Tales of Life

Questions/Themes of stories

Character of Gheesu- The Shroud

• In Munshi Premchand's Kafan, Gheesu plays an elderly man in his sixties.
• His weak frame ends in a hungry face, which is indicative of his predicament and that of many of his village peers.
• Gheesu may appear to be a poor farmer suffering at the hands of fate, yet he's been left to rot due to his own idleness and slacker attitude.
• He lives not only on the food taken or donated out of sympathy, but also on the human weakness of compassion, because he is an old slacker.

• Apart from being a wholly untrustworthy slacker in the village, he has the ability to get things done and make do with nearly any situation at hand, even if it is limited to his own existence.
• He adores his son and has almost nurtured him as his own prototype, but he has no special feelings for his daughter-in-law, dismissing women as nothing more than domestic creatures.
• Gheesu isn't afraid to lie, even if it's regarding his daughter-in-funeral law's rites. He is depicted as a cruel old guy at the start of the novel, but by the end, he has developed grey shades in his personality.

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• In every situation, he is unfazed, simply working his way through like a leech for his own survival.
• Even after learning that his daughter-in-law died as a result of their carelessness, he consoled his son Madhav by telling him that she has a promised place in paradise because she died for their welfare.
• In such pieces, he is at his most manipulating.
• He wasn't overjoyed for his unborn grandson because he didn't want to see another one struggling for food beside them, and he shows a greyish patch here.

• Gheesu claims to have been blessed with nine sons in the story, but only Madhav is with him.
• It implies that he has experienced loss in his life, has witnessed his loved ones die, and now that he is aware of the final truth, he simply rots behind powerless, and has acquired a thick skin outside that is impervious to the sun and rain of this world.
• Gheesu was wise enough not to toil in the soil to fill the Zamindar's treasury in a society where the status of the farmers is as bad as that of these lazy loafers.

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• When Gheesu prays for Baikunth (heaven) for his daughter in law near the end of the story, there is a sense of remorse in his character, and we can see a good-hearted Gheesu with shades of both black and white.
• Although society views Gheesu as a thieving, lying slacker, he portrays shades of grey.
• Gheesu was depicted taking potatoes and beans from people to eat, but he never stole anything valuable.

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• He had to steal to stay alive.
• He refuses to work since he understands that suffering was unavoidable at the time.
• He laments his daughter-in-death, law's but sips the money off her shroud and then gives the leftover food to a starving beggar.
• He may have saved the same food for the next day.
• Gheesu is a character who defies categorization into a single tag.
• He's been painted with so many colours by life that he's the perfect embodiment of it.

The Story Teller

• The disparity between children and adults is highlighted in "The Storyteller."
• The adults appear to have a responsibility to raise the children in a particular manner, but they cannot agree on what this role is or what the youngsters should learn.
• The children are shown to be naturally energetic and curious, but they are also influenced by the adults with whom they engage.
• This may be seen in the beginning of the story when the children and aunt are depicted as acting similarly.

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• Bertha behaves in the manner in which adults have instructed and rewarded her, and the children's behaviour change after the bachelor's narrative.
• Saki, who grew up in Burma with his parents before being sent to England to live with his siblings and aunt after his mother died suddenly, believes that one's childhood has a significant impact on one's adult life, as evidenced by the children in the story and the adults' differing perspectives on how to raise children.

• Curiosity is a defining quality of the children in the railway carriage throughout the first half of "The Storyteller."
• They're regarded as continuously asking "Why?" queries, like "Why are those sheep being pushed out of that field?"
• Saki demonstrates how the aunt discourages the children's curiosity by providing inadequate answers and then attempting to calm and distract them with a narrative.
• The bachelor is likewise annoyed by the children's curiosity, and finds their constant chattering bothersome.

• Saki does not take a position on curiosity, but he does state that it is an important component of childhood development, particularly in terms of how children connect with adults and comprehend the world around them.
• The aunt appears to wish to instil in the youngsters the virtue of goodness.
• The aunt espouses this nebulous trait of "goodness" in her story, claiming that the child in her story was rescued from harm because the people in her village recognised and appreciated how "good" she was.
• In his own story, The Bachelor parodies and undermines this trait, in which a "young girl named Bertha, who was extra-ordinarily good"  dies as a result of the medals bestowed upon her for her goodness.

• Saki challenges the reader to consider what actual goodness entails, particularly in the moral upbringing of children, and whether it may truly bring good fortune.
• Saki appears to believe that imagination is more essential than goodness.
• The children and the bachelor disdain the aunt for not being able to come up with good, even fictitious replies to the children's inquiries.
• The bachelor, on the other hand, is able to expand and imaginatively answer all of the children's queries concerning his story, impressing both the children and the aunt.
• However, the reader may be critical of this trait because the bachelor appears unconcerned about the youngsters learning the reality about the world.

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The Lament

• Anton Chekhov's Lament is one of the author's most well-known works, as well as one of the saddest short stories ever written.
• The story's title accurately reflects the story's theme of loneliness, misery, and the urge to express one's sentiments.
• The story starts with a description of Iona Potapov, a sled driver who also happens to be the protagonist.
• The author depicts the main character as "all white like a ghost" from the beginning, indicating that the story's mood is sorrowful.
• Something is clearly wrong with Iona based on his description and actions.

