The Little Willow

The little willow if an interesting story of love that remained unfulfilled. 

It tells the spiritual bond between tow persons. 

The writer wants to show that the real love is not a blind kind of romantic attraction between and young man and a pretty young girl based on physical charm. A true love is a sacred spiritual relation between two persons based on similarly of temperaments. 

There are three sisters belonging to the English family called Avery. The two elder sisters, Charlotte and Brenda were tall and graceful girls. They were very expert in the art of seducing young men. 

But their younger sister Lisby was noble, straightforward, modest and unassuming. One day Simon Byrne came to the court House. Both Simon Byrne and Lisby fall in love with each other, Lisby never displayed her love to Simon Byrne. 

Lisby’s love was quiet calm and secret for Simon Byrne. Both did not express their love to each other face. At Simon Byrne departure, Lisby gave him “The Little Willow” tree as a gift. After this Simon Byrne went to the war front and was fatally wounded by a blast. 

He died in the hospital. Before his death, he told Caption Oliver that he loved the girl who gave him “The little willow tree”. 

When Lisby listen the bad news, she begins to weep and admits her love for him by saying that “he was my dear, dear love”.    

A passion in the desert

It is an interesting story which shows the relation and mutual understanding between a man and a beast. The writer wants to show the idea that wild animal can be tamed down if treated lovingly. 

The French soldier is the central character of the story who is capable of facing the hardship and distresses of life with courage and determination. He was made captive by the Moors but he did not lose heart. When he found his enemies sleeping in the desert, he took the opportunity to run away from their bondage. 

He took the danger of being captured and killed by the Moors or being engulfed in the sea of sand. But the fighting spirit in him did not let him submit himself to his lot. He is determined to face the new danger tactfully. He is sensible enough to know that if he tried to kill the beast with his gun or dagger, he might be attacked and killed by the wounded animal when the panther woke up in the morning, 

the soldier try to overpower the powerful beast with a show of love and trust. He displays of affection worked wonders. Soldier’s attachment with the panther was not sincere. He always remained in search of some opportunity to get rid of slavery. 

Therefore he lost no time to stab his leg into her mouth. It was a hasty step taken in self-defence, but he left remorseful see love and pity in the eyes of dying animal. He felt guilty conscience on killing the leopard that loved him sincerely and trusted him blindly.

The Fly

The fly is a symbolic story that establishes an important fact of wife. The story tells that time is a great healer of pain and miseries. 

The story also tells that man is helpless before destiny. However, the blessing of time reduces the effect of tragedy that is caused by destiny. 

Woodifield was an old retired man who lived in the suburbs of city. He was a heart patient and was well looked after by his daughters. 

His daughters did not let him go out of the house except on Tuesday. He visited his friends on Tuesday. One Tuesday Woodifield visited his ex-boss the visit to Belgium where the Woodsfield’s son and the son of the boss had been buried. 

Six years ago the son of the boss and Woodsfield’s son were killed in world war. He boy’s sudden death was an unbearable blow to the boss. 

At that time he did not believe that time would heal up his wound. After six years the boss had completely forgot his son’s death. After Woodifield departure, the boss was mentally disturbed and thought of his late son. 

During this time a fly fell into his inkpot. When it came out the boss pushed it again into the inkpot. At last it lay dead in the ink. 

Thus in this story everything is a symbol of fly who is killed by someone for amusement.

A conversation with my father

It is an interesting story in the form of literary discussion between the writer of the story and her old father. 

The story also throws light on the old and new trends in the art of story writing. 

The writer of the story is representative of the modern tradition, while her father is spokesman of old style. 

The modern writers narrate stories in a brief and simple manner. They do not like to indulge in unnecessary details. They like to give an abrupt end to a late. 

On the other hand, the old father of the writer is eighty six years old man he appreciated the stories written by French writer Maupassant and Russian dramatist Chekov. One day he requests her daughter to write a simple and short story. The wrier makes up her mind to oblige her father. She describes a true incident of real life. But story was rejected her father. 

