Treasure Trove Short Storie Workbook Answers A Face in the Dark
A Face in the Dark Questions and Answers Extract Based
Question 1.
Mr. Oliver, an Anglo-Indian teacher, was returning to his school late one night, on the outskirts of the hill-station of Simla. From before Kipling’s time, the school had been run on English public school lines; and the boys, most of them from wealthy Indian families, wore blazers, caps and ties. Life magazine, in a feature on India, had once called it the ‘Eton of the East’. Mr Oliver had been teaching in the school for several years.
The Simla Bazaar, with its cinemas and restaurants, was about three miles from the school; and Mr Oliver, a bachelor, usually strolled into the town in the evening, returning after dark, when he would take a short cut through the pine forest.
(a) What was called ‘Eton of the East’ ? Why ?
Answer:
An English Public School which was on the outskirts of the hill-station of Simla, was called ‘Eton of the East’ because it had been compared to Eton College, one of England’s most elite public schools, founded by Henry VI in 1440.
(b) Who was Mr Oliver ? How had the school been run ?
Answer:
Mr. Oliver was an Anglo-Indian teacher and had been teaching in a school outside Simla for several years. The school had been run on English public school lines.
(c) From which family did children read in school ? What was the dress of school boys ?
Answer:
The children belonging to royal and wealthy families of India studied in school. The boys wore blazers, caps and ties.
(d) Where did Mr. Oliver usually spend his evenings ? When would he return to his lodging ? How many miles away was the Simla Bazaar from his school ?
Answer:
Mr Oliver usually spent his evenings in the Simla Bazaar enjoying his leisure time. He would return to his lodging when it grew dark. The Simla Bazaar was three miles away from his school.
(e) What kept most people to the main road ? Which short cut did Oliver take ?
Answer:
When there was a strong wind, the pine trees made sad, eerie sounds that kept most people to the main road. Oliver took the short cut through the pine forest.
(f) Why did Oliver never feel any kind of fear while walking through the pine forest ? Where was Oliver staying ? Why ?
Answer:
While walking through the pine forest, Oliver never felt any kind of fear because he yvas a courageous man who did not believe in imaginary or ghost stories. Oliver was staying alone in the school premises because he was a bachelor.
Question 2.
When there was a strong wind, the pine trees made sad, eerie sounds that kept most people to the main road. But Mr Oliver was not a nervous or imaginative man. He carried a torch, and its gleam —the batteries were running down — moved fitfully down the narrow forest path. When its flickering light fell in the figure of a boy, who was sitting alone on a rock, Mr Oliver stopped. Boys were not supposed to be out after dark.
(a) Where is the story A Face in the Dark set ?
Answer:
The story is set on the outskirts of the hill-station of Simla where the protagonist was teaching in a boarding school. It was three miles away
from Simla which had cinema halls, restaurants and other shops, which used to be visited by Mr. Oliver, in the evenings.
(b) What kind of atmosphere has the author created in the story ? What showed that something evil was going to happen ?
Answer:
The author has created an eerie atmoshpere in the story. It was night time and strong wind was blowing. The pine trees were making mysterious sad sounds, indicating that something evil was likely to happen. The batteries of Oliver’s torch were running down, creating an atmosphere of suspense and fear.
(c) What does the following line ‘Oliver was not a nervous or imaginative man’ signify ?
Answer:
The line given above signifies that Oliver did not believe in imaginary or ghost stories. He was a brave and courageous man. He never felt any kind of fear while walking through the pine forest.
(d) What route did Oliver take to return to his lodging ? What kind of weather was there on the night ?
Answer:
Oliver took the short cut route through the pine forest while returning to his lodging. It was utter darkness in the forest due to being thickly populated with pine trees. The strong wind was blowing through the trees. This made sad, eerie sounds.
(e) What did Oliver carry with him ? What did he come across in the forest ? What did he think ?
Answer:
Oliver carried with him a torch the batteries of which were running down. In the forest, he came across a boy who was sitting alone on a rock. He thought that boys were not supposed to be out after dark.
(f) In what posture was the boy sitting ? What was the boy doing ?
Answer:
The boy’s head hung down. He held his face in his hands and his body shook convulsively. The boy seemed to be weeping and sobbing.
Question 3.
