) After taking breakfast, the girl looked a little fresh. She had some life in her,
it seemed. She felt drowsy also. the slight mean had marvelous effect.
17) Philip was frank and practical. He advised Rosemary to get rid of the beggar
girl as soon as possible. But Rosemary did not agree to his proposal.
18) He meant that he might fall in love with a beggar girl as she looked pretty to
him with dark big eyes and good shape of her body. He was not serious. He
was just playing a trick to arouse jealousy in Rosemary’s mind so that she might
get rid of that beggar girl.
19) Rosemary gave the beggar girl three pound notes and asked her to go away.
Her heart had started beating fast because of jealousy toward her.
20) Rosemary felt jealous of her. Earlier she had thought of proving that all women
are sisters and she had wanted to help the beggar girl. But Philip, Rosemary’s
heart by praising the beauty of the beggar girl when he failed to get rid of her
by directly asking Rosemary to do so. Rosemary got rid of the beggar girl out
of jealousy.

10.7 Some General Questions

1. Discuss the appropriateness of the title of the story.
2. Write a character-sketch of Rosemary Fell.
3. What is the universal appeal of the story?

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 UNIT - 11
Rabindranath Tagore : The Castaway
Structure
11.0 Objectives
11.1 Introduction
11.2 About the Author
11.3 Reading the Text
11.3.1 The Story : The Castaway (Text)
11.3.2 Glossary
11.3.3 Summary
11.4 Literary Devices
11.5 Let’s Sum Up
11.6 Suggested Readings
11.7 Question and Answers
11.0 Objectives
The purpose of this unit is to convey information, cover as much ground as possible
and to stimulate intelligent interest in Indian Writing in English, which besides being
a distinctive literature in its own right, is also a link literature in the context of India’s
pluralistic literary landscape. We have done so by presenting an elaborate discus-
sion on one of the short stories entitled ‘The Castaway’ written by Rabindranath
Tagore.

11.1 Introduction:
While novels like Gora and Binodini impress as much by their characterization as
by their moral comprehension and the ethical seriousness of their plotting, the short
stories are more immediately effective, trafficking as they do with the tears in things
or the sheer ecstasy of pain. A good story is a living unity by virtue of the indwelling
soul; in other words, the idea that inspires and sustains the story. With Tagore’s
short stories, the poetic flash is the main thing; it is the poet that sees the truth of
things, the story teller merely snapping the scene at the suggested angle. Quite
unexpectedly the poet of nature and humanity suddenly reveals his hand, our eyes
open wide and the pulses quicken as the heart beats faster.
‘The Castaway’ is one of the most famous stories written by Tagore. The story
describes how a person undergoes a great transformation with the change in his
class and company. The story is also suggestive of the fact that Indian woman is
more considerate, sincere and committed in comparison to her counterpart. The
story also depicts what makes a woman pour a mother’s love on a poor castaway
and how this castaway yearns to convince this woman that he is not a theif. Nilkanta,
Kiran, Sharat and Satish are the main characters in the story and the locale is a
countryside village, Chandernagore.

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11.2 About the Author
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) belonged to the rich and noble family of the
Tagores in Bengal. His grandfather, Dwarkanath Tagore, had been a co-worker o
Raj Rammohan Roy; his father Devendranath Tagore, had been a pillar of the
Brahmo Samaj Movement. Rabindranath Tagore’s mother expired when he was
young boy. More than being taught by school and teachers, he was taught by nature
and circumstances. His vision unfolds itself in Gitanjali, the work which won the
Nobel Prize fro literature for him in 1913. His multi-pronged genius produced lyrics,
poetic plays, plays of ideas, social plays, novels, short stories, essays in criticism,
philosophical essays, autobiographical fragments, letters, addresses and education
dissertations. He was an actor, a producer, a musician, a painter, and an orator of
extraordinary power. His contribution to Bengali literature is greater than that to
English literature, but still he holds a significant place in Indoanglian poetry. of his
important works are: The Gardener (1913), The Crescent Moon (1913), Fruit
Gathering (1916), Stray Birds (1917), Lover’s Gift and Crossing (1918),
Fireflies (1928), and The Child (1931). Tagore sough beauty and happiness
everywhere, and considered Main in relation to Nature, the Universe, and God.
Love, Devotion, Friendship, Natural piety, and Childhood find room in his writings;
He may properly be called the ‘innovator’ of prose-poems inIndo-anglian literature.

11.3 Reading the Castaway

11.3.1 The Castaway (Text)
Towards evening the storm was at its height. From the terrific downpour of
rain, the crash of thunder, and the repeated flashes of lightning, you might
think that a battle of the gods and demons was raging in the skies. Black
clouds waved like Flags of Doom. The Ganges was flashed into a fury, and
the trees of the gardens on either bank swayed from side to side with sighs
and groans.
In a closed room of one of the riverside houses at Chandernagore, a hus-
band and his wife were seated on a bed spread on the floor, intently dis-
cussing. An erthen lamp burned beside them.
The husband, Sharat was saying. “I wish you would stay on a few days
more; you would then be able to return home quite strong again.”
The wife, Kiran was saying: I’ have quite recovered already. It will not,
cannot possibly, do me any harm to go home now’.
Every married person will at once understand that the conversation was not
quite so brief as I have reported it. The matter was not difficult, but the
arguments for and against did not advance it towards a solution. Like a
rudderless boat, the discussion kept turning round and round the same point’
and at last it threatened to be overwhelmed in a flood of tears.
Sharat said: “The doctor thinks you should stop here a few days longer.”

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Kiran replied: ‘Your doctor knows everything!’
“Well’, said Sharat, ‘you know that just now all sorts of illness are abroad.
You would do well to stop here a month or two more’.
‘And at this moment I suppose every one in this place is perfectly well!
What had happened was this: Kiran was a universal favorite with her family
and neighbors, so that, when she fell seriously ill, they were al anxious. The
village wiseacres thought it shameless for her husband to make so much fuss
about a mere wife and even to suggest a change of air, and asked if Sharat
supposed that no woman had ever ill before, or whether he had found out
that the folk of the place to which he meant to take her were immortal. Did
he imagine that the writ of Flate did not run there? But Sharat and his mother
turned a deaf ear to them, thinking that the little life of their darling was of
greater importance than the united wisdom of a village. People are wont to
reason thus when danger threatens their loved once. So sharat went to
chandernagore; and Kiran recovered, though she was still very weak. There
was a pinched look on her face which filled the beholder with pity, andmade
the heart tremble, as he thought how narrowly she had escaped death.
Kiran was fond of society and amusement; the oneliness of her riverside villa
did not suit her at all. There was nothing to do, there were no interesting
neighbours, and she hated to be busy all day with medicine and dieting. there
was no fun in measuring doses and making fomentations. Such was the
subject discussed in their closed room on this stormy evening.
So long as Kiran deigned to argue, there was a chance of a fair fight. When
she ceased to reply, and with a toss of her head disconsolately looked the
other way, the poor man was disarmed. He was on the point of surrendering
unconditionally when a servant shouted a message through the shut door.
Sharat got up, and, opening the door, learnt that a boat had beeen upset in
the storm, and that one of the occupants, a young Brahmin boy, had suc-
ceeded in swimming ashore in their garden.
Kiran was at once her own sweet self, and set to work to get out some dry
clothes for the boy. She then warmed a cup of milk, and invited him to her
room.
The boy had long curly hair, big expressive eyes, and no sign yet of hair on
the face. Kiran, after getting him to drink some milk, asked him all about
himself.
He told her that his name was Nilkanta, and that he belonged to a theatrical
troupe. They were coming to play in a neighboring villa when the boat had
suddenly foundered in the storm. He had no idea what had become of his
companions. He was a good swimmer, and had just managed to reach the
shore.
The boy stayed with them. His narrow escape form a terrible death made

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Kiran take a warm interest in him. Sharat thought the boy’s appearance at
this moment rather a good thing, as his wife would now have something to
amuse her, and might be persuaded to stay on for some time longer. Her
mother-in-law, too, was pleased at the prospect of helping their Brahminguest
by her kindness. And Nilkanta himself was delighted at this double escape
from his master and from the other world, as well as at finding a home in
this wealthy family.
But in a short while Sharat and his mother changed their opinion, and longed
for his departure. The boy found a secret pleasure in smoking sharat’s
hookath; he would also calmly go off in pouring rain with Sharat’s best silk
umbrella for a stroll through the village, and make friends with all whom he
met. Moreover, he had got hold of a mongrel village dog which he patted
so recklessly that it came indoors with muddy paws, and left tokens of its
visit on Sharat’s spotless bed. Then he gathered about him a devoted band
of boys of all sorts and sizes, and the result was that not a solitary mango
in the neighborhood had a chance of ripening that season.
There is no doubt that Kiran had a hand in spoiling the boy. Sharat often
warned her about it, but she would not listen to him. she made a dandy of
him with Sharat’s cast off clothes, and gave him new ones too. and because
she felt drawn towards him, and had curiosity to know more about him, she
was constantly calling him to her own room. After her bath and midday meal
Kiran would be seated on the bedstead with her betel-leaf box by her side;
and while her maid combed and dried her hair, Nikanta would sit in front
and recite pieces out of his repertory with appropriate gesture and song, his
elf-locks waving wildly. Thus the long afternoon hours passed merrily away.
kiran would often try to persuade Sharat to sit with her as one of the
audience, but Sharat, who had taken a cordial dislike to the by, refused, nor
could Nilkanta do his part half so well when Sharat was there. His mother
would sometimes be lured by the hope of hearing scacred names in the
recitation; but love of her midday sleep speedily over came devotion, and
she lay lapped in dreams.
The boy often got his ears boxed and pulled by Sharat, but as this was
nothing to what he had been used to as a member of the troupe, he did not
mind it in the least. In the short experience of the world he had come to the
conclusion that, as the earth consisted of land and water, sohuman life was
made of eatings and beatings and that the beatings largely predominated.
It was hard to tell Nikanta’s age. If it was about fourteen or fifteen, then his
face was too old for his years if seventeen or eighteen, then it wass too
young. The fact was that, joining the theatrical band when very young, he
had played the parts of Radhika, damayanti, sita, and bidya’s companion.
A thoughtful providence so arranged things that he grew to the exact stature
that his manger required, and then growth ceased. Since everyone saw how
small he was, and he himself felts small, he did not receive due respect for
his years. Thease causes, natural and artificial, combined to make him some-

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times seem immature for seventeen years, and at other times a lad of four-
teen but far too knowing for seventeen. And as no sign of hair appeared on
his face, the confusion became greater. Either because he worked or be-
cause heused language beyond his years, his lips puckered into lines that
showed him to be old and hard; but innocence and youth shone in his large
eyes. I fancy that his heart remained young, but the hot glare of publicity had
been a forcing house that ripened untimely his outward aspect.
In he quiet shelter of Sharat’s house and garden at chandernagore, Nature
had leisure to work her way unimpeded. He had lingered in a kind of
unnatural youth, but now he silently and swiftly overpasses that stage. His
seventeen or eighteen years came to adequate revelation. no one observed
the cage, and its first sign was the this, that when Kiran treated him like a
boy, he felt ashamed. When the gay Kiran one day proposed that he should
play the part of lady’s companion, the idea of women’s dress hurt him,
though he could not say why. So now, when she called for hims to act over
again his old characters, he disappeared. It never occurred to him that he
was even now not much more than a lad-of-all work in a strolling company.
He even made up his mind to pick up a little education form Sharat’s factor.
but, because Nilkanta was the pet of his master’s wife, the factor could not
endure the sight of him. Also, his rstless training made it impossible for him
to keep his mind long engaged; presently, the alphabet did a mistry dance
before his eyes. He would sit long enough with an open book on his lap,
leaning against a champak bush beside the Ganges. The waves sighed
below, boats floated past, birds flitted and twittered restlessly above. What
thoughts passed through his mind as fhe looked down on the book he alone
knew, if indeed he did know. He never advanced from one word to another,
but the glorious thought that he was actually reading a book filled his sould
with exultation. Whatever a boy went by, he lifted his book, and pretended
to be reading hard, shouting at the top of his voice. But the energy dropped
as soon as the audience was gone.
Formerly he sang his songs automatically, but now their tunes stirred in his
mind. Their word were of little import, and full of trifling alliteration. Even the
little meaning they had was beyond his comprehension; yet when he sang the
familiar songs, he felt as if transported to another world. this familiar earth
and his own poor life became music, and he was transformed. That tale of
goose and king’s daughter flung upon the mirror of his mind a picture of
surpassing beauty. It is impossible to say what he imagined he himself was,
but the destitute little slave of the theatrical troupe faded from him memory.
When with evening the child of want lies down, dirty and hungry, in his
squalid home, and hearts of prince and princess and fabled gold, then in the
dark hovel with its dim flickering candle, his mind springs free from her
bonds of poverty and misery, and walks in fresh beauty and glowing raiment,
strong beyond all fear of hindrance, through that fairy realm where all is
possible.

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Even so, this drudge of wandering players fashioned himself and his world
anew, as he moved in spirit amid his songs, The lapping water, rustling
leaves, and calling birds; the helpless, the Godforsaken,her gracious, lovely
face, her rosy feet as soft as flower-petals; all these by some magic became
one with the music of his song. When the singing ended, the mirage faded,
and Nilkanta of the stage appeared again, with his wild elf-locks. Fresh from
the complaints from his neighbor, the owner of the despoiled, mango-or-
chard, Sharat would come and box his ears, and cuff him. the boy Nilkanta,
the misleader of adoring youths went forth once more, to make ever new
mischief by land and water and in the branches that are above the earth.
Shortly after advent of Nilkanta, Sharat’s younger brother, Satish came to
spend his college vacation with them. Kiran was hugely pleased at finding
a fresh occupation. She and Satish were of the same age, and the time
passed pleasantly in games and quarrels and makings-up and laughter and
even tears. Suddenly she would clasp him over the eyes. From behind, with
vermillionstained hand, she would write ‘monkey’ on his back and some-
times bolt the door on him from outside amidst peals of laughter. Satish in
his turn did not take things lying down; he would take her keys and rings,
he would put pepper among her betel; he would tie he to the bed when she
was not looking.
Meanwhile, heaven only knows what possessed poor Nilkanta. He was
suddenly filled with a bitterness when he must avenge on somebody or
something. He thrashed his devoted boy-follower for no fault, and sent them
away crying. He would kick his pet mongrel till it made the skies resound
with its whinings. When he went out for a walk, he would litter his path with
twings and leaves beaten from the roadside shrubs with his cane.
Kiran liked to see people enjoying good fare. Nilkanta had an immense
capacity for eating, and never refused a good thing, however often it was
offered. So Kiran liked to send for him to have his meals in her presence,
and ply him with delicacies, happy in the bliss of seeing this Brahmin boy eat
to satiety. After Satish’s arrival she had much less spare time on her hands,
and was seldom present when Nilkanta’s meals were served. Before, her
absence made no difference to the boy’s appetite, and he would not rise till
he had drained his cup of milk, and rinsed it thoroughly with water.
But now, if Kiran was not present to ask him to try this and that, he was
miserable, and nothing tasted right. He would get up without eating much,
and say to the serving maid in a choking voice: ‘I am not hungry.’ He thought
in imagination that the news of his repearted refusal, ‘I am not hungey’, He
thought in imagination that the news of his repeated refusal, ‘I am not hungery’,
would reach Kiran, he pictured her concern, and hoped that she would send
for him, and press him to eat. But nothing of the sort happened. Kiran never
knew, and never sent for him; and the maid finished whatever he left. He
would then put out the lamp in his room, and throw himself on his bed in
the darkness, burying his head in the pillow in a paroxysm of sobs. What

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was his grievance? Against whom? And from whom did he expect redress?
At last, when none else came, Mother sleep soothed with her soft caresses
the wounded heart of the motherless lad.
Nikanta came to the unshakable conviction that Satish was poisoning Kiran’s
mind against him. If Kiran was absent-minded, and had not her usual smile,
he would jump to the conclusion that some trick of Satish had made her
angry with him. He took to praying to the gods, with all the fevour of his
hate, to make him at the next rebirth Satish, and Satish him. He had an idea
that a Brahmin’s wrath could never be in vain; and the more he tried to
consume Satish with the fire of his curses, the more did his own heart burn
within him. And upstairs he would hear Satish laughing and joking with his
sister-in-law.
Nilkanta never dared openly to show his enmity to Satish. but he would
contrive a hundred petty ways of causing him annoyance. When Satish went
for a swim in the river, and left his soap on the steps of the bathing place,
on coming back for it he would find that it had disappeared. Once he found
his favourite striped tunic floating past him on the water, and thought it had
been blown away by the wind.
One day Kiran, desiring to entertain Satish, sent for Nikanta for recital as
usual but he stood there in gloomy silence. Quite surprised, Kiran asked him
what was the matter. But he remained silent. and when again pressed by her
to repeat some particular favorite piece of hers, he answered ‘I don’t re-
member’, and walked away.
Al last the time came for their return home. Everybody was busy packing
up. Satish was going with them. But to Nikanta nobody said a word. The
question whether he was to go or not seemed not to go or not seemed not
to have occurred toanybody.
The question, as a matter of fact, had been raised by Kiran, who had
proposed to take him along with them. But he husband and his mother and
brooder had all objected so strenuously that she let the matter drop. A
couple of days before they were to start, she sent for the boy, and with kind
words adised him to go back to his own home.
So many days had he el neglected that this touch of kindness was too much
for him, he burst into tears. Kiran’s eyes were also brimming over. she was
filled with remorse at the thought that she had created a tie of afectrion,
which cold not be permanent.
But Satish was much annoyed at the blubbering of this overgrown boy.
‘Why does the fool stand there howling instead of speaking?’ said he. when
Kiran scolded him for an unfeeling creature, he replied. ‘Sister, you do not
understand. You are too good and trustful. This fellow turns up from the
Lord knows where, and is treated like a king. Naturally the tiger has no wish
to become a mouse again. And he has evidently discovered that there is
nothing like a tear or two to soften your hear.’

