Pramila Memorial Institute

First Unit Test 2021-22

Class – XI ; Subject – English Literature

Solution

Question 1: Salvatore is the protagonist of W. Somerset Maugham’s short story of the same
name. The story is not only named after him but also it intends to develop him as a character
filled with inherent goodness. Salvatore, when young, was described as "a boy of fifteen with a
pleasant face, a laughing mouth and carefree eyes "and "his brown body was as thin as a rail". He
had sturdy built-up and was full of grace. Being a boy of a fishing community, he could swim
effortlessly in the sea. He gradually grows up to become a “tall, broad and big husky fellow.” He
had enormous hands, that became coarse and hard from constant toil.
Salvatore, the eldest of the brothers, was full of affection for his two brothers. He took care of
them as a caring nursemaid. “He shouted to them to come inshore when they ventured out too
far." He would also dress them when it was time to climb the hot hill for the midday meal. One
of the first qualities indirectly attributed to Salvatore is responsibility. We are told that Salvatore
“acted as nursemaid to his two younger brothers“, ever watchful of their safety and wellbeing
and in doing so comes off as a caring brother. This is one of the first among a multiplicity of
qualities that go into the making of the admirable unity of Goodness.
Salvatore was very emotional about his family and his home. He had never been alone and when
he left to become a sailor in the navy of King Victor Emmanuel, “he wept like a child.” Being
away from his home, he was dreadfully homesick. He was not comfortable with strangers on the
ship and when onshore he did not like spending time in friendless crowded cities.
“He was dreadfully homesick. But it was hardest of all to be parted from the girl he loved with
all his passionate young heart. He wrote to her (in his childlike handwriting) long, ill-spelt
letters in which he told her how constantly he thought of her and how much he longed to be
back.”
Salvatore was madly in love with a girl from his island. They were engaged and had to wait for
marriage until he completed his military service. He is a passionate lover and remains faithful
towards the girl he loves. While on his naval duty, his thoughts are preoccupied with the girl he
has left behind and he constantly writes long letters to his lover. It is a different matter that he
does not receive any letter of response from the other end. This quality of giving without
expecting anything in return speaks of the sincerity of his love and the generosity of this human
being.
When he fell ill and doctors told him that he was suffering from rheumatism, “his heart exulted,
for he could go home" to the girl, who was supposedly waiting for him. When he came back due
to his illness, he was rejected by the girl he loved. The girl’s mother bluntly told him that her
daughter would not marry a man suffering from a disease. The heartbroken Salvatore "was
terribly unhappy, but he did not blame the girl." He understood that “a girl could not afford to
marry a man who might not be able to support her." She refused to marry him but his inherent
goodness and true love that he felt for her, did not allow him to say a "hard word for the girl he
had loved so well."
When he was left heartbroken by the girl he loved, he wept on his mother's bosom. “He was
terribly unhappy, but he did not blame the girl… he did not complain, and he never said a hard
word of the girl he had loved so well.” This speaks volumes about the character of this man.
Despite being wronged, he tries to understand the other person’s situation and holds no grudge
against her. This is a magnanimous gesture on his part that is rarely seen in the real world.
Salvatore, after being rejected by the girl he loved, married Assunta. He fulfilled his
responsibilities of being a husband and a father. He kept Assunta happy; “she never ceased to be
touched by his gentle sweetness.” Even after suffering from rheumatism, he worked hard to
sustain his family. He used to work full day in the vineyard and spent the night catching the
profitable cuttlefish with one of his brothers.
As a father of two young children, Salvatore loved them and spent time with them. It seemed he
took part equally in the rearing of their children. When he used to give them a bath, he used to
hold them tenderly and delicately as if “they were like flowers.” He used to laugh with them and
they all enjoyed it. “Salvatore had enormous hands, like legs of mutton, coarse and hard from
constant toil, but when he bathed his children, holding them so tenderly, drying them with
delicate care; upon my word they were like flowers. He would seat the naked baby on the palm
of his hand and hold him up, laughing a little at his smallness, and his laugh was like the laughter
of an angel. His eyes then were as candid as his child's.”
Salvatore was a man of Inherent goodness and the author presents the story to depict the real
quality of Salvatore. This goodness did not reveal at a single moment of his life but throughout
his life. As a young boy he is affectionate and caring towards his younger brother. We can say
that Salvatore wins the hearts of the readers at the beginning of the story and this impression
becomes stronger with the progress of the story.
Like a good son he married another girl Assunta, a woman older than him, at his mother's will.
His further life was not unhappy either, blessed with two children. Being a good husband, he
kept his wife Assunta happy. He did not let his past affect his present and future. Although
affected by rheumatism, he used to work hard to support his family. When the pain racked his
limbs, he would simply "lie about the beach, smoking cigarettes, with a pleasant word for
everyone."
From the brief account of Salvatore’s life, we find such qualities scattered along his journey from
childhood to fatherhood. Salvatore has the rare quality of goodness because one glance at his
life-history shows that he is loving, carefree, humble, patient dutiful, responsible childlike,
empathic, forgiving, gentle, hardworking, well mannered, magnanimous, caring, honest and
above all has the tendency to do good despite the hardships he has endured and the unfairness
with which he has been dealt with. In short, he is a man above his circumstances he is trapped in
and the ‘goodness’ which resides in him refuses to be shaped by the hardships of life. Whether it
is his care for his brothers, his duty towards his country, his forgiveness for the woman who
rejected him, his acceptance of another who loved him, his hardworking nature, his affection for
his children and his sheer strength of character, all go into the making of this quality which sets
him apart from his fellow men – the quality of goodness. Above all, this goodness is tempered
with humility. As the narrator explicitly states:
“All I know is that it (goodness) shone in him with a radiance that, if it had not been unconscious
and so humble, would have been to the common run of men hardly bearable.”

