Arms and The Man pg 38 the first one-third of the page.
Let's move ahead with our text, today.
We leave aside the discussion on Sergius' career in the army and now Shaw seeks to bring the action of Act 1 (where Sergius and Paul) were off at war into Act 2. Significantly, at this moment, Rania and Catherine, Louka and to a lesser extent Nicola were part of the action in Act 1 are brought together with Sergius and Paul.
Would we have expected that in a war where there are so many persons that the one person who had sought refuge in Rania's room (and who have stolen her affections) should have met with and become a friend of Sergius and Paul.
This is the CONFLICT in the play ! How will this be resolved ? Can this end unhappily or sadly ? This anxiety is seen in the responses of Catherine and Raina when Sergius and Paul talk to them of probably the only Swiss soldier who fought in the war, who had helped resolved the war and whose visit to this home was being kept a secret by Catherine and Raina. Of course this 'secret' is the one which Louka and Nicola had referred to at the commencement of Act 2 and which they considered could be used as blackmail against their masters and mistresses !
So, let's start reading :
Let's move ahead with our text, today.
We leave aside the discussion on Sergius' career in the army and now Shaw seeks to bring the action of Act 1 (where Sergius and Paul) were off at war into Act 2. Significantly, at this moment, Rania and Catherine, Louka and to a lesser extent Nicola were part of the action in Act 1 are brought together with Sergius and Paul.
Would we have expected that in a war where there are so many persons that the one person who had sought refuge in Rania's room (and who have stolen her affections) should have met with and become a friend of Sergius and Paul.
This is the CONFLICT in the play ! How will this be resolved ? Can this end unhappily or sadly ? This anxiety is seen in the responses of Catherine and Raina when Sergius and Paul talk to them of probably the only Swiss soldier who fought in the war, who had helped resolved the war and whose visit to this home was being kept a secret by Catherine and Raina. Of course this 'secret' is the one which Louka and Nicola had referred to at the commencement of Act 2 and which they considered could be used as blackmail against their masters and mistresses !
So, let's start reading :
- What does Sergius mean by "I have no ambition to shine as a tradesman." what does "to shine as" mean ? "to shine as" means to do well in something e.g.Sourav shone as the centre forward of the football of the football team, scoring three goals to win the match. Now make a sentence of your own with the phrase.
- bagman : A bag man (or bagman), is a person designated to collect dirty money, e.g. in a protection racket. A bag man may also be known as a delivery boy or running man. Originally the term applied only to Mafia members collecting for mob bosses, but the term later spread to use in corrupt police who picked up and delivered bribes from the local mob(s) to the captain. Sergius uses the phrase humourously against the Swiss mercenary who got them into a deal which Paul and himself feel that they did badly out of. It refers to the man being a cunning businessman.
- "given it up" : referring to his having given up the idea of a career in the army taking the advice of that shrewd Swiss mercenary
- Please note that we will be told a few things about the character of this Swiss mercenary (and we know who he is) - we have to decide whether what is said are true of his character or not.
- "over-reached" : means that they paid too much money in the deal about the horses. e.g.The company over reached itself and ran out of money in one year. Now you make a sentence of your own with this phrase.
- livery : generally refers to the uniforms of well dressed servants e.g. at a court or in a hotel etc.
- We hear something from Sergius regarding the Swiss captain's family. Do you remember what 'The Man' had told Raina about his family ? Go back and refresh your memory.
- "horse-dealing" here Sergius is using a pun (using a word wwith two meanings for homour) : Horse dealing literally means the buying and selling of horses (which trade Sergius and Paul had had with the Swiss captain), it also describes what might be seen as unethical business practices in a more positive light, In a further development of meaning, horse trading has come to refer specifically to political vote trading. e.g.The recent bill was passed in the Lok Sabha after some unseemly horse dealing. Now you can make a sentence of your own with this phrase.
- mock : pretended. e.g.The class 10's appeared for a mock ICSE Exam in October, in preparation for the true exam in February. Please write a sentence of your own with this word.
- Sergius says of the Swiss captain "he was a soldier : every inch a soldier" - he is saying this in the hearing of Raina - what had she called him ? Which is correct ?
No comments:
Post a Comment