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Nilkanta hurriedly left the spot. He felt he would like to be a knife to cut
Satish to pieces; a needle to pierce him through and through; a fire to burn
him to ashes. But Satish was not even scared, it was only his own heart the
bled and bled.
Satish had brought with him from calcutta a grand inkstand. The inkpot was
set in a mother-of-pearl boat drawn by a German-silver goose supporting
a penholder. It was a great favorite of his, and he cleaned it carefully every
day with an old silk handkerchief. Kiran would laugh and, tapping the silver
bird’s beak, would say –
Twoice-born bird ah ! wherefore stirred to wrong our royal lady?
and the usual war of words would break out between her and her brother-
in-law.
The day before they were to start, the inkstand was missing, and could
nowhere be found. Kiran smiled, and said : Brotehr-in-law, our goose has
flown off to look for your Damayanti’.
But Satish was in a great rage. He was certainthat Nilkanta had stolen it –
for several people said they had seen him prowling about the room the night
before. He had the accused brought before him. Kiran also was there. ‘You
have stolen my inkstand, you thief,’ he blurted out. ‘Bring it back at once.’
Nilkanta had always taken punishment from sharat, deserved or underserved,
with perfect equanimity. But, whenhe was called a theif in Kiran’s presence,
his eyes blazed with a fierce anger, his breast swelled, andhisthroat choked.
if Satish had said another word he would have flown at him like a wild cat
and used his nail like claws.
Kiran was greatly distressed at the scence, and taking the boy into another
room said in her sweet, kind way : ‘Nilu, if you really have taken that
inkstand give it to me quietly, and I shall se that no one says another word
to you about it.’ Big tears coursed down the boy’s cheeks, till at last he hid
his face in his hands, and wept bitterly. Kiran came back from he room, and
said : ‘I am sure Nilkanta has not taken the inkstand’. Sharat and Satish
were equally positive that no other than Nilkanta could have done it.
But Kiran said determinedly: ‘Never’.
Sharat wanted to cross-examine the boy, but his wife refused to allow it.
Then Satish suggested that his room and box should be searched. And Kiran
said: ‘If you dare do such a thing I will never, never forgive you. You shall
not spy on the poor innocent boy. And as she spoke, her wonderful eyes
filled with tears. That settled the matter, and effectually prevented any further
molestation of Nilkanta!
Kiran’s heart overflowed with pity at this attempted outrage on a homeless
lad. She got two new suits of clothes and a pair of shoes, and with these
and a banknote in her hand she quietly went into Nilkanta’s room in the

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 evening. She intended to put these parting presents into his box as a sur-
prise. The box itself had been her gift.
From her bunch of keys she selected one that fitted, and noiselessly opened
the box. It was so jumbled up with odds and ends that the new clothes
would not go in. So she thought she had better take everything out and pack
the box for him. At first knives, tops, kite-flying reels, bamboo twigs, pol-
ished shells for peeling green mangoes, botoms of broken tumblers and such
like things dear to a boy’s heart were discovered. Then there came a layer
of linen and then emerged the missing inkstand, goose and all!
Kiran, with hushed face, sat down helplessly with he inkstand in her hand,
puzzled and wondering.
In the meantime, Nilkanta had come into the room from behind without
Kiran knowing it. He had seen the whole thing, and thought that Kiran had
come lthief to catch him in his thieving- and that his deed was out. How
could he ever hope to convince her that he was not a thief, and that only
revenge had prompted him t take the inkstand, which he meant to throw into
the river at the first chance? In a weak moment he had put it in his box
insted, ‘He was not a thief’, his heart cried out, ‘not a thief! Then what was
he? What could he say? He had stolen, and yet he was not a thief! He culd
never explain to Kiran how grievously wrong she was in talking him for a
thief; how could he bear the thought that she had tried to spy on him?
At last Kiran with a deep sigh replaced the inksand in the box, and, as if
she were the thief herself, covered it up with the linen and the trinkets as they
were before; and at the top she placed the presnets together with the
banknote which she had brought for him.
The next day the boy was nowhere to be found. The villagers had not seen
him; the police cold discover no trace of him. Said Sharat : ‘Now, as a
matter of curiosity, let us have a look at his box.’ But Kiran was obstinate
in her refusal to allow that to be done.
She had the box brought up to he own room; and taking out the inkstand
alone, threw it into the river.
The whole family went home. In a day the garden became desolate. And
only that starving mongrel of Nilkanta’s remained prowling along the river-
bank, whining and whining as if its heart would break.
11.3.2 Glossary
terrific : terrible
demons : devils
ranging : getting violent, angry
doom : ruin, death
rudderless :

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boat : boat without a broad piece of wood hinged verti-
cally
wiseacres : wisemen
fuss : unnecessary nervous agitation
beholder : spectator
villa : village
dose : amount of medicine to be taken at one time
fomentation : a process of putting warm water, clothes, lotion, etc.
on a part of the body to lessen pain
deign : condescend, be kind or gracious enough
disconsolately : without hope or comfort
ashore : on to the shore, bank
troupe : company (especially of actors)
foundered : fillled with water and sank, caused to break dow
stroll : quiet, unhurried walk
calmly : quietly
mongrel : dog of mixed breed
recklessly : without thinking about consequences
muddly : full of mud
paws : animal’s foot that has claws
dandy : dressed up
repertory : all the plays, songs, etc. witch an actor / musician has
prepared to perform
lured : tempted
sacred : holy
predominated : became superior in numbers, strength, influence, etc.

puckered : drew or came together into small wrinkles

glare : unpleasant light
unimpeded : unimpeded
lingered : became slow in going away
redecoration : making known of something secret
gay : happy, cheerful
endure : suffer, undergo pain, suffering
learning : putting in a sloping position
exaltation : happiness

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stirred : moved
trifling : thing or event of little importance
alliteration : repetition of the first sound or letter
surpassing : matchless
destitute : a person without food, clothes and other thing
necessary for life.
squalid : dirty
hovel : small house or cottage
mirage : effect (produced by hot air condition)
faded : disappeared
spoiled : robed, plundered
cuff : give somebody a llight blow with open hand
adoring : here it means ‘budding’
advent : event
makings up : compromises
contrive : invent, design
annoyance : anger, irritation
enmity : condition of being an enemy
whinings : making a high pitched sound, complaining
litter : make untidy
ply : work with (v)
delicacies : kinds of food
satiety : feeling of satisfaction
rinsed : washes with clean water to remove unwanted
substance
appetite : physical desire for food
redress : set right again, make up for
paroxysm : sudden attack or outburst
grievance : complaint
conviction : firm belief
fervour : warmth of feeling
wrath : anger
strenuously : with great efforts, energy, power
remorse : repentance
blubbering : weeping noisily

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 blurted : told something suddenly and thoughlessly
equanimity : calmness of mind or temper
distressed : cause great pain, suffering, etc.
molestation : intentional trouble, suffering
grievously : causing grief or suffering
trinkets : ornaments or jewels of small value
prowling : going about – cautiously looking for a chance to get
food.

11.3.3 Summary

The story opens with the details of a cloudy atmosphere. In a closed room
at Chandranagore are sitting Sharat, the husband; and Kiran, the wife. The
husband urges the wife to stay a few days more so that she may recover
completely.
What had happened a few days ago was that Kiran had fallen ill. This made
all the friends and relatives of Kiran very anxious, and despite the pinching
remarks by the wiseacres of the village to which they have taken ea thinking
that the life of their darling was moer important for them, they decided to
take Kiran to Chandanagore so that she may recover completely. Kiran was
fond of ‘society’ (company) and the loneliness of the riverside village did not
suit her at all. she also hated to be busy the whole day with medicine and
dieting. suddenly Sharat heard a loud shouting and opening the door learnt
that a boat had been upset in the storm and one of the ocupants of the boat
had succeeded in swimming ashore the garden. The name of the Brahman
boy, who had been able to swim across the garden, was Nilkanta. He
belonged to a theatrical troupe. Kiran took warm interest in him. Sharat
thought that they boy’s appearance at this moment was a good thing as it
would give his wife something to amuse her and she might be persuaded to
stay on for a longer period of time. Nilkanta was also delighted at his double
escape-from his master and the other world. But in a shortwhile Sharat and
his mother changed their opinion and longed for Nilkanta’s departure. The
boy was spoiled because of the generious attitude of Kiran towards him.
She made the boy a dandy. sharat often warned her but she would not listen
to him. After her midday meal, Kiran would sit on the bedstead and ask
Nilkanta to recite pieces from his repertory with appropriate gesture and
song. Nilkanta often got beatings form Sharat, and Nilkanta, in return, had
come to believe that as the earth consisted of land and water similarly the
human life was made up of eatings and beatings.
After the advent of Nilkanta, Sharat’s younger brother, Satish had come to
spend his vacation with them. Kiran found a huge pleasure at finding a fresh
occupant. Satish and Kiran were of the same age, and the time passed
pleasantly in games and quarrels, laughter and even tears. Meanwhile Nilkanta
suddenly filled with a bitterness, which he must avenge on somebody or

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 something. He kicked his pet mongrel and thrashed his devoted band of boy
followers for no fault. Nilkanta had his meal in the presence of Kiran. After
the arrival of Satish, she had much less spare time, and was seldom present
when Nilkanta’s meals were served. In the absence of Kiran, nothing tasted
right to him. He would get up without eating mcuh and say in a choking
voice “I am not hungry”. He would, then, put out the lamp in his room and
throw himself on his bed in the darkness burying his head in the pillow until
the mother Sleep soothed his wounded heart with her soft caresses.
Nilkanta had the unshakable conviction that Satish was poisoning Kiran’s
mind against him. He, therefore, longed to be Satish in the next rebirth. At
last the time came for their return to their native place. Everybody was busy
packing up, but to Nilkanta nobody said a word. Kiran had proposed to
take him along with them but Sharat and his mother had objected to it so
strrenuously that she let the matter drop. A couple of days before they were
to start, he sent for the boy and advised him to go back to his home town.
Both Kiran and Nilkanta became emotional and burst into tears. Sharat and
Satish, however, said that the tears of the boy were “Crocodile tears” only.
Then the day before they were to start, the inkstand was missing. Satish and
Sharad were of the view that Nikanta had stolen it but Kiran strongly
protested. She did not even accept the idea of Satish that his room and box
must be searched.
Kiran got two new suits of clothes and a pair of shoes, and with these and
a banknote she quietly went into Nilkanta’s room in the evening. She opened
the box, and to her surprise she found amongst other things the missing
inkstand also. In the meantime, Nilkanta entered the room without Kiran
being aware of it. He wanted to say to Kiran that he had not committed the
theft but everything was done out of malice. Kiran with a deep sigh replaced
the inkstand in the box and also placed all her gifts at the top. Next day, the
boy left them. Now Sharat wanted that his box must be searched but Kiran
did not allow this. She took the box in her room, took out the inkstand and
threw it into the river and the family went home. Only Nikanta’s mongrel
remained prowling along the river bank.

11.4 Liteary Devices

‘The Castaway’ as we have said earlier is a famous short story written by
Rabindranath Tagore. The short story is a comparatively recent development in
English liteature. It is not merely a greatly shortened novel. It shares, of course, the
usual constituents of all fiction – plot, character and setting – but they cannot be
treated with the same detail as in a novel. Sometimes one of the three elements may
predominate over the other two. In other words, the writer may construct a story
of plot alone, with characters and seting confined strictly to its requirenments, or of
character also, with plot and seting just sufficient to display it, or of, setting alone,
with plot and character as mere subsidiaries. ‘The Castaway’ is a story in which
characters, predominate over plot and setting. Tagore’s ‘The Castaway’, like other
major stories of Tagore is remarkable for its poeticality and humanity. The following

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 lines from the story prove this point:
When with evening the child of want lies down, dirty and hungry in his squalid
home, and hears of prince and princess and fabled gold, then in the dark hovel
with its dim flickering candle, his minds springs free from her bonds of poverty
and misery, and walks in fresh beauty and glowing reiment, strong beyond all
fear of hindrance, through the fairy realm where all is possible.
Even so, this drudge of wandering players fashioned himself and his worls
anew, as he moved in spirit amid his songs. The lapping water, rustling leaves
and calling birds, the goddess who had given shelter to him, the helpless, the
God-forsaken; her gracious, lovely face, her exquisite arms with their shining
bangles, her rosy feet as soft as soft as flower-petals; all these by some magic
became one with the music of his song. When the singing ended, the mirage
faded........

11.5 Let us Sum Up

In this unit we have thrown light on Rabindranath Tagore, a great literary figure and
his contribution to the field of fiction. Besides the text of ‘The Castaway’, the unit
consists of the difficult word meanings and its summary. The unit also discusses the
Short Story as a literary genre.

11.6 Suggested Readings

1. K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar : Indian Writing in English Sterling, New Delhi.
2. Rabindra Nath Tagore : Gitanjali
3. B. Prasad: A Background to the Study of English Literature, Macmillian.

11.7 Question and Answers

(a) Answer the following questions in two-three lines each
(i) How does Nilkanta entertain Kiran?
Ans He entertains Kiran by reciting songs from his repertory with appropriate
gesture.
(ii) Name the gift items given by Kiran to Nilkanta at the time of departure.
Ans Tow new suits of clothes, a pair of shoes and a bank note were given
to Nilkanta by Kiran as gift items.
(iii) What is the firm belief of Nikanta? How has he formed this conviction?
Ans. Nilkanta often got beatings from Sharat and he, in return, had come to
believe that as the earth consisted of land and water, similarly the human
life was made up of eatings and beatings.
(iv) Why can’t Kiran take Nilkanta along with the family ?
Ans. Owing to the protest of Sharat and his mother, Kiran could not take

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 Nilkanta along with the family.
(v) Who is Satish ? Why is he not liked by Nilkanta ?
Ans. Satish is the younger brother of Sharat. He is not liked by Nilkanta
because after the arrival of Satish, Kiran remians busy with him and is not
able to spare time for Nilkanta.
(b) Answer to the following questions should not exceed 300 words.
(vi) Draw a character sketch of Nilkanta.
Ans. Nilkanta is the key figure in the story ‘The Castaway’ written by
Rabindranath Tagore. He is the castaway and the story revolves around
him and Kiran. He is a Brahmin boy. He belonged to a theatrical troupe.
He was one of the occupants of the boat that had been upset in the
storm, and he had been able in swimming ashore the garden. Nilkanta
was delighted at his double escape – from his master and the other
world.
Kiran took warm interest in him. Sharat also thought that the boy’s
appearance was a good thing as his wife would get a comppany now.
However, in a shortwhile Sharat and his mother changed their opinion
and longed for Nilkanta’s departure.
Kiran’s generosity towards the boy had spoiled him. She made the boy
a dandy. Sharat often warned her but she would sit on the bedstead and
ask Nilkanta to recite songs. After the arrival of Satish, Kiran was not
able to spare much time for Nilkanta. Nothing tasted good to Nilkanta
in the absence of Kiran. He would get up without eating much and say
in a chocking voice “I am not hungry.” At the time of departure, Kiran
proposed to take Nilkanta but Sharat and his mother objected to it so
much that she had to let the matter drop. A couple of days before they
were to start, Kiran sent for the boy and advised him to go back to his
hometown. At this both Kiran and Nilkanta became emotional and burst
into tears.
Sharat did not like the boy. Nilkanta would often get beatings form
Sharat and he (Nilkanta) in return had come to believe that the world
was made up of eatings and beatings.
Nikanta felt a rival in Satish, the younger brother of Sharat. He believed
that Satish was poisoning Kiran’s mind against him. He, therefore, longed
to be Satish in the next rebirth. He, out of malice, also stole the inkstand
that belonged to Satish. When his theft (not actually theft but the mali-
cious act) was discovered, he from his heart of hearts wanted to say that
he had not committed the theft, but all was done out of malice for Satish.
In bried, Nilkanta represents the trained rustic foks in the story. He
derives pleasure from all those activities which normally form part of a
rural lower middle class boy.

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 UNIT - 12
Khushwant Singh : The Portrait of a Lady
Structure
12.0 Objectives
12.1 Introduction
12.2 About the Author
12.3 Reading the Text
12.3.1 The Story : The Portrait of a Lady (Text)
12.3.2 Glossary
12.3.3 Summary
12.4 Model Explanations
12.5 Let‘s Sum Up
12.6 Suggested Readings
12.7 Questions
12.8 Answers
12.0 Objectives
The purpose of this unit is to enable you to comprehend the salient features of a
prose-portrait by discussing in detail The Portrait of a Lady written by Khushwant
Singh, a famous modern Indian writer.

12.1 Introduction
In this unit we have dealt with Khushwant Singh’s The Portrait of a Lady,
comprising an account of the author’s grandmother. Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary of Current English defines a portrait as a painted picture, drawing or
a photograph, of a person or an animal. In literature, it refers to vivid description
in words (of a living being); these living beings can be imaginative also as is the case
with Chaucer’s portrait gallery in the Prologue (you will learn about this in higher
classes).

12.2 About the Author

Born in 1915 in pre-Partition Punjab, Khushwant Singh, perhaps India’s most
widely read and controversial writer, has been witness to most of the major events
in modern Indian history—from Independence and Partition to the Emergency and
Operation Blue Star—and has known many of the figures who have shaped it. With
clarity and candour, he writes of leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi,
the terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the talented and scandalous painter Amrita
Shergil, and everyday people who became butchers during Partition. Writing of his
own life, too, Khushwant Singh remains unflinchingly forthright. He records his
professional triumphs and failures as a lawyer, journalist, writer and Member of
Parliament; the comforts and disappointments in his marriage of over sixty years; his
first, awkward sexual encounter; his phobia of ghosts and his fascination with death;
the friends who betrayed him, and also those whom he failed. He has a way of

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 observing other people and telling a story that is almost unmatched.

12.3 Reading the Text

Now read this Prose-Portrait carefully:
12.3.1 The Portrait of a Lady (Text)
My grandmother, like everybody’s grandmother, was an old woman. She
had been old and wrinkled for the twenty years that I had known her.
People said that she had once been young and pretty and had even had a
husband, but that was hard to believe. My grandfather’s portrait hung above
the mantelpiece in the drawing room. He wore a big turban and loose-fitting
clothes. His long, white beard covered the best part of his chest and he
looked at least a hundred years old. He did not look the sort of person who
would have a wife or children. He looked as if he could only have lots and
lots of grandchildren. As for my grandmother being young and pretty, the
thought was almost revolting. She often told us of the games she used to
play as a child. That seemed quite absurd and undignified on her part and
we treated it like the fables of the prophets she used to tell us.
She had always been short and fat and slightly bent. Her face was a criss-
cross of wrinkles running from everywhere to everywhere. No, we were
certain she had always been as we had known her. Old, so terribly old that
she could not have grown older, and had stayed at the same age for twenty
years. She could never have been pretty; but she was always beautiful. She
hobbled about the house in spotless white with one hand resting on her waist
to balance her stoop and the other telling the beads of her rosary. Her silver
locks were scattered untidily over her pale, puckered face, and her lips
constantly moved inaudible prayer. Yes, she was beautiful. She was like the
winter landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure white serenity breathing
peace and contentment.
My grandmother and I were good friends. My parents left me with her when
they went to live in the city and we were constantly together. She used to
wake me up in the morning and get me ready for school. She said her
morning prayer in a monotonous sing-song while she bathed and dressed me
in the hope that I would listen and get to know it by heart; I listened because
I loved her voice but never bothered to learn it. Then she would fetch my
wooden slate which she had already washed and plastered with yellow
chalk, a tiny earthen ink-pot and a red pen, tie them all in a bundle and hand
it to me. After a breakfast of a thick, stale chapatti with a little butter and
sugar spread on it, we went to school. She carried several stale chapattis
with her for the village dogs.
My grandmother always went to school with me because the school was
attached to the temple. The priest taught us the alphabet and the Morning
Prayer. While the children sat in rows on either side of the verandah singing
the alphabet or the prayer in a chorus, my grandmother sat inside reading

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the scriptures. When we had both finished, we would talk back together.
This time the village dog would meet us at the temple door. They followed
us to our home growling and fighting with each other for the chapattis we
threw to them.
When my parents were comfortably settled in the city, they sent for us. That
was a turning point in our friendship. Although we shared the same room,
my grandmother no longer came to school with me. I used to go to an
English school in a motor bus. There were no dogs in the streets and she
took to feeding sparrows in the courtyard of our city house.
As the years rolled by we saw less of each other. For some time she would
continue to wake me up and get me ready for school. When I came back
she would ask me what the teacher had taught me. I would tell her English
words and little things of western science and learning, the law of gravity,
Archimedes’ principle, the world being round, etc. This made her unhappy.
She could not help me with my lessons. She did not believe in the things they
taught at the English school and was distressed that there was no teaching
about God and the scriptures. One day I announced that we were being
given music lessons. She was very disturbed. To her, music had lewd
associations. It was the monopoly of harlots and beggars and not meant for
gentlefolk. She said nothing but her silence meant disapproval. She rarely
talked to me after that.
When I went up to University, I was given a room of my own. The common
link of friendship was snapped. My grandmother accepted her seclusion
with resignation. She rarely left her spinning wheel to talk to anyone. From
sunrise to sunset she sat by her wheel spinning and reciting prayers. Only in
the afternoon she relaxed for a while to feed the sparrows. While she sat
in the verandah breaking the bread into little bits, hundreds of little birds
collected round her creating a veritable bedlam of chirrupings. Some came
and perched on her legs, others on her shoulders. Some even sat on her
head. She smiled but never shooed them away. It used to be the happiest
half-hour of the day for her.
When I decided to go abroad for further studies, I was sure my grandmother
would be upset. I would be away for five years, and at her age one could
never tell. But my grandmother could. She was not even sentimental. She
came to leave at the railway station but did not talk or show any emotion.
Her lips moved in prayer, her mind was lost in prayer. Her fingers were busy
telling the beads of her rosary. Silently she kissed my forehead, and when
I left I cherished the moist imprint as perhaps the last sign of physical contact
between us.
But that was not so. After five years I came back home and was met by
her at the station. She did not look a day older. She still had no time for
words, and while she clasped me in her arms I could hear her reciting her
prayers. Even on the first day of my arrival, her happiest moments were with
her sparrows whom she fed longer and with frivolous rebukes.

