Question

Given below are extracts from the play. Study each of these carefully and based on your inference write a character sketch of Lord Weston in about 150-200 words.

I did not become Lord Weston by twiddling my thumbs and hoping for favours.	The treason affair - I refused to be bribed. The Piracy - both sides hate me.
What does your ‘beautiful carpet’ matter when your husband’s life is at stake. “You shock me”.	Come out! Come out. Drop your weapon.
We do not know what satanic thing may happen.	Should I spend the rest of my life with a guard at my heels? A pretty figure I should cut.
Weston: “The venomous scribbling of an illiterate (Later)” Is that my writing?. “Yes, it must be.”

Answer 1

Lord Weston is a successful and conscientious judge who takes great pride in his achievements. He believes that diligence, courage and attention to detail have brought him success, and he expects the same seriousness from Roger. He is also strict and impartial in his work, refusing to be bribed or to twist the law to please the public. However, his self-importance makes him pompous and eager to see himself as a great man. This becomes comic when he reads the note “Remember Caesar” and assumes that it is a death threat because it is the Ides of March. Instead of calmly examining the facts, he imagines assassins everywhere and orders the house to be barricaded. His panic leads him to threaten an empty cupboard with a pistol and mistake a parcel containing his new cloak for a bomb. Though he insists that he is brave and does not want a guard, his actions reveal how easily fear overwhelms him. Lord Weston is therefore capable and principled, but also vain, impulsive and comically alarmist.