9. A WILLING SLAVE SUMMARY

A willing Slave

This is a story of complete dedication of a woman to her family, stuffed with pathos. Ayah is known by no other name though she is serving the family for seventeen years. Her husband deserted her years ago, and he 193 works in Ceylon tea gardens. She maintains herself and her children by working in the employer’s family ‘for over twelve hours in the day’ getting ‘two meals a day, fifteen rupees a month and three saries a year’. She cheerfully performs, not only her job as Ayah, hut also several selfimposed tasks, like keeping an eye on the home-tutor to ensure that he does not torture the children, and keeping watch over servants for which she is quite unpopular with them. At the beginning o f every month, ‘a couple of rowdy-looking men’, whom she calls “those Saidapet robbers”, who really are her sons, come and take away most of her month’s pay. This is the only evidence that she has her own home at Saidapet, which she no doubt visits every three months for a few days. Though ‘a willing slave’ for her own family, for whom she tofts and slogs, she sub-consciously perhaps nourishes a hatred for them all. She calls her sons ‘those Saidapet robbers’. For her husband, who has deserted her, she uses the phrase ‘The Old Fellow’, with which she also keeps the employer’s children in fright to make them do her bidding, like sending them to sleep. The mention of the Old Fellow worked wonders, and child after child was kept in terror o f him. He was supposed to be locked up in a disused dog kennel in the compound. He was always shouting for the Ayah. He was ever ready to break the door open and carry her away. The Ayah always referred to him in scathing language: “I have beaten that scoundrel into pulp. Very bad fellow, disgusting monkey. …” . All this reveals her real disgust for her husband and reflects her constant anxiety that he may turn up any time and take her away from the happy and peaceful place of her employment. But when her fear materializes one day, she laughs ‘uncontrollably’ even when her employer scolds her for returning late from Saidapet; “even her dark face was flushed, and her eyes were bright” . She brings him with her from Saidapet to her employer, with pride: “Please, won’t you look at him?”  and pleads: “He wants me 194 to cook for him and look after him. … He went away years ago. … Who will take care of him now?”

And she leaves, “led by a husband proud o f his slave” . The story sharply focuses on the feet that a traditional Indian wife can be happy with her husband only, even if forsaken by him for a major part of her life to struggle and earn bread for herself and her family, and after knowing thoroughly well that she is wanted only to serve him in his old age, to cook and to nurse. For her husband she is only an instrument to fulfil his needs, and pathetically such is the case with her sons too. So in our lower middle class social stratum, a woman, be she a mother or a daughter or a wife, is mainly considered a slave of the family.

THE VERGER- SOMERSET MAUGHAM’S SUMMARY

 

8. THE VERGER- SOMERSET MAUGHAM’S SUMMARY

Summary of Somerset Maugham’s The Verger

 

Introduction

Somerset Maugham is a famous English writer.  He has written many novels and short stories.  This short story is about a verger, who is an illiterate.  This story shows how an illiterate man can earn more money and wealth, because of his smart thinking.

 

Introduction of the Verger

Albert Edward is a verger of a small church.  A verger is someone who takes care of the church.  Albert has been working in the church for a long time.  He takes care of the church very well.  He takes great care of his uniform.  The story opens with the end of christening ceremony in the church.  The verger waits for the vicar to move, but the vicar is staying there.

 

The Past and the Present Vicar

The vicar of the church has taken his position in the recent past.  He is new to the church and to the position.  The verger is not comfortable with the new vicar.  He considers the old vicar as someone better than the new one.  The old vicar had never complained him and had always been good to him.  Though the new vicar is good in controlling the child who has come to christening, the verger is not comfortable with him and his manners.

 

Happenings between the Vicar and the Verger

The vicar calls the verger to his office.  Two wardens of the church also come to the vicar’s office.  The vicar says that he and the church management are not comfortable with the performance of the verger.  They consider him an illiterate, who cannot read and write.  The two wardens support the vicar.  The verger is helpless.

 

Verger’s Illiteracy

The verger accepts the fact that he is an illiterate.  He had joined the church when he was twelve and had not attempted to educate himself since then.  The previous vicar did not mind about his education.  The verger is also able to execute his job in the best way possible, even without proper education.  He assures the new vicar that he can continue to do his job well.

 

Verger Coming out of the Church

The vicar and the wardens do not accept his plea.  They almost threaten the verger.  Out of compulsion and repulsion, the verger moves out of the church.  He resigns his job as a verger.  He is confused about the future.  He does not know how to earn his living thereafter.  In utter confusion, he takes an unusual road to his house.  He is hopeless.

 

Verger a Wealthy Man

After sometime, he finds that he has taken the wrong route.  He is frustrated and he wants to ease himself.  He approaches a few shops and asks for a cigarette.  No shop sells him a cigarette.  It is then he strikes with an idea of opening cigar shops.  He opens a shop where there are no shops.  His business throngs well.  He sells more cigars and he becomes wealthy.  Later he approaches a few other places where they do not sell cigars and he puts up a new shop there.  He becomes a prospective business man.  He becomes very wealthy.  He hoards more money in the bank.

Conclusion

 

The verger deposits all his money in the bank.  One day the bank’s manager invites him for a meeting.  He informs the verger that he has save more than 10 thousand pounds in the bank.  This is a huge money.  The manger asks him to sign a few documents and the verger says that he is uneducated.  This surprises the manager and others.  They question him what he would have done if had not started this business.  The verger says that he would have remained a verger till the end of his life.

The Best Investment I ever made — A.J. Cronin

 The Best Investment I ever made

                                                                                                         — A.J. Cronin

 

“The Best Investment I ever made” is a story written by A.J. Cronin. This story narrates a touching episode from the author’s early life as a doctor in London.