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 In the evening a change came over her. She did not pray. She collected the
women of the neighbourhood, got an old drum and started to sing. For
several hours she thumped the sagging skins of the dilapidated drum and
sang of the home- coming of warriors. We had to persuade her to stop to
avoid overstraining. That was the first time since I had known her that she
did not pray.
The next morning she was taken ill. It was a mild fever and the doctor told
us that it would go. But my grandmother thought differently. She told us that
her end was near. She said that, since only a few hours before the close of
the last chapter of her life she had omitted to pray. She was not going to
waste any more time talking to us.
We protested. But she ignored our protests. She lay peacefully in bed
praying and telling her beads. Even before we could suspect, her lips stopped
moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. A peaceful pallor spread
on her face and we knew that she was dead.
We lifted her off the bed and as is customary, laid her on the ground and
covered her with a red shroud. After a few hours of mourning we left her
alone to make arrangements for her funeral. In the evening we went to her
room with a crude stretcher to take her to be cremated. The sun was setting
and had lit her room and verandah with a blaze of golden light. We stopped
half-way in the courtyard. All over the verandah and in her room right up
to where she lay dead and stiff wrapped in the red shroud, thousands of
sparrows sat scattered on the floor. There was no chirruping. We felt sorry
for the birds and my mother fetched some bread for them. She broke it into
little crumbs, the way my grandmother used to, and threw it to them. The
sparrows took no notice of the bread. When we carried my grandmother’s
corpse off, they flew away quietly. Next morning the sweeper swept the
bread crumbs into the dustbin.
12.3.2 Glossary
Wrinkles : Small fold or line in the skin or on the face
Hobbled : Walked as when lame
Serenity : Seriousness, gravity
Growling : a low threatening sound
Lewd : Indecent, lustful
Harlots : Prostitutes
Seclusion : loneliness
Veritable : Rightly named
Bedlam : Asylum for mad people, scene of noisy confusion
Chirrupings : Series of chirps
Frivolous : Not serious or important, pleasure loving

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 Sagging : Sinking down in the middle water under pressure
Dilapidated : Falling to pieces, in a state of disrepair
Pallor : Paleness, especially of the face
Customary : In agreement with, according to traditions
Crumbs : Very small piece of dry food, a bit of bread or cake
12.3.3 Summary
The Portrait of a Lady deals with an account of the author’s old
grandmother. She was very old and wrinkled. She was fat, short and bent.
She moved about the house with her rosary in her hand. She was always
dressed in white. Her hair was white. Her lips always moved in prayer. She
would wake up the author and prepare him for school. She went with him
to school. The school was attached to the temple. While children learnt
alphabet, she sat inside and read religious books. After school they came
back together. She gave bread to village dogs. After sometime they went to
the city. The author was now in an English school. The grandmother could
not help him with his lessons. She was not contented with what he learnt
there. The writer told her that he was taught music. The grandmother did not
like it. For her, music was meant for prostitutes. She was unhappy because
there was no religious teaching at that school. There were no stray dogs.
She took to feeding sparrows.
The author then left for England for further studies. She did not feel upset.
She went to the station to see him off. At the time of parting, she kissed the
author. When he returned after five years, she came to the railway station
to receive him. She did not look even a day older. Even now she was saying
her prayer. In the evening she did not pray. She brought a drum. She called
women from her neighbourhood. She sang songs to celebrate the return of
her grandson. The next morning she fell ill. She lay peacefully in her bed
praying. She died peacefully. Her death affected even the sparrows. They
did not chirp. They ignored the crumbs thrown to them.
12.4 Model Explanations
(i) When I went—————————————to feed the sparrows.
In these lines the author describes how the grandmother would pass her time
when he was given a separate room. The separate room broke the common
link of friendship between the two. After this the grandmother lived alone in her
room as she had accepted her loneliness quietly. She would sit at her spinning
wheel reciting prayers from morning till evening. In the afternoon she would
relax for a while by feeding the sparrows.
The use of the word ‘snapped’ is remarkable as it conveys the author’s feelings
that he did not want that common link of friendship to be broken.
(ii) The next morning——————————————time talking to us.
After the grandmother had celebrated the home coming of her grandson, the

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 next day she fell ill. She suffered from mild fever and the doctors suggested that
she would be allright very soon. The grandmother, however, thought differently;
she thought her end was near. She was very repentant of the fact that just a
few hours before the end of her life she forgot to say her prayer. Therefore, she
would waste no more of her time.
The lines speak of the religious faith of the grandmother.
12.5 Let‘s Sum up
In this unit we have discussed The Portrait of a Lady written by Khushwant
Singh. Besides the text, the unit consists of difficult word meanings and the summary
of the text. The unit also describes that a portrait in literature means vivid description
of a living being.
12.6 Suggested Readings
1. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar: Indian Writing in English, Sterling, Delhi
2. B. Prasad: A Background to the Study of English Literature, Macmillan
12.7 Questions
Answer the following questions :
1. Mention the three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother
before he left the country to study abroad.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

2. Mention three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he
started going to the city school.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
3. Mention three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he
grew up.

____________________________________________________________________

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 ____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
4. The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the different ways
in which we come to know this?

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
5. Describe the changing relationship between the author and the grandmother.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

12.8 Answers
1. (i) Childhood: When the author went to the village school and the grandmother
helped him to get ready and went to school with him.
(ii) Boyhood: When he went to the city school in a bus. Now the grandmother
could no longer help him in his studies.
(iii) Early Youth: When he went to the university and was given a separate
room.
2. (i) She hated western science and learning.
(ii) She was pained to know that there was no teaching of God and the
Scriptures.
(iii) She was allergic to music. According to her, it was not meant for gentlefolk.
3. (i) She lived in her room alone.
(ii) She sat at her spinning wheel reciting prayers.
(iii) In the afternoon, she would feed the sparrows for half an hour.
4. There was no chirruping. The author’s mother threw some crumbs of bread to
them. They took no notice of them. As soon as the grandmother’s corpse was
carried off, they flew away quietly.
5. The author’s mother was a deeply religious lady. We come to know this through

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the different ways of her behaviour. She visited the temple every morning and
read scriptures. At home she always mumbled inaudible prayer and kept telling
the beads of rosary. She would repeat prayers in a sing-song manner while
getting the writer ready for school. She hoped that he would learn it by heart.
She did not like the English school as there was no teaching of God and
scriptures. Even while spinning at her spinning wheel she would recite prayers.
Perhaps it was only once that she forgot to say her prayers. It was on the
evening prior to her death when she felt over- excited while celebrating the
arrival of her grandson with songs and beatings of drum. She continued playing
and telling beads of her rosary till her last breath.
During his boyhood, the author was completely dependent on his grandmother.
She was a part of his life. The turning point in their friendship came when they
went to city. She could no longer accompany him to school as he went there
by bus. They shared the same room but she could not help him in his studies.
She would ask him what the teachers had taught. She did not believe in the
things that were taught at the school. She was distressed that there was no
teaching about God and scriptures. She felt offended that music was also being
taught. She expressed her disapproval silently. After this she rarely talked to
him. When went up to university, he was given a room of his own. This
snatched the common link of friendship between the two. However, their feelings
for each other did not change. They still loved each other deeply. She went to
see the author off at the railway station when he was going abroad for higher
studies. She showed no emotion but kissed her forehead silently. The author
valued this as perhaps the last sign of physical contact between them. When the
author returned after five years, she received him at the station. She clasped him
in her arms. In the evening she celebrated his home coming by singing songs
and beating an old drum.

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 UNIT - 13
R.K. Narayan : Engine Trouble
Structure
13.0 Objectives
13.1 Introduction
13.2 About the author
13.3 Reading the text
13.3.1 The Story : Engine Trouble (Text)
13.3.2 Glossary
13.3.3 Summary
13.4 Literary Devices
13.5 Let us sum up
13.6 Suggested readings
13.7 Questions
13.8 Answers
13.0 Objectives
The unit aims at creating interest in you in the shortest literary genre i.e. Short Story.
It shall inspires you to read Indo Anglian Literature. It also aims at acquainting you
with the type of themes chosen, and techniques employed by Indian writers of
English in writing short stories.

13.1 Introduction
‘Engine Trouble’ is a short story written by R. K. Narayan. It is taken from ‘An
Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories’. The Talkative Man is the narrator in the
story.
There came a “Gaiety Land” in a town. The Talkative Man visited it and bought a
lottery ticket. He became the winner of that day and won the road engine as a prize.
His friends and relatives congratulated him on becoming the owner of the road
engine. He enjoyed watching the engine initially.
The municipality authorities ordered him to remove it from the Gymkhana ground
otherwise they would charge rent. To pay rent, he had to pledge ornaments of his
wife.
He contacted the priest of the local temple and urged him for help. He was offered
services of temple elephants. He hired some coolies and called a dismissed bus
driver to steer it. Unfortunately, it ran straight into the opposite compound wall and
a good length of wall was reduced to powder. As a result, he was arrested by the
police.
When the Talkative Man came out of the lockup, he had many liabilities on him. He
thought of leaving the town, as he could not pay his debts. A Swamiji wanted to
display Yogic powers and in return was ready to move the engine but the magistrate
didn’t permit the Swamiji to perform the feat.
At last, Nature came to his rescue. An earthquake moved it from its place, it fell
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 into a well and fitted itself into it as a cork. The owner of the well thanked him as
he was told to close it down by the municipality. He agreed to pay expenses that
the engine had brought to him. Thus, finally he got rid of it.
The story is a humorous piece of prose. Humour blends with sadness and the story
ends in a pleasant surprise.

13.2 About the Author

R. K. Narayan, one of the most famous Indo – Anglian writers, was born in 1907
in Madras and settled down in Mysore. He is famous among readers for his best
novels viz. Swami and Friends, Mr. Sampath, The Bachelor of Arts and The
Guide. He received the Sahitya Academy Award for ‘The Guide’ in 1958.
R. K. Narayan has written a large number of short stories which have been collected
and published in six volumes – Dodu and Other Stories, Malgudi Days, Cyclone
and Other Stories, Lawley Road and Other Stories, Astrologer’s Days and
Other Stories, A Horse and Two Goats. Many of the stories in these collections
were first published in the leading Madras daily, The Hindu. He also contributed
some stories to leading American journals like The Reporter, The New Yorker,
Vogue and others.
R. K. Narayan’s stories belong to the Indian soil and are redolent of its culture. His
stories depict South Indian life and his view of the world and those who live in it.
Simple but fascinating plot, lively characterization, strict economy of narration and
elegant simplicity of language are features of his short stories.
Narayan’s stories produce one single vivid effect. They seize the attention of the
reader from the outset. Narayan’s purpose does not seem to be moral and didactic
like that of Aesop’s or Tolstoy’s. However, fate does play its part in some of his
stories. His stories attract both foreign and Indian students. His stories serve a good
introduction to the foreigner who wants to know Indian life. Easy and Simple
language of his stories presents no difficulty to the Indian students.

13.3 Reading the Text

13.3.1 Engine trouble Now read the story carefully: R. K. Narayan
There came down to our town some years ago (said the Talkative Man) a showman
owning an institution called the Gaiety Land. Overnight our Gymkhana Ground
became resplendent with banners and streamers and coloured lamps. From all over
the district crowds poured into the show. Within a week of opening, in gate money
alone they collected nearly five hundred rupees a day. Gaiety Land provided us with
all sorts of fun and gambling and side-shows. For a couple of annas in each booth
we could watch anything from performing parrots to crack motor-cyclists looping
the loop in the Dome of Death. In addition to this there were lotteries and shooting
galleries where for an anna you always stood a chance of winning a hundred rupees.
There was a particular corner of the show which was in great favour. Here for a
ticket costing eight annas you stood a chance of acquiring a variety of articles-

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pincushions, sewing machines, cameras or even a road-engine. On one evening they
drew a ticket number 1005, and I happened to own the other half of the ticket.
Glancing down the list of articles they declared that I became the owner of the
road-engine..! Don’t ask me how a road-engine came to be included among the
prizes. It is more than I can tell you.
I looked stunned. People gathered around and gazed at me as if I were some
curious animal. ‘Fancy anyone becoming the owner of a road-engine..!’ Some
persons muttered and giggled.
It was not the sort of prize one could carry home at short notice. I asked the
showman if he would help me to transport it. He merely pointed at a notice which
decreed that all winners should remove the prizes immediately on drawing and by
their own effort. However, they had to make an exception in my case. They agreed
to keep the engine on the Gymkhana Grounds till the end of their season and then
I would have to make my own arrangements to take it out. When I asked the
showman if he could find me a driver he just smiled: ‘The fellow who brought it here
had to be paid a hundred rupees for the job and five rupees a day. I sent him away
and made up my mind that if no one was going to draw it, I would just leave it to
its fate. I got it down just as a novelty for the show. God..! What a bother it has
proved..!’
‘Can’t I sell it to some municipality..?’ I asked innocently. He burst into a laugh. ‘As
a showman I have enough troubles with the municipal people. I would rather keep
out of their way.
My friends and well-wishers poured in to congratulate me on my latest acquisition.
No one knew precisely how much a road-engine would fetch; all the same they felt
that there was a lot of money it it. ‘Even if you sell it as scrap-iron you can make
a few thousands’, some of my friends declared. Every day I made a trip to the
Gymkhana Grounds to have a look at my engine. I grew very fond of it. I loved
its shining brass parts. I stood near it and patted it affectionately, hovered about it,
and returned home every day only at the close of the show. I was a poor man. I
thought that after all my troubles were coming to an end. How ignorant we are..!
How little did I guess that my troubles had just begun.
When the showman took down his booths and packed up, I received a notice from
the municipality to attend to my road-engine. When I went there next day it looked
forlorn with no one about. The ground was littered with torn streamers and paper
decorations. The showman had moved on, leaving the engine where it stood. It was
perfectly safe anywhere..!
I left it alone for a few days, not knowing what to do with it. I received a notice
from the municipality ordering that the engine should at once be removed from the
ground as otherwise they would charge rent for the occupation of the Gymkhana
Ground. After deep thought I consented to pay the rent, and I paid ten rupees a
month for the next three months. Dear sirs, I was a poor man. Even the house which
I and my wife occupied cost me only four rupees a month. And fancy my paying
ten rupees a month for the road-engine. It cut into my slender budget and I had to

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pledge a jewel or two belonging to my wife..! And every day my wife was asking
me what I proposed to do with this terrible property of mine and I had no answer
to give her. I went up and down the town offering it for sale to all and sundry.
Someone suggested that the secretary of the local cosmopolitan Club might be
interested in it. When I approached him he laughed and asked what he should do
with a road-engine. ‘I’ll dispose of it at a concession for you. You have a tennis
court to be rolled every morning.’ I began, and even before I saw him smile I knew
it was a stupid thing to say. Next, someone suggested, ‘See the Municipal Chairman.
He may buy it for the municipality.’ With great trepidation I went to the municipal
office one day. I buttoned up my coat as I entered the Chairman’s room and
mentioned my business. I was prepared to give away the engine at a great concession.
I started a great harangue on municipal duties, the regime of roller- but before I was
done with him I knew there was greater chance of my selling it to some child on
the roadside for playing with.
I saw the priest of the local temple and managed to gain his sympathy. He offered
me the services of his temple elephant. I also engaged fifty coolies to push the
engine from behind. You may be sure this drained all my resources. The coolies
wanted eight annas per head and the temple elephant cost me seven rupees a day
and I had to give it one feed. My plan was to take the engine out of the Gymkhana
and then down the road to a field half a furlong off. The field was owned by a
friend. He would not mind if I kept the engine there for a couple of months, when
I could go to Madras and find a customer for it.
I also took into service one Joseph, a dismissed bus-driver, who said that although
he knew nothing of road-rollers he could nevertheless steer one if it was somehow
kept in motion.
It was a fine sight: the temple elephant yoked to the engine by means of stout ropes,
with fifty determined men pushing it from behind, and my friend Joseph sitting in the
driving seat. A huge crowd stood around and watched in great glee. The engine
began to move. It seemed to me the greatest moment in my life. When it came out
of the Gymkhana and reached the road it began to behave in a strange manner.
Instead of going straight down the road it showed a tendency to wobble and move
zig-zag. The elephant dragged it one way, Joseph turned the wheel for all he was
worth without any idea of where he was going, and fifty men behind it clung to it
in every possible manner and pushed it just where they liked. As a result of all this
confused dragging the engine ran straight into the opposite compound wald and
reduced a good length of it to powder. At this the crowd let out a joyous yell. The
elephant, disliking the behaviour of the crowd, trumpeted loudly, strained and snapped
its ropes and kicked down a further length of the wall. The fifty men fled in panic,
the crowd created a pandemonium. Someone slapped me in the face-it was the
owner of the compound wall. The police came on the scene and marched me off.
When I was released from the lock-up, I found the following consequences awaiting
me: (1) Several yards of compound wall to be built by me; (2) Wages of fifty men
who ran away. They would not explain how thay were entitled to the wages when
they had not done their job; (3) Joseph’s fee for steering the engine over the wall;

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(4) Cost of medicine for treating the knee of the temple elephant which had received
some injuries while kicking down the wall. Here again the temple authorities would
not listen when I pointed out that I didn’t engage an elephant to break a wall; (5)
Last, but not the least, the demand to move the engine out of its present station.
Sirs, I was a poor man. I really could not find any means of paying these bills. When
I went home my wife asked : What is this I hear about you everywhere..? I took
the opportunity to explain my difficulttes. She took it as a hint that I was again
asking for her jewels, and she lost her temper and cried that she would write to her
father to come and take her away.
I was at my wits’ end. People smiled at me when they met me in the streets. I was
seriously wondering why I should not run away to my village. I decided to encourage
my wife to write to her father and arrange for her exit. Not a soul was going to
know what my plans were. I was going to put off my creditors and disappear one
fine night.
At this point came an unexpected relief in the shape of a swamiji. One fine evening
under the distinguished patronage of our Municipal Chairman a show was held in
our small town hall. It was a free performance and the hall was packed with people.
I sat in the gallery. Spell-bound, we witnessed the Swamiji’s yogic feats. He bit off
glass tumblers and ate them with contentment; he lay on spike boards; gargled and
drank all kinds of acids; licked white-hot iron rods; chewed and swallowed sharp
nails; stopped his heart-beat, and buried himself underground. We sat there and
watched him in stupefaction. At the end of it all he got up and delivered a speech
in which he declared that he was carrying on his master’s message to the people
in this manner. His performance was the more remarkable because he had nothing
to gain by all this extraordinary meal except the satisfaction of serving humanity, and
now he said he was coming to the very masterpiece and the last act. He looked
at the municipal Chairman and asked: ‘Have you a road-engine.? I would like to
have it driven over my chest.’ The Chairman looked abashed and felt ashamed to
acknowledge that he had none. The Swamiji insisted, ‘I must have a road-engine.’
The Municipal Chairman tried to put him off by saying ‘There is no driver.’ The
Swamiji replied, ‘Don’t worry about it. My assistant has been trained to handle any
kind of road-engine.’ At this point I stood up in the gallery and shouted, ‘Don’t ask
him for an engine. Ask me. . .’ In a moment I was on the stage and became as
important a person as the fire-eater himself. I was pleased with the recognition I
now received from all quarters. The Municipal Chairman went into the background.
In return for lending him the engine he would drive it where I wanted. Though I felt
inclined to ask for a money contribution I know it would be useless to expect it from
one who was on missionary work.
Soon the whole gathering was at the compound wall opposite the Gymkhana.
Swamiji’s assistant was an expert in handling engines. In a short while my engine
stood steaming up proudly. It was a gratifying sight. The Swamiji called for two
pillows, placed one near his head and the other at his feet. He gave detailed
instructions as to how the engine should be run over him. He made a chalk mark

