The Browing Version by Terence Rattigan

 THE BRWNING VERSION BY TERENCE RATTINGAN

A CRITICIAL SUMMARY

The Browning Version is the play that cemented Terence Rattigan’s reputation as a serious, mature playwright. It is viewed as one of his best works, and one of the best one-acts ever written. (The actual play,The Browning Version, opens in the sitting room of the home of Mr.Andrew Crocker-Harris and Mrs Millie Crocker-Harris. A young student, John Taplow, knocks at the front door, and then lets himself inside. He steals a chocolate from an open box, and then uses his walking stick to practice his golf swing. )

Frank Hunter, a young schoolmaster, watches Taplow’s moves unseen. Finally, he interrupts and gives Taplow pointers on his swing. They converse for a few moments. Taplow has come for his tutoring session with Mr.Andrew Crocker-Harris, although it is the last day of school. The young man is worried, however, that Andrew will not give him his ‘‘remove.’’ He plans to study science, which is Hunter’s subject.

Taplow does a wicked impersonation of Andrew, which he almost immediately regrets. However, Frank asks him to do it again, and then suggests that since Crocker-Harris is rather late, Taplow should go play golf. Taplow is appalled at the suggestion. Despite his problems with Andrew, Taplow does like him and fears him enough to stay. Taplow relates an incident and again mimics Andrew for Frank’s benefit. This time, Millie Crocker- Harris appears at the door, and she listens for a moment before coming inside. Taplow is afraid that Millie has overheard his imitation. Millie informs Taplow that her husband will be tied up at the Bursar’s for a while and that he could go, but he decides to wait. Millie sends him on an errand.

Agamemnon and Crocker Harris
Agamemnon is a Greek tragic character, specially written by Aeschylus. Agamemnon describes Agamemnon’s death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra, who was angry at his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia and his keeping of the Trojan prophetess Cassandra as a concubine. Cassandra enters the palace even though she knows she will be murdered by Clytemnestra, knowing that she cannot avoid her fate. The ending of the play includes a prediction of the return of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, who will seek to avenge his father.

Crocker Harris in this play runs a lot of similarities with Agamemnon. The most remarkable of them all is the fact that the two men had unfaithful wives and both were adamant and frightening. In Rattigan’s play, Crocker Harris was the most feared teacher in the school. In the given acts of the play, he is about to retire from service due to his advancing age and illness. He is, on the other hand, pained by the realization that his wife was carrying on an affair with Frank and others.

Frank and Millie
Unfortunately Millie Crocker Harris was far from being an ideal wife. She had extra marital affairs with more than one man and Frank was one of them. You may have noticed that Frank was relieved at seeing her and the two lovers get rid of Taplow by sending him to buy medicines.

Why this title?
In this play, a translated version of Agamemnon plays a very important role and the original play is translated to English by Robert Browning.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why did Taplow come to Crocker Harris’ residence?
Taplow came to meet Crocker Harris because the former, a student of the latter had not been given his result in the lower fifth grade because he had missed a class. 2. How was Crocker Harris different from the other teachers?
While  other teachers of Taplow’s school were either easy going, least dedicated or some of them being sadists, Crocker Harris surpassed them all by being an ideal teacher not ready to compromise with his profession by pleasing the students.
3. “We get all the slackers!” What does Frank mean?
Frank was a science teacher who didn’t like to teach science. When he heard that Taplow would take science in case of his clearing his exams. Frank believed that most students who opted for science were so poor in studies that science attracted all such slackers but not those who really liked science.

4. What does Taplow consider ‘muck?’ Why?
Taplow considered the Greek tragedy Agamemnon a muck. Even though he liked the plot of the play, Taplow disliked the way it was taught by Crocker Harris. Besides, a number of Greek words were to be learnt and if one went wrong, students were to write each word a fifty times as punishment.

5. Why does Taplow say that Crocker Harris is hardly human?
Taplow could not believe that Crocker Harris was a normal human being for a number of reasons. Crocker Harris was extremely strict while teaching and while announcing results. He frightened the students in every possible way. He was a man who hated those who felt pity for him.

6. Why does Taplow says Mr. Crocker Harris cannot be a sadist?

 A sadist is a person who gets pleasure out of giving pain. Taplow says that Mr. Cracker Harris cannot be even a sadist because that would mean that he has some feelings but he has not at all. He is all shriveled up inside like a nut.

7.  What did Mr. Crocker Harris do after Taplow laughed out at the joke that Mr. Crocker Harris made to the class?

 Mr. Crocker Harris told Taplow that he was pleased at the advance that Taplow’s Latin Therefore, Mr. Crocker Harris told Taplow to explain the joke to the whole class so that they could share the pleasure with him.

