Question and answers of Mrs. Packletide's Tiger

MRS PACKLETIDE’S TIGER

Question and answers

1. Why did Mrs. Packletide wish to kill a tiger?

Answer-The vehement desire of Mrs. Packletide to kill a tiger is an embodiment of envy towards Looona Bimberton, her friendly enemy. The stunning act of Loona Bimberton i.e. a flying in an airplane for 11 miles with an Algerian aviator, caused Mrs. Packletide to be restless and sleep deprived. She wanted to counter this by getting her pictures published. She wanted to do something more exciting and adventurous than Loona. So she decided to hunt a tiger by herself.

2. What made her decide to give a party in Loona Bimberton's honour? What did she intend to give Loona on her birthday? 

Answer- Loona Bimberton’s exposing works of flying in the airplane forced Mrs. Packletide to answer accordingly. To answer she planned to kill a tiger and make a great affair. Apart from publishing those in newspapers she had also planned to organize a luncheon party. With pretention she wanted to arrange the party in Loona Bimberton’s honour. At the party she would display the tiger skin and talk about her tiger-shooting experience to Loona. Her sole motto was to dip Loona Bimberton in the ocean of envy and not love for her.

 She was desirous to present a tiger claw brooch on Loona Bimberton’s birthday.

3. In what way did the villagers help Mrs. Packletide shoot the tiger?

Answer- The villagers, keen to grasp the money, arranged the shooting of the tiger. They chose an adjacent forest with an old and weak tiger living in it. They kept tiger alive with poor quality of goats and a group of young boys guarding the forest.  Goats were left in the forest in order to satisfy the animal. Women took care not make noise while passing there lest the tiger should be disturbed from its sleep. On the day of shoot they kept tethered a goat and arranged a platform on the trees for a convincing shoot.  They too stayed there in ambush to help the hunting through the night.

4.   Who was Miss Mebbin? Was she really devoted to Mrs. Packletide? How did she behave during the tiger shooting?

Answer-  Mrs. Mebbin was a paid companion of mrs. Packletide, hired to assist in the tiger hunt. She was not at all devoted to Mrs. Packletide. She was so professional and money minded that she always had the fear of doing an atom more service than she had been paid for. She was very possessive of money and always adopted an elder sisterly attitude towards money irrespective of the denomination or nationality. Hence we can say Miss Mebbin was a woman who had only a right match with money.

During the shooting of the tiger, Miss Mebbin had been a good judge to accumulate the money paid in proportionate to service accomplished. She had a super parsimonious attitude towards money irrespective of tiger and villagers. Through the hunting she kept complaining about the tiger chosen by the villager was old and ill and not worth the money paid for. Her devotion to Mrs. Packletide was fake and pretentious as she later tries to encash the situation by blackmailing about the story of the hunt.  

5 Mrs. Packletide was a good shot. Discuss

Answer-Mrs Packletide was an amateur.  The tiger hunt organized by mrs. Packletide involved a lot of assistance, support and paraphernalia. Even on the day of the hunt she waited with Mebin on a platform raised for her by the villagers. Later when the tiger approached the goat, though she shoots but in the close examination everyone realized it was the goat that was shot. Hence it is not justified to say that Mrs. Packletide was good shot. Even with much ado she was not successful.

6 What comment did Miss Mebbin make after Mrs Packletide had fired the shot?
Why did Miss Mebbin make this comment? How did Mrs Packletide react to this comment? 

Answer- Miss Mebbin commented that the bullet had killed the goat instead of the tiger. The tiger had succumbed to heart failure at the report of the riffle accelerated by the senile decay.

A paid woman Miss Mebbin didn’t feel to support Mrs Packletide .Rather she contrived to utilize the chance & co-incidence.