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on his chest and said, ‘It must go exactly on this; not an inch this way or that.’ The
engine hissed and suddenly became unhappy and morose. This seemed to be a
terrible thing to be doing. The Swamiji lay down on the pillows and said, ‘when I
say “OM”, drive it on.’ He closed his eyes. The crowd watched tensely. I looked
at the whole show in absolute rapture-after all, the road-engine was going to get on
the move.
At this point a police inspector came into the crowd with a brown envelope in his
hand. He held up his hand, beckoned to the Swamiji’s assistant, and said : ‘I am
sorry I have to tell you that you can’t go on with this. The magistrate has issued
an order prohibiting the engine from running over him.’ The Swamiji picked himself
up. There was a lot of commotion. The Swamiji became indignant. ‘I have done it
in hundreds of places already and nobody questioned me about it. Nobody can
stop me from doing what I like. It’s my master’s order to demonstrate the power
of the yoga to the people of this country, and who can question me.?
‘A magistrate can’, said the police inspector, and held up the order. ‘What business
is it of yours or his to interfere in this manner.? ‘I don’t know all that; this is his
order. He permits you to do everything except swallow potassium cyanide and run
this engine over your chest. You are free to do whatever you like outside our
jurisdiction.’
‘I am leaving this cursed place this very minute,’ the Swamiji said in great rage, and
started to go, followed by his assistant. I gripped his assistants arm and said, ‘You
have steamed it up. Why not take it over to that field and then go.’ He glared at
me, shook off my hand and muttered, ‘With my guru so unhappy, how dare you
ask me to drive.? He went away. I muttered, ‘You can’t drive it except over his
chest, I suppose..?
I made preparations to leave the town in a couple of days, leaving the engine to its
fate, with all its commitments. However, Nature came to my rescue in an unexpected
manner. You may have heard of the earthquake of that year which destroyed whole
towns in Northern India. There was a reverberation of it in our town, too. We were
thrown out of our beds that night, and doors and windows rattled.
Next morning I went to take a last look at my engine before leaving the town. I
could hardly believe my eyes. The engine was not there. I looked about and raised
a hue and cry. Search parties went round. And the engine was found in a disused
well near by, with its back up. I prayed to heaven to save me from fresh complications.
But the owner of the house when he came round and saw what had happened,
laughed heartily and beamed at me: ‘You have done me a service. It was the dirtiest
water on earth in that well and the municipality was sending notice to close it, week
after week. I was dreading the cost of closing, but your engine fits it like a cork.
Just leave it there.’
‘But, but. . . .’
‘There are no “buts”. I will withdraw all complaints and charges against you, and

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 build that broken wall myself, but only leave the thing there.’
‘That’s hardly enough.’ I mentioned a few other expenses that this engine had
brought on me. He agreed to pay for all that.
When I again passed that way some months later I peeped over the wall. I found
the mouth of the well neatly cemented up. I heaved a sigh of great relief.
13.3.2 Glossary :
Talkative Man : Narrator in the story
Resplendent : Brilliant
To make up one’s mind : To decide
Forlorn : Forsaken
Littered : Made untidy
harangue : loud speech
Glee : enjoyment
Wobble : move unsteadily
Pandemonium : utter confusion
Stupefaction : loss of sensibility
Abashed : confused
Morose : sullen
Indignant : angry
Glared : looked fiercely
Reverberation : echo
13.3.3 Summary :
R.K. Narayan’s Engine Trouble is considered to be one of the most
humourous pieces of prose in Indo-Anglian literature. The Talkative Man is
the narrator in the story. Narayan has beautifully depicted the troubles of the
Talkative Man after winning a road engine as a lottery prize at the ‘Gaiety
land’ in his village. The Talkative Man thought that the prize would relieve
him of his financial crisis. But, soon he realized that the engine was a bundle
of problems for him. He tried to sell it but all in vain. He had to pledge jewel
of his wife to pay rent of the Gymkhana ground. His efforts to move it from
its place resulted into his imprisonment. Finally, nature came to his rescue
and he got rid of it.

13.4 Literary Devices

The literary device of Irony is employed by R. K. Narayan in the story Engine
Trouble. Irony denotes a sense of dissimulation or difference between what is
asserted and what actually is the case.
The Talkative Man won a road engine as a lottery prize. He thought that it would

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 change his fate. But it proved a bundle of misfortunes for him.

13.5 Let’s Sum Up

The story presents a funny situation of a common man who is ambitious and wishes
to become affluent. But the situation transforms him into a man with bundles of
troubles. The end leaves the reader with the ghasto that at last the man is relieved
of his ill-fated victory.

13.6 Suggested Readings

1. R. K. Narayan - An Astrologer’s Day and other stories
2. R. K. Narayan - The Guide

13.7 Questions
1. Where was located the Gaiety land ?
_______________________________________________________________
2. What was the cost of a lottery ticket ?

____________________________________________________________________
3. For what did the showman agree to ?

____________________________________________________________________
4. What notice did he receive from the municipality ?

____________________________________________________________________
5. Whom did he contact for sale of the engine ?

____________________________________________________________________
6. What service did the priest offer ?

____________________________________________________________________
7. How many coolies did he engage ?

____________________________________________________________________
8. What was Joseph ?

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9. Who slapped the Talkative Man ?

____________________________________________________________________
10. Where was the show of Swamiji held ?

____________________________________________________________________
11. On what condition did the Talkative Man agree to lend the road engine ?

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____________________________________________________________________
12. Where did the Swamiji place two pillows ?

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13. What order had the magistrate issued ?

____________________________________________________________________
14. What did the Talkative Man decide at last ?

____________________________________________________________________
15. Where was the engine found next morning ?

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Answer in four to five lines each.
16. Describe the ‘Gaiety land’.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
17. How did the friends and well wishers react when the Talkative Man won a road
engine?
____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________
18. How did the Talkative Man plan to move the engine from the Gymkhana
grounds ?
____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

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____________________________________________________________________
19. Mention the consequences awaiting the story letter he when came out of the
lock - up?

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____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

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20. Why did the road engine not run over the Swamiji ?

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

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21. How did the nature rescue the Talkative Man ?

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

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Answer in 300 words.
22. How the Talkative man became owner of the Road Engine and how he got rid
of it? Discuss.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

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 ____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

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13.8 Answers
1. The Gaiety land was on the Gymkhana ground of the town.
2. The cost of a lottery ticket was eight annas.
3. The showman agreed to keep the engine on the Gymkhana ground till the end
of their season.
4. He received a notice from the municipality ordering that the engine should at
once be removed otherwise they would charge rent.
5. He contacted the secretary of the local Cosmopolitan Club and the Municipal
chairman for the sale of the engine.
6. The priest offered the services of his temple elephant.
7. He engaged fifty coolies to push the engine from behind.
8. Joseph was a dismissed bus driver.
9. The owner of the compound wall slapped the Talkative Man.
10. The show of Swamiji was held in a town hall.
11. The Talkative Man agreed to lend the road engine on the condition that he
would drive it where he wanted him to.
12. The Swamiji placed one pillow near his head and the other at his feet.
13. The magistrate had issued an order prohibiting the engine from running over
Swamiji.
14. The Talkative Man decided at last to leave the town in a couple of days.
15. Next morning the engine was found in a nearby disused well.
16. The Gaiety land was an institution owned by a showman which had come to
the town. It was on the Gymkhana grounds. All over the ground there were
banners, streamers and coloured lamps. People poured into the show from all
over the district. People were provided all sorts of fun and side shows. People
could watch performing parrots, motor cyclists in the Dome of Death for a
couple of annas. Besides this, there were lotteries and shooting galleries where
people could have chance of winning a hundred rupees for an anna.
17. When the Talkative Man won a road engine, the friends and well wishers were
pleased. They poured into congratulate him on his latest acquisition. They said

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 that it would bring him a lot of money. They said that as scrap iron also, it
would earn him a few thousands.
18. The Talkative Man met the priest of the local temple. The priest offered him the
services of the temple elephants. He also engaged fifty coolies to push the
engine from behind. He contacted Joseph, a dismissed bus driver, to steer it.
Thus, he planned to move it from the Gymkhana ground to the field owned by
his friend.
19. When the story teller came out of the lock up, he had many liabilities on him.
He had to rebuild the damaged wall, pay the wages of fifty coolies, pay Joseph
for his services, pay the medical expenses of treating the injured leg of the
elephant and to remove the engine from its present station.
20. The Swamiji was to run over the road engine over his chest to display the
power of Yoga. But before the feat was performed, the local police inspector
issued him the order of the magistrate prohibiting the feat.
21. The road engine had brought troubles to the talkative man. He wanted to get
rid of it. One night due to an earth quake, the engine moved on its own and
fitted in a disused well like a cork. The owner of the well welcomed. Thus,
nature rescued the talkative man.
22. R. K. Narayan is one of the best known of Indian authors in English. He is
remarkable for his insight into the life of middle and lower classes in India and
his sympathetic portrayal of it in his stories. His style is simple, direct and
natural. ‘Engine Trouble’ is a very humorous story, taken from An Astrologer’s
Day and Other Stories. R. K. Narayan has vividly depicted the troubles of
a common man after winning a road engine as a lottery prize. Its title suggests
that it is the story of an engine that is in need of repair. But the story is really
about the troubles, which a road engine gave to its owner.
There came the Gaiety land in a town of the Talkative Man. It provided them
with all sorts of fun and gambling and sideshows. There was the Dome of Death
and the lottery stall. The man bought a ticket of lottery numbered 1005 and he
was declared the winner that day and became the owner of the road engine.
His friends congratulated him for becoming the owner of a road engine. The
showman agreed to keep the engine on the Gymkhana grounds till the end of
their season. The man met the municipal authorities and the secretary of the club
to sell it out but no one showed any interest. The municipality ordered him to
remove it from the ground otherwise they would charge him rent. To pay rent,
he had to pledge a jeweler belonging to his wife.
At last, the Talkative Man decided to move it from its place with the help of
the priest of the local temple. The priest offered him services of his temple
elephant. He engaged fifty coolies to push if from behind and a dismissed bus
driver to steer it. He decided to put it in the field of his friend. A huge crowd
gathered to watch it. The engine came out of the Gymkhana ground and ran
straight into the opposite compound wall. It reduced a good length of it to

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powder. The owner of the compound wall slapped him in the face and the
police marched him off.
When he was released from the lock up, he found several consequences awaiting
him. He had to build up the compound wall, to pay wages of fifty coolies,
Joseph’s fee, medical treatment of the knee of the temple elephant and above
all to move the engine out of its present station. The man was in great difficulties.
His wife threatened him to leave his house.
At this point, an unexpected relief came in the shape of a Swamiji. He wished
to perform an unimaginable act. He wished to roll over his chest the road
engine. His assistant was trained to move any kind of engine. The Talkative
Man was pleased and decided to lend him the engine. In return, he demanded
that the assistant would drive it where he wanted. People gathered to watch the
Yogic feats of Swamiji. But the magistrate issued an order prohibiting Swamiji
to do it inside their jurisdiction. The Swamiji got angry and went away in great
rage.
One day, suddenly Nature came to his rescue in an unexpected manner. An
earthquake moved the engine from its place and fitted in a disused well like a
cork. The owner of the well agreed to pay expenses that the engine had
brought to him. He agreed to withdraw all complaints and charges against him.
Thus, the Talkative Man finally got rid of it.
The story is very interesting and humorous. The narrative technique of R. K.
Narayan makes it more palatable. Narayan is really a master of creating fun and
laughter from ordinary daily life situations.

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 UNIT - 14
O’Henry : The Gift of the Magi
Structure
14.0 Objectives
14.1 Introduction
14.2 About the author
14.3 Reading the text
14.3.1 The Story : The Gift of the Magi (Text)
14.3.2 Glossary
14.3.3 Summary
14.4 Literary Devices
14.5 Let’s sum up
14.6 Suggested readings
14.7 Questions
14.8 Answers
14.0 Objectives
The purpose of this unit is to to develop interest in you in short stories of O’Henry.
It aims at acquainting you with the Biblical references which form a part of this story.
The unit shall also enable you to recognize new interpretations in the old symbols.

14.1 Introduction
The life was harder than the hardest for the common low stratum people in England
the beginning of the 20th century. The story under the symbolic reference of the
Magi relates how a young, loving but poor couple finds it difficult to please each
other with the appropriate Christmas gift. The wife sacrifices her most attractive
hair, by selling it to get a gold chain for her husband’s gold watch. The husband sells
the gold watch to buy a set of combs for his wife’s long and beautiful hair. Though
the story expresses deep love for each other, it results into a pathetic situation
stealing away the joy of the Christmas.

14.2 About the Author

The pen-name O’ Henry is actually William Sydney Porter (1862-1910). The writer
was sentenced to imprisonment for embezzlement. He wrote more than three hundred
stories which are collected in volumes like Cabbages and Kings, The Four
Millions and The Voice of the City. He goes deep into the life of the lower
stratum of society and describes them with remarkable sympathy and understanding
because he had lived with them for most part of his life. He has humour but at times
humour turns into extremely tragic ending like in the story of ‘The Gift of the Magi’
– O’ Henry’s stories are remarkable for the most unimaginable twist of surprise
ending. He is one of the masters of the modern short story writers.

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14.3 Reading the text
Read the story carefully:
14.3.1 The Gift of Magi
One dollar and eight-seven cents. That was all. and sixty cents of it was in
pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and
the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent
imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della
counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be
Christmas.
There was clearly nothing left to do but flop down on the shabby little couch
and howl, So Della did it, which instigates the moral reflection that life is
made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to
the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. it did
not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout
for the mendicancy squad.
In the vestibule below was a letter- box into which no letter would go, and
an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax ring. Also
appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name Mr. James Dillingham
Young.
The Dillingham had been flung to the breeze during a former period of
prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now when the
income was shrunk to $20, the letters of Dillingham looked blurred, as
though they were, thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming
D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his
flat above he was called Jim and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham
Young, already introduced to you as Della which is all very good.
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with a powder rag. She
stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence
in a grey backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only
$1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny
she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far.
Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only
$1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent
planning for something nice for him. Some- thing fine and rate and sterling
– something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being
owned by Jim.
There was pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have
seen a pier- glass in a $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by
observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a
fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered
the art.

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Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes
were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within twenty seconds.
Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which
they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his
father’s and his grandfather’s, the other was Della’s hair. Had the Queen of
Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang
out of the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels
and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up
in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed,
just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.
So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade
of brown waters. It reached below her knees and made itself almost a
garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once
she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the
worn red carpet.
On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With whirl of
skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out of the
door and down the stairs to the street. Where she stopped the sign read:
Mme sofronie, Hair Goods of All Kinds. One flight up Della ran, and
collected herself, panting, Madame, large, too white, chilly hardly looked the
“Sofronie”.
‘Will you buy my hair?’ asked Della. ‘I buy hair’ said Madame. ‘ Take yer
hat off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it. ’.
Down rippled the brown cascade.
‘Twenty dollars, said madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
‘Give it to me quick, said Della.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed
metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jims’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There
was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside
out. It was platinum fob chain, simple and chaste in design, properly
proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious
ornamentation- as all good things should do. It was even worthy of the
watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim’s. It was like him.
Quietness and value- the description applied to both. Twenty- one dollars
they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that
chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any
company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on
account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

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When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and
reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work
repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a
tremendous task, dear friends-a mammoth task.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that
made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection
in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
‘If Jim doesn’t kill me,’ she said to herself, ‘before he takes a second look
at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney island chorus girl. But what could I do-
oh, what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?’
At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the fryingpan was on the back of the
stove, hot and ready to cook the chops.
Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the
corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his
step on the stairway down on the first flight, and she turned white for just
a moment. She had a habit of saying little silent prayers about the simplest
everyday things, and now she whispered; Please, God, make him think I am
still pretty.
The door opened and jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very
serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty- two- and to be burdened with a
family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stepped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail.
His eyes were fixed on Della, and there was an expression in them that she
could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, not surprise, nor
disapproval, nor horror, not any of the sentiments that she had been prepared
for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.
Della wriggled off the table and went for him.
Jim, darling, she cried don’t, look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and
sold it because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you
a present. It’II grow out again- you won’t mind. will you ? I just had to do
it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say “ Merry Christmas ” Jim, and let’s be
happy. You don’t know what a nice- what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for
you.’
‘You’ ve cut off your hair ? asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived
at that patent fact yet, even after the hardest mental labour.
‘Cut it off and sold it, said Della. ‘ Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow
? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I ?
Jim looked about the room curiously.
‘You say your hair is gone ? he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

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‘You needn’t look for it, said Della, It’s sold. I tell you- sold and gone, too.
It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. May be the
hairs of my head were numbered, she went on with a sudden servious
sweetness but nobody could ever count my love for you, Shall I put the
chops on, Jim ?
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For
ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential objects
in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year- what is the
difference ? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The
Magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion
will be illuminated later on.
Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
Don’t make any mistake, Dell, he said, about me. I don’t think there’s
anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make
me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you may see why
had me going a while at first.
White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then, an ecstatic
scream of joy, and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and
wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers
of the lord of the flat.
For there lay ‘The Combs - the set of combs, side and back, that Della had
worshipped for long in a Broadway window. Beutiful combs, pure
tortoiseshell, with jewelled rims-just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished
hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply
craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And
now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted
adornments were gone.’
But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up
with dim eyes and a smile and say; “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”
And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, “Oh. oh!”
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly
upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection
of her bright and ardent spirit.
“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look
at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see
how it looks on it.”
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under
the back of his head and smiled.
“Dell”, said he, “Let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep’em awhile.
They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money

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 to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.”
The Magi, as you know, were wise men-wonderfully wise men-who brought
gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invited the art of giving Christmas
presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing
the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely
related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who
most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house.
But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give
gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as
they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the Magi.
14.3.2 Glossary
Butcher : a person who kills animals and sells meat
Imputation : Accusation
Vestibule : Lobby
Agile : Active
Janitor : Care taker of a buiding
Cascade : Waterfall
Magi : Three wise men from the East who brought gifts to Babe
Christ
Ardent : Intense
14.3.3 Summary
The Gift of the Magi, one of the most celebrated stories of O’ Henry is a
very interesting story. It depicts a strange incident that takes place in the life
of a poor young couple. Jim and Della sell their proudest possessions to buy
Christmas gifts for each other. Della has sacrificed her long and beautiful hair
to buy a platinum fob chain for Jim. And Jim, too, sacrifices the gold watch
to buy a set of combs for Della’s hair. What an unbelievable co-incidence
it was! The writer suggests that we should not consider them to be fools but,
they were the Magi, who gifted the Babe in the manger.

14.4 Literary Devices

O’ Henry uses literary devices like simile, metaphor, personification in his short
stories. In the story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ Henry employs the literary device of
simile.
Simile is a figure of speech in which one thing is likened to another. It is an explicit
comparison recognizable through the use of words ‘like’ or ‘as’.
In the story ‘The Gift of the Magi’, you will find the simile used in the following
sentences:
1. Della’s beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown
waters.
2. Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close lying curls that made
her look wonderfully like a truant school boy.

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 3. He will say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl.
4. Della leaped up like a singed cat.

14.5 Let’s Sum Up

The story begins with Della counting her one dollar eighty-seven pence. The
development makes you feel the seriousness of the Christmas gifts and at last the
concealed secret is revealed, and it proves the title Magi to be true and apt.

14.6 Suggested Readings

1. O’ Henry - Cabbages and Kings
2. O’ Henry - The Four Millions
3. O’ Henry - The voice of the City

14.7 Questions
1. What did Della do after counting money ?
_______________________________________________________________
2. Where was a letter box ?
_______________________________________________________________
3. What did Dell do when Jim returned from office ?
_______________________________________________________________
4. How much amount did Della have on the eve of Christmas ?
_______________________________________________________________
5. What did Della do before the glass ?
_______________________________________________________________
6. Whom did Della consult ?
_______________________________________________________________
7. How much money did Della get from Mme. Sofronie ?
___________________________________________________________
8. What did Della buy for Jim ?
___________________________________________________________
9. What was the cost of a fob chain ?
___________________________________________________________
10. How did Della look like ?
___________________________________________________________
11. Where did Della sit waiting for Jim ?
___________________________________________________________

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12. How old was Jim ?
___________________________________________________________
13. Where did Jim throw a package ?
___________________________________________________________
14. What did the package contain ?
___________________________________________________________
15. Why did Della ask for Jim’s watch ?
___________________________________________________________
16. How did Jim buy a gift for Della ?
___________________________________________________________
Answer in four or five lines each
17. How did Della save $1.87 ?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
18. Why did Della decide to sell her hair ?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
19. What gift had Jim bought for Della ? How did he buy it ?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
20. What does the end of the story mean ?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

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 ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Answer in 300 words
21. Summarise the story in your own words :
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
14.8 Answers
1. After counting money, Della flopped down on the shabby little couch and
howled.
2. A letter box was in the vestibule below.
3. When Jim returned from his office, Della used to hug him and called him ‘Jim’.
4. Della had only $1.87 on the Christmas eve.
5. Della pulled down her hair before the glass.
6. Della consulted Mme. Sofronie.
7. Della got twenty dollars from Mme. Sofronie.
8. Della bought platinum fob chain for Jim.
9. The cost of a fob chain was twenty dollars.
10. Della looked like a truant school boy.