8. What does Millie Crocker Harris ask Taplow to do?

 Millie Crocker Harris asked Taplow to take a prescription to the chemist and get the medicine made up.

9. Why was Taplow horrified to find Mrs. Crocker Harris standing by the door screen and watching Taplow and Frank?

Taplow had all the way been talking to Frank about Mr. Crocker Harris. Therefore he was horrified to find Mr. Crocker Harris’s wife standing by the door screen and watching the two as he feared that she might had overheard what he had been saying.

10. Mention two character traits of Taplow.

 Taplow is humorous. He has keen power of observation.

 He is critical about Mr. Crocker Harris for whom he has got a soft corner also in spite of his crankiness.

Long Answer Questions:

1.  Make a character sketch of Mr. Crocker Harris.

The small excerpt ‘The Browning Version’ revolves around the character of the school teacher Crocker Harris although we do not meet him in the play directly. Whatever we get to know about him is his impression in the mind of his student Taplow as described by Taplow to Mr. Frank who is another teacher from the school where Taplow studies.

As it is described by Taplow, Mr. Crocker Harris is an unusual teacher. He is pictured as a heartless teacher without any feelings and emotions. He is set apart from the other teachers because like the other teachers he never lets the results of examinations known to the students even a day before the formal announcement of the results. He abides by the rules perfectly. He is such a person that he does not hesitate to call a student for extra duty as punishment even on the last day of his tenure in a school as it is the case with Taplow that day. He has no compassion and he never takes pain to pass a student by giving his extra marks out of compassion. For such harshness on his part, he has been nicknamed the ‘Crock’ by the students.

Taplow opines that Mr. Crocker Harris is not even a sadist. Sadist is a person who obtains pleasure from inflicting pain on others. It is so because had Crocker Harris been a sadist, it would mean that he has a heart and emotion. But Crocker Harris has no emotion at all. Taplow says that in spite of all these, he has got a soft corner for Crocker Harris and Crocker Harris knows that and does not like it. That is why he has taken pain that Taplow actually hate him. As a whole, Taplow’s description of Crocker Harris is very humourous.

2. Discuss the humorous elements in ‘The Browning Version’

 Hints:

-The play is replete with humourous description of a teacher by student

-Crocker Harris is pictured as an unusual teacher and an unusual human being

-He is a person who loves to be hated and makes attempts for that.

-He feels that Taplow likes him and so he tries to make him hate him.

-He is not even a sadist because that would mean that he has got feelings but he has got no feelings

-Only Taplow, out of compassion, laughs out at the joke Mr. Harris cracks in the class in the Latin language to which none responds. As a punishment Taplow is made to make the class understand the joke.

-Taplow’s frightened reaction when he finds Crocker Harris’s wife looking at them thinking she might have overheard them.

Value based Question:

                                                 
Do you feel it is proper for students to present their teacher the way Taplow does? What is your opinion the relation between teacher and student should be like?

EXERCISE FOR PRACTICE

Long Questions

1. What kind of teacher student relationship does the lesson portray?

2. What is the universal aspect of the characters portrayed in the Browning Version?

Short Questions:

1. What is your opinion about Frank that you form from his conversation with Taplow?

2. Do you really feel Mr. Crocker Harris is absolutely like the way he has been presented by Taplow or Taplow is exaggerating?

3. Contrast Mrs. Crocker Harris with Mr. Crocker Harris.

4. What is Taplow’s attitude towards Mr. Crocker Harris?

5. Are there any differences in the school system of Taplow’s school with yours? If yes, what are they?

6. Frank does not seem to be completely disproving Crocker Harris. Give instances.

7. Why does Taplow feel that Crocker Harris is not a sadist? How did Frank react to this?

8.  Why did Taplow laugh when Crocker Harris cracked a joke? What was its consequence?

9. How did Taplow feel when he saw that Millie Crocker Harris had been listening to him?

10. How does Millie get rid of Taplow?

Reference to Context
Taplow : I don’t know any other master who doesn’t like being liked?
Frank : And I don’t know any boy who doesn’t use that for his own purposes.

1. Who is the master who doesn’t like being liked?

2. What was the strange character in connection with the master mentioned above?

3. What does Frank mean by ‘that?’

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Happy Reading>>>>>>>>>>>

Photograph by Shirley Toulson

                       PHOTOGRAPH BY SHIRLEY TOULSON

Shirley Toulson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in 1924, Toulson resides in Somerset and has worked as a teacher, editor and poetess. SHIRLEY TOULSON, who lives in Somerset, was drawn into the spell of Celtic Christianity as she worked on her books dealing with the oldest roads and folklore of Britain and Ireland, and found herself following the routes taken on their journeys by the saints of the early church.