• It is soon revealed that Iona's son had died a week ago, leaving him in this state.
• The story is set on a frigid winter evening, which matches Iona's feelings. Iona's only request in exchange for his son's death is someone with whom he can share his pain.
• When he asks himself, "To whom shall I communicate my grief?" he reveals his yearning to share the memories of his son with someone.

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• Iona's daily interactions with his clients expose his loneliness as the story progresses.
• While Iona is constantly attempting to convey his pain with someone, anyone, the story illustrates that no one seems to care.
• Everyone looks to be engrossed in their own world and too preoccupied to take some time to experience a stranger's suffering.
• People's ignorance may be evident in their reactions to Iona when he informs them that he died only a week ago.
• He believes that talking to women will be more effective, but the outcome is the same.

• People clearly value pointless personal engagements over a stranger's life-changing encounter.
• The world's cruelty is portrayed via the people that Iona transports.
• Despite his best attempts, no one is willing to listen to Iona, which makes his urge to speak quite clear.
• The story comes to a sad conclusion when Iona is unable to find even a single human being with whom to share his anguish and must make do with an animal that represents his loneliness.

• Though Iona is relieved to finally be able to communicate to someone, the truth remains that Iona expresses his feelings with an animal rather than a human who can understand and respond to his pain.
• Despite the fact that Iona is feeling better, the reader is upset.
• As the title suggests, the story's central theme is loneliness.
• The story is about "how one man's sadness is overlooked by the public, exactly when he needs someone's attention the most," according to Heri Nurdiyanto.

• The most tragic aspect of the narrative is that people ignore him even after he informs them that his son has died.
• It's one thing to be ignorant, but to choose to ignore Iona even after learning of his plight reveals the terrible side of humanity.
• The story depicts the opposite side of humanity, which is ignorance, which we prefer not to accept.
• The ending of the story is described by Lawrence Jay Dessner as a "pathetic relief" and "a horrific and tragic realisation".
• Iona's decision to relieve himself of the load of his sadness is a "pathetic release," as he began conversing with a horse.

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The Umbrella

• ‘The Umbrella’ by Guy de Maupassant is a short story of great mirth and engaging humour that unfolds in a manner likeable as a tale befitting the extraordinary talent of a writer.
• The short story that runs in an episode of ordinary event, of an ’umbrella’ being damaged, is Maupassant’s way of fashioning fiction to a reader’s delight where the most mundane events are enlarged and made interesting in the literary stretch of a writer’s talent.

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• For the protagonist of the story being ‘Madame Oreille’ whose comprehensive introduction in the opening passage, seems like a discovery as to how the writer builds his story around the uniqueness of character/s portrayal and the eventualities that they face in the likeness of a real life situation.
• For the story that has a bearing in the domestic affairs of a couple living together and with the lady of the house exercising great economy and taking pride in the pecuniary discretion as a definitive antidote to a human trembling that clouds the most reasoned imagination as if struck by an unmet premonition, invariably leads to a comic display of events in the story.

• Madame Oreille is a miserly woman.
• Her chief preoccupation in life is to save money, and she is a tyrant to her husband in this regard.
• Monsieur Oreille is hardly allowed to have any pocket money at all, and he lives in constant fear of his wife's shrewish temper.
• Although Madame Oreille and her husband have no children and can live comfortably, Madame Oreille's fear of future want prevents her from fully enjoying her present circumstances.
• The author describes Madame Oreille as a "little woman of about forty, very active, rather hasty, wrinkled, very neat and tidy, and with a very short temper."

• Madame Oreille's short temper is frequently trained on her husband.
• When Monsieur Oreille protests that he is tired of using the cheap and flimsy umbrella she bought to replace his old one, Madame Oreille becomes angry.
• She eventually buys him a new, more expensive one, albeit accompanied by a lecture that it will not be replaced in a hurry if his new one is ruined through carelessness on his part.

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• As time progresses, Monsieur Oreille's umbrella is soon mysteriously found to be burned in different places.
• As for his part, Monsieur Oreille cannot explain how the burns occurred.
• Madame Oreille, furious at her husband, refuses to replace the umbrella.
• There is a stalemate between the two until a family friend advises Madame Oreille to seek compensation from their fire insurance company.

• Madame Oreille is reluctant to do so initially, but she soon relents.
• In the conversation between Madame Oreille and the insurance men, Madame Oreille is seen to be a calculating opportunist, who will resort to fabrications in order to save herself the expense of replacing a ruined umbrella; she is quite happy for her husband to have a newer, sturdier umbrella if someone else will foot the costs for what she considers a frivolous expense.
• The claims manager, after hearing her invented tale about an accidental fire that burnt the umbrella, secretly suspects she is lying but eventually is worn down by her insistence that he help her and advises her to go have the umbrella recovered, and they will pay for the bill.

• Happy, Madame Oreille marches off to have the umbrella recovered. The final joke in the tale is that she finds a first class shop and confidently tells them:
• “I want this umbrella recovered in silk, good silk. Use the very best and strongest you have; I don’t mind what it costs”.

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• So it turns out she has no problem spending money that is not actually hers.

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• She likes to get her money's worth.