‘What are you doing out here, boy?’ asked Mr Oliver sharply, moving closer so that he could recognize the miscreant. But even as he approached the boy, Mr Oliver sensed that something was wrong. The boy appeared to be crying. His head hung down, he held his face in his hands, and his body shook convulsively. It was a strange, soundless weeping, and Mr Oliver felt distinctly uneasy.
(a) What did Oliver ask the boy ? Why did he move closer to the boy ? What did he sense ?
Answer:
Oliver asked the boy what he was doing there. He moved closer to the boy so that he could recognise the person who had done some mischief. As he approached the boy, he sensed that something was wrong.
(b) Why did Mr. Oliver feel uneasy when he walked through the pine forest ?
Answer:
When Oliver walked through the pine forest, he encountered a boy who was sitting alone on a rock and seemed to be weeping and sobbing, but he
found that there was no sound in his weeping. It was strange to him so he felt uneasy.
(c) Find out the figures of speech in the extract and give instances.
Answer:
The author has used the figure of speech oxymoron in the line ‘It was a strange, soundless weeping.’ Here are some instances of alliteration :
- ‘head hung down’.
- ‘Strange, soundless weeping.’
(d) How did the boy react when Oliver asked him the reason of weeping or crying ?
Answer:
When Oliver asked the boy the reason of weeping a crying, the boy neither looked up nor answered his question and continued to be racked with silent sobbing.
(e) Why was Oliver stunned to see the boy ?
Answer:
Oliver again enquired the boy what was troubling him and asked him to look up. Then the boy removed his hands from his face and looked up. As the light from Oliver’s torch fell on the boy’s face, Oliver was stunned to see because the boy had no face.
(f) Why did the torch from Mr. Oliver’s hand fall ?
Answer:
The torch from Mr. Oliver’s hand fell beause he found that the boy had no face i.e., without eyes, ears, nose or mouth. He was much frightened to see this sight and his hand began trembling in fear.
Question 4.
The torch fell from his trembling hand. He turned and scrambled down the path, running blindly through the trees and calling for help. He was still running towards the school buildings when he saw a lantern swinging in the middle of the path. Mr Oliver stumbled up to the watchman, gasping for breath. ‘What is it, Sahib?’ asked the watchman. ‘Has there been an accident? Why are you running?’
(a) Whose ‘trembling hand’ is referred to in the above extract ? Why was it trembling ?
Answer:
Oliver’s trembling hand is referred to. Oliver was profoundly stunned to see the boy without face. He found that the boy’s face was without eyes, ears, nose or mouth, hence he was filled with great fear and his hand begain to tremble.
(b) Why did Mr. Oliver call for help ? In what state did he run and where ?
Answer:
Mr. Oliver was much frightered to see a faceless body in the pine forest so he called for help in utter fear. In a panic state, he turned and ran blindly through the trees towards the school buildings.
(c) In what condition did the watchman find Mr. Oliver ? What did the watch man ask Mr. Oliver ?
Answer:
When Mr Oliver stumbled up to the watchman, he was breathing fast and seemed quite scared. The watchman found that he was quite uncomfortable and nervous. The watchman asked Mr. Oliver what had happened with him and why he was running so fearful.
(d) What experience did Mr. Oliver narrate to the watchman ?
Answer:
When the watchman saw Mr. Oliver running in a panic state, he asked him why he was running. At this Mr. Oliver told him that he had seen a boy who had no face, i.e., no eyes, ears, or any other features on his face.
(e) What did the watchman do after hearing Mr. Oliver’s exprience ? What did Mr. Oliver see ?
Answer:
After hearing Oliver’s experience, the watchman raised the lamp to his own face and asked Oliver if the boy’s face looked like this. Mr. Oliver saw that the watchman too was without a face.
(f) How does the story end ?
Answer:
The story ends with a sense of ambiguity, making the readers ponder over the question whether it were ghosts, which Oliver encountered or whether it was a prank played upon him by a mischievous student.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1.
Mr. Oliver’s encounter with the boy and the watchman could either be real or a figment of his imagination. Give your comments in the context of the story.
Answer:
The story A Face in the Dark, written by Ruskin Bond is his imagination. There cannot be any person who does not have eyes, nose, mouth, face. It is the matter of the observation that if the watchman had no face, no mouth, no nose, etc, how he could speak to the teacher.
As far as supernatural powers are concerned, their existence cannot be totally denied from the face of this earth. There are instances present around us for which there is no logical explanation, yet they are as true as our breathing. Based on this opinion, it can be believed that Mr. Oliver really met the boy and the watchman who had no features of the face i.e., no eyes, no mouth, no nose etc.