SUMMARY
The poet looks at the photograph of her mother, which was taken when her mother was 12 years old. The mother had gone for a sea holiday with her cousins Betty and Dolly and while they were paddling, her uncle took a photograph of them.

Each of the cousins was holding the hands of the poet’s mother who was the eldest among them. All three of them stood smiling through their hair while the photo was taken. Her mother had a sweet face. All this happened before she was born.

Years fled past. Her mother grew up into an adult. They all underwent changes, while the sea stood still and seemed unaltered despite the passage of time. After about twenty or thirty years, the poet’s mother would look at the photograph, laughing nostalgically and remembering the past.

She would comment on the dress worn by her cousins Betty and Dolly and herself. The sea holiday belonged to the past of her mother and the poet still remembers how her mother would laugh looking at the snapshot.

The smile Shirley Toulson’s mother had on her face when she thought of her past (the sea holiday) and Shirley’s thoughts when she recalls her mother’s laughter, both, seem to be wry i.e. filled with dry or sad amusement for a time that was happier but cannot be re-lived.

For the poet, both these (the photograph and her memories of her mother) bring great sadness and an acute sense of loss. However, time has been a healer of sorts. Although the sense of loss that may never go away completely, with time, she has come to accept this eventuality of life.

She has been able to come to terms with her mother’s demise. Her mother died about 12 years ago and now, the poetess has nothing to say about this circumstance. It leaves her sad and yet at ease. It leaves her in pain, but with acceptance. The photograph is silent and leaves her silent as well.

The three stanzas depict three different phases. The first stanza refers to the childhood of the poet’s mother. The second stanza refers to the poet’s childhood when her mother was an adult. The last stanza refers to the poet’s adulthood when she is not with her mother.

LINE EXPLANATION
1) The cardboard (photograph) shows the narrator who it was that day (poetic device: allusion as the cardboard’s lack of durability hints at the lack of permanence of human life)

2) When two of her mother’s cousins went paddling (on the beach, with the narrator’s mother)
3) Each of the cousins held one of her mother’s hands.
4) Her mother was the eldest – about twelve years old at this time.
5) All three of them stood smiling, their hair strewn across their face (possibly tossed by the beach wind or water) (poetic device: alliteration... stood still to smile)
6) As her mother’s uncle clicked their picture with a camera. Her mother’s face was sweet
7) And the picture was taken much before the narrator was born.
8) The sea in the picture is still the same today (has changed very less)
9) And in the picture it seems to wash their feet which by nature, are transient because human life is short-lived as compared to nature. (Poetic device: Transferred Epithet. Human life itself is temporary not the feet. When the adjective for one noun like life is transferred to another noun like feet, it is called transferred epithet. It is also alliteration due to the repetition of the ‘t’ sound but writing only alliteration as the poetic device will lead to a loss of marks)
10) Some twenty, thirty years later from when the picture was clicked,
11) her mother had looked at the snapshot and laughed. She had pointed out her cousin Betty and Dolly and talked nostalgically of how oddly they used to be dressed for the beach.
The sea holiday was remembered by her mother with a fondness as well as a sense of loss because that time would never return.
12) Similarly, her laughter would never return to the narrator. The sea holiday was the narrator’s mother’s past and her mother’s laughter is the narrator’s past.
13) Both these pasts, the sea holiday as well as the laughter of her mother are remembered with a difficult and yet easy sense of loss. (Poetic device: oxymoron. The coming together of two opposite ideas to describe the same entity. ‘Laboured’ and ‘easy’ are opposite words describing the same entity ‘loss’. The loss of the holiday and the laughter was easy because these things have to be accepted as a part of life. They are merely a part of the past and cannot be brought back or relived. However, precisely because they cannot be relived, there will always be a tinge of difficulty letting them go completely. They will always be seen as loss.)

14) Now, it has been twelve years since her mother passed away. The girl in the photograph seems like a different person altogether. Thus, the use of the words, ‘that girl’.
15) And about the fact that her mother has passed away leaving behind nothing but memories and photographs like this one,

16) there is nothing to be said. It is a part of life and on thinking of it, one really has no words to express how one feels.

17) The silence of the whole situation silences the poet and leaves her quiet. (poetic device: alliteration and personification. The situation has been given the human quality of silence and the sound of ‘s’ has been repeated)
The camera thus managed to capture a moment in time. It kept the memory of the mother and for the mother alive. The sea holiday brought a sad smile (wry) to the mother’s face because she couldn’t relive it but was glad that she once had. Similarly, thinking of her mother’s laughter brought a sad smile to the poet’s face because although that laughter was now gone she was glad to have once had it in her life.