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11. Della sat on the corner of the table near the door waiting for Jim.
12. Jim was only twenty two years old.
13. Jim threw a package upon the table.
14. The package contained a set of combs.
15. Della asked for Jim’s watch because she wanted to see how it looked on the
gift.
16. Jim bought a gift for Della by selling his gold watch.
17. Della saved $1.87 with great efforts. She used to quarrel with grocer, vegetable
man and the butcher for every penny. She could save only $1.87 in a year.
18. Della decided to sell her hair because she had only $1.87 and she wanted to
buy a nice Christmas gift for her Jim. As the savings was less, she decided to
earn money by selling her long and beautiful hair.
19. Jim had bought a set of combs for Della. He had to sell his gold watch to get
money to buy gift for Della.
20. The end of the story suggests that Jim and Della were really wise as the Magi
brought gifts for the Babe in the manager. They had sacrificed their proudest
possessions which shows their intense love for each other.
21. “The Gift of the Magi” is an interesting story written by William Sydney Porter
who wrote under the pen name O’ Henry. He is regarded as one of the masters
of the modern short stories. In his stories, we find blending of humour and
pathos. His stories are remarkable for sudden and unexpected ends that surprise
readers. Here in the story the husband Jim and the wife Della sell their proudest
possessions to buy Christmas gifts for each other, which shows their deep and
selfless love. Really, they are the Magi.
The story narrates an incident which happen in the life of a young and poor
couple . Their income was only $20. They were poor but loved each other very
much. They were sublime. Della had saved one dollar and eighty seven cents
by bulldozing the grocer and the vagetableman. The result of her savings of the
whole year was only $ 1.87. The next day would be Christmas. Both of them
wanted to give Christmas gifts to each other but they had not adequate amount
to buy something for each other.
James Dillingham Young took a mighty proud for two possessions. Jim had a
gold watch which he inherited from his father. The watch was very attractive
which could envy even King Solomon. Della had beautiful hair reaching up to
her knees, which could depreciate Queen Sheba’s jewels. Their married life
was sweet and these possessions were the only things which could make them
proud and happy.
Della had only $1.87 and she wanted to buy something for her Jim. An idea
struck her mind and hurriedly she went down the stairs to the street and

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consulted Mme sofronie. Della decided to get her hair cut and decided to sell
it. She did it and got $20. Now she had $21.87. She hunted for a gift for her
Jim and finally saw a fob chain which was simple and chaste in design but very
valuable. She purchased it and quickly went to the house. She thought that the
fob chain would definitely please Jim and he would be happy in any company.
Jim came home and knew the fact that Della had got her hair cut to buy a
present for him. Then Jim drew a package from his overcoat and threw it upon
the table. Della quickly opened it and, after seeing it, she had an ecstatic screen
of joy and then she cried. For this present she was longing since long. But at
present it was of no use. Just to please her husband she hugged the set of
combs to her bosom.
Then Della showed a gift which she had brought for Jim. She requested Jim to
give her his golden watch as she wanted to see how it looked on it. Jim didn’t
obey and tumbled down on the coach with cross hands back. He suggested
Della that they should put their Christmas gifts away and enfold the truth that,
he had sold his gold watch to buy a gift for Della. What an irony!
O’ Henry surprised the readers at the end of the story. Though both the gifts
were worthless, they were extremely precious because they suggested their
ardent love for each other. Their selfless love wins the hearts of the readers. No
doubt, it is a master piece by O’ Henry.

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 UNIT - 15
Ruskin Bond : The Boy Who Broke The Bank
Structure
15.0 Objectives
15.1 Introduction
15.2 About the author
15.3 Reading the text
15.3.1 The Story : The Boy who Broke the Bank (Text)
15.3.2 Glossary
15.3.3 Summary
15.4 Literary Devices
15.5 Let’s sum up
15.6 Suggested readings
15.7 Questions
15.8 Answers

15.0 Objectives
This unit aims at acquainting you with human behaviour and psychology in economic
uncongenial condition owing to some rumour. We intend to do this by preventing
an elaborate discussion of one of Ruskin Bond’s short stories.

15.1 Introduction
This unit has a short story related tocommon place subject matter. Seth Govind
Ram is the owner of the Pipalnagar bank and Nathu is the sweeper in it. The
beginning is very ordinary. The reader comes in contact with Nathu who is grumbling
while discharging his duties as a sweeper. Suspense begins when Nathu reveals that
he has not been paid his monthly salary for twenty months. The reader is wondering
why that is so. There is no explanation and the story progresses with the introduction
of another ordinary character named Sitaram, the son of a washer man. The story
reaches its climax when the whole town is suspecting some thing fishy the bank. At
last all the account holders come to the conclusion that the bank is bankrupt and
couldn’t return their deposits. They rush to the bank for taking away their deposits.
The crowd psychology starts functioning. The manager tries his best to convince
them that the bank is absolutely solvent and that all the deposits can be returned
just after a day but they began to throw bricks towards the bank breaking the plate
glass window of the bank. Next morning while sweeping Nathu comments, “Hooligans
! Sons of donkeys!” without having little idea that deluse was only and singly due
to his unmindful comment about not getting salary for twenty months. The washer
boy adds fuel to the fire and the consequences are destructive. The story comes to
an exciting end putting the bank’s name to shame.

15.2 About the Author

Ruskin Bond was born in 1934 in Himachal Pradesh. He went to school at Bishop

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 Cotton School, Simla. He started his career as a writer at 20. His first novel The
Room on the Roof was published in 1956. This novel won him Llewellyn Rhys
Memorial prize. The Neighbour’s Wife and other stories (1968) is his fictional
work. The movie ‘Junoon’ is based on one of his stories. He has written many
books for children. He was fiction editor of Imprint for many years. He lived in
Mussoorie for twelve years loved the mountainous environment

15.3 Reading the Text

Read the story carefully :
15.3.1 The Boy who Broke the Bank : (Text)
Nathu grumbled to himself as he swept the steps of the Pipalnagar Bank,
owned by Seth Govind Ram. He used the small broom hurriedly and carelessly.
and the dust. after rising in a cloud above his head settled down again on
the steps. As Nathu was banging his pan against a dustbin, Sitaram, the
washerman’s son, passed by.
Sitaram was on his delivery round. He had a bundle of freshly pressed
clothes balanced on his head.
‘Don’t raise such dust !’ he called out to Nathu. Are you annoyed because
they are still refusing to pay you an extra two rupees a month ?’
I don’t wish to talk about it’. complained the sweeper boy. ‘I haven’t even
received my regular pay. And this is the twentieth of the month. Who would
think a bank would hold up a poor man’s salary ? As soon as I get my
money. I’m off ! Not another week I work in this place’ And Nathu banged
the pan against the dustbin several times, just to emphasize his point and
giving himself confidence.
‘Well, I wish you luck. said Sitaram. I’II keep a lookout for any jobs that
might suit you. And he plodded barefoot along the road, the big bundle of
clothes hiding most of his head and shoulders.
At the fourth home he visited, Sitaram heard the lady of the house mention
that she was in need of a sweeper. Tying his bundle together, he said. I know
of a sweeper boy who’s looking for work. He can start from next month.
He’s with the bank just now but they aren’t giving him his pay. and he wants
to leave.
Is that so?’ said Mrs. Srivastava. Well, tell him to come and see me
tomorrow.
And Sitaram, glad that he had been of service to both a customer and his
friend, hoisted his bag on his shoulders and went his way.
Mrs. Srivastava had to do some shopping. She gave instructions to the ayah
about looking after the baby. and told the cook not to be late with the mid-
day meal, Then she set out for the Pipalnagar market place, to make her
customary tour of the cloth shops.

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A large shady tamarind tree grew at one end of the bazaar, and it was here
that Mrs. Srivastava found her friend Mrs. Bhushan Sheltering from the heat.
Mrs. Bhushan was fanning herself with a large handkerchief. She complained
of the summer, which she affirmed, was definitely the hottest in the history
of Pipalnagar. She then showed Mrs. Srivastava a sample of the cloth she
was going to buy. and for five minutes they discussed its shade, texture and
design. Having exhausted this topic. Mrs. Srivastava said., Do you know.
my dear, that Seth Govind Ram’s bank can’t even pay its employees. Only
this morning I heard a complaint from their sweeper. who hasn’t received his
wages for over a month !’
Shocking ! remarked Mrs Bhushan. If they can’t pay the sweeper they must
be in a bad way. None of the others could be getting paid either.’
She left Mrs Srivastava at the tamarind tree and went in search of her
husband. who was sitting in front of Kamal Kishore’s photograph-shop.
talking with the owner.
So there you are !. cried Mrs. Bhushan. I’ve been looking for you for almost
an hour. Wheredid you disappear ?
Nowhere. replied Mr. Bhushan. Had you remained stationary in one shop.
I might have found you. But you go from one shop to another, like a bee
in a flower garden.
Don’t start grumbling. The heat is trying enough. I don’t know what’s
happening to Pipalnagar. Even the bank’s about to go bankrupt.
What’s that ? asked Kamal Kishore. sitting up suddenly. Which bank ?
Why the Pipalnagar bank of course. I hear they have stopped paying
employees. Don’t tell me you have an account there, Mr. Kishore ?
‘No, but my neighbour has ! he exclaimed; and he called, ‘ Deep Chand,
have you heard the latest ? The Pipalnagar Bank is about to collapse. You’d
better get your money out as soon as you can !.
Deep Chand who was cutting the hair of an elderly gentleman, was so
startled that his hand shook and he nicked his customer’s right ear. The
customer yelped with pain and distress: pain, because of the cut and distress
because of the awful news he had just heard with one side of his neck still
unshaven, he sped across the road to the general merchant’s store where
there was a telephone. He dialled Seth Govind Ram’s number. The Seth was
not at home. Where was he then ? The Seth was holidaying in Kashmir. Oh,
was that so ? The elderly gentleman did not believe it. He hurried back to
the barber’s shop and told Deep Chand.
‘The bird has flown ! Seth Govind Ram has left town. Definitely, it means
a collapse. And then he dashed out of the shop, making a beeline for his
office and cheque book.

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The news spread through the bazaar with the rapidity of forest fire, From
the general merchant’s it travelled to the shop. circulated amongst the
customers, and then spread with them in various directions, to the betel-
seller, the tailor, the free vendor, the jeweller, the beggar sitting on the
pavement.
Old Ganpat, the beggar had a crooked leg. He had been squatting on the
pavement for years, calling for alms. In the evening someone would come with
a barrow and take him away. He had never been known to walk. But now,
on learning that the bank was about to collapse. Ganpat astonished everyone
leaping to his feet and actually running at top speed in the direction of the
bank. It soon became known that he had a thousand rupees in savings !
Men stood in groups at street corners discussing the situation. Pipalnagar
seldom had a crisis, seldom or never had floods, earthquakes or drought;
and the imminent crash of the Pipalangar Bank set everyone talking and
speculating and rushing about in a frenzy. Some boasted of their farsightedness
congratulating themselves on having already taken out their money. or on
never having put any in; others speculated on the reasons for the crash,
putting it all down to excesses indulged in by Seth Govind Ram. The Seth
had fled the state, said one. He had fled the conntry, said a third. He had
hanged himself from the tamarind tree, said a fourth, and had been found
that morning by the sweeper-boy.
By noon the small bank had gone through all its ready cash. and the harassed
manager was in a dilemma. Emergency funds could only be obtained from
another bank, some thirty miles distant; and he wasnt’t sure he could persuade
the crowd to wait until then. And there was no way of contacting Seth
Govind Ram on his houseboat in Kashmir.
People were turned back from the counters and told to return the following
day. They did not like the sound of that. And so they gathered outside on
the steps of the bank shouting “Give us our money or we’ll break in !” and
“Fetch the Seth. we know he’s hiding in a safe deposit locker!” Mischief
makers who didn’t have a paisa in the bank, Joined the crowd and aggravated
their mood. The manager stood at the door and tried to placate them. He
declared that the bank had plenty of money but no immediate means of
collecting it; he urged them to go home and come back the next day.
We want it now !’ chanted some of the crowd. Now. now, now !’
And a brick hurtled through the air and crashed through the plate glass
window of the Pipalnagar Bank.
Nathu arrived next morning to sweep the steps of the bank. He saw the
refuse and the broken glass and the stones cluttering the steps. Raising his
hands in a gesture of horror and disgust he cried : Hooligans ! Sons of
donkeys ! As though it isn’t bad enough to be paid late, it seems my work
has also to be increased !’ He smote the steps with his broom scattering the
refuse.

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 Good morning, Nathu, said the washerman’s boy getting down from his
bicycle. Are you ready to take up a new job from the first of next month
? You’II have to I suppose, now that the bank is going out of business.”
How’s that ? said Nathu.
Haven’t you heard ? Well, you’d better wait here until half the population
of Pipalnagar arrives to claim their money. And he waved cheerfully- he did
not have a bank account- and sped away on his cycle.
Nathu went back to sweeping the steps, muttering to himself. When he had
finished his work, he sat down on the highest step. to await the arrival of
the manager. He was determined to get his pay.
Who would have thought the bank would collapse !. he said to himself, and
looked thoughtfully into the distance. I wonder how it could have happended...
15.3.2 Glossary
Grumbled : Complained angrily but not loudly
Annoyed : Troubled
Refuse : Deny
Emphasize : Stress
Look for : search for
Ayah : Maid servant who looks after a baby
Awful : dreadful
alms : money / food given to the poor
Wages : Remuneration
Startled : Surprised
Seldom : Hardly
Imminent : About to happen
Speculate : Guess
Persuade : Explain
Aggravate : Make more serious
Placate : Pacify
Hoisted : raised, lifted
15.3.3 Summary
The boy who broke the bank is a very interesting and humorous story
written by Ruskin Bond. The story is about the murmuring of, Nathu ( a
sweeper) about irregular payment of his salary. It takes the shape of a
rumour and results into the collapse of a very sound bank. The end of the
story, Nathu, who is responsible for the whole episode, wonders innocently
about the breaking of the bank.

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15.4 Literary Devices
Suspense and humour are of the prominent literary devices employed by
Ruskin Bond in the story ‘The Boy Who Broke The Bank’. Suspense is one
of the distinctive features of detective fiction.
Surpense refers to a state of uncertainty anticipation and curiosity as to the
out come of a story or play or any kind of narrative in verse or prose.
In this story, suspense is not created for the readers because the readers
know an unintentional murmuring of Nathu, a bank sweeper. It is created for
the characters belonging to the story. The characters in the story do not
know the real cause of non-payment of Nathu’s salary. This leads them to
think otherwise. All are misled and a sound bank collapsed. Ruskin Bond
also employs humour, which emerges out of misunderstanding.

15.5 Let’s Sum Up

In this s tory we have presented on elaborate discussion on Rushin Bond’s The Boy
who Broke the Bank’. We have also tried to hint at the significance of temporal and
spatial components in the development of the story.

15.6 Suggested Readings

1. Ruskin Bond ; The Room on the Roof
2. Ruskin Bond ; The Neighbour’s Wife and Other Stories

15.7 Questions
1. Who owned the Pipalnagar bank ?
___________________________________________________________
2. What was Nathu ?
___________________________________________________________
3. Who was Sitaram ?
___________________________________________________________
4. What did the sweeper boy complain ?
___________________________________________________________
5. Who was in the of a sweeper ?
___________________________________________________________
6. Where was Mrs. Bhushan ?
___________________________________________________________
7. Where was Mr. Bhushan ?
___________________________________________________________
8. How did old Ganpat astonish everyone ?
___________________________________________________________

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9. What did manager declare and urge ?
___________________________________________________________
10. What did Nathu find the next morning ?
___________________________________________________________

Answer in four or five lines each.

11. What was Nathu’ work in the Pipalnagar Bank ? What did he speak to Sitaram?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
12. What did Sitaram tell Mrs. Srivastava ?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
13. What did Ganpat do on hearing the news regarding the Pipalnagar bank ?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
14. Why could the manager not arrange for the emergency funds ?
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
Answer in 300 words.
15. Human behaviour depicted in ‘The Boy who Broke the Bank’ :
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
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15.8 Answers
1. Seth Govind Ram owned the Pipalnagar bank.
2. Nathu was a sweeper in the Pipalnagar bank.
3. Sitaram was a washer man’s son.
4. The sweeper boy complained that he hadn’t received his regular pay for the last
twenty months.
5. Mrs. Srivastav was in the need of a sweeper.
6. Mrs. Bhushan was sheltering from the heat under a large shady tamarind tree.
7. Mr. Bhushan was sitting in front of Kamal Kishor’s photograph shop.
8. Old Ganpat had a crooked leg. He had never been known to walk. He
astonished every one by leaping up to his feet and running at top speed in the
direction of the bank.
9. The manager declared that the bank had plenty of money and urged people to
go home and come back the next day.
10. Nathu found the refuse and broken glasses and stones cluttering the steps next
morning.
11. Nathu was the sweeper of Pipalnagar Bank. He used to sweep the steps of the
bank daily. He told Sitaram that he had not been paid his regular salary till the
twentieth of the month. He said that he would leave the job after getting the
salary.
12. Sitaram told Mrs. Srivastava that he knew a sweeper who was looking for
work and could start from the following month. The sweeper wanted to leave
the present job in a bank because he had not been paid his regular salary.
13. Old Ganpat was a beggar. He had a crooked leg. No one had ever seen him
walking. When he heard the news regarding the Pipalnagar Bank, he suddenly
got up and ran to the bank to withdraw his savings of Rs. 1000/-.
14. The manager could not arrange for the emergency funds because it had to be
got from another bank which was some thirty miles a way.
15. ‘The Boy Who Broke the Bank’ is a very interesting and humorous story
written by Ruskin Bond. The story relates to the murmuring of a sweeper boy
Nathu about irregular payment of his salary, which later results into the breaking
of a very sound bank. All events of the story arouse laughter among the readers.
The story is about Seth Govind Ram’s bank at Pipalangar town. The bank is
financially very sound and has won the trust of most of the residents of the
town. It has many depositors from the town. Nathu is a sweeper in the bank.
One day, while sweeping the steps of the bank, he grumbles about the irregular
payment of his salary by the bank authorities. Sitaram, the washerman’s son,
who passes by, talks to Nathu and learns about Nathu’s complaints.Nathu tells
him that he was planning to leave the job as soon as he gets his salary.

