Q5 of 30 Page 12

Discuss the following question in detail and write the answers in your notebooks:

How does the writer create humor in this story?

The writer has laced the instances in the text with intense satire and succeeding humor. The character sketches of Mrs. Packeltide, Miss Mebbin, and Loona Bimberton absolute materialistic. selfish, inhumane fools who have nothing to do except searching for means to get to the limelight with the easiest means and resources. The instance of tiger hunting is extremely funny where the woman is unable to shoot a lean and weak tiger and ends up killing a goat. Another crude instance is the case of Miss Mebbin who tries to extract the cottage from Mrs. Packeltide in return for keeping mum about the true incident.


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5

Discuss the following question in detail and write the answers in your notebooks:

A person who is vain is full of self-importance and can only think of himself/herself and can go to great lengths to prove his/her superiority. Do you think Mrs. Packletide is vain? Give reasons in support of your answer.

 5

Discuss the following question in detail and write the answers in your notebooks:

Sometimes writers highlight certain negative aspects of society or human beings by making fun of it. This is called satire. In your groups discuss whether you would classify this story as a satire. Give reasons to support your answer.

 6

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



 7

There are many amusing lines in the story. Here are a few of them. Rewrite each one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained. One has been done for you as an example:

a) It was Mrs. Packeltide’s pleasure and intention that she should shoot a tiger.


b) Mrs. Packletide had already arranged in her mind the lunch she would give at her house in Curzon Street, ostensibly in Loona Bimberton's honour, with a tiger-skin rug occupying most of the foreground and all of the conversation.


c) 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.


d) Louisa Mebbin adopted a protective elder-sister attitude towards money in general, irrespective of nationality or denomination


(e) 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


(f) 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