Nature is perennial while human life is temporary or transient. The poet uses a transferred epithet (terribly transient feet) in order to make this comparison and highlight the terribly short-lived life of her mother.

As in the Portrait of a Lady, this poem also deals with the theme of loss and bereavement and the impact it leaves on those who are left behind.

Theme/Summary
The poet is looking at an old, discoloured photograph of her mother, which was taken when her mother was 12 years old or so. She had gone for a sea holiday with her cousins Betty and Dolly and while they were paddling, her uncle took a photograph of them. Each of the cousins was holding the hands of the poet’s mother who was the eldest of them. All the three of them stood smiling through their hair while the photo was taken. Her mother had a sweet face. All these happened before she was born.

Many years passed and her mother grew up to an adult. They all underwent changes while the sea stood still. After about twenty or thirty years the poet’s mother would look at the photograph laughing nostalgically and remembering the past. She would appreciate the dress worn by her cousins Betty and Dolly. The sea holiday belonged to the past of her mother and the poet still remembers how her mother would laugh looking at the snap shot. For the poet both these bring great sadness and an acute sense of loss. Her mother died 12 years ago and now the poet has noting to say about this circumstance of the photograph.

Symbols of Mortality

• Youthfulness
• Life and age – Girlhood – adulthood – motherhood – death
• Discolored photograph – Loss of color, fading
• Technology – In the past photographs were printed on hard card-boards but today they are sleek, thin papers and can resist decay
• Memories
• Footprints
• Hairstyle – Girls used to let their hair fall on the face when they posed for photographs

Symbols of Immortality

• The sea

Understanding the Poem

The poet looks at the cardboard on which there is a childhood photograph of her mother. She had gone for a sea holiday with two her cousins Betty and Dolly. While they were paddling, their uncle took a photograph of them. Both the cousins were holding the hands of her mother who was the eldest among the girls. This was before the poet was born. Time fled past since and all those who are in the photograph under went changes while the sea remained the same. Her mother would look at the photograph after about twenty to thirty years and laugh nostalgically. Now for the poet her mother’s laughter and her sea holiday is a thing of the past. Her mother died about 12 years ago. The silence of the photograph silences the poet. She experiences great loss.

Questions & Answers

1 What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
The photograph in the poem is called cardboard because it is too difficult to call it a photograph. Having lost its colors and having lost the clarity of its images in it, the photograph is now just a cardboard.

2. What has the camera captured?

The camera has captured some happy moments from the childhood of the poet’s mother. It was a scene taken from a beach where she had gone with her cousins and her uncle for a sea holiday. The girls were paddling in the water.

3. How did the cousins accompany mother for paddling?

Her cousins accompanied mother by holding her hands when they went for paddling.

4. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?

The sea has not changed over the years. It is still the same. The sea symbolizes eternity and intranciency.

5. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laughter indicate?

The poet’s mother laughed at the photograph because she saw how awkwardly they had dressed her up for the holiday trip on the beach.

6. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss”?

‘Both’ refers to the sea holiday as remembered by her mother and the poet remembering her mother’s laughing face. Both these now belong to the past. Her mother is no more now.

7. What does “this circumstance” refer to?

‘This circumstance’ refers to the circumstance when the photo was taken.

8. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?

The three stanzas depict three different phases. The first stanza refers to the childhood of the poet’s mother. The second stanza refers to the poet’s childhood when her mother was an adult. The last stanza refers to the poet’s adulthood when she is not with her mother.

9. What scene from mother’s childhood has been captured in the photograph?

Who had taken the photograph?The scene that has been captured in the photograph is from mother’s childhood when she went for paddling with her two cousins. Mother’s uncle had taken the photograph.

10. How did the cousins accompany the poet’s mother for paddling?
Her cousins accompanied mother by holding her hands when they went for paddling.

11. Explain the contrast given in the last two lines of the first stanza.
The contrast is between the sea and the human life. The sea had remained the same for all these years, but the humans have undergone changes. Her mother grew up and now she had been dead for the past twelve years.

12. How does the poet feel when she remembers the sea holiday of her mother?
The poet feels sad when she remembers the sea holiday of her mother. Her mother died twelve years ago.

13. Why doesn’t she want to think about the photograph any more?
She doesn’t want to think about the photograph any more because it brings the pain of loss to her mind.

14 .Explain the contrast given in the last two lines of the first stanza.

The contrast is between the sea and the humans. The sea had remained the same for all these years, but the humans have undergone changes. Her mother grew up and now she had been dead for the past twelve years.