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Sitaram in his loose talk with Mrs. Srivastava, who is looking for a sweeper,
talks to her about Nathu, and adds that bank could not pay its employees. Mrs.
Srivastava is a talkative lady. She misunderstands Sitaram’s statement and starts
believing that the Piplangar bank was on the verge of bankruptcy. She meets
Mrs. Bhushan in the market She informs Mrs.Buhshan about the weak position
of the bank. She goes to the market and tells her husband immediately about
the exaggerated news of the bank. Her news shocks Kamal Kishore the
photographer; Deep Chand, the barber; bank’s customer and many others in
the market. Deep Chand is so startled that he injures his customer while shaving.
His customer tries to contact Govindram on phone, but as Govind Ram is
enjoying his vacation at Kashmir, he is unavailable. This strengthens the rumour
and it spreads like a wild fire in the entire town of Pipalnagar.
Naturally, all the account holders and the depositors flock near the bank premises
and demand their money back. Everyone tries to analyze the condition in his
or her own way. Those who had no money in the bank considered themselves
to be wise. Some said that Govin Ram had left the mother country. By noon,
all the cash was exausted in the bank. The harassed manager tried to request
the people to wait for a day so that he might manage for the emergency funds
from another bank, but none is ready to accept the proposal. People want their
amount there and then. He tries to assure people of the sound condition of the
bank, and also adds that the bank has plenty of amount, but it will take time
to collect the money, but none believes in him. Some mischief mongers among
the crowd excite people and start stoning the bank building and break the
glasses. Thus, a sound bank is broken unfortunately.
The following day when Nathu goes to the bank for his duty, he finds a lot of
broken glasses and stones on the steps of the bank. He murmurs angrily that
the bank authorities were not paying him regularly on one hand and were also
increasing his work. Sitaram comes and tells Nathu that he must accept the new
job as the bank is already closed. Nathu is quite surprised to hear the news.
He says “how could it happen?” At the end of the story, we find Nathu
murmuring on the bank steps that nobody would ever have thought that the
bank would collapse. For him the event is a mystery.
Thus, humour dominates the story. The description of Mrs. Bhushan talking to
her husband, the customer running with one side unshaved, and the beggar
Ganpat, running with a crooked log etc. create a sea of laughter. The end of
the story has the climax of humour, when Nathu, who is responsible for the
whole episode, wonders innocently about the breaking of the bank. The writer
has portrayed all the characters so nicely that the readers get a live picture of
an Indian town under the spell of a rumour. The story entertains the readers.

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 UNIT - 16
Chinua Achebe : Marriage is a Private Affair
Structure
16.0 Objectives
16.1 Introduction
16.2 About the Author
16.3 Reading the text
16.3.1 The Story : Marriage is a Private Affair (Text)
16.3.2 Glossary
16.3.3 Summary
16.4 Let’s Sum Up
16.5 Suggested Readings
16.6 Questions
16.7 Answers
16.0 Objectives
The purpose of this unit is to stimulate interest in you in the field of African Literature
as well as to convey information about it. African Literature as a part of New
Literature has won wide acclaim in the recent years. You will also appreciate it
after going through the elaborate discussion related to one of the short stories
entitled ‘Marriage is a Private Affair’ written by Chinua Achebe.

16.1 Introduction
In the emerging trends in field of New Literature, the works of African writers have
been greatly appreciated. It is observed that the concerns, cultural and emotional
make-up, problems etc. of African people are much different from that of the other
continents. Keeping this in mind African Literature is being taught and studied
exclusively, which has proved to be quite an interesting and unique study adding
to our understanding of this literature.
‘Marriage is a Private Affair’ is a poignant tale about two young people in love
who try to break away from social traditions and pressures. The story will give
you a deep insight and understanding into the traditions and beliefs of the people
of Africa where the society is divided into ethnic groups and tribes. Nene and
Nnaemeka fall in love with each other unaware of the fact that their belonging to
different tribes will become the greatest hindrance in their marriage. The story also
depicts the superstitions prevalent in the orthodox African society. You will also
observe that Achebe subtly hints at the major breakthrough being brought about
by educated young Africans. Nnaemeka’s father Okeke is the most interesting
character of the story. You also get a glimpse of the African countryside as well
as metro life in the story.

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16.2 About the Author
Born in 1930 Chinua Achebe is one of the most reputed writers of fiction of African
Literature. His versatile art has found expression in diverse spheres of activity as
he joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in 1954 and is presently working
at the institute of African Studies at Nsukka. He also distinguished himself as a
poet as his collection of poems, Beware Soul Brothers, won the commonwealth
poetry prize in 1972. Achebe, today, is the central figure in the field of fiction
writing. His popular novels are Things Fall Apart (1958), No Longer at Ease
(1960), Arrow of God (1964) and A man of the people (1966).

16.3 Reading the text

This short story has a very easy flow. You must read it carefully and with full interest.
16.3.1 Marriage is a private affair (Text)
‘Have you written to your dad yet?’ asked Nene one afternoon as she sat
with Nnaemeka in her room at 16 Kasanga Street, Lagos.
‘No, I’ve been thinking about it. I think it’s better to tell him when I get
home on leave!’.
‘But why? Your leave is such a long way off yet - six whole weeks. He
should be let into our happiness now’.
Nnaemeka was silent for a while, and then began very slowly as if he groped
for his words: ‘I wish I were sure it would be happiness to him.’
‘Of course it must,’ replied Nene, a little surprised. ‘Why shouldn’t it?’.
‘You have lived in Lagos all your life, and you know very little about people
in remote parts of the country.’
‘That’s what you always say. But I don’t believe anybody will be so unlike
other people that they will be unhappy when their sons are engaged to
marry’.
‘Yes. They are most unhappy if the engagement is not arranged by them.
In our case it’s worse - you are not even an Ibo.’
This was said so seriously and so bluntly that Nene could not find speech
immediately. In the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the city, it had always
seemed to her something of a joke that a person’s tribe could determine
whom he married.
At last she said, ‘You don’t really mean that he will object to your marrying
me simply on that account? I had always thought you Ibos were kindly
disposed to other people.’
‘So we are. But when it comes to marriage, well, it’s not quite so simple.
And this,’ he added, ‘is not peculiar to the Ibos. If your father were alive
and lived in the heart of Ibibo-land he would be exactly like my father.’
‘I don’t know. But anyway, as your father is so fond of you, I’m sure he
will forgive you soon enough. Come on then, be a god boy and send him

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a nice lovely letter...’
‘It would not be wise to break the news to him by writing. A letter will
bring it upon him with a shock. I’m quite sure about that.’
‘All right, honey, suit yourself. You know your father’.
As Nnaemeka walked home that evening he turned over in his mind different
ways of overcoming his father’s opposition, especially now that he had gone
and found a girl for him. He had thought of showing his letter to Nene but
decided on second thoughts not to, at least for the moment. He read it again
when he got home and couldn’t help smiling to himself. He remembered
Ugoye quite well, an Amazon of a girl who used to beat up all the boys,
himself included, on the way to the stream, a complete dunce at school.
‘I have found a girl who will suit you admirably - Ugoye Nweke, the eldest
daughter of our neighbour, Jacob Nweke. She has a proper Christian
upbringing. When she stopped schooling some years ago, her father (a man
of sound judgment) sent her to live in the house of a pastor where she has
received all the training a wife could need. Her Sunday School teacher has
told me that she reads her Bible very fluently. I hope we shall begin
negotiations when you come home in December.’
On the second evening of his return from Lagos Nnaemeka sat with his
father under a cassia tree. This was the old man’s retreat where he went
to read his Bible when the parching December sun had set and a fresh,
reviving wind blew on the leaves.
‘Father,’ began Nnaemeka suddenly, ‘I have come to ask for forgiveness.’
‘Forgiveness? For what, my son? he asked in amazement.
‘It’s about this marriage question.
‘Which marriage question’?
‘I can’t- we must- I mean it is impossible for me to marry Nweke’s
daughter.
‘Impossibe? Why?’ asked his father.
‘I don’t love her.’
‘Nobody said you did. Why should you?’ he asked.
‘Marriage today is different....’
‘Look here, my son,’ interrupted his father, ‘nothing is different. What one
looks for in a wife are a good character and a Christian background’.
Nnaemeka saw there was no hope along the present line of argument.
‘Moreover,’ he said, ‘I am engaged to marry another girl who has all of
Ugoye’s good qualities, and who...’
His father did not believe his ears. ‘What did you say? he asked slowly
and diconcertingly.
‘She is a good Christian,’ his son went on, ‘and a teacher in a Girls’ School
in Lagos.’

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‘Teacher, did you say? If you consider that a qualification for a good wife
I should like to point out to you, Nnaemeka, that no Christian woman should
teach. St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says that women should keep
silence’. He rose slowly from his seat and paced forwards and backwards.
This was his pet subject, and he condemned vehemently those church
leaders who encouraged women to teach in their schools. After he had spent
his emotion on a long homily he at last came back to his son’s engagement,
in a seemingly milder tone.
‘Whose daughter is she, anyway?’
‘She is Nene Atang.’
‘What!’ All the mildness was gone again. ‘Did you say Nene Atang, what
does that mean?’
‘Nene Atang from Calabar. She is the only girl I can marry.’ This was a
very rash reply and Nnaemeka expected the storm to burst. But it did not.
His father merely walked away into his room. This was most unexpected
and perplexed. Nnaemeka, his father’s silence was infinitely more menacing
than a flood of threatening speech. That night the old man did not eat.
When he sent for Nnaemeka a day later he applied all possible ways of
dissuasion. But the young man’s heart was hardened, and his father eventually
gave him up as lost.
‘I owe it to you, my son, as a duty to show you what is right and what
is wrong. Whoever put this idea into your head might as well have cut your
throat. It is Satan’s work.’ He waved his son away.
‘You will change your mind, Father, when you know Nene’.
‘I shall never see her,’ was the reply. From that night the father scarcely
spoke to his son. He did not, however, cease hoping that he would realise
how serious was the danger he was heading for. Day and night he put him
in his prayers.
Nnaemeka, for his own part, was very deeply affected by his father’s grief.
But he kept hoping that it would pass away. If it had occurred to him that
never in the history of his people had a man married a woman who spoke
a different tongue, he might have been less optimistic. ‘It has never been
heard,’ was the verdict of an old man speaking a few weeks later. In that
short sentence he spoke for all his people. This man had come with others
to commiserate with Okeke when news went round about his son’s behaviour.
By that time the son had gone back to Lagos.
‘It has never been heard,’ said the old man again with a sad shake of his
head.
‘What did Our Lord say?’ asked another gentleman.
‘Sons shall rise against their Fathers; it is there in the Holy Book.’
‘It is the beginning of the end,’ said another.
The discussion thus tending to become theological Madubogwu, a highly
practical man, brought it down once more to the ordinary level.

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‘Have you thought of consulting a native doctor about your son?’ he asked
Nnaemeka’s father.
‘He isn’t sick,’ was the reply.
‘What is he then? The boy’s mind is diseased and only a good herbalist
can bring him back to his right senses. The medicine he requires is Amalile,
the same that women apply with success to recapture their husband’s
straying affection.’
‘Madubogwu is right,’ said another gentleman. ‘This thing calls for medicine.’
‘I shall not call in a native doctor’. Nnaemeka’s father was known to be
obstinately ahead of his more superstitious neighbours in these matters. ‘I
will not be another Mrs Ochuba. If my son wants to kill himself let him
do it with his own hands. It is not for me to help him.’
‘She was a wicked murderess,’ said Jonathan who rarely argued with his
neighbours because, he often said, they were incapable of reasoning. ‘The
medicine was prepared for her husband, it was his name they called in its
preparation and I am sure it would have been perfectly beneficial to him.
It was wicked to put it into the herbalist’s food, and say you were only
trying it out.’
Six months later, Nnaemeka was showing his young wife a short letter from
his father:
‘It amazes me that you could be so unfeeling as to send me your wedding
picture. I would have sent it back. But on further thought I decided just
to cut off your wife and send it back to you because I have nothing to
do with her. How I wish that I had nothing to do with you either.’
When Nene read through this letter and looked at the mutilated picture her
eyes filled with tears, and she began to sob.
‘Don’t cry, my darling,’ said her husband. ‘He is essentially good-natured
and will one day look more kindly on our marriage.’ But years passed and
that one day did not come.
For eight years, Okeke would have nothing to do with his son, Nnaemeka.
Only three times (when Nnaemeka asked to come home and spend his
leave) did he write to him.
‘I can’t have you in my house,’ he replied on one occasion. ‘It can be of
no interest to me where or how you spend your leave - or your life, for
that matter.’
The prejudice against Nnaemeka’s marriage was not confined to his little
village. In Lagos, especially among the people who worked there, it showed
itself in a different way. Their women, when they met at their village meeting,
were not hostile to Nene. Rather, they paid her such excessive deference
as to make her feel she was not one of them. But as time went on, Nene
gradually broke through some of this prejudice and even began to make
friends among them. Slowly and grudgingly they began to admit that she
kept her home much better than most of them.

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 The story eventually got to the little village in the heart of the Ibo country
that Nnaemeka and his young wife were a most happy couple. But his father
was one of the few people in the village who knew nothing about this. He
always displayed so much temper whenever his son’s name was mentioned
that everyone avoided it in his presence. By a tremendous effort of will he
had succeeded in pushing his son to the back of his mind. The strain had
nearly killed him but he had perserved, and won.
Then one day he received a letter from Nene, and in spite of himself he
began to glance through it perfunctorily until all of a sudden the expression
on his face changed and he began to read more carefully :
..... Our two sons, from the day they learnt that they have a grandfather,
have insisted on being taken to him. I find it impossible to tell them that
you will not see them. I implore you to allow Nnaemeka to bring them home
for a short time during his leave next month. I shall remain here in Lagos....’
The old man at once felt the resolution he had built up over so many years
falling in. He was telling himself that he must not give in. He tried to steel
his heart against all emotional appeals. It was a re-enactment of that other
struggle. He leaned against a window and looked out. The sky was overcast
with heavy black clouds and a high wind began to blow filling the air with
dust and dry leaves. It was one of those rare occasions when even Nature
takes a hand in a human fight. Very soon it began to rain, the first rain in
the year. It came down in large sharp drops and was accompanied by
the lightening and thunder which mark a change of season. Okeke was trying
hard not to think of his two grandsons. But he knew he was now fighting
a losing battle. He tried to hum a favourite hymn but the pattering of large
raindrops on the roof broke up the tune. His mind immediately returned
to the children. How could he shut his door against them? By a curious
mental process he imagined them standing, sad and forsaken, under the
harsh angry weather - shut out from his house.
That night he hardly slept, from remorse - and a vague fear that he might
die without making it up to them.
16.3.2 Glossary
Distinguished : Well-known, remarkable
Grope for words : Search for words.
Remote : Far away in place.
Bluntly : Painly; not troubling to be polite.
Peculiar : Belonging exclusively, strange
Cosmopolitan : Free from national prejudice.
Overcome : Be too strong for.
Amazon : Strong, manlike woman.
Retreat : Place for quiet and rest.
Disconcertingly : In an upsetting manner.
Vehemently : Strongly

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 Perplexed : Puzzled
Menacing : Dangerous
Dissuasion : To give advice against.
Commiserate : Sympathize
Theology : Science of the nature of god.
Obstinate : Stubborn.
Mutilate : Damage by breaking, tearing or cutting.
Herbalist : Person who gives herbs as medicines.
Deference : Respect
Persevere : Keep on steadily, continue
Perfunctorily : Done as a duty, without care or interest.
Steel his heart : Harden his heart.
Hum : Make a continuous sound like that made by bees.
Forsaken : Give up; break away from.
Remorse : Deep, bitter regret for wrong doing.
16.3.3 Summary
The story opens in the city of Lagos with Nene and Nnaemeka talking over
the issue of their recent engagement. Nene wants him to write a letter to
his father and inform him about it but Nnaemeka wants to do it personally
when he goes to his village during the vacation because he is sure that his
father will not like this news. Nene has lived in Lagos since her childhood
and so she doesn’t know much about people in remote parts of the country.
Nnaemeka is aware of the fact that just like elsewhere, in his village also
a person’s tribe determines whom he married that too only with the consent
of his parents. He tries to explain things to Nene but she doesn’t understand
and leaves it to Nnaemeka.
On his way back Nnaemeka again reads out the letter he has recently
recieved from his father stating that he had chosen a girl Ugoye Nweke
for him. Nnaemeka has known this girl since childhood and he smiled as
he thought of this naughty girl Ugoye Nweke who used to beat boys in
the school. His father was happy with his choice because Ugoye had a
proper christian upbringing and good character.
The story then takes a leap as Nnaemeka has come to his native village
during the vacation. He asks for forgiveness from his father as it is impossible
for him to marry Ugoye. He discloses to his father his relationship with Nene
Atang with whom he plans to marry. His father is so shocked by this news
that instead of bursting out in anger as is his nature he becomes absolutely
silent.
Next day the father tries to make him understand the ill effects of marriage
outside one’s tribe calling it devil’s work. Nnaemeka comes back with a
sad heart hoping that one day his father’s traditional views will change.
Nnaemeka was the first in his village to marry a girl from a different tribe

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 and that is why his father gets concerned even though he himself doesn’t
believe in the superstitious beliefs like other villagers.
All the villagers gathered around Okeke and expressed concern over this
strange act of his son, which they considered ‘the beginning of the end’.
They were sure that the boy’s mind was diseased and must be treated by
a herbalist. But Okeke did not believe in the superstitions prevalent in the
village. The villagers discussed their local herbalist who was killed by his
own medicine.
Despite all this Nnaemeka and Nene got married. The story moves further
six months and they receive a letter from Okeke in which he shows his
annoyance and anger by cutting the wedding picture sent by his son. He
declares his rejection of Nene also. This letter hurts them terribly but
Nnaemeka is still hopeful that his father’s basic good nature will change his
views one day.
As time passes by the Ibo friends of Nnaemeka realize that their married
life is very good. They now understand that for marriage, love and
understanding are required and not the same tribe. News of their being one
of the most happy couple’s reaches the village also. But no one dares to
talk to Okeke about it. He had made great efforts to forget Nnaemeka
although it had been very painful for him.
Then one day Okeke received a letter from Nene. Unwillingly he reads it.
Nene informs him that he has two grandsons and both are now grown-
up. Everyday they ask for their grandfather and Nene writes that she doesn’t
know what reply she must give to them. She earnestly requests him to allow
them to meet him along with Nnaemeka during the coming vacation and
that she herself would not come.
This letter greatly moves Okeke. All these years he had hardened himself
but today at the thought of his grandsons his heart melts. He feels that he
had done great injustice to them and now he must open the door of his
house for them, in a way open his heart for them.
16.4 Let’s Sum Up
In this unit we have thrown light on Chinua Achebe, a great literary figure in the
field of African literature. You have also gone through the text of ‘Marriage is a
Private Affair’ a short story by Achebe. The summary gave you the whole story
in brief followed by glossary of difficult words with meaning.

16.5 Suggested Readings

1. Chinua Achebe : Things Fall Apart
2. Wole Soyinka : A Dance of Forests
3. Thiong’o Ngugi : Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in
African Literature.

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16.6 Questions
(a) Answer the following questions in two-three lines each :
(i) What did Nene want Nnaemeka to do?
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
(ii) What is the name of the girl Okeke had chosen for Nnaemeka as a bride?

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
(iii) According to Nnaemeka’s father what are the qualities that one looks for
in a wife?
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
(iv) What did Okeke do to the wedding picture of Nene and Nnaemeka?

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
(b) Answer the following questions in 50 words each :
(i) What picture of Nene do you get from the story?
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
(ii) ‘It is the beginning of the end’. What significance does this line have in
the story?
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

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 _________________________________________________________________
(c) Answer the following questions in 300-400 words :
(i) Summarize the story ‘Marriage is a Private Affair’.
_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________
16.7 Answers
(a) (i) Nene wanted Nnaemeka to write a letter to his father informing him about
their engagement.
(ii) The name of the girl chosen by Okeke for Nnaemeka is Ugoye Nweke.
(iii) Nnaemeka’s father believed that two qualities one looks for in a wife
are a good character and a christian background.
(iv) Okeke mutilated the wedding picture of Nene and Nnaemeka and sent
it back to Nnaemeka.
(b) (i) Nene is a good girl with feelings of sincere love for Nnaemeka. She has
great understanding for him and doesn’t force him to write a letter to his
father as he is unwilling. She proves to be a good wife and strongly adjusts
herself the Ibo-community. She is sensitive and has great respect for
Okeke. It is due to her sensible and emotional letter to Okeke that he
finally accepts them back in his life.
(ii) Nnaemeka’s marriage to Nene was unexpected by the Ibo-people because
it had never happened before and it was considered to be a devil’s work.
The illiterate and superstitious villagers believed that this was the beginning
of the end of the world as it was written in the Bible that sons shall rise
against their father.
(c) (i) Refer to point 16.3.3.

