Unit -5 Life and Love The Looking Glass_
Now read the following story about the dream of a young girl with the harsh
realities in her life.
New Year's Eve. Nellie, the daughter of a landowner and general, a young and
pretty girl, dreaming day and night of being married, was sitting in her room, gazing
with exhausted, half-closed eyes into the looking-glass. She was pale, tense, and as
motionless as the looking-glass.
The non-existent but apparent vista of a long, narrow corridor with endless rows of
candles, the reflection of her face, her hands, of the frame - all this was already clouded
in mist and merged into a boundless grey sea. The sea was undulating, gleaming and
now and then flaring crimson.
Looking at Nellie's motionless eyes and parted lips, one could hardly say whether she
was asleep or awake, but nevertheless she
was seeing. At first, she saw only the smile
and soft, charming expression of someone's
eyes, then against the shifting grey
background there gradually appeared the
outlines of a head, a face, eyebrows, beard.
It was he, the destined one, the object of
long dreams and hopes. The destined one
was for Nellie everything, the significance
of life, personal happiness, career, fate.
Outside him, as on the grey background
of the looking-glass, all was dark, empty,
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meaningless. And so it was not strange that, seeing before her a handsome, gently
smiling face, she was conscious of bliss, of an unutterably sweet dream that could not
be expressed in speech or on paper. Then she heard his voice, saw herself living under
the same roof with him, her life merged into his. Months and years flew by against the
grey background. And Nellie saw her future distinctly in all its details.
Picture followed picture against the grey background. Now Nellie saw herself one
winter night knocking at the door of Stepan Lukitch, the district doctor. The old dog
hoarsely and lazily barked behind the gate. The doctor's windows were in darkness.
All was silence.
"For God's sake, for God's sake!" whispered Nellie. But at last the garden gate creaked
and Nellie saw the doctor's cook. "Is the doctor at home?"
"His honour's asleep," whispered the cook into her sleeve, as though afraid of waking
her master. "He's only just got home from his fever patients, and gave orders he was
not to be woken."
But Nellie scarcely heard the cook. Thrusting her aside, she rushed headlong into the
doctor's house. Running through some dark and stuffy rooms, upsetting two or three
chairs, she at last reached the doctor's bedroom. Stepan Lukitch was lying on his bed,
dressed, but without his coat, and with pouting lips was breathing into his open hand.
A little night-light glimmered faintly beside him. Without uttering a word Nellie sat
down and began to cry. She wept bitterly, shaking all over.
"My husband is ill!" she sobbed out. Stepan Lukitch was silent. He slowly sat up,
propped his head on his hand, and looked at his visitor with fixed, sleepy eyes. "My
husband is ill!" Nellie continued, restraining her sobs. "For mercy's sake come quickly.
Make haste. . . . Make haste!"
"Eh?" growled the doctor, blowing into his hand. "Come! Come this very minute! Or .
. . it's terrible to think! For mercy's sake!"
And pale, exhausted Nellie, gasping and swallowing her tears, began describing to the
doctor her husband's illness, her unutterable terror. Her sufferings would have touched
the heart of a stone, but the doctor looked at her, blew into his open hand, and - not a
movement.
"I'll come to-morrow!" he muttered. "That's impossible!" cried Nellie. "I know my
husband has typhus! At once . . . this very minute you are needed!"
"I . . . er . . . have only just come in," muttered the doctor. "For the last three days I've
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been away, seeing typhus patients, and I'm exhausted and ill myself. . . . I simply can't!
Absolutely! I've caught it myself! There!"
And the doctor thrust before her eyes a clinical thermometer. "My temperature is
nearly forty. . . . I absolutely can't. I can scarcely sit up. Excuse me. I'll lie down. . . ."
The doctor lay down.
"But I implore you, doctor," Nellie moaned in despair. "I beseech you! Help
me, for mercy's sake! Make a great effort and come! I will repay you, doctor!"
"Oh, dear! . . . Why, I have told you already. Ah!"
Nellie leapt up and walked nervously up and down the bedroom. She longed to explain
to the doctor, to bring him to reason. . . . She thought if only he knew how dear her
husband was to her and how unhappy she was, he would forget his exhaustion and his
illness. But how could she be eloquent enough?
"Go to the Zemstvo doctor," she heard Stepan Lukitch's voice.
"That's impossible! He lives more than twenty miles from here, and time is precious.
And the horses can't stand it. It is thirty miles from us to you, and as much from here
to the Zemstvo doctor. No, it's impossible! Come along, Stepan Lukitch. I ask of you
a heroic deed. Come, perform that heroic deed! Have pity on us!"
