Question 1: I. Answer these questions.
1. “At last a sympathetic audience.”
(i) Who says this?
(ii) Why does he say it?
(iii) Is he sarcastic or serious?
2. Why does the intruder choose Gerrard as the man whose identity he wants to take on?
3. “I said it with bullets.”
(i) Who says this?
(ii) What does it mean?
(iii) Is it the truth? What is the speaker’s reason for saying this?
4. What is Gerrard’s profession? Quote the parts of the play that support your answer.
5. “You’ll soon stop being smart.”
(i) Who says this?(ii) Why does the speaker say it?
(iii) What according to the speaker will stop Gerrard from being smart?
6. “They can’t hang me twice.”
(i) Who says this?
(ii) Why does the speaker say it?
7. “A mystery I propose to explain.” What is the mystery the speaker proposes to explain?
8. “This is your big surprise.”
(i) Where has this been said in the play?
(ii) What is the surprise?
Answer:
1. (i) Gerrard
(ii) He says this because he is glad that the intruder tells him to speak about himself.
(iii) Yes, he speaks the given dialogue very sarcastically.
2. Gerrard looks identical to the intruder who is a murderer. The police is after him. He hopes that he can easily copied Gerrard’s identify and escape from being caught.
3. (i) Gerrard says this.
(ii) It means that when things went wrong he had to shoot from his gun on someone for his escape.
(iii) No, it is not the truth. The speaker says this so because he wants to escape himself from being shot by the intruder.
4. Gerrard is a playwright by profession. Several parts of the play that reflect this. Some of these are as follows:
- This is all very melodramatic not very original perhaps
- At last a sympathetic audience!’’
- In most melodramas the villain is foolish enough to delay his killing long enough to be very frustrated.
- I said, you were luckier than the most melodramatic villains.
- That was a disguise outfit; false moustaches and what not’’.
- Sorry I can’t let you have the props at that time for rehearsals , I‘ve had a spot of bother – quite amusing. I think I‘ll put it in my next play’’.
5. (i) The intruder says this line.
(ii) the speaker says it to make Gerrard feel very frightened.
(iii) According to the intruder Gerrard would stop being smart once after he knew what was gonna happen to him. The intruder wasn’t quite afraid and his plan was to kill Gerard and take over his identity. He felt that when Gerrard would know this he would stop being smart and start getting frightened.
6. (i) The intruder says the line.
(ii) The intruder had been asking Gerrard that he had murdered one man, and that he would not back away from murdering him too. He wasn’t afraid and his plan was to kill Gerrard because the police couldn't hang him twice for each of the two murders.
7. The mystery that Gerrard proposed to introduce, was the story that he made up to fool the intruder and save his own life. The story was that Gerrard himself was a criminal like the intruder. Gerrard told him that he does not meet people and doesn’t have any visitors there. The game was up as the things that had suddenly gone wrong for him. He had done a murder and got away. Unfortunately, one of his men had been arrested and certain things were found which his men should have forced to do. He said that he was expecting some trouble that night and therefore, his bag was packed and was almost ready to escape.
8. (i) This has been said two times in the play. The first time was when the intruder reveals his plan to kill Gerrard. Secondly, it is spoken by Gerrard himself before he reveals his fictitious identity to the intruder.
(ii) The intruder’s surprise is his plan to kill Gerrard and take on his identity to run away and lead a secure hassle-free life. Whereas, Gerrard’s surprise is his wrong identity which he portrays to the intruder to save himself from being killed.
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