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 UNIT-17
Amitav Ghosh : The Ghat of the Only World
Structure
17.0 Objectives
17.1 Introduction
17.2 About the Author
17.3 Reading the Text
17.3.1 The Story : The Ghat of the Only World (Text)
17.3.2 Glossary
17.3.3 Summary
17.4 Some Model Explanations
17.5 Let‘s Sum Up
17.6 Suggested Readings
17.7 Questions
17.8 Answers
17.0 Objectives
The objective of this unit is to enable you to comprehend the sensation and
sentimentality of a kashmiri expatriate, Aga Shahid Ali, living in America. We also
intend to tell you by giving you the hints that like a true patriot Aga Shahid Ali was
hurt by the mounting violence in the Valley of Kashmir. During the course of your
studying the unit you would also be able to know that Shahid’s outlook was
ecumenical; he did not believe in mixing up politics with religion.

17.1 Introduction
Agha Shahid Ali, a teacher and poet, was an expatriate from Kashmir. The writer
met Shahid at Brooklyn in 2000. He was suffering from cancer and knew that he
was dying. He asked the author to write something about him after he had died.
Amitav Ghosh pays him glowing tributes in this write-up.

17.2 About the Author

Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He grew up in Bangladesh (then East
Pakistan), Sri Lanka, Iran and India. After graduating from the University of Delhi,
he went to Oxford to study Social Anthropology and received a Master of Philosophy
and a Ph. D in 1982. In 1980, he went to Egypt to do field work in the fellaheen
village of Lataifa. The work he did there resulted in In an Antique Land (IAAL
1993). Ghosh has been a journalist and published his first novel, The Circle of
Reason in 1986, and his second, The Shadow Lines in 1988,. Since then, he
has published, The Calcutta Chromosome, and The Glass Palace, done fieldwork
in Cambodia, lived in Delhi and written for a number of publications. He currently
lives in New York and teaches at Columbia University.

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17.3 Reading the Text
Now read the text carefully:
17.3.1 The Ghat of the Only World (Text)
The first time that Agha Shahid Ali spoke to me about his approaching death
was on 25th April 2001. The conversation began routinely. I had telephoned
to remind him that we had been invited to a friend’s house for lunch and that
I was going to come by his apartment to pick him up. Although he had been
under treatment for cancer for some fourteen months, Shahid was still on his
feet and perfectly lucid, except for his occasional lapses of memory. I heard
him thumbing through his engagement book and suddenly he said: ‘oh dear.
I can’t see a thing.’ There was a brief pause and then he added: ‘I hope this
doesn’t mean that I ‘m dying…’
Although Shahid and I had talked a great deal over the last many weeks,
I had never before heard him touch on the subject of death. I did not know
how to respond: his voice was completely at odds with the content of what
he had just said, light to the point of jocularity. I mumbled something innocuous:
‘No Shahid- of course not. You will be fine.’ He cut me short. In a tone of
voice that was at once quizzical and direct, he said: ‘When it happens I hope
you’ll write something about me.’
I was shocked into silence and a long moment passed before I could bring
myself to say the things that people say on such occasions. ‘Shahid you‘ll
be fine: you have to be strong…’
From the window of my study I could see a corner of the building in which
he lived, some eight blocks away. It was just a few month since he moved
there: he had been living a few miles away, in Manhattan, when he had a
sudden blackout in February2000. After tests revealed that he had a malignant
brain tumour, he decided to move to Brooklyn, to be close to his youngest
sister, Sameetah, who teaches at the Pratt Institute—a few blocks away
from the street I live.
Shahid ignored my reassurances. He began to laugh and it was then that I
realized that he was dead serious. I understood that he was entrusting me
with a quite specific charge: he wanted me to remember him not through the
spoken recitatives of memory and friendship, but through the written word.
Shahid knew too well that for those writers for whom things became real
only in the process of writing, there is an inbuilt resistance to dealing with
loss and bereavement. He knew that my instincts would have led me to
search for reasons to avoid writing about his death: I would have told myself
that I was not a poet; that our friendship was of recent date; that there were
many others who knew him much better and would be writing from greater
understanding and knowledge. All this Shahid had guessed and he had
decided to shut off those routes while there was still time.
‘You must write about me.’

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Clear though it was that this imperative would have to be acknowledged, I
could think of nothing to say: what are the words in which one promises a
friend that one will write about him after his death? Finally, I said: ‘Shahid,
I will: I’ll do the best I can’.
By the end of the conversation I knew exactly what I had to do. I picked
up my pen, noted the date, and wrote down everything I remembered of
that conversation. This I continued to do for the next few months: it is this
record that has made it possible for me to fulfill the pledge I made that day.
I knew Shahid’s work long before I met him. His 1997 Collection, The
Country Without a Post Office, had made a powerful impression on me.
His voice was like none I had ever heard before, at once lyrical and fiercely
disciplined, engaged yet deeply inward. Not for him the mock-casual almost
prose of so much contemporary poetry: his was a voice that was not ashamed
to speak in a bardic register. I knew of no one else who would even
conceive of publishing a line like ‘Mad heart, be brave.’
In 1998, I quoted a line from The Country Without a Post Office in an
article that touched briefly on Kashmir. At that time all I knew about Shahid
was that he was from Srinagar and had studied in Delhi. I had been at Delhi
University myself, but although our time there had briefly overlapped, we
had never met. We had friends in common however, and one of them put
me in touch with Shahid. In 1998 and 1999 we had several conversations
on the phone and even met a couple of times. But we were no more than
acquaintances until he moved to Brooklyn the next year. Once we were in
the same neighbourhood, we began to meet for occasional meals and quickly
discovered that we had a great deal in common. By this time of course
Shahid’s condition was already serious, yet his illness did not impede the
progress of our friendship. We found that we had a huge roster of common
friends in India, America and elsewhere; we discovered a shared love of
rogan josh, Roshanara Begum and Kishore Kumar; a mutual indifference to
cricket and an equal attachment to old Bombay films. Because of Shahid’s
condition even the most trivial exchanges had a special charge and urgency:
the inescapable poignance of talking about food and half forgotten figures
from the past with a man who knew himself to be dying, was multiplied, in
this instance, by the knowledge that this man was also a poet who had
achieved greatness –perhaps the only such that I shall ever know as a friend.
One afternoon, the writer Suketu Mehta, who also lives in Brooklyn, joined
us for lunch. Together we hatched a plan for an adda—by definition, a
gathering that has no agenda, other than conviviality. Shahid was enthusiastic
and we began to meet regularly. From time to time other writers would join
us. On one occasion a crew arrived with a television camera. Shahid was
not in the least bit put out: ‘I ‘m so shameless; I just love the camera.’
Shahid had a sorcerer’s ability to transmute the mundane into the magical.
Once I accompanied Iqbal, his brother, and Hena, his sister, on a trip to
fetch him home from hospital. This was on 21 May: by that time he had

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already been through several unsuccessful operations. Now he was back in
hospital to undergo a surgical procedure that was intended to relieve the
pressure on his brain. His head was shaved and the shape of the tumour was
visible upon his bare scalp, its edges outlined by metal sutures. When it was
time to leave the ward a blue-uniformed hospital escort arrived with a
wheelchair. Shahid waved him away, declaring that he was strong enough to
walk out of the hospital on his own. But he was groggier than he had thought
and his knees buckled after no more than a few steps. Iqbal went running
off to bring back the wheelchair while the rest of us stood in the corridor,
holding him upright. At that time leaning against the cheerless hospital wall,
a kind of rapture descended on Shahid. When the hospital orderly returned
with the wheelchair Shahid gave him a beaming smile and asked where he
was from. ‘Ecuador’ the man said, and Shahid clapped his hands gleefully
together, ‘Spanish!’ he cried at the top of his voice. I always wanted to learn
Spanish. Just to read Lorca’
Shahid’s gregariousness had no limit: there was never an evening when there
wasn’t a party in his living room. ‘I love it that so many people are here,’
he told me once. ‘I love it that people come and there’s always food. I love
this spirit of festivity; it means that I don’t have time to be depressed.’
His apartment was a spacious and airy split-level, on the seventh floor of a
newly renovated building. There was a cavernous study on the top floor and
a wide terrace that provided a magnificent view of the Manhattan skyline,
across the East river. Shahid loved this view of the Brooklyn waterfront
slipping, like a ghat into the East river, under the glittering lights of Manhattan.
The journey from the foyer of Shahid’s building to his door was a voyage
between continents: on the way up the rich fragrance of rogan josh and haak
would invade the dour, grey interior of the elevator; against the background
of the songs and voices that were always echoing out of his apartment, even
the ringing of the doorbell had an oddly musical sound. Suddenly Shahid
would appear, flinging open the door, releasing a great cloud of heeng into
the frosty New York air, ‘Oh, how nice,’ he would cry, clapping his hands,
‘how nice that you’ve come to see your little Mos-lem!’ Invariably, there’d
be some half dozen or more people gathered inside—poets, students, writer,
relatives—and in the kitchen someone would always be cooking or making
tea. Almost to the very end, even as his life was being consumed by his
disease, he was the centre of a perpetual carnival, an endless mela of talk,
laughter, food and, of course, poetry.
No matter how many people there were, Shahid was never so distracted as
to lose track of the progress of the evening’s meal. From time to time he
would interrupt himself to shout directions to whoever was in the kitchen:
‘yes, now, add the dahi now.’ Even when his eyesight was falling, he could
tell from the smell alone, exactly which stage the rogan josh had reached.
And when things went exactly as they should, he would sniff the air’ and cry
out loud: ‘Aha! Khana ka kya mahak hai!’

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Shahid was legendary for his prowess in the kitchen, frequently spending
days over the planning and preparation of a dinner party. It was through one
such party, given while he was in Arizona, that he met James Merrill, the
poet who was to radically alter the direction of his poetry: it was after this
encounter that he began to experiment with strict, metrical patterns and
verse forms. No one had a greater influence on Shahid’s poetry than James
Merrill: indeed, in the poem in which he most explicitly prefigured his own
death, ‘I Dream I Am At the Ghat of the Only World,’ he awarded the
envoy to Merrill: SHAHID, HUSH. THIS IS ME, JAMES. THE LOVED
ONE ALWAYS LEAVES.
Shahid placed great store on authenticity and exactitude in cooking and
would tolerate no deviation from traditional methods and recipes: for those
who took short cuts, he had only pity. He had a special passion for the food
of his region, one variant of it in particular: ‘Kashmiri food in the Pandit
style’. I asked him once why this was so important to him and he explained
that it was because of a recurrent dream, in which all the Pandits had
vanished from the valley of Kashmir and their food had become extinct. This
was a nightmare that haunted him and he returned to it again and again, in
his conversation and poetry.
At a certain point I lost track of you.
You needed me. You needed to perfect me;
In your absence you polished me into the Enemy.
Your history gets in the way of my memory.
——————————— what would not have been possible in the
world?
Once, in conversation, he told me that he also loved Bengali food. I protested,
‘But Shahid, you’ve never been even to Calcutta’.
‘No’, he said, ‘But we had friends who used to bring us that food. When
you ate it you could see that there were so many things that you didn’t know
about, everywhere in the country….’
What I say is: why can’t you be happy with the cuisines and the clothes and
the music and all these wonderful things?’ He paused and added softly, ‘At
least here we have been able to make a space where we can all come
together because of the good things.’
Of many ‘good things’ in which he took pleasure, none was more dear to
him than the music of Begum Akhtar. He had met the great ghazal singer
when he was in his teens, through a friend, and she had become an abiding
presence and influence in his life. Shahid had a fund of stories about her
sharpness in repartee.
Shahid was himself no mean practitioner of repartee. On one famous occasion,
at Barcelona airport, he was stopped by a security guard just as he was

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about to board a plane. The guard, a woman, asked: ‘What do you do?’
“I’m a poet,’ Shahid answered.
‘What were you doing in Spain?’
‘Writing poetry.’
No matter what the question, Shahid worked poetry into his answer. Finally
the exasperated woman asked: ‘Are you carrying anything that could be
dangerous to the other passengers?’ At this Shahid clapped a hand to his
chest and cried: ‘Only my heart.’
This was one of his great Wildean moments, and it was to occasion the
poem ‘Barcelona Airport’. He treasured these moments: ‘I long for people
to give me an opportunity to answer questions’ he told me once. On 7 May
I had the good fortune to be with him when one such opportunity presented
itself. Shahid was teaching at Manhattan’ Baruch College in the Spring
semester of 2000 and this was to be his last class—indeed the last he was
ever to teach. The class was to be a short one for he had an appointment
at the hospital immediately afterwards. I had heard a great deal about the
brilliance of Shahid’s teaching, but this was the first and only time that I was
to see him perform in a classroom. It was evident from the moment we
walked in that the students adored him: they had printed the magazine and
dedicated the issue to him. Shahid for his part was not in the least subdued
by the sadness of the occasion. From beginning to end, he was a sparkling
diva, Akhtar incarnate, brimming with laughter and nakhra. When an Indian
student walked in late, he greeted her with the cry; ‘Ah my little subcotinental
has arrived.’ Clasping his hands, he feigned a swoon. ‘It stirs such a tide of
patriotism in me to behold another South Asian.’
His time at Penn State he remembered with unmitigated pleasure: ‘I grew as
a reader, I grew as a poet, I grew as a lover.’ He fell in with a vibrant group
of graduate students. Many of whom were Indian. This was, he often said,
the happiest time of his life. Later Shahid moved to Arizona to take a degree
in creative writing. This in turn was followed by a series of jobs in colleges
and universities: Hamilton College, The University of Massachusetts at
Amherst, and finally the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he was
appointed professor in 1999. He was on leave from Utah, doing a brief stint
at New York University, when he had his first blackout in February 2000.
After 1975, when he moved to Pennsylvania, Shahid lived mainly in America.
His brother was already there and they were later joined by their two sisters.
But Shahid’s parents continued to live in Srinagar and it was his custom to
spend the summer months with them there every year: ‘I always move in my
heart between sad countries.’ Travelling between United States and India he
was thus an intermittent but first-hand witness (Shahid) to the mounting
violence that seized the region from the late 1980s onwards:
It was ’89, the stones were not far, signs of change everywhere (Kashmir
would soon be in literal flames)…..

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The steady deterioration of the political situation in Kashmir—the violence
and counter-violence –had a powerful effect on him. In time it became one
of the central subjects of his work: indeed, it could be said that it was in
writing of Kashmir that he created his finest work. The irony of this is that
Shahid was not by inclination a political poet. I heard him say once: ‘If you
are from a difficult place and that’s all you have to write about then you
should stop writing. You have to respect your art, your form—that is just as
important as what you write about.’
Anguished as he was about Kashmir’s destiny, Shahid resolutely refused to
embrace the role of victim that could so easily have been his. Had he done
so, he could no doubt have easily become a fixture on talk shows and news
programmes. But Shahid never had any doubt about his calling: he was a
poet, schooled in the fierce and unforgiving art of language. Although respectful
of religion, he remained a firm believer in the separation of politics and
religious practices.
Shahid’s gaze was not political in the sense of being framed in terms of
policy and solutions. In the broadest sense, his vision tended always towards
the inclusive and ecumenical, an outlook that he credited to his upbringing.
He spoke often of a time in his childhood when he had been seized by the
desire to create a small Hindu temple in his room in Srinagar. He was initially
hesitant to tell his parents, but when he did they responded with an enthusiasm
equal to his own. His mother bought him murtis and other accoutrements
and for a while he was assiduous in conducting pujas at this shrine. This was
a favourite story. ‘Whenever People talk to me about Muslim fanaticism’ he
said to me once, ‘I tell them how my mother helped me make a temple in
my room.’
I once remarked to Shahid that he was the closest that Kashmir had to a
national poet. He shot back: ‘A national poet, maybe. But not a nationalist
poet; please note that. In the title poem of The Country Without a Post
office, a poet returns to Kashmir to find the keeper of a fallen minaret:
Nothing will remain, everything’s finished,
I see his voice again: This is a shrine
of words. You’ll find your letters to me. And mine to
you. Come son and tear open these vanished envelopes…
This is an archive. I’ve found the remains
of his voice, that map of longings with no limit.
In this figuring of his homeland, he himself became one of the images that
were spinning around the dark point of stillness—both Shahid and Shahid,
witness and martyr—his destiny inextricably linked with Kashmir’s, each
prefigured by the other.
I will die, in autumn, in Kashmir,
and the shadowed routine of each vein

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will almost be news, the blood censored
for the Saffron Sun and the Times of Rain…
Among my notes is a record of a telephone conversation on 5May. The day
before he had gone to the hospital for an important test: a scan that was
expected to reveal whether or not the course of chemotherapy that he was
then undergoing had had the desired effect. All other alternative therapies
and courses of treatment had been put off until this report.
Then scan was scheduled for 2.30 in the afternoon. I called his number
several times in the late afternoon and early evening—there was no response.
I called again the next morning and this time he answered. There were no
preambles. He said, ‘Listen Amitav, the news is not good at all. Basically
they are going to stop all my medicines now—the chemotherapy and so on.
They give me a year or less. They’d suspected that I was not responding
well because of the way I look. They will give me some radiation a little
later. But they said there was not much hope.’
Dazed, staring blankly at my desk, I said: ‘What will you do now Shahid?’
‘I would like to go back to Kashmir to die.’ His voice was quiet and
untroubled. ‘Now I have to get my passport, settle my will and all that. I
don’t want to leave a mess for my siblings. But after that I would like to go
to Kashmir. It’s still such a feudal system there and there will be so much
support—and my father is there too. Anyway, I don’t want my siblings to
have to make the journey afterwards, like we had to with my mother.’
Later because of logistical and other reasons, he changed his mind about
returning to Kashmir: he was content to be laid to rest in Northampton, in
the vicinity of Amherst, a town sacred to the memory of his beloved Emily
Dickinson. But I do not think it was an accident that his mind turned to
Kashmir in speaking of death. Already, in his poetic imagery, death, Kashmir,
and Shahid/Shahid had become so closely overlaid as to be inseparable, like
old photographs that have melted together in the rain.
Yes, I remember it
the day I’ll die, I broadcast the crimson
so long of that sky, its spread air,
its rushing dyes, and a piece of earth
bleeding, apart from the shore, as we went
on the way I’ll die, post the guards, and he,
keeper of the world’s last saffron, rowed me
on an island the size of a grave. On
two yards he rowed me into the sunset,
past all pain. On everyone’s lips was news

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 of my death but only that beloved couplet,
broken on his:
‘If there is a paradise on earth
It is this, it is this, it is this.’
The last time I saw Shahid was on 27 October, at his brother’s house in
Amherst. He was intermittently able to converse and there were moments
when we talked just as we had in the past. He was aware, as he had long
been, of his approaching end and he had made peace with it. I saw no trace
of anguish or conflict: surrounded by the love of his family and friends, he
was calm, contented, at peace. He had said to me once, ‘I love to think that
I’ll meet my mother in the afterlife, if there is an afterlife.’ I had the sense
that as the end neared, this was his supreme consolation. He died peacefully,
in his sleep, at 2a.m. on 8 December.
Now, in his absence, I am amazed that so brief a friendship has resulted in
so vast a void. Often, when I walk into my living room, I remember his
presence there, particularly on the night when he read us his farewell to the
world: ‘I Dream I Am At the Ghat of Only World….’
17.3.2 Glossary
Quizzical : questioning and teasing
Malignant : (here) harmful to life
Recitatives : style of music between singing and talking
Bereavement : loss or sorrow
Bardic : a poetic style
Sorcerer : magician
Transmute : change
Mundane : worldly, physical
Lorca : Spain’s most deeply appreciated and highly revered
poet.
Gregariousness : life in groups or societies
Cavernous : like a cave, deepset
Foyer : large space in a theatre for the use of audience
during intervals
Dour : severe, stern, obstinate
Carnival : public merrymaking and feasting
Sniff : draw air in through the nose
Legendary : (here) famous, known
Prowess : valour, unusual skill

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 Metrical : composed in metre
Authenticity : quality of being genuine
Exactitude : correctness
Deviation : turning aside or away, difference
Recipes : directions for preparing a cake, a dish of food
Repartee : witty, clever retort
Exasperated : irritated, produced ill feeling in
Swoon : faint, fainting fit
Vibrant : thrilling
Subdued : overcame, brought under control
Unmitigated : severe, opposite of mitigated
Ecumenical : involving or uniting members of different religions
Accoutrements : other things that were needed for the activity
Assiduous : taking care that everything is done
Inextricably : that cannot be solved
Chemotherapy : treatment of disease by drugs that attack microbes
Radiation : the sending out of energy, heat, etc in rays
Dazed : made somebody feel stupid or unable to think clearly
Mess : state of confusion, disorder
Siblings : one of two or more persons having the same parents
Crimson : deep red
Intermittently : pausing or stopping at intervals
17.3.3 Summary
Agha Ali Shahid, an expatriate from Kashmir, moved to Pennsylvania in
1975 and after that he lived mainly in America. Shahid’s parents continued
to live in Srinagar and it was his custom to spend the summer months with
them every year. He was an intermittent but firsthand witness to the mounting
violence that seized the region from late 1980s onwards.
Shahid regarded his time at the Pennsylvania state as the happiest time of
his life. Later he moved to Arizona to take a degree in creative writing. This
in turn was followed by a series of jobs in colleges and universities; he was
on leave from Utah when he had his first blackout in February 2000.
The writer, Amitav Ghosh, had known Shahid’s work long before he met
him. He became intimate with Shahid when he moved to Brooklyn in 2000.
By this time Shahid’s condition was already serious, yet his illness did not
hamper their friendship or Shahid’s interest, i.e. his love for music, poetry,
good conversation, etc.