"It's beyond everything. . . . I'm in a fever . . . my head's in a whirl . . . and she won't
understand! Leave me alone!"
"But you are in duty bound to come! You cannot refuse to come! It's egoism! A man
is bound to sacrifice his life for his neighbour, and you . . . you refuse to come! I will
summon you before the Court."
Nellie felt that she was uttering a false and undeserved insult, but for her husband's
sake she was capable of forgetting logic, tact, sympathy for others. . . . In reply to her
threats, the doctor greedily gulped a glass of cold water. Nellie fell to entreating and
imploring like the very lowest beggar. . . . At last, the doctor gave way. He slowly got
up, puffing and panting, looking for his coat.
"Here it is!" cried Nellie, helping him. "Let me put it on to you. Come along! I will
repay you. . . . All my life I shall be grateful to you. . . ."
But what agony! After putting on his coat, the doctor lay down again. Nellie got him
up and dragged him to the hall. Then there was an agonizing to-do over his galoshes,
his overcoat. . . . His cap was lost. . . . But at last Nellie was in the carriage with the
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doctor. Now they had only to drive thirty miles and her husband would have a doctor's
help. The earth was wrapped in darkness. One could not see one's hand before one's
face. . . . A cold winter wind was blowing. There were frozen lumps under their wheels.
The coachman was continually stopping and wondering which road to take.
Nellie and the doctor sat silent all the way. It was fearfully jolting, but they felt neither
the cold nor the jolts.
"Get on, get on!" Nellie implored the driver.
At five in the morning, the exhausted horses drove into the yard. Nellie saw the
familiar gates, the well with the crane, the long row of stables and barns. At last,
she was at home.
"Wait a moment, I will be back directly," she said to Stepan Lukitch, making him sit
down on the sofa in the dining-room. "Sit still and wait a little, and I'll see how he is
going on."
On her return from her husband, Nellie found the doctor lying down. He was lying on
the sofa and muttering.
"Doctor, please! . . . doctor!"
"Eh? Ask Domna!" muttered Stepan Lukitch. "What?"
"They said at the meeting . . . Vlassov said . . . Who? . . . what?"
And to her horror Nellie saw that the doctor was as delirious as her husband. What was
to be done? "I must go for the Zemstvo doctor," she decided.
Then again there followed darkness, a cutting cold wind, lumps of frozen earth. She
was suffering in body and in soul, and delusive nature has no arts, no deceptions to
compensate these sufferings. . .
Then she saw against the grey background how her husband every spring was in straits
for money to pay the interest for the mortgage to the bank. He could not sleep, she
could not sleep, and both racked their brains till their heads ached, thinking how to
avoid being visited by the clerk of the Court.
She saw her children: the everlasting apprehension of colds, scarlet fever, diphtheria,
bad marks at school, separation. Out of a brood of five or six, one was sure to die.
The grey background was not untouched by death. That might well be. A husband
and wife cannot die simultaneously. Whatever happened one must bury the other. And
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Nellie saw her husband dying. This terrible event presented itself to her in every detail.
She saw the coffin, the candles, the deacon, and even the footmarks in the hall made
by the undertaker.
"Why is it, what is it for?" she asked, looking blankly at her husband's face.
And all the previous life with her husband seemed to her a stupid prelude to this.
Something fell from Nellie's hand and knocked on the floor. She started, jumped up,
and opened her eyes wide. One looking-glass she saw lying at her feet. The other was
standing as before on the table.
She looked into the looking-glass and saw a pale, tear-stained face. There was no grey
background now. "I must have fallen asleep," she thought with a sigh of relief.
Anton Chekhov
Ways with words
A. Match the words with their meanings.
a. exhausted ----------------tired
b. apparent---------------clear ii. wavy
c. vista -----------------vision
d. undulating -----------Wavy
e. destined -----------predetermined
f. stuffy ---------------suffocating, airless
g. restrain ------------------------------prevent, hinder
E. Write the correct form of the adjective in the blanks as in the example.
Example - Grammar rules frustrate me. They're not logical. They are so frustrating.
Comprehension
Answer these questions.
a. Who was Nellie? What did she use to dream of?
Nellie was the daughter of a landowner and general, a young and pretty girl. She used to dream of being married.
b. What was she doing with the looking glass?
She was gazing into the looking glass with exhausted, half-closed eyes.
c. Why did she go to the doctor on one winter night?
She went to the doctor one night because her husband was ill.
d. What was Stepan Lukitch doing when she reached his bedroom?
Stepan Lukitch was lying on his bed when she reached his bedroom.
e. Why was the doctor not ready to go to see her husband?