She was very much annoyed at the discovery

7.  How did the villagers react to the tiger's death?

Answer- The villagers with the sole target of acquiring money on the event of the tiger’s death was rejoicing in chorus. They did not pay heed to Mebbin’s revelations. They readily believed that Mrs. Packletide had killed the tiger. They announced the happy news to the entire village by beating the tom-toms

8.  Do you think Mrs. Packletide was able to achieve her heart's desire? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer-Mrs Packletide was successful in creating a galore of jealousy in Loona Bimberton after having the pictures in the newspaper and magazine. She also gifted the tiger claw brooch to mrs. Loona Bimberton thereby haunting her with her success. She achieved her hearts’ desire positively when she gained popularity by photographed and causing jealousy in Loona. 

9.  How did Miss Mebbin manage to get her week-end cottage? Why did she plant so many tiger lilies in her garden?

Answer- Miss mebbin, perfect example of selfishness and narrow-mindedness, made unfair advantages of chance and coincidence appeared due to the failure of Mrs. Packletide in killing the tiger. She blackmailed Mrs. Packletide of leaking out the sensational truth that she had not killed the tiger but a goat. In this she became the owner of the cottage.

Symbolic is the tiger lilies in her garden referring to her unexpected ownership of the cottage due to the killing of the tiger.

10.  "The incidental expenses are so heavy," she confides to inquiring friends. Who is the speaker? What is she referring to here?
 

Answer-Mrs. Packletide is the speaker of the above quoted lines. She is referring to the burdens of expenses she had to endure owing to the blackmailing of Miss Mebbin. She was compelled to cut loose a handsome amount of money to meet with the desires of Miss Mebbin to by a weekend cottage.

11. Do you think the tiger shooting organized by the villagers was a serious affair?
Give reasons for your answer.
 Answer-Tiger shooting arranged by the villagers was a serious affair. The whole village got indulged in the process of making the shooting of the tiger a fruitful one. They guarded the forest to ascertain the presence of the tiger in the forest, provided food in the form of poor quality goats and took active part in group to see wild beast a lifeless one.  

12. A person who is vain is full of self importance and can only think of himself/herself and can go to great lengths to prove his/her superiority. Do you think Mrs Packletide is vain? Give reasons in support of your answer.

Answer- Aptly Mrs. Packletide was lady of vain. She had decided to a big extent to fulfill her biased target. She was totally taken up by the increasing jealousy against Loona Bimberton. She had a sacrifice of a handsome amount of money of thousand rupees fanatically only to create a little sense of enmity and jealousy in Loona Bimberton. She makes sure that her photos appeared in the international newspapers and weeklies. She was though partially successful; her superiority was totally crushed and questioned by Miss Mebbin. Finally she buys a weekend cottage for Mebbin to prevent her from telling anyone the truth about the hunt i.e it was the goat and not the tiger was shot. All these prove that Mrs. Packletide was vain.

14. Sometimes writers highlight certain negative aspects in society or human beings by making fun of it. This is called satire. In your groups discuss whether you would classify this story as a satire. Give reasons to support your answer

Answer- This story is an apt example of satire. The narrator through the fun made in the story highlighted the negativities of the society. People in the society mainly the rich are controlled not by love and hunger but by money, status, and jealousy. The story is to hint narrow minded and rich people and their habit paranoia.

The writer Saki has satirized the jealousy and vanity of the fair sex. They want to show of themselves and think only of themselves. To prove superiority they would go to any extend.The author not only makes fun of the situation but also the characters. Mrs. Packletides’ actions were mainly directed by her dislike for Loona  Bimberton. The motive behind the tiger hunt was to show off to her. In turn Loona did not even look at the pictures of Packletide in the newspaper. She declined to attend the party because she could not bear people praising Packletide , even the letter of thanking that was sent to packletide for the brooch revealed the extend of the repressed emotions.

The whole situation of Tiger hunt is laced with satire. A tiger which had given up hunting was chosen for the hunt. The tiger dies of heart failure not of gunshot. The villagers happily believed that Mrs. Packletide had killed the tiger out of the fear of losing thousand rupees. Luisa mebbin even blackmails Mrs. Packletide into buying a weekend cottage. The author, thus, paints a society that is essentially guided by wealth and mutual dislike for each other.

