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प्रश्न
Sometimes writers highlight certain negative aspects in society or human beings by making fun of them. This is called a Satire. In your groups, discuss whether you would classify this story as a satire. Give reasons to support your answer
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उत्तर
The writer has used satire in the story. He has made fun of the characters in the story to bring out the satire. Mrs. Packletide is a shrewd and competitive person, she becomes jealous of her friend when she comes to know that Loona Bimberton has got a tiger-skin and faced the press and procured photographs. She too out of her pride arranges to shoot a tiger. She goes to the length of offering money to the villagers. An old tiger is lured by cheaper goats.
The writer uses satire to make fun of the society that would do anything in order to become famous as portrayed by Mrs. Packletide. The other side of the greedy society is reflected by Miss Mebbin. She is a greedy lady who blackmails Mrs. Packletide to buy her a cottage so that she would not give away the secret of the wrong animal being killed. The villagers represent another group of the society who are also greedy for money. For them money mattered more than the animal that was shot, whether it was the goat or a tiger.
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
Answer the following question in your own words :
Why did Mrs. Packletide wish to kill a tiger ?
Answer the following question in your own words :
How was the tiger shooting arranged? What kind of a tiger was chosen for the
purpose?
Mrs. Packletide was a good shot. Discuss.
What comment did Miss Mebbin make after Mrs Packletide fired the shot? Why
did Miss Mebbin make this comment? How did Mrs Packletide react to this
comment?
Answer the following question in your own words:
How did the villagers react to the tiger’s death?
How did Miss Mebbin manage to get her week-end cottage? Why did she plant so
many tiger lilies in her garden?
Do you think the writer is trying to make fun of the main characters in the story i.e. Mrs. Packletide, Miss Mebbin and Loona Bimberton? Pick out instances from the story that point to this fact.
How does the writer create humour in this story?
Choose extracts from the story that illustrate the character of the people listed in
the table given below. There are some words given to help you. You may add
words of your own. One has been done as an example:
vain jealous competitive shrewd manipulative stingy materialistic spiteful
| Character | Extract from the story | What this tells us about the character |
|
Mrs. Packletide |
(i) The compelling motive for her sudden deviation towards the footsteps of Nimrod was the fact that Loona Bimberton had recently been carried eleven miles in an aeroplane by an Algerian aviator, and talked of nothing else; only a personally procured tiger-skin and a heavy harvest of Press photographs could successfully counter that sort of thing | Competitive |
| (ii) Mrs. Packletide had offered a thousand rupees for the opportunity of shooting a tiger without over-much risk or exertion, |
||
| (iii) Mrs. Packletide faced the cameras with a light heart, and her pictured fame reached from the pages of the Texas Weekly Snapshot to the illustrated Monday supplement of the Novoe Vremya. |
||
| Louisa Mebbin | (i) "If it's an old tiger I think you ought to get it cheaper. A thousand rupees is a lot of money." | |
| (ii) Louisa Mebbin adopted a protective elder-sister attitude towards money in general, irrespective of nationality or denomination |
||
| (iii) "How amused every one would be if they knew what really happened," said Louisa Mebbin a few days after the ball. |
||
| (iv) Louisa Mebbin's pretty week-end cottage, christened by her "Les Fauves," and gay in summer-time with its garden borders of tiger-lilies, is the wonder and admiration of her friends |
||
| Loona Bimberton | (i) As for Loona Bimberton, she refused to look at an illustrated paper for weeks, and her letter of thanks for the gift of a tiger-claw brooch was a model of repressed emotions |
|
| (ii) There are limits beyond which repressed emotions become dangerous. |
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
It was Mrs. Packletide's pleasure and intention that she should shoot a tiger.
....................................................................................
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
Mrs. Packletide had already arranged in her mind the lunch she would give at her
house on Curzon Street, ostensibly in Loona Bimberton's honour, with a tiger-skin
rug occupying most of the foreground and all of the conversation.
……………………………………………………
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
Mothers carrying their babies home through the jungle after the day's work in the
fields hushed their singing lest they might curtail the restful sleep of the venerable
herd-robber.
………………………………………………………………………
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
Louisa Mebbin adopted a protective elder-sister attitude towards money in
general, irrespective of nationality or denomination.
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
Evidently the wrong animal had been hit, and the beast of prey had succumbed to
heart-failure, caused by the sudden report of the rifle, accelerated by senile decay.
………………………………………………………………………………………
In groups of four, construct the dialogues and enact the following situations
from the story:
1. Mrs. Packletide and the headman of the village/other villagers discussing the
details of the tiger shooting
2. Miss Mebbin blackmailing Mrs Packletide into gifting her a cottage
3. Loona Bimberton and a lady-friend discussing Mrs Packletide's hunting success
The Maasai tribe in Africa hunt lions because
Answer the following question:
Why does the author say that Louisa Mebbin had a "protective elder sister" attitude towards money?
