1.5 The New Dress English Yuvakbharti class 12 HSC Maharashtra state Board

 

(A1) (i) Narrate in your words the picture imagined by Mabel as she thinks herself in the party as a fly at the edge of the saucer.
Ans: In order to reduce the pains of being old fashioned Mabel imagined herself as fly over the edge of saucer. She would become motionless and standstill. She saw the flies crowling slowly out of a saucer of milk with their wings stuck together. She think herself and other people as flies, they were trying to hoist themselves out of something or into something. She described it as meagre, insignificant and toiling flies.
She considered herself that she was a fly, along with this she describes others as dragonflies, butterflies, beautiful insects,dancing, fluttering, skimming. In this situation she felt that she alone had dragged herself up out of the saucer.

She felt herself like unfashionable, dull apeearance, elderly and infirm, gloomy and drab old fly.

Or

According to Mabel, they are all flies in a saucer, ring desperately

to escape. But while everyone around her appears to be a butterfly or dragonfly, Mabel alone remains trapped. Lamenting her banal life and the superficiality of the conversations which "bored her unutterably," Mabel lingers in the saucer, amidst her own hypocrisy, unable to change her condition.

(ii) There are a few other characters mentioned in the story. Discuss the way their reactions help us to understand the inferiority complex of Mabel.
Ans.  Mabel told Robert Haydon that she felt like some dowdy, decrepit, horribly dingy old fly. She said it to reassure herself and appear detached and witty, and to show that she did not feel in the least out of anything. Robert Haydon probably replied something to praise her, which Mabel felt was just politeness, and that he was being insincere. Though she was constantly looking for approval from others, she always felt suspicious when someone actually praised her, or said something in her favour. This shows that she has no selfesteem and a very big inferiority complex.

Mabel thought that Charles Burt and Rose Shaw were chatting together by the fireplace and laughing at her. She could not hear them, but this was her imagination and inferiority complex which made her think so. Mabel even felt that poor Mrs. Holman was laughing at her dress, and that she would tell everyone about it. Mrs. Holman had so many of her own problems that she probably never even thought of it, but Mabel’s lack of confidence made her feel so.

(A2) (i) Pick out the sentences from the story which describe the ambience of the party at Mrs. Dalloway’s place.
Ans.  

1.  Mrs. Barnet, while handing her the mirror and touching the brushes and thus drawing her attention, perhaps rather markedly, to all the appliances for tidying and improving hair, complexion, clothes, which existed on the dressing table.

2.  Rose herself being dressed in the height of the fashion, precisely like everybody else, always.

3.  She was a fly, but the others were dragonflies, butterflies, beautiful insects, dancing, fluttering, skimming

4.  ..and not be whipped all around in a second by coming into a room full of people.

5.  If she had been dressed like Rose Shaw, in lovely, clinging green with a ruffle of swansdown.

6.  For she would not join Charles Burt and Rose Shaw, chattering like magpies and perhaps laughing at her by the fireplace.

7.  “But it’s too early to go,” said Mrs. Dalloway, who was always so charming.

8.   “I have enjoyed myself,” she said to Mr. Dalloway, whom she met on the stairs.

9.  She thanked Mrs. Barnet for helping her

(ii) Mabel is thinking too much of her dress. Propose five sentences supporting the above statement.
Ans. 

1.  Mabel could not face the whole horror – the pale yellow, idiotically old–fashioned silk dress with its long skirt and its high sleeves and its waist and all the things that looked so charming in the fashion book, but not on her, not among all these ordinary people.

2.  She looked at herself with the dress on, finished, an extraordinary bliss shot through her heart. Suffused with light, she sprang into existence.

3.  She issued out into the room, as if spears were thrown at her yellow dress from all sides.

4.  It seemed to her that the yellow dress was a penance which she had deserved.

5.  Then Mrs. Holman was off, thinking her the most dried-up, unsympathetic twig she had ever met, absurdly dressed, too, and would tell everyone about Mabel’s fantastic appearance.

 

(iv)    The cause of Miss Mabel’s disappointment is not only her poor background in the past but her too much bookishness also. Substantiate.

Ans.  To a certain extent this is true. She keeps thinking about the depressing lines she has read written by Shakespeare; she also keeps thinking of the story of the fly and the saucer, and how she is a fly and the others are dragonflies, butterflies and beautiful insects. Probably her over-active imagination, which led to her continuous disappointment with various things, was also due to extensive reading.

 

(v)       Do you appreciate Mabel’s tendency of deciding her own value from the comments given by others? Explain your views.
Ans.  No, I don’t appreciate Mabel’s tendency of deciding her own value from the comments given by others because We all have our own likes and dislikes; we should wear what we like and behave in the manner what we think is appropriate. We should not depend on the approval and comments of others to decide our value and worth. This is done only by those who have no confidence in themselves and no self-esteem.