 

The doctor (author) once happened to attend a misguided youth who attempted suicide.  With much effort, the doctor succeeded in bringing the youth back to life. The youth narrated his unfortunate story to the doctor. After the death of both his parents, he got employed in a Solicitor’s office.  Due to bad company, he lost all his money in horse bettings.  He stole some money from his office safe and lost that too. Fearing of punishment, he attempted suicide by turning on the gas. After hearing the sad story, the doctor gave the young man Seven pounds, ten shillings, to put back in the office safe and start a fresh life.

 

Interestingly, after 25 years of gap, the doctor met the youth Mr. John.S, a happily married man, along with his wife.  The couple had been actively involved in the rescue and rehabilitation of child offenders.  The doctor felt that the small amount he had given to the unfortunate youth turned out to be the best investment he had ever made in his life.  Though it did not yield him any monetary dividends, it gave him immense satisfaction.

I, Too – LANGSTON HUGHES

 POEM – 6

6. I, Too

– LANGSTON HUGHES

 

I, too, sing America.

 

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

 

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

 

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

 

I, too, am America.

The Toys –COVENTRY PATMORE

  POEM – 5

The Toys

–COVENTRY PATMORE

 

My little son, who looked with thoughtful eyes

And moved and spoke in quite grown-up wise
Having my law the seventh time disobeyed.

I struck him, and dismissed

With hard words, and unkissed, –

His mother, who was patient, being dead.

Then fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep,

I visited his bed,

But found him slumbering deep,

With darkened eyelids, and their lashes yet

From his late sobbing wet.

And I, with moan,

Kissing away his tears, left others of my own;

For on a table drawn beside his head,

He had put, within his reach,

A box of counters and a red-veined stone,

A piece of glass abraded by the beach,

And six or seven shells,

And two French copper coins ranged there with careful art.

To comfort his sad heart.

So when that night I prayed

To God, I wept, and said:-

Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath,

Not vexing thee in death,

And thou remembrest of what toys

We made our joys,

How weakly understood

Thy great commanded good

Then, fatherly not less

Than I whom thou hast molded from the clay,

Thou’lt leave thy wrath, and say,

I will be sorry for their childishness.

My Last Duchess -Robert Browning

 POEM – 4

 My Last Duchess

                        -Robert Browning

FERRARA

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call

That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said

“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read

Strangers like you that pictured countenance,

The depth and passion of its earnest glance,

But to myself they turned (since none puts by

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,

How such a glance came there; so, not the first

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not

Her husband’s presence only, called that spot

Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps

Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps

Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint

Must never hope to reproduce the faint

Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough

For calling up that spot of joy. She had

A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,

Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the West,

The bough of cherries some officious fool

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule

She rode with round the terrace—all and each

Would draw from her alike the approving speech,

Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked

Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name

With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame

This sort of trifling? Even had you skill

In speech—which I have not—to make your will

Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this

Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,

Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—

E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose

Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands

As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet

The company below, then. I repeat,

The Count your master’s known munificence

Is ample warrant that no just pretense

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;

Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed

At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

WOMEN NOT THE WEAKER SEX -Mahatma Gandhi

 LESSON-3

 WOMEN NOT THE WEAKER SEX

-Mahatma Gandhi

 

If I was born a woman, I would rise in rebellion against any pretension on the part of man that woman is born to be his plaything. I have mentally become a woman in order to steal into her heart. I could not steal into my wife’s heart until I decided to treat her differently than I used to do, and so I restored to her all her today as simple as myself. You find no necklaces, no fineries, and the slaves of men. Refuse to decorate yourselves, and don’t go in for scents and lavender waters. If you (women) want to give out the proper scent it must come out of your heart, and then you will captivate not man, but humanity. It is your birth-right. Man is born of woman, he is flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone. Come to your own and deliver your message again.

Woman must cease to consider herself the object of man’s lust. The remedy is more in her hands than man’s. She must refuse to adorn herself for men, including her husband, if she will be an equal partner with man. I cannot imagine Sita wasting even a single moment on pleasing Rama by physical charms.

Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity. To me, the female sex, is not the weaker sex. It is the nobler of the two, for it is even today the embodiment of sacrifice, silent suffering, humility, faith and knowledge.

Woman, I hold, is the personification of self-sacrifice, but unfortunately today she does not realize what a tremendous advantage she has over man. As Tolstoy used to say, they are laboring under the hypnotic influence of man. If they would realize the strength of non-violence they would not consent to be called the weaker sex.

To call woman the weaker sex is a libel; it is man’s injustice to woman. If by strength is meant brute strength, then indeed, is woman less brute than man. If by strength is meant moral power, then woman is immeasurably man’s superior. Has she not greater intuition, is she not greater courage? Without her man could not be. If non-violence is the law of our being. The future is with woman……. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?

Had not man in his blind selfishness crushed woman’s soul as he has done or had she not succumbed to ‘the enjoyments’ she would have given the world an exhibition of the infinite strength that is latent in her. The world shall see it in all its wonder and glory when woman has secured an equal opportunity for herself with man and fully developed her power of mutual aid  and combination.

Women are special custodians of all that is pure and religious in life. Conservative by nature, if they are slow to shed superstitious habits, they are also slow to give up all that is pure and noble in life.

I am uncompromising in the matter of women’s rights. In my opinion she should labour under no legal disability not suffered by man. I should treat daughters and sons on a footing of perfect equality.

I believe in the proper education of women. But I do believe that woman will not make her contribution to the world by mimicking or running a race with man. She can run the race, but she will not rise to the great heights she is capable of by mimicking man. She has to be the complement of man.