15.  How does the writer create humor in this story?

The author makes fun of each character and situation. Mrs. Packletide, Loona Bimberton,Loiusa Mebbin and villagers are ridiculed for their peculiar character traits. The tiger hunt is mocked; an old, ailing tiger was chosen for the ‘adventurous’ hunt of Mrs. Packletide. The power of money is so strong that the villagers connived to believe that the tiger was shot not the goat. Louisa mebbin agreed to keep the secret for additional money. Thus the author creates humor in the story by highlighting the negative aspect of the society or human being.

Questions , character sketch and summary- Mrs. Packletide's Tiger

MRS. PACKLETIDE’S TIGER

LET US REVISE

Mrs. Packletide’s desire to shoot

- Dislike for Loona Bimberton and desire to outshine her – Loona had recently flown with an Algirian Aviator and had talked of it endlessly with great pride.

- Not due to ache for hunting – but to spite Loona

Plan to outshine Loona Bimberton

-hunt a tiger by herself

-get great publicity and display the tiger skin

-throw a lunch in honour of Loona and gift her a tiger –claw brooch.

THE HUNT

Preparation

- Mrs. Packletide  offered a thousand rupees for shooting a tiger wthout over-much risk or exertion.

- villagers of the neighbouring village offered to help - tempted by the money offered

-An old , weak tiger was spotted.

-children were posted night and day on the outskirts of the local ungle to herd the tiger back incase it strayed  for food elsewhere.

- Cheaper kinds of goats were left about for the tiger

-mothers carrying their babies hushed their singing lest they might distrub the tiger.

- A platform was constructed in a comfortable and conveniently placed tree for Mrs. Packletide and her paid companion, Miss Mebbin

The shoot

-Moonlit and cloudless night – Mrs. Packletide and Miss Mebbin crouched on the platform preapred for the hunt

-A goat with a particularly persistent bleat was tethered at a distance and an accurately sighted rifle was palced.

- Miss Mebbin was not keen to stay on longer -  she did not wish to work beyond the hours she was paid for

- the tiger was spotted  - it began moving towards his victim.

- the rifle flashed out wtih a loud report- the tiger sprang to one side, rolled and died

- crowd of excited natives swarmed on the scene- the shoot was applauded with beating of tom-toms.

An Anxiety

- The tiger might die of Old age before  the date appointed for the shoot.

A  Dicovery

- The gost had been killed by the bullet and not the tiger – discovered by Miss Mebbin

- The old and weak tiger had died due to the shock o the sudden report of the riffle

- Mrs. Packletide was annoyed at the discovery.

The rewards

- Villagers got their thousand rupees – gladly connived at the fiction that the tiger had been shoot.

- Mrs. Packletide recieved great publicity – pictures appeared in various magazines and newspapers – Texas Weekly snapshot to the illustrated Monday supplement of the Novoe Vremya

Loon Bimberton’s Reactions

- Out of sheer jealousy she refused to look at an illustrated paper fo rweeks

 - her letter of thanks for the gift of  a tiger- claw brooch revealed envy

-She declined the luncheon party

The blackmail

- Miss Mebbin informed Mrs. Packletide of the repercussions of people knowing the reality of the tiger’s hunt

- Indirectly offered to keep the secret - cost being the purchase of a cottage near Darking that cost six hundred and eighty pounds

- The pretty week-end cottage was named Les Fauves and tiger lilies were planted as a reminder of the hunt.

Character Sketch

Mrs. Packletide

* Envious – Envies Loona Bimberton’s fame

* Manipulative – Manipulates a hunt

* Spiteful – Wishes to spite Loona Bimberton – invites her for a luncheon which was declined- sent her a tiger-claw brooch to remind her of her tiger’s hunt

* Enjoys fake glory – enjoyed publicity and fame related to the tiger’s hunt even though she knew she had not actually killed the tiger.

Vain – Poses for photographs hiding the truth.

Miss Mebbin

* A paid companion to Mrs. Packletide

* Materialistic- counted every penny spent by Mrs. Packletide – held back any money she felt would be spent wastefully – wished to pay the villagers less for the ailing tiger.

