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Question
The unexpected presence of a criminal wielding a gun triggers different reactions in the two men who entered the room. In this light, discuss the appropriacy of the title.
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Solution
A visitor usually comes during the wakeful hours. Nocturnal visitors are usually thieves. They don’t inform one in advance because the purpose of their visit is never noble enough to inform in advance. People involved in shady businesses only choose midnight to break into someone’s house. In this story, a spy is after an important report about missiles, a secretly guarded report, which is expected to be delivered to the private detective Ausable at 12.30 am. The spy gets the secret information from his trusted connections. So, he arrives earlier than Ausable and sneaks into his room using a passkey. The spy is brandishing his pistol to coerce the private detective to pass on the report as and when it arrives. Ausable outsmarts him by cooking up a story about a non-existent balcony beneath his window which extends from the neighboring apartment. He connects brilliantly the knock of Henry the waiter to that of police who might fire at Max as he is armed. So, the title of the story, “The Midnight Visitor” is very pertinent.
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| a) Baldwin who returned home after meeting Gresham, informed his family that Gresham had offered a hundred thousand, if he would utter the words ‘I don’t remember’ in court, during the trial. |
| b) The family members tried to justify Gresham’s act and enticed Baldwin into accepting the money. |
| c) Thus ‘The Hour of Truth’ had dawned relieving Baldwin of the heavy burden and guilt. |
| d) Baldwin was an honest and upright man, working under John Gresham, in a bank. |
| e) To save Baldwin, Mr. Marshall, President of the Third National, visited him and informed him that Gresham had confessed his crime, in order to free him from betraying his trusted friend and testifying painfully against him. |
| f) Gresham and Baldwin had been thick friends for over 30 years and Baldwin had even named his son after Gresham. |
| g) Baldwin felt disgusted with himself and the attitude of his family members. |
| h) Gresham had been arrested for misappropriation of money at the bank and Baldwin was to testify against him. |
| i) Mr. Marshall also offered Baldwin a job in his Bank, to reward him for his honesty and integrity. |
| j) The family members who were initially against Gresham, changed their mind on hearing the huge sum offered by him. |
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The play revolves around a ‘perceived threat’ and how Lord Weston and Lady Weston react to it. Let’s reverse their roles. Imagine a panic-stricken Lady Weston and a frivolous Lord Weston. Read the following piece of dialogue from the play and rewrite it to suit the changed roles.
| WESTON | My dear, your husband’s life is in grave danger. |
| LADY WESTON | The last time it was in danger you had been eating game pie. What is it this time? |
| WESTON (annihilating her flippancy with one broadside) | Assassination! |
| LADY WESTON | Well, well! You always wanted to be a great man and now you have got your wish! |
| WESTON | What do you mean? |
| LADY WESTON | They don’t assassinate anybody. |