Mr. Oliver was a daring man who had the courage to take the path across pine forests. Though it grew quite dark he had his torch and he made his way to his school. When he saw a boy sitting and crying, he thought that he was one of the students of his school and reminded him about the rule that the boys were not supposed to come out at that time. Then he saw the boy was sobbing and his anger changed into concern. He wanted to know the reason for his crying. But as soon as the boy lifted his face, Mr. Oliver was aghast looking at his face. He had no eyes, no ears, no mouth, no features at all. The torch fell off from his hand.
Furthering his way to his residence, he saw a watchman with a lantern and he shared his experience with him. Listening about the boy’s face, the watchman lifted his lantern up to his face and asked if the boy’s face was like his, revealing his face in the light which was exactly the same, no eyes, no mouth, nothing. Suddenly, with a gush of wind, the lantern blew off and Mr. Oliver rushed towards the apartment.
In fact, it can be believed that it was a real incident as his imagination could see the weird boy once and then the story would have ended. Since he came across the watchman with a similar face, it became an evidence that the forest was haunted.
Question 2.
What happened with Mr. Oliver while returning from Simla to his school ?
Answer:
Mr. Oliver who was a rational and mentally strong, often went to Simla which was a few kilometres away and returned by evening. One day while he was returning from Simla, it was late in the evening and he decided to take a short cut through the pine forests. He carried his torch along and moved briskly. When he was at a short distance, the flickering light of his torch fell on the figure of a boy who was sitting alone on a rock. After seeing the boy, Oliver stopped near him and asked him what he was doing there and why he was crying. He asked the boy to tell him his trouble.
When Oliver asked the boy many times the reason of being there and weeping the boy removed his hands from his face and looked at Oliver. In the light of the torch, Oliver saw his face. But he was extremely stunned to see that the boy’s face had no features i.e., no eyes, no mouth, nothing at all.
Mr Oliver ran as fast as he could and managed it back to the school without fainting. Not so far he saw a lamp flickering in the dark night. It was the night watchman of the school. When he approached him, the watchman asked what the matter was and why he was running and if there was an accident. Oliver told him that he had seen something horrible-a boy weeping in the forest he had no face at all no eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
At this the watchman, raising the lamp to his face, asked him if he meant it was like that. The watchman, like the boy in the jungle, too had no eyes, etc., no features at all. The lamp went off in the blowing wind and Oliver died of heart attack. If there had been other person at the place of Oliver, he would have died at the first instance. But Oliver was a tough man hence the became victim of heart attack at the second instance.
Question 3.
Do you think that the title of the story A Face in the Dark is appropriate ?
Answer:
The title of the story A Face in the Dark is appropriate. It revolves around an uncanny experience of a school teacher, Mr. Oliver who while returning to school campus through a pine forest sees the figure of a boy sitting alone on a rock, with his head hung down and holding his face in his hands and crying. Oliver goes closer to recognise the face of the boy.
Oliver tries to enquire from him the reason for his being in the forest at night and crying. The boy at first does not reply, but at Oliver’s repeated request, he looks up. As the light from Oliver’s torch falls on his face, he is surprised to find that it has no eyes, ears, nose or mouth. It is just a round, smooth head—with a school cap on top of it.
Oliver gets frightened and the torch falls from his trembling hand. He runs towards the school calling for help and bumps into a watchman. The watch man asks him why he is running so fast. Oliver tells him about the faceless boy whom he meets on the way. Then, the watchman holds the lantern to his own face and asks him if the boy is like him, without face. Suddenly the wind blows out the lamp, suggested that something strange might have happened to Oliver.
In this way, the boy and the watchman who appear before Oliver with a ‘face’ in the dark, actually do not have a ‘face’ when seen in the light. Ruskin Bond observes that after dark we come, to see many things around us. The things which are seen after dark, seem mysterious and irrational, but by the clear light of day, we find that the magic and the mystery have an explanation after all. The title of the story can be justified in another way.
As it is known to all that the public school does not encourage individuality, but carries on producing students who are all same, having no individuality of their own. The boy’s face with no ears, eyes, mouth and nose signifies that he has no identity of his own and probably that is why he is crying. The same situation takes place with the watchman. Mr. Oliver who has been teaching in the public school for many years, has produced the students like the boy and the watchman and this is why he is haunted by the same thing. Hence the title of the story is appropriate and justified.
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