She again writes a story according to the instructions of her father but she fails to satisfy her father. The old man comes to the conclusion that his daughter is incapable of writing a brief and simple story in the manner of Maupassant and Chekov, and advises her not to waste her time and energies. 

Thus we see that grace Paley failed to come up to sensibility of her old father who was a man of his own artistic tastes and uncompromising standards.

The shadow in the rose garden

The shadow in the rose garden is the story of husband and wife who could not love each others and enjoy the fruits of marriage. There was some misunderstanding between them. They did not open their hearts to each other for some reasons.Her old lover was a military officer.

They could not marry as the military officer was sent to North Africa where he was reported to have died. After that she met the engineer Mr. Frank who liked her and married her without inquiring about her past.

The wife could not lover her husband whole heatedly because her unfulfilled love kept her mentally disturbed. He could not understand why his wife tried to avoid him. The reality dawned upon him during their visit to a seaside village. After three years of marriage the wife had brought her husband there to revive her memories of love affair with the military officer.

One day she went secretly to see the beautiful rose garden where she used to meet her old lover.

When she was sitting on a bench in the rose garden she had a chance meeting with her old lover who was still alive but had gone mad. She recognized her rising on his finger. But she was shocked to know that her old lover could not even recognize her.

Now she realized her folly of not loving her husband for the save of her old lover. Who was mentally deranged. In this way a little incident changed the whole course of marriage couple life. 

The duchess and the jeweller

The duchess and the jeweller present a satirical picture of English society as it was towards the end of the 19^th century. The old aristocratic class found it difficult to survive.

Their limited income from lands could not meet their rising expenses of daily life. The Duchess is a true representative of aristocratic class. She is liar and cheater.

Oliver Bacon, the jeweller, is the central character of the story. His character is a representative of the Victoria age to which he belonged.

He symbolize materialistic attitude of life. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He struggled hard to honour and social status.

He was hungry of wealth and wanted to amass as much of it as he could. He knew that wealth was a symbol of social prestige. The Duchess was a morally corrupt woman. Due to lavish spending, she was always in bad need of money.

For his purpose she had maintained friendly relations with Oliver Bacon, the wealthiest jeweller of London. She had once succeeded in selling false pearls to him. The jeweller allowed her to deceive him because he had a soft corner of heart for her pretty daughter Diana whom he wanted to marry.

The Duchess was so morally low that she again came to the jeweller to sell ten more fake pearls and succeeded in the name of their old friendship. 

Necklace

The necklace is a thought provoking story. It is basically the story of human vanity. It is a good commentary of human nature, especially the mentality of women. The writer wants to show that physical beauty is the most important merit of a woman. It makes a woman superior to all other the woman of rank and wealth. 

The pretty women try to impress others and win their admiration for this reason. They are excessively fond of fashionable clothes and precious ornaments which enhance their beauty and make them more charming. All these ideas have been illustrated through the story of Matilda and her husband. 

Matilda was a beautiful woman who considered herself superior to other women in beauty but she was born in a low class family and was married to a mere clerk. One day Mr. Loisel brought an invitation card for her. Mr. Loisel thought that his wife would be delighted to get a chance to enjoy the gathering of important personalities. She borrowed a necklace from her wealthy fried madam Forestier. 

The necklace was lost in the ball. The wife and husband had to struggle hard to pray loan/necklace. It took them ten years to repay price of 
necklace. 

One day Mr. Loisel was informed that necklace was an imitation. Matilda wondered how her life had been if she had not lost necklace

What statement does the story as a whole make about pride and materialism? Or discuss necklace as a story of human vanity.

          The sum and substance of whole story is that human life is very complicated and few people can understand is fully. 

Common people give great importance to material prosperity and pride as a sign of success. The writer has commented on human nature especially the mentality of women. He says that materialism is a cure of almost all the human hardship and miseries. 

Maupassant has artistically put all these concepts in the necklace. Matilda is a poor victim of pride and she is obsesses with the idea of materialism. Her physical beauty is mischief and she goes on thinking to make her beauty perfect through artificial decorations. 

She attends a ball and she is praised by everyone. She losses the borrowed necklace in the ball and has to pay thirty-six thousand frames for its replacement. 