(A3) (i) Write the synonyms for the word ‘dress’ by filling appropriate letters in the blanks. One is done for you.

         (a) a t t i r e                      (b) _ _ r_ _

        (c) _ _ _ t _ _ e              (d)  _ _ r _ _ _ t

        (e) _ _  t _ _ t                 (f) _ _ _ a _ _ l

a.  a t t i r e

b.  g a r b

c.  c o s t u m e

d.  g a r m e n t

e.  o u t f i t

f.    a p p a r e l

          (ii) Conchology means the scientific study or collection of mollusc shells.

          Refer to the dictionary and find out the meanings of -

        • Etymology                  • Archaeology
Ans. (1)  Etymology –  शब्दों का इतिहास/मतलब  - the study of the origin and history of words.  
(2) Archaeology –
पुरातत्त्व - the scientific study of material remains of past human life and activities like tools, pottery, jewelry, stone walls, and monuments

(A4) (i) Use the correct tense form of the verbs given in the brackets and rewrite the sentences.

(a)   She  (take/takes/took/had taken) that old fashion book of her mother a few months back.
Ans.  She had taken that old fashion book of her mother a few months back.

(b)   She  (pecking/ pecks/ pecked) at her left shoulder for quite some time.
Ans.   She pecked at her left shoulder for quite some time.

(c)    One human should  (done /doing/be doing) this for another always.
Ans. One human should be doing this for another always.

(d)   All this     (will be/ is / have been) destroyed in a few years.
Ans.   All this will be destroyed in a few years.

(e)    She     (feels/felt/will be feeling) like a dressmaker’s dummy standing there.
Ans. She felt like a dressmaker’s dummy standing there.

 

(ii)      Do as directed.

(a)       Lata will sing tonight. (Make it less certain.)
Ans.  Lata may sing tonight.

(b)       You should wear your uniform. (Show ability.)
Ans.  You can wear your uniform.

(c)       Sandeep may study to clear the examination. (Make it obligatory/compulsory.)
Ans.  Sandeep must study to clear the examination

(d)       I can do it. (Make a sentence seeking permission.)
Ans. May I do it?

 

(iii)   (a) Frame three rules for the students of your college.

(b)    Frame three sentences giving advice to your younger brother.

1.  Students must wear adhere to the dress code of the college

2.   Student will not be allowed to enter the college without identity card.

3.    Every student must have at least 75% attendance in every subject

4.  Student must not use mobile phone in college premises

(iv)    Fill in the blanks with appropriate modal auxiliaries according to the situation given in the following sentences.

                                                                                                          

(c)     I ask you a question?
Ans. May I ask you a question?

(d)    The signal has turned red. You   wait.
Ans. The signal has turned red. You  must wait.

(e)    I am going to the library. I   find my friend there.
Ans.I am going to the library. I  could find my friend there.

(A5) (i) Read the sentence ‘we are all like flies….’. The paragraph describes the dejected thoughts that Miss Mabel carries in her mind. All the earlier paragraphs are in a continuity of a story line. The next paragraph begins with, ‘I feel like….’ again resumes to a story. The author has moved in the mind of the character and out of it very smoothly without any intimation or change in the language or tense. Similarly, she has moved in the past years of Miss Mabel’s life. This is called ‘stream of consciousness’ technique.

 

(ii)    Read the sentence from the text - What a hideous new dress!

This is an exclamation. It can be written as a simple sentence 'The new dress is very hideous'. Find out few more exclamatory sentences from the story and transform them into assertive sentences.

1.  What a fright she looks!
Ans.  She looks a real fright. The new dress is very hideous.

2.  What a hideous new dress! “How dull!”

Ans.  It was very dull

3.  “Lies! Lies! Lies!”
Ans. It was all lies.

(iii)   Virginia Woolf has created many characters other than Miss Mabel with great skill. Write a character sketch of any one of them.

Ans.  One of the guests at Mrs. Dalloway’s party was Charles Burt. Mabel was impressed by him and longing for some praise from him. However, he was a malicious person, with no heart, no fundamental kindness and only a superficial appearance of friendliness. He liked to poke fun at people and see their reactions. He probably also liked to gossip about people and discuss them behind their backs, but his opinion made a great difference to Mabel.

(iv)   'Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.' Expand the idea in your own words.
Ans.   Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them     these are the words of Marc Jacobs, a fashion designer. It means that clothes gain importance and character only when someone is wearing them. The first impression that people have of a person is not only through the clothes that one is wearing but the way one is wearing those clothes. The style a person adopts tells people a lot about his/her personality and character. The best and most expensive clothes can be unimpressive if the wearer does not carry himself/herself well. On the contrary, the simplest of clothes can look good and impressive if the wearer has good posture, self-confidence and self-esteem. Hence, when we are buying clothes, we must not only be sure that they will suit us but that we will be comfortable in them and able to carry them well. So, we must choose clothes that make us feel good about ourselves, confident and happy.