* Unscrupulous – blackmailed Mrs. Packletide and got her to buy her a cottage in return of keeping her secret regarding the hunt-  named the cottage Les Fauves and planted tiger Lillies as a reminder of the hunt.

* Shrewd - should not pay for goat if the tiger doesn’t touch the goat.- black mails  Mrs. Packletide over the hunt.

* Cunning and opportunist – Manipulated situation to fulfil her dream of owning a weekend cottage.

Loona Bimberton

*Vain – enjoyed publicity she got by flying with an Algerian Aviator

* Jealous and spiteful-  could not bear Mrs. Packletide’s  fame and publicity after the tiger’s hunt – refused to come for the luncheon and wrote a letter of thanks that revealed envy.

* Adventurous - flying with an Algerian Aviator

Let me test myself.

 1. What did Mrs. Packletide plan to do to flaunt her achievement?

2. ‘Mrs. Packletide was pardonably annoyed at the discovery’. What was the discovery?

3. What did Miss Mebbin do to keep the memory of the hunt alive?

4. Who was ‘Nimrod’? Why is he mentioned in the lesson?

5.  Why did Mrs. Packletide not go for any further hunt?

Value based questions

1. Louisa Mebbin was extremely materialistic. Elaborate

2. The story ‘Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger’ is a satire on the class of society to which Loona Bimberton and Mrs. Packletide belong. Justify

3. After reading the lesson, you have come to the conclusion that ‘False vanity ends up in loss’.
On the basis of your observation and reading of the lesson, write an article.

                                                                                                                

Three Men In A Boat

Character sketch

Montmorency

He belongs to the fox terrier breed. He is the narrators dog. He is different from all the other three characters in the novel taken from the real life situations. He may be viewed as the consciousness of Jerome, the narrator.
When Jerome had found his pet he never thought that he would survive for too long. But he was not only proven wrong by surviving but also turn out to be high spirited dog, killing chickens chasing cats and fighting against other dogs.
It is only he who is not happy with the idea of the boating trip. he feels that there is nothing to do for him on a boat trip as he neither cares for scenery nor smoking. He believes the idea of boating to be a 'bally foolishness.'
He is, by nature a violent dog and is found of noise and action. We have various instances in the novel that would describe him vividly. The packing scene, fighting with other dogs during their journey and the dead rat incident, all of them are pointing towards the same.
He is not portrayed as a mere dog but par with the other human characters. He is clever and adventurous. He also creates humour in the novel. The humour created are often resulted from the actions. He is keen on being a 'perfect nuisance' and to make people go mad at him. His ambition in life is to be 'sworn at' and be cursed he feels proud after achieving such ambitions. he spoils the task of packing as he creates mess by putting his leg into the jam, worrying teaspoons and playing with the lemons taking it to be a rat.
His natures is marked by curiosity and a desire to help as seen by his attempt to hold the boiling kettle where he burns his nose and the contributions of the dead rat
His encounter with the cat 'Tom' is amusing. When he could not frighten the cat with his quick dash a, he had to return embarrassed. He is quick to get into quarrel but when faced with more determined adversaries quick to fall back.

summary of mrs Packletide's tiger

Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger – Saki

Bit/Bits

·         Mrs. Packletide was always in a struggle to defeat her society rivals such as Mrs. Loona Bimberton.

·         Recently Mrs. Loona Bimberton flew in an Algerian airplane. Everyone discussed this and Loona became the centre of attraction and subject of talk.

·         Packletide was forgotten – like the frog felt in the poem ‘Frog and the Nightingale.’

·         She decided to do anything to get her fame back from Loona.

·         She thought of hunting a tiger that is unusual even in these days. Mrs. Packletide was very much smart in her decision to kill the tiger.

·         She made her tiger hunt easy by choosing an infirmed, too aged tiger.

·         She paid a big amount of money to the village headman to get his people to assist her till the end of the much publicised hunt. Besides, she got the help of Miss Louisa Mebbin to assist her for the tiger hunt and be a witness of her brave act.