The husband and the wife have to work hard for ten years to repay the debt and Matilda comes to know that the borrowed necklace was an imitation. Actually the story shows that pride is an imitation and materialism is an illusion. 

The tell-tale heart

The tell tale heart is a psychological kind of story. It tells about an abnormal human behaviour. The murderer says that he committed the crime of killing the old man to get rid of his hateful vulture like eye that made him shudder. He committed the crime in a well planned and very cautious manner. He entered the bad room of the old man at the dead and threw a thin ray of light on the desired spot. 

He found him lying as sleep with his contemptible eye fully closed. He came back without talking the hideous step because it was not the old man who vexed him but his evil eye. For seven consecutive nights he went to kill the old man but came back unsuccessful because the eye was found closed on eight nights he found the eye opened. He pounced upon the old man dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bedding on him. The poor old man uttered a shriek and then died of suffocation. When the bloody act has been completed the door bell rang. 

A neighbour ______ happened to hear the shriek and had informed the police. Three police officers arrived to inquire into the matter. The murderer faced them confidently and satisfied them. Suddenly the murderer heard the beating of  the old man heart in his imagination. It grew louder and louder. He himself told the police man and confessed his crime.   

How does the writer create the atmosphere of horror?

          Edger Allan Poe is a famous name in the field of detective story and horrible scenes. He is really a master artist and he adopts a number of methods to create the frightening situation. In the present story there is murder there is death madness there is hallucination and there is a sharp shriek in the stilly night. The tall tale heart becomes a Pandora’s Box out of which terrors and horrors come out and the sky is over cost with them. In the beginning of the story a half mad and hallucinated person is determined to talk the life an old man who sincerely his and respects him. This whimsical strange fellow can not tolerate the sight of that abominable the eye of a vulture. For this reason he kills the old man. 

Through suffocation and dismembers his crops. This is also a horrible and beastly act and no sane person can imagine it. He deposits these pieces under the planks of he floor. When the three police comes these for the inquiry of the shriek he satisfies them. However the pricking of his conscience can not be stilled by any way and begins to talk loudly and cries oh God! What could I do? Suddenly he foams raves and swear. Screaming furiously he confesses his crime and asks the police men to near up plank and bring out the beating heart of the old man.

 Why did murder old man and why could he not kill old man for seven nights?

          The murder seems to be and abnormal person committing the most obnoxious crime of killing an innocent old man. The murder admits that the old man lived him and he never insulted him. There was only one cause of this decision to murder the old man. The poor fellow had a pale blue aye that resembled the eye of a vulture and it had a film upon it. The murderer could not bear the sight of that dirty eye. 

He abnormal it and decided to finish the old man so that he might not be tortured by the disgusting sight of the queer eye. The murderer went to the old man to kill him at midnight. He crept was closed. He went on doing it for seven nights but he always found the closed. It was impressible for him to do the work for it was not the old man who vexed him but it was his evil eye upon the eight days he found the eye. Opened and he stifled the old man.  

Araby

What is the significance of Araby in the story?

       Araby is the story name of an old church and it is also the name of the bazaar that is situated near the church. 

In the story Araby plays significance role is playing various aspects of the sprit of age. 

Araby is a mirror of the modern mania of materialism and it clearly shows its ins and outs Araby is collection of grand building magnificent halls and all the brilliant things are present is them, 

the boy who is burning with passions of love and affection for the beautiful girl arrived to visit Araby. He promises the girl to bring a suitable gift from the bazaar. He has no money and he has to seek permission from his uncle. His uncle grants him permission and also promise him money will also be given be given him. The boy impatiently waits for the happy moments of fulfilment of his hopes but his uncle forgets the promise. 

The boy feels strange sensation even by the ticking of the clock. Finally he takes money and reaches the bazaar very late. Most of the big halls he finds vases and flowered tease lying there. There is a young lady talking and laughing with gentleman. 

He customarily asks him if he wishes to buy any thing and the boy says no. 

After a few moment the light out and the whole scene into darkness Araby becomes the graveyard of his wishes.