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 Shahid was gregarious by nature. There wasn’t any evening when there was
no party in his living room. He had the sorcerer’s ability to transmute the
mundane into the magical. He was a poet who had achieved greatness. He
knew that he was dying. Even the most trivial exchanges with him had a
special charge and urgency. He was a lover of good food.
Shahid loved repartee. The author recalls Shahid’s witty exchanges with a
security guard at Barcelona airport. He worked poetry into his answer. He
had a prophetic vision. The nightmare that all the Pandits had vanished from
the valley of Kashmir and their food had become extinct haunted him.
Shahid spoke to the author about his approaching death for the first time on
25 April2001. He wanted the author to write something about him after his
death. In spite of several unsuccessful operations he had not lost his glee.
On 7 May, 2001 Shahid had an important scan. The doctors gave him a
year or less. They had stopped all medicines and chemotherapy. Shahid
wanted to go back to Kashmir to die, but had to change his mind. He was
content to be laid in Northampton, in Amherst town. He died peacefully, in
his sleep, at 2 a.m. on 8 December. The author feels his presence even in
his own living room. He feels amazed that so brief a friendship has resulted
in so vast a void.

17.4 Some Model Explanations

1. Shahid’s gregariousness———————————time to be depressed.
This extract from The Ghat of the Only world tells us about Agha Shahid Ali’s
liking for living in groups. Shahid was such a person that he would invite people
to his house and arrange parties. The author says that there used to be a party
everyday in his living room. Shahid had once told the author that he loved to
see the people, food and festivity in his house. This spirit of festivity prevented
him from falling a victim to depression.
The word ‘gregariousness’ means ‘living in groups or societies’.
2. Shahid’s gaze was —————————————to his upbringing.
The extract from The Ghat of the Only World by Amitav Ghosh tells us that
Shahid’s views regarding the solution of the Kashmir problem were not political.
He never argued that policy should be framed to unite the people politically. His
vision tended to be inclusive and ecumenical, i.e. he always believed in involving
or uniting members of different religions. This outlook, Shahid used to say, was
the result of his upbringing.
Shahid implemented this on himself, says the writer, by constructing a Hindu
temple in his house.

17.5 Let‘s Sum Up

In this unit we have presented an elaborate discussion of a prose piece written by
Amitav Ghosh to keep his promise to a dying man, an expatriate from Kashmir,

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 Agha Shahid Ali. To facilitate your comprehension of the text in a proper a way,
some model explanations, besides the glossary, have also been presented.

17.6 Suggested Readings

1. Amitav Ghosh : The Calcutta Chromosome, 2001
2 Amitav Ghosh : The Glass Palace, 2002.

17.7 Questions
Answer the following questions:
1. What impressions of Shahid do you gather from this prose piece?
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2. How do Shahid and the writer react to the knowledge that Shahid is going to
die?
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 3. Look up the dictionary for the meaning of the word ‘Diaspora’. What do you
know about Indian Diaspora?
___________________________________________________________
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17.8 Answers
1. Agha Shahid Ali appears to be a sensitive soul. Though a Kashmiri expatriate
in America, he always thought of Kashmir and was hurt by the mounting violence
in the valley. Though he was not a political poet, his finest work relates to
writings about Kashmir. Shahid’s outlook was ecumenical. He did not believe
in mixing up politics and religion.
Shahid was born in Kashmir and had studied in Delhi. Later he migrated to
America and served there in various colleges and universities. He was a fine
scholar and brilliant teacher. His students loved and respected him. He taught
his last class on 7 May 2000 at Manhattan’s Baruch College. He loved music,
clothes and cuisines. He loved the music of Begum Akhtar, Kishore Kumar and
Bombay films. He was witty and loved repartee. When asked if he was carrying
anything dangerous to other passengers, he replied “only my heart”. He suffered
from cancer and knew well about his approaching death. This did not diminish
his love for life and friends. He enjoyed the company of friends. He bore his
sufferings patiently and died peacefully. He requested the author to write something
about him after his demise.
2. Shahid and the writer react differently to the knowledge that the latter is going
to die. Shahid had a sudden blackout in February 2000. Tests revealed that he
had a malignant brain tumour. It was on25 April 2001 that Shahid spoke to the
writer about his approaching death. He had been under treatment for cancer for
some fourteen months. Shahid was still on his feet and perfectly lucid. The
writer was shocked into silence. Then he tried to offer reassurances. Shahid
ignored them and began to laugh. Despite his physical weakness, Shahid would
smile and laugh gleefully. Even when his eyesight was failing him, he could tell
from the smell alone, which stage the rogan josh had reached and issued
instructions. Shahid accepted his inevitable death boldly. The writer felt dazed
and stared blankly as Shahid disclosed to him what the doctors had said.

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 Shahid had made peace with his approaching death. There was no trace of
anguish or conflict on his face. The author felt shocked and overawed by the
gradual decay and ultimate end of his dear friend, Shahid.
3. The dictionary defines ‘Diaspora’ as the movement of people from any nation
or group away from their own country to live and work in other countries. This
movement may be for a short period or may extend to permanent abode in the
foreign country. Many Indians migrate to advanced countries for education,
research and jobs.
This piece gives us a brief glimpse of the Indian Diaspora in America. It mentions
only a few members: Shahid, his brother Iqbal, his sisters Hena and Sameetah,
writers Suketu Mehta and Amitav Ghosh. The other members are not mentioned
by name.
The Indian Diaspora retains their love for everything belonging to their
motherland—be it food, films, music or poetry. They do feel concerned about
the socio-political affairs prevailing back at home. They visit their motherland
occasionally and have a desire to be laid to rest there. In short, they possess

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 UNIT - 18
Brooker T. Washington : My Struggle for an Education
Structure
18.0 Objectives
18.1 Introduction
18.2 About the Author
18.3 Reading the text
18.3.1 The Story : My Struggle for an Education (Text)
18.3.2 Glossary
18.3.3 Summary
18.4 Let’s Sum Up
18.5 Suggested Readings
18.6 Questions
18.7 Answers
18.0 Objectives
Just as you observed a shift in your study in unit 17 by the reading of an African
short story in this unit also you will read an autobiographical sketch written by an
African-American writer belonging to the times when the dark clouds of slavery had
shrouded humanity. The purpose of this unit is to enable you to understand how
Broker T. Washington fought against the policy of discrimination based on colour.

18.1 Introduction
The life and struggle of black Americans has been a major concern for people all
around the world. Many black American have written a great deal about the hardships
faced by these people. Your reading of this short story here will make an interesting
study and give you a vivid picture of the struggle of the black people.
In the story ‘My struggle for an Education’ Brooker T. Washington gives a moving
account of the difficulties he faced to find a place in a school. At the age of sixteen
he had to face lots of troubles and hardships in order to get admission in a school.
Racial discrimination was prevalent and blacks were not given the right to education.
Washington makes a tremendous effort to prove to the administration of the school
that the colour of his skin in no way determines his lack of capability.

18.2 About the Author

Brooker T. Washington (1856-1915) was one of the best-known black American
educators and racial leaders. He founded the Tuskegee Institute for black students.
He did a great deal for the upliftment of the blacks by helping them realize the value
of education. The has also written a lot on the issue of slavery. His autobiographical
works are : The Story of My Life and Work, Up from Slavery, My Larger
Education.

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18.3 Reading the text
The story is an autobiographical account of the life of Brooker T. Washington. Here
he narrates the episode of his life, when he was sixteen years old. He was working
in a coal mine where he developed an urge to be educated in a good school. The
story relates to his struggle to prove his capability in a racially discriminated society
to get education. You must read it with interest.
18.3.1 My Struggle for an Education (Text)
One day, while at work in the coal mine, I happened to overhear two miners talking
about a great school for coloured people somewhere in Virginia. This was the first
time that I had ever heard anything about any kind of school or college that was
more pretentious than the little coloured school in our town.
As they went on describing the school, it seemed to me that it must be the greatest
place on earth. Not even Heaven presented more attractions for me at that time
than did the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Insitute in Virginia, about which these
men were talking. I resolved at once to go to that school, although I had no idea
where it was, or how many miles away, or how I was going to reach it. I was on
fire constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to Hampton. This thought was
with me day and night.
In the Fall of 1872, I determined to make an effort to get there. My mother was
troubled with a grave fear that I was starting out on a ‘wild-goose chase’. At any
rate, I got only a half-hearted consent from her that I might start. I had very little
money with which to buy clothes and pay my travelling expenses. My brother John
helped me all that he could; but, of course, that was not a great deal.
Finally the great day came, and I started for Hampton. I had only a small cheap
satchel that contained the few articles of clothing I could get. My mother at the time
was rather weak and broken in health. I hardly expected to see her again, and thus
our parting was all the more sad. She, however, was very brave through it all.
The distance from Malden to Hampton is about five hundred miles. By walking,
begging rides both in wagons and in the cars, in some way, after a number of days,
I reached the city of Richmond, Virginia, about eighty-two miles from Hampton.
When I reached there, tired, hungry, and dirty, it was late in the night.
I had never been in a large city, and this rather added to my misery. When I reached
Richmond, I was completely out of money. I had not a single acquaintance in the
place; and, being unused to city ways, I did not known where to go. I asked at
several places for lodging, but they all wanted money and that was what I did not
have. Knowing nothing else better to do, I walked the streets.
I must have walked the streets till after midnight. At last I became so exhausted that
I could walk no longer. I was tired, I was hungry, I was everything but discouraged.
Just, about the time when I reached extreme physical exhaustion, I came upon a
portion of a street where the board sidewalk was considerably elevated. I waited
for a few minutes till I was sure that no passers-by could see me and then crept
under the sidewalk and lay for the night on the ground, with my satchel of clothing
for a pillow. Nearly all night I could hear the tramp of feet over my head.

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The next morning I found myself somewhat refreshed, but I was extremely hungry.
As soon as it became light enough for me to see my surroundings, I noticed that
I was near a large ship. It seemed to be unloading a cargo of pig iron. I went at
once to the vessel in order to get money for food. The captain, a white man, who
seemed to be kind-hearted, consented. I worked long enough to earn money for
my breakfast; and it seems to me, as I remember it now, to have been about the
best breakfast that I have ever eaten.
My work pleased the captain so well that he told me I could continue working for
a small amount per day. This I was very glad to do. I continued working on this
vessel for a number of days. After buying food with my small wages there was not
much left to pay my way to Hampton. In order to economize in every way possible,
I continued to sleep under the sidewalk.
When I had saved enough money with which to reach Hampton, I thanked the
captain of the vessel for his kindness, and started again. Without any unusual
occurrence I reached Hampton, with a surplus of exactly fifty cents with which to
begin my education. The first sight of the large, three-story, brick school building
seemed to have rewarded me for all that I had undergone in order to reach the
place. The sight of it seemed to give me new life.
As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton Institute, I presented
myself before the head teacher for assignment to a class. Having been so long
without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did not, of course, make a
very favourable impression upon her. I could see at once that there were doubts in
her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. For some time she did
not refuse to admit me, neither did she decide in my favour. I continued to linger
about her, and to impress her in all the ways I could with my worthiness. In the
meantime I saw her admitting other students, and that added greatly to my discomfort.
I felt, deep down in my heart, that I could do as well as they, if I could only get
a chance to show what was in me.
After some hours had passed, the head teacher said to me, “The adjoining recitation
room needs sweeping. Take the broom and sweep it”.
It occurred to me at once that here was my chance. Never did I receive an order
with more delight.
I swept the recitation room three times. Then I got a dusting cloth, and I dusted it
four times. All the woodwork around the walls, every bench, table and desk, I went
over four times with my dusting cloth. Besides, every piece of furniture had been
moved and every closet and corner in the room had been thoroughly cleaned. I had
the feeling that in a large measure my future depended upon the impression I made
upon the teacher in the cleaning of that room. When I was through, I reported to
the head teacher. She was a “Yankee” woman who knew just where to look for
dirt. She went into the room and inspected the floor and closets; then she took her
handkerchief and rubbed it on the woodwork about the walls, and over the table
and benches. When she was unable to find one bit of dirt on the floor, or a particle
of dust on any of the furniture, she quietly remarked, “I guess you will do to enter

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this institution”.
I was one of the happiest souls on earth. The sweeping of that room was my college
examination. I have passed several examinations since then, but I have always felt
that this was the best one I ever passed.....

18.3.2 Glossary
Overhear : hear by chance
Coloured : of the Negro race.
Virginia : State just north of the deep south in America
Pretentious : claiming great merit; (here) sounding important
Resolved : decided
Constantly : continuously
Ambition : strong desire.
Fall : (here) autumn
Effort : strong or vigorous attempt.
Grave : serious (as in ‘a grave mistake).
Wild-goose chase : a useless and foolish action or enterprise.
At any rate : in any case.
Half-hearted : without much enthusiasm.
Consent : permission (agreement)
Satchel : bag for carrying articles (e.g. books for school).
Parting : separation
Acquaintance : person whom one has met a few times; someone
known.
Lodging : room or rooms rented to live in.
Exhausted : tired out.
Portion : part.
Sidewalk : ‘pavement’ in Britain; path at the side of a street for
persons on foot. A board sidewalk is constructed by
planking-long, flat pieces of wood.
Considerably : a great deal.
Elevated : raised higher.
Passers-by : people walking that way.
Tramp : Sound of (heavy) footsteps
Refreshed : strengthened; made to feel fresh again.
Surroundings : everything arond a place or about it.

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 Cargo : goods carried in a ship or aircraft
Pig iron : crude iron that is refined to produce steel.
Vessel : ship; large boat
Unload : remove cargo from (ship)
Wage : payment for work.
Economize : cut down expenses
Surplus : (here) money saved (after satisfying need)
Fifty cents : half a dollar
Undergo : experience; go through
Assignment : something given to do; (here) placement for admission
to a class
Favourable : helpful.
Linger : (here) stay near
Worthiness : being worthy; having merit
Discomfort : uneasiness (of mind or body)
Adjoining : next or nearest
Recitation : repeating lessons or passages learnt by heart.
Delight : joy or pleasure
Closet : Here cupboard, cabinet, etc., for utensils or clothing
In a large measure : to a great extent; in a big way.
Yankee : a native of one of the Northern States.
Particles : smallest possible quantity.
Soul : (here) person; a human being.
Autobiography : story of the facts of one’s own life.
18.3.3 Summary
In this autographical sketch story Brooker T. Washington presents an account
of a significant event of his life. He used to work in a coal mine where he
happened to know about a very good school in Virginia. This school was
far more good than the one in his own town. The name of this school was
the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia. Hearing that these
people appreciate it so much he at once made up his mind to go to that
school although he knew nothing about its location.
In the autumn of 1872 with a reluntant permission from his mother he started
for Hampton with very little money and a small bag with few clothes. As his
mother was very ill, the parting became very sad. He walked and begged
rides and in a number of days reached a large city Richmond about eighty-
two miles away from Hampton. He was completely out of money, hungry,

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 exhausted but not discouraged. Having no place to go he crept under a
raised platform on a pavement.
Next day he got-up refreshed but hungry and started to look for some work
as he was very hungry. He saw a cargo ship unloading pig-iron. The kind-
hearted captain of the ship gave him work and he finally earned his breakfast
for the day. Due to his good work the captain asked him to continue work.
He still slept under the sidewalk and finally managed to save money to reach
Hampton. The sight of the school building seemed to him a reward for the
hardship he faced. But here he could not make a favourable impression on
his teacher as he had been without proper food, rest, bath and change of
clothing. The teacher did not refuse admittance neither did she decide in
favour. She kept giving admission to other students which troubled him all
the more. He desperately wanted a chance to prove his worth and he got
it when the teacher finally asked him to clean the recitation room. He swept
and dusted the room several times as he knew that his future depended upon
it. The teacher came and inspected the room minutely and could not find a
bit of dirt. She finally admitted him to the school. He was extremely happy
and all through his life considered the cleaning of that room the best
examination he ever passed.

18.4 Let’s sum up

In this unit you have come to know about the hardships the black or the coloured
people had to undergo during the times of slavery. The story of Washington’s efforts
to get into a good school is quite interesting. He stayed without food and money
with extreme physical exhaustion, swept and cleaned the room without getting
discouraged in order to get education. His struggle for education is very inspirational.
The summary has given you the whole story in brief followed by a glossary of
difficult words.

18.5 Suggested Readings

1. M.K. Gandhi : My Experiments with Truth
2. Brooker T. Washington : Up from Slavery.
3. Goh Sin Tub : One Singapore : 65 stories by a Singaporean

18.6 Questions
(a) Answer the following questions in two-three lines each :
(i) What made the parting of Washintgon and his mother all the more sadder?
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________________________________________________________
(ii) Where did he spend his nights in Richmond and how?
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 (iii) What added to Washington’s discomfort while he waited for admission?
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________________________________________________________
(iv) Why did it take the author several days to reach Richmond?
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
(v) Why did the author think that his first breakfast in Richmond was the best
he had ever eaten?
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________________________________________________________
(b) Answer the following questions in 50 words each :
(i) Briefly enlist the qualities of the author.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
(ii) Washington found Richmond difficult for few reasons. Give three of
these reasons.
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________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
(c) Answer the following question in 200 words :
(i) What did the author do in Richmond? Discuss.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________

18.7 Answers
(a) (i) As Washington’s mother was very weak and ill they did not expect to see
each other again; that is why the parting was all the more sadder.
(ii) He spent the nights under a sidewalk on a raised platform using his satchel
as a pillow.
(iii) While he waited for admission, the teacher was admitting other students
to the school. This added to Washington discomfort.
(iv) It took Washington several days to reach Richmond as he had no money.
He had to walk and depend largely on free rides.

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 (v) The author’s first breakfast in Richmond was the best he had ever eaten
because this was for the first time he worked and earned his breakfast.
(b) (i) Washington was a very hard working boy. He had a strong will power and
determination. He loved his mother dearly. He had great courage. Whatever
he did, he made efforts to do it with perfection. He was a boy who never
got discouraged in the worst of situations.
(ii) Washington found Richmond difficult because of the following reasons:
l He was hungry and completely out of money when he reached there
and could not buy his breakfast.
l He had no acquaintance in Richmond and so he had no place to spend
his nights.
l He had walked and taken free rides to reach Richmond which had left
him very exhausted.
(iii) When Washington first met the head teacher he did not give a good
impression because he had been so long without proper food, a bath and
change of clothing.
(c) (i) On reaching Richmond, Washington faced lots of difficulties. He was
completely out of money and had no money to buy his breakfast. After
wandering till midnight he found a raised platform on a pavement and spent
his nights there as long as he stayed at Richmond. He saw a cargo ship
unloading pig iron and requested the captain for work. The captain allowed
him and gave him wages after a day’s work. With this money he bought
his breakfast and considered it the best one he ever had. The captain was
impressed by his hardwork and asked him to continue working. For many
days Washington worked on the ship, spent little money on his breakfast,
continued to sleep under the povement and saved enough money to reach
Hampton. This is the hard work, perseverance and struggle of Washington
in Richmond.

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