·         Most of the villagers readily helped Mrs. Packletide for money while some of them liked this idea for the fun and adventure of hunting.

·         There were chances that the tiger could have run away from the jungle where Mrs. Packletide had decided to hunt it down. If it ran away, then the villagers would miss their chance to assist Mrs. Packletide to hunt it and thereby their reward. To keep the tiger in the same forest, children were posted on the outskirts of the jungle.

·         The tiger that Mrs. Packletide decided to hunt was aged and infirm. It was not able to hunt anything that was bigger than a hare. To keep the tiger in the same jungle and to stop it from running away, goats that bleated at all times were left near the tiger to.

·         The goat’s bleat was persistent. It was a gift that the goat possessed such a bleat because it could easily attract the tiger to the tree on which Mrs. Packletide was waiting to kill it.

·         The tiger that Mrs. Packletide chose to hunt was extremely aged and infirmed. Mothers carrying their babies back home were asked not to sing songs for their babies because it was believed that the tiger could be scared away if it heard them sing.

·         Miss Lousa Mebbin was a shrewd woman. She used to assist people for money and traveled abroad with them for any amount of time. She pretended to be a wellwisher to anyone she assisted but in fact she exploited them in all possible ways.

·         Miss Louisa Mebbin was shrewd woman who pretended to be a protective elder sister. She behaved with the people she assisted in their tasks as if she didn’t want them incur any loss of any kind as long as she served them. Her asking Mrs. Packletide not to shoot the goat in case it is not eaten by the tiger is an instance of this.

·         When the tiger appeared, Mebbin was thinking about selling the leftover of the tiger when it is killed by Mrs. packletide. She had come to the sad conclusion that there could be no profit out of selling the remnants of the dead tiger.

·         The aged and infirmed tiger didn’t attack the goat instantly when it sighted it tied to a tree. Instead, the tiger lay down as if to take a brief rest before eating the goat.

·         Miss Mebbin always exhibited such an attitude in front of the people she served that they felt that she was their well-wisher.  To give Mrs. Packletide a similar impression, she suggested that the goat not killed so as to save Mrs. Packletide’s money.

·         The natives had been offered an amount of rupees one thousand for helping Mrs. Packltide kill the tiger and because of this they were excited to hear the news of the tiger being shot.

·         Miss Louisa Mebbin discovered that the tiger had died of heart failure. This discovery annoyed Mrs. Packletide because she feared that people would soon come to know the truth about real hunting story if Louisa Mebbin opened her mouth. Her sudden annoyance is pardonable because she had all the reasons to feel annoyed about such an unpleasant and disturbing discovery which threatened her hard earned fame.

·         The villagers were offered and later paid an amount of Rupees one thousand for helping Mrs. Packletide shoot a tiger.

·         They were to get the oldest of the tigers, they were to make sure that the tiger didn’t run away, they had to provide the tiger’s food in time and they had to hide in ambush in case the tiger escaped while being hunted.

·         For this enormous reward, the villagers did everything as expected and more.

·         Louisa Mebbin was the master player in the Packletide episode. Whether she had in her mind this blackmail plan or not, she was aware of the big disgrace the pompous woman was going to suffer if the truth was out. Later, with a view to make Packletide pay for her dream villa, she told her that everyone would be amused if they knew the tiger had not really been shot dead. It was intended to make the lady know that she was prepared to break the truth to the public.

·         Doubtlessly Miss Mebbin intended to betray Mrs. Packletide if the latter had refused to pay for the villa. By announcing to the public that she had been Mrs. Packletide’ paid companion during the tiger hunt and that she had witnessed the tiger faking unhurt by the gun and that the tiger died of a heart failure, she could bring Packletide to a great disgrace.

·         Mrs. Packletide was never heard in connection with another tiger hunt.

·         What cost her for the tiger hunt with Louisa Mebbin was more than she could bear.

·         The shock it gave her and the loss of a big amount of money to save her face drew her life out.