     Reference to Context (RTC) questions:

1. The cardboard shows me how it was
When the two girl cousins went paddling
Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,                                                          And she the big girl- some twelve years or so.

a. What does the cardboard refer to?
b. Who was the big girl and how old was she?
c. How did the cousins go paddling with mother?

2. All three stood still to smile through their hair
At the uncle with the camera, A sweet face
My mother’s, that was before I was born
a. Who does ‘all three’ refer to here?
b. Where are they now?
c. Why did they smile through their hair?

3...A sweet face,
My mother’s, that was before I was born
And the sea, which appears to have changed less
Washed their terribly transient feet.
a. Where was her mother?
b. When did this incident take place?
c. How is the poet able to remember her mother’s childhood?
d. What has stood the onslaught of time and what has not?

4. Some twenty- thirty- years later
She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty
And Dolly,” she’d say, “and look how they
Dressed us for the beach.”

a. Who would laugh at the snapshot after twenty – thirty years later?
b. How did mother remember her past?
c. Who were Betty and Dolly?

6. ...The sea holiday
was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss
a. Who went for the sea holiday in the past?
b. What does ‘both’ refer to?
c. How does the poet feel when she remembers her mother?

7. Now she’s has been dead nearly as many years
As that girl lived. And of this circumstance
There is nothing to say at all,
Its silence silences.
a. How many years are over after the death of her mother?
b. What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?
c. Why has the poet nothing to say about this circumstance?
d. What impact has the photograph on the poet?

Oxymoron – Are either literary effects designed to create a paradox/opposition of two parallel ideas, or deliberately added/created for humour. E.g. Parting is such sweet sorrow, Controlled chaos, Laboured ease etc.

UNDERSTANDING THE LESSON THROUGH KEY SENTENCES:

1. The poet looks at the cardboard on which there is a childhood photograph of her mother.
2. She had gone for a sea holiday with two her cousins Betty and Dolly
3. While they were paddling, their uncle took a photograph of them.
4. Both the cousins were holding the hands of her mother who was the eldest among the girls.
5. This was before the poet was born
6. Time fled past since and all those who are in the photograph under went changes while the sea remained the same.
7. Her mother would look at the photograph after about twenty to thirty years and laugh nostalgically.
8. Now for the poet her mother’s laughter and her sea holiday is a thing of the past.
9. Her mother died about 12 years ago.
10. The silence of the photograph silences the poet.
11. She experiences great loss.

TEXT BOOK QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

1. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
‘Cardboard’ refers to the photograph only. In the past photographs used to be fixed to a cardboard and hung from the wall for every one to see it.

2. What has the camera captured?
The camera has captured some happy moments from the childhood of the poet’s mother. It was a scene taken from a beach where she had gone with her cousins and her uncle for a sea holiday. The girls were paddling in the water.

3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?
The sea has not changed over the years. It is still the same. The sea symbolizes eternity.

4. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
This laugh indicates her remembering her past. She looked back to her childhood with nostalgia and remembered the innocent joys of her childhood days.

5. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease or loss”
‘Both’ refers to the sea holiday as remembered by her mother and the poet remembering her mother’s laughing face. Both these now belong to the past. Her mother is no more now.

7. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?

The three stanzas depict three different phases. The first stanza refers to the childhood of the poet’s mother. The second stanza refers to the poet’s childhood when her mother was an adult. The last stanza refers to the poet’s adulthood when she is not with her mother.

ADDITIONAL SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1. What scene from mother’s childhood has been captured in the photograph? Who had taken the photograph?
The scene that has been captured in the photograph is from mother’s childhood when she went for paddling with her two cousins. Mother’s uncle had taken the photograph.

2. How did the cousins accompany mother for paddling?
Her cousins accompanied mother by holding her hands when they went for paddling.

3. Explain the contrast given in the last two lines of the first stanza.
The contrast is between the sea and the humans. The sea had remained the same for all these years, but the humans have undergone changes. Her mother grew up and now she had been dead for the past twelve years.

4. How does the poet feel when she remember the sea holiday of her mother?
The poet feels sad when she remembers the sea holiday of her mother. Her mother died twelve years ago.

5. Why doesn’t she want to think about the photograph any more?
She doesn’t want think about the photograph any more because it brings the pain of loss to her mind.

REFERENCE PASSAGE QUESTIONS

1.The cardboard shows me how it was
When the two girl cousins went paddling
Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,
And she the big girl- some twelve years or so.

a. What does the cardboard refer to?
The cardboard refers to the childhood photograph of her mother.
b. Who was the big girl and how old was she?
The big girl was the poet’s mother. She was then twelve years old.
c. How did the cousins go paddling with mother?
The girl cousins went paddling with mother holding her hand.

