Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :

Giles: I beg your pardon. Did you say something?
Trotter: Yes, Mr. Ralston, I said ‘Is there an extension ?’ (He crosses to Centre.)
Giles: Yes, up in our bedroom.
Trotter: Go and try it up there for me, will you?
(Giles exits to the stairs, carrying the glove and bus ticket and looking dazed. Trotter continues to trace the wire to the window. He pulls back the curtain and opens the window, trying to follow the wire. He crosses to the arch up Right, goes out and returns with a torch. He moves to the window, jumps out and bends down, looking, then disappears out of sight. It is practically dark. Mrs. Boyle enters from the library up Left, shivers and notices the open window.)
Mrs Boyle: (Moving to the window) Who has left this window open?

(i) Why did Giles fail to hear what Trotter had said earlier·? Why did Giles look 'dazed'? 

(ii) What was Trotter attempting to do? Why? 

(iii) Why did Mrs. Boyle close the window? What did tl1e voice on the radio say about the 'mechanics of fear'? 

(iv) How did the murderer mask the sounds of the killing? Who entered the room immediately after the murder? What did this person see? 

(v) Who was the victim? Why was the victim murdered? What was the 'signature tune' that the murderer whistled? What is the significance of this tune in the context of the play? 

Answer 1

(i) Giles had just found a London bus ticket from Mollie’s glove. He was feeling upset and confused due to this. That is why he failed to hear what Trotter had said earlier. He looked dazed because he could not understand why the London bus ticket was there in Mollie’s glove when she had not gone there.

(ii) Trotter was trying to find out if the telephone wire had been cut by someone or it had simply gone out of order due to the snowstorm that had blown the other day. In fact, he wanted to make a report to Police Superintendent Hogben. That is why he needed telephone service.

(iii) Mrs. Boyle closes the window because a very cold wind is blowing. She shivers due to this cold wind. The voice on the radio says that in order to understand the mechanics of fear you have to study the exact effect produced by fear on the human mind. If one is alone in a room, in the late afternoon and door opens softly behind him/her, he/she is likely to be frightened.

(iv) The murderer masked the sounds of the killing under the tune of ‘Three Blind Mice’. Soon after the murder, Mollie entered the room. She switched on the light and saw Mrs. Boyle lying strangulated in front of the sofa.

(v) The victim was Mrs. Boyle. The victim was murdered because she was one of the Judges on the bench which sent the three children to the Long ridge. The farm where they were cruelly treated and one of them died. The murderer whistled the tune of ‘Three Blind Mice’. The tune of ‘Three Blind Mice’ is a significant lure because ‘The mousetrap’ is a revenge play and here one of the ill-treated children George is going to take revenge from his victim. So the tune is very significant here.