·         Though the tiger hunt had brought enormous name to Mrs. Packletide, yet when she faced the media cameras, she felt her heart very light, frightened by the anxiety about the fact that Miss Louisa Mabbin was aware of the nature of the tiger’s death.

·         If Miss Mebbin told the truth, the fat would be in the fire.

·         Miss Louisa Mebbin had in her mind a plan to make Mrs. Packletide pay for a villa that she longed to buy. She could do that only if the neighborhood learnt that Mrs. Packletide’s bullet had missed the tiger and that it had been a lie. Once the news of the tiger hunt spread out, she could easily threaten Mrs. Packletide to buy the villa for her. By declaring in the local language that the tiger hadn’t been killed by the gun, Miss Mebbin was securing a large number of witnesses for her to stand against Mrs. Packletide.

·         It is nowhere hinted that Louisa Mebbin had preplanned the idea of blackmailing Packletide. This idea struck her somewhere in the course of her assisting the pompous lady. Knowing that, well, Louisa Mebbin was an opportunist, the lady could sacrifice anything for a name, Louisa devised this idea of profiting something for herself – a villa as it turned out at the end.

·         Yes, Miss Mebbin had devised the idea of blackmailing Packletide from the very beginning. She was such a character who drew the goodwill of the rich people for whom she was a paid companion. By pretending to be angered at the mere loss of money that her employers used to spent and by advising them to avoid such extravagance, she won their trust. This showy attitude is a primary evidence against her. Her loudly declaring to the local villagemen that the tiger was not shot dead, supports the suspicion that she was convincing the local witnesses the truth for a later benefit. If she didn’t have this betraying plan in mind, she would have threatened Mrs. Packletide before the luncheon party. Having waited for the party to pass, she got a better stand to threaten her prey.

·         ​It is nowhere hinted that Louisa Mebbin had preplanned the idea of blackmailing Packletide. This idea struck her somewhere in the course of her assisting the pompous lady. Knowing that, well, Louisa Mebbin was an opportunist, the lady could sacrifice anything for a name, Louisa devised this idea of profiting something for herself – a villa as it turned out at the end.

·         Miss Mebbin had devised the idea of blackmailing Packletide from the very beginning.

·         She was such a character who drew the goodwill of the rich people for whom she was a paid companion.

·         By pretending to be angered at the mere loss of money that her employers used to spent and by advising them to avoid such extravagance, she won their trust.

·         This showy attitude is a primary evidence against her. Her loudly declaring to the local village-men that the tiger was not shot dead, supports the suspicion that she was convincing the local witnesses the truth for a later benefit. If she didn’t have this betraying plan in mind, she would have threatened Mrs. Packletide before the luncheon party. Having waited for the party to pass, she got a better stand to threaten her prey.

Character Traits

Packletide

1.     Competitive

2.     High-headed

3.     Ambitious

4.     Jealous

5.     Manipulative

6.     Overbearing

7.     Patronizing

8.     Condescending

Louisa Mebbin

1.     Opportunistic

2.     Mercenary

3.     Fawning

4.     Hypocrite

5.     Conniving

6.     Money-minded

7.     Calculative

8.     Sly

9.     Crafty

10.  Stingy

11.  Cunning

12.  Witty

13.  Scheming

14.  Presumptuous

Best Seller

Best Seller

1.  John is hypocrite. Do you agree?

 Yes,

- made fun of romantic stories

-He had a romantic marriage.

- followed a girl whom he found in a train journey and got married.

2. Irony in the story ‘The Best – Seller’

-The story is full of ironical instances. The main protagonist of the story John denounces bestselling novels as something inferior to real life but we find that the story of his marriage is even more dramatic and adventurous than any fictional romance. He ridicules the story of Trevelyan’s romance for a princess by saying that he finds it difficult to believe that people would like to marry people from different strata of society or different background. According to him people generally marry people from same social circle, form the same background, or old school friends. Ironically, he himself marries a girl from aristocratic background, and goes to great extend to ensure that the marriage takes place. In fact even at the end he gets down at coke town to look for a petunia sapling for his wife just because she had admired it on a previous trip.