2.All three stood still to smile through their hair
At the uncle with the camera, A sweet face
My mother’s, that was before I was born

a. Who does ‘all three’ refer to here?
‘all three’ refers to the poet’s mother and her two cousins.
b. Where are they now?
They have gone to the seashore. They are paddling in the water.
c. Why did they smile through their hair?
They smiled through their hair because they were posing for a photograph.

3. A sweet face,
My mother’s, that was before I was born
And the sea, which appears to have changed less
Washed their terribly transient feet.

a. Where was her mother?
Her mother was on the sea shore with her cousins and posing for a photograph.


b. When did this incident took place?
This incident took place when she was twelve years old.

c. How is the poet able to remember her mother’s childhood?
The poet is able to remember her mother’s childhood when she looks into the photograph of her mother.

d. What has stood the onslaught of time and what has not?
The sea has stood the onslaught of time. It is still the same. However, her mother and her cousins underwent changes. Her mother grew up to be an adult and now she is no more.

4 Some twenty- thirty- years later
She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty
And Dolly,” she’d say, “and look how they
Dressed us for the beach.”

a. Who would laugh at the snapshot after twenty – thirty years later?
The poet’s mother would laugh at the snapshot after twenty – thirty years later.

b. How did mother remember her past?
Mother remembered her past with nostalgia.

c. Who were Betty and Dolly?
Betty and Dolly were her cousins who had gone with her to the beach for paddling.

6. The sea holiday
was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With the laboured ease of loss
a. Who went for the sea holiday in the past?
The poet’s mother had gone for the sea holiday in the past when she was a young girl.

b. What does ‘both’ refer to?
‘Both’ refers to the poet’s mother remembering her past sea holiday as well as the poet remembering her mother’s laughter.

c. How does the poet feel when she remembers her mother?
The poet experiences great sorrow when she remembers her mother who left for heavenly abode twelve years ago.

What does the poet compare her laughter to and why?

The mother’s laughter that used to echo in the house when she was alive has now become the poet’s past. The comparison is given in order to remember the mother with fondness while looking at her photograph.

What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?

The sea has not changed over the years. It suggests the immortality of sea as compared to the mortal human beings whose life comes to an end finally.

The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What does this laugh indicate?

The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. This is an indication of the fun and joy she had experienced during the beach holiday and she had fond memories of that particular incident. It brought joy to her when she looked at the snapshot.                                                                                                           

What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?

‘This circumstance’ refers to the loneliness and the sense of loss that the poet suffers as she remembers her mother who is no more.                                           

What do you learn about the poet’s mother from the photograph?

The poet’s mother had been a fun loving girl, who had taken great delight with her cousins at the beach and had the fond memories of the holiday that she cherished even when she was a grown up.

Short answer questions
Q.1. What is the significance of the ‘cardboard’ frame?
Q.2. What tone has the poetess adopted in the poem?
Q.3. What comparison between the sea and human beings has been drawn in the second stanza?
Q.4. What emotions do you associate with the mother looking at the photograph?
Q.5. What emotions would you associate with Shirley as she looks at the photograph?
Q.6. Why does the poetess seem to have nothing to say about the ‘circumstance’?
Q.7. What is silenced and how has it silenced the poetess?

Long answer questions
Q.1. Each photograph is a memory. Justify the statement, in the light of the poem.
Q.2. The past can be a source of inspiration as well as regret. Comment, based on any two chapters (prose, poem or drama) that you have read. One may be this poem. The other will require recall.
Q.3. A photograph captures a moment in time. Discuss with reference to one of your favourite photographs.
Q.4. If you were the poet, what title would you give to this poem and why.
Q.5. You are the uncle who took the photograph of your mother. At her birthday this year, you came across a copy of this poem. Write a letter to your niece, Shirley, remembering the day at the beach.
Q.6. When we look at something, it looks right back at us. Imagine that you are a photograph, (not necessarily the one in the poem). Write a diary entry commenting on the various people who have come into your life.
Q.7. Discuss man’s relation to nature based on any two chapters you may have read (poems, prose, or drama).
Q.8. You are a member of the Blossoms team at Bluebells. You have been assigned the task to interview students at various class levels and write an article about our relationship with our parents. Write the article referring to this poem in context.
Q.9. We only realise the significance of something or someone in our lives, in their absence. Discuss with reference to the text and your real life..

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The Tale Of Melon City

The Tale of Melon City

by Vikram Seth

Short-Answer Questions:

1. How do you think a just and placid king would be after reading the first two lines?

Ans:  The qualities of justness and placidity fits  a king. After reading the first two lines of the poem we feel that the king would be truth loving and serious about his administration.

