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Question
Did Mrs. Packletide achieve her heart’s desire? Give reasons for your answer.
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Solution
Yes, for the most part. Mrs. Packletide got the trophy and attention she wanted, but it cost her a lot of money and was not honest.
She ended up with a dead tiger and the press photos she had hoped for. The villagers, eager for the thousand-rupee payment, gladly believed the lie that she had killed the tiger; in reality, the tiger died of a heart attack after the rifle report. She planned the lunch on Curzon Street around a tiger skin as the centrepiece and even made Loona a tiger-claw brooch to give her. Both the rug/photos and the brooch were meant to be a response to Loona’s recent successes. The fact that Loona refused to look at illustrated papers for weeks and sent a cool, repressed thank-you letter for the brooch shows that Mrs. Packletide’s plan did have the social effect she wanted. In a social sense, she got what she wanted because she beat Loona in public, but the victory was tainted (achieved through a cover-up), costly, and not particularly satisfying.
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