The doctor was not ready to go to see her husband because for the last three days he had been away, seeing typhus patients, and was exhausted and ill himself.
f. Why did Stepan Lukitch suggest Nellie to go to the Zemstvo doctor?
Stepan Lukitch suggested Nellie to go to the Zemstvo doctor because he was in a fever and his head was in a whirl.
g. Nellie said, “Come, perform that heroic deed! Have pity on us!" What was that
pity to be done?
The doctor had to treat Nellie’s husband.
h. When Nellie said, "I must have fallen asleep." What does it mean?
Nellie stopped dreaming and was ready for facing the realities of life. (Answer may vary.)
i. What is the main theme of the story?
The theme of devotion, loneliness, escape, fear, love, dedication, hope, defeat and independence.
Critical thinking
Critical thinking
a. “The looking glass (mirror)” is used as a symbol in the story. What does it symbolise?
The Looking Glass symbolizes Nellie’s imagination and her desire to be married. In the story the mirror remains to be instrumental because it serves as a window to her subconsciousness. The major part of the story revolves around the dream of Natalie and how it goes on to scare her because of her inability to find a solution to the problem.
The looking-glass offers Nellie an outlet to escape from the life that she is living. A life whereby she is a single and unattached woman who longs to find a man who will love her and whom she too can love. In fact, she is seeking happiness through marriage. Using her dream the story writer exhibits her internal conflict within herself and her challenges to relate her problems with others.
In the story, the looking glass or mirror remains to be important because it reveals the future. Chekhov uses this object to expose Nellie’s inner feelings, her fears and the manner she continues to feel helplessness. The use of looking glass makes the story successful as it brings together its goals and objectives to readers.
b. Chekhov employs the magic trick in the story, using a very elegant transition from reality to imagination to reality sequence. Discuss its relevance to life of young people.
In the story the writer has used the magic trick, using a very elegant transition from reality to imagination to reality sequence. It moves systematically giving the explanations from the beginning of the story to the dream of the main character described until the character wakes up.
This story is set on New Year’s Eve. The transition from reality to imagination occurs in the introductory part of the story. The story begins with a young woman named Nellie who always wants to get married, staring into the mirror. She drifts into her imagination and encounters a terrifying glimpse of the future which involves a desperate attempt to save her husband from typhus. The action becomes more specific, and the readers can safely assume they have been transitioned completely into the realm of the imagination. And this is a wonderful trick of Chekhov’s part.
At the end of the story, we find ourselves in the part of reality. One of the looking glasses falls from Nellie's hand and knocks on the floor. She wakes up from her imagination. This is how the transition shifts into reality.
Most of the young people dream of their life as in the fairy tales, full of happiness and perfection, and don’t recognize the difficult part. They compare themselves comfortable characters of the fanciful movies. The character in the story begins with naive hopes and high expectations. What she sees in the glass disabuses her of the illusion. Though at first she sees love and the caring husband of her dreams, she then sees the momentary nature of this happiness. Nellie represents one of the young people of privilege whose main concern has been the prospect of romance and marriage. She believes that romance is the gateway to her happiness in life. These painful realities of life and death are new to her.
(Source: https://www.suryaxetri.com/2020/11/neb-grade-xi-compulsory-english-note-unit5-the-looking-glass-part2.html)
Grammar (Will and be going to)
B. Match the expressions with their functions.
A: What do you want to take?
B: I’ll have tea, please. - Deciding
A: Are you free this evening?
B: No, I’m going to meet my uncle. - Expressing a prior plan
The day will be lovely tomorrow. - Predicting a future action
There is no cloud in the sky.
It’s going to be a lovely day. - Predicting with evidence
Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. - Promising
I'll take you to the movies if you like. - Offering
I’ll tell your parents what you did. - Threatening
C. Choose the correct answer.
A: Are you busy this evening?
B: Yes, I…am going to……………the movies. (will go/am going to)
A: Where are you going for holiday this summer?
B: Not sure yet. Maybe I…… will go…to Ilam. (will go/am going to)
I think you will like this movie
I will get her.
Perhaps she will pass the exam.
I will lend you mine.
D. Complete the sentences using will or be going to with the verbs.
Hari: Did you call Bina?
Prem: Oh, I forgot. I…………her now. (call)
Answer:
I will call her now.
Sunita: Have you got a ticket for the play?
Hema: Yes, I…………it on Saturday. (watch)
Answer:
I am going to watch it on Saturday.
Answer:
I will switch it off.
Answer:
Do you think they will like the presents we got for them?
Answer:
What is he going to study?
Answer:
I will tell him the news.
Answer:
I will answer it.
Answer:
I will tell the teacher.
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