2. How did the king react when the people responsible for tumbling the king’s crown started blaming each other?

Ans: The king started immediately accepting the other one’s statement and declaring punishment for them.

3. Ultimately, who was held responsible in the matter of fixing the charges for insulting the crown?

Ans: The king himself was held responsible for insulting the crown as no one was of the height to fit the rope.

4. The Tale of Melon City is an irony. Describe giving instances  from the poem.

Ans: The instance of deciding the issue of the wisest man and the next king is an irony on the decision making process in modern government while the King’s getting executed by his own order is an irony on the nature of so called just laws.

 Long Answer Questions:

1. Sometimes stressing too much on rules and regulations is also difficult for smooth functioning and may lead to chaos and anarchy. Explain in wake of the theme of the poem ‘Tale of Melon City’.

Value points:

-Rules are made for systematizing working

-Following all rules in all conditions not possible

-Need of change in rules as per circumstances

-King’s stress on his just and placid nature

-The disastrous result.

 

Questions for Practice: Long Questions:

1. Describe the different twists and turns of the story.

 2. What larger picture of politics does the story in the poem paint?

3. Describe the exercise undertaken by the king and his men to frame charges for the crown’s insult. What was its final result?

Short Questions:

1. What is the tone of the poem? Is it ironical and satiric or sarcastic? Comment.

2. How do the architects and the masons save themselves from the blame?  

3.What does the melon being a King signify

 

Birth by A. J. Cronin

BIRTH

   By A. J. Cronin

 

The Citade l ( ‘Birth’ is an extract from this novel)  is a novel by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1937, which was groundbreaking with its treatment of the contentious theme of medical ethics. It is credited with laying the foundation in Great Britain for the introduction of the NHS a decade later.

Cronin once stated in an interview, "I have written in The Citadel all I feel about the medical profession, its injustices, its hide-bound unscientific stubbornness, its humbug ... The horrors and inequities detailed in the story I have personally witnessed. This is not an attack against individuals, but against a system."

 

In October 1921, Andrew Manson, an idealistic, newly qualified doctor, arrives from Scotland to work as assistant to Doctor Page in the small Welsh mining town of 'Drineffy'. He quickly realises that Page is an invalid and that he has to do all the work for a meagre wage. Shocked by the unsanitary conditions he finds, he works to improve matters and receives the support of Dr Philip Denny, a cynical semi-alcoholic. Resigning, he obtains a post as assistant in a miners' medical aid scheme in 'Aberalaw', a neighbouring coal mining town in the South Wales coalfield. On the strength of this job, he marries Christine Barlow, a junior school teacher.

 

Christine helps her husband with his silicosis research. Eager to improve the lives of his patients, mainly coal miners, Manson dedicates many hours to research in his chosen field of lung disease. He studies for, and is granted, the MRCP, and when his research is published, an MD. The research gains him a post with the 'Mines Fatigue Board' in London, but he resigns after six months to set up a private practice.

Seduced by the thought of easy money from wealthy clients rather than the principles he started out with, Manson becomes involved with pampered private patients and fashionable surgeons and drifts away from his wife. A patient dies because of a surgeon's ineptitude, and the incident causes Manson to abandon his practice and return to his former ways. He and his wife repair their damaged relationship, but Christine is killed in a traffic accident. It is Denny, now teetotal, who whisks him off to the Welsh countryside to recover.

Since Manson had accused the incompetent surgeon of murder, he is vindictively reported to the General Medical Council for having worked with an American tuberculosis specialist who does not have a medical degree, even though the patient had been successfully treated at his nature cure clinic.

Despite his lawyer's gloomy prognosis, Manson forcefully justifies his actions during the hearing and is not struck off the medical register. He joins Denny and bacteriologist Dr Hope in opening an integrated, multi-specialty practice, then uncommon, in a country town.   

(FOR READY  REFERENCE OF AVN STUDENTS)

 

BIRTH

   By A. J. Cronin

 Value Points

●  People’s sense of responsibility towards work.

●  A doctor’s sense of duty, dedication, and humanistic approach towards his patients.

● The supreme joy of motherhood.

● The real sense of fulfilment and peace and joy that a piece of good work done brings to human mind.

● The real piece of work in human life lies in bringing joy in other people’s life.

● The tremendous sense of expectation and anxiety that is caused in other family member’s heart when a baby is on the way.

● The technical aspects of the resuscitation method as regards a new-born.

 Short Question Answers:

1. What was the dilemma that Andrew faced after the baby was born?

Answer: After the baby was born, Andrew was faced with the dilemma whether to attend to the baby which was still-born in order to try to resuscitate it or to turn his attention rather to the mother, Susan Morgan, who was in a desperate state of health because of loss of blood and labour pain.

2. Why was Joe and Susan Morgan’s case special for Andrew?

Answer: Joe and Susan Morgan’s case was special for Andrew because Joe and Susan were expecting their first child although they had been married for twenty years.

3. What was Susan Morgan’s suggestion to Andrew which she informed through her mother-in-law?

Answer: Susan Morgan wished that she was not to be given the chloroform if it would harm the baby.

4. What did Andrew guess could be cause of the baby being still born?

Answer:   Andrew found out that the baby had turned white and it could mean only one thing: asphyxia which is suffocation or unconscious condition caused by lack of oxygen and excess of carbon dioxide in the blood, accompanied by paleness of the skin, weak pulse, and loss of reflexes.

5. What is your impression about Dr. Andrew as a doctor and a human being?

Answer: The story ‘Birth’ is a comment on what a doctor should really be as a doctor and a human being. Dr. Andrew is an exceptionally dutiful and kind and passionate human being. Not only he sets aside mental and bodily fatigue to visit Joe Morgan’s house dead at night, but also he almost rebels against nature’s laws to keep trying to bring breath back to the still born baby wherein he succeeds.

 Long Questions with answer and hints

 1. Describe the efforts that Andrew made in order to bring the still born baby back to life.

Answer: After pulling the still born baby out from beneath the bed, Andrew could guess why the baby had lost its breath. The cause was asphyxia which is a condition in which insufficient or no oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged on a ventilator basis caused by choking or drowning. Therefore, he realized that there was point in trying to resuscitate the baby with the help of the traditional resuscitation methods applied in such cases. So he first laid the baby upon a blanket and began the special methods of respiration. Thus he poured hot and cold water in two basins and frantically went on pushing the baby into the water of both the basins alternately for almost half an hour. But no breath emerged from the baby and a sense of desperation and defeat set in his mind. Still he wanted to put in another last effort. So this time, he rubbed the baby with a rough towel and then he crushed and released the little chest with both his hands, trying to get breath into that lax body. And after this, the miracle happened and the tiny chest of the baby gave a heave and then another and then another and Andrew was victorious as the baby was finally revived.

2. Why was Andrew so emotionally attached to his efforts to bring the lifeless baby back to life?
Answer:
Hints:

-Joe Morgan and Susan Morgan were expecting the birth of their first birth

-They were married for twenty years.

-It was Dr. Andrew who had been handling the case.

-Andrew had assured the couple of no complication and safe delivery of the baby.

-All others in Morgan’s family were anxious

-Susan Morgan feels labour pain before due date -Susan’s mother-in-law informs Andrew about Susan’s wish to go through labour pain without anaesthesia in case the same would hurt the baby.

-Andrew goes on with anaesthesia

-A still baby is born

-Andrew has to do something to revive the baby because he had held a promise.

3. Why does Andrew comment that he had done something ‘real at last’ in Blaenelly?

Answer:
Value Points:
-Andrew Manson is a young doctor just out of medical school.

-The place where he works is a small mining town named Blaenelly.

-He had been handling the case of Joe and Susan Morgan who were expecting their first child after twenty years of marriage.

-Andrew had assured the couple of no complication and safe delivery of the baby.

-He visits Joe Morgan’s house dead at night as Susan Morgan has premature labour pain

-In an atmosphere of anxiety and expectation, he works for the safe delivery of the baby

-A lifeless baby is born and Susan is on the verge of death too -Andrew is crushed

-He first helps Susan’s condition improve

-Then he works massively for resuscitating the breathless baby

-After half an hour’s harsh struggle, the baby breaths

-At last Andrew can be true to the promise he had held.

-Saving the lives of two this way and guaranteeing joy to a whole family is thus ‘ something real’

Questions for Practice:

Long Questions

1. Compare and contrast Dr. Andrew’s contrasting emotional status at the beginning of the story and in the end.

2. What does the story highlight about the essence of true happiness and joy and sense of fulfillment through Dr. Andrew’s experience.

3. Is there any supernatural element about the baby being brought back to life from being dead? Or the writer has presented the phenomenon as natural in the story?

Short Questions:

1. What is Dr. Andrew’s concept about women? What led him to think that way?

2. What was the expression and attitude of the mid wife/nurse towards what Dr. Andrew was doing?

3. What is the setting of the story? (Time and place where it is set)

4. Bring out the atmosphere of expectation and anxiety in the mind of the Morgan family members.

5. Why did the baby lose its breath?

Value based question

Do you feel that modern day doctors are rather mechanical medical machines without human emotions? Or it is rather a prejudiced opinion about these professionals who are also considered human gods?

 

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