Question 2:
(a) Dramatic monologue is a poem written in the form of a speech of an individual character; it
compresses into a single vivid scene a narrative sense of the speaker's history and psychological
insight into his character. ‘The Dolphins’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a dramatic monologue written
from the perspective of dolphins. It tries to enumerate the emotions of a dolphin which was once
free, swimming around at its own will, but is now confined to an aquarium or a water-park — a
place where it does what its owner or trainer tells it to do. Its master uses it to perform tricks to
amuse people in the circus. The poem shows how dolphins and other animals are suffering in the
hands of men. It urges us to look at the world from their perspective. It conveys the poet’s
message against human cruelty towards animals.
‘We are in our element but we are not free.’ - The poem begins with the dolphin speaking which
immediately establishes a sense of affinity between the dolphin and the readers. The rest of the
poem is in the first person plural which transports the readers into the world of the dolphins. The
dolphin remembers its carefree days in the ocean and contrasts it with its present life of
monotony and despair.
The dramatic monologue is a versatile form for a poet to explore the pleasure of building
character and dramatic irony into a piece. ‘World is what you swim in, or dance, it is simple.’ -
The poem starts with the dolphin speaking, addressing us, the humans. The dolphin goes on to
explain its own meaning of the ‘world’, its own expectations about what the world should be
like. The voice of dolphin resonates with a depressing tone. It says they were blessed when they
were freely roaming in the ocean. But they are not ‘blessed’ anymore to be restricted in the man-
made confine.
The repetition of ‘A man’ from the first stanza – ‘There is a man and there are hoops.’ - in the
last stanza – ‘There is a man and our mind knows we will die here.’ - emphasises the cycle of
suffering the dolphins is going through. This poem may look like collection of simple words and
straight lines. But the emotions it entails and the ambiguity it imposes, forces the readers to take
a step back and reflect on the essence of freedom.
‘The Dolphins’ by Carol Ann Duffy voices the pangs of the dolphins that are confined as a
means of entertainment. The poet seems to have entered into the world of those captivated
dolphins and sharing their woes as a compatriot and as a poet. It is for this purpose that she has
used the first person pronoun, using the dolphin as the speaker relating their woes. However, in
this poem, Carol Ann Duffy expresses a broader perspective. It is about the lack of sensation and
common sense in the modern world. Moreover, the poet takes the side of those creatures that
can’t convey their hopelessness in words. For this reason, the poem becomes a record of the
dolphins’ suffering in the man-made pools.
‘We were blessed and now we are not blessed.’ - She used the dolphins as the speaker/s of the
poem, giving their perspective on their confinement. Due to their obvious sentience, the reader is
unable to escape the fact that the dolphins are miserable. They know they are not where they’re
supposed to be and they are capable of missing the past. There is no way for a human look at this
situation, after hearing from the dolphins themselves, and think that it is alright to keep them
captive. The poet puts on a persona or character and unleashes a long, uninterrupted monologue.
The only voice is the speaker, with an audience implied, assumed, and mute. The reader
inevitably puts on their own mask in the reading, and somehow the poet often leaves us feeling
complicit and accused.

(b) ‘The Dolphins’ by Carol Ann Duffy is dramatic monologue voiced by a dolphin which
revolves around the themes of exploitation displacement, alienation and the need for ecological
conservation. The poem presents us a disturbing picture of what unregulated power is capable of
doing to the lives of others. It provides us a perspective of the oppressed and thoroughly
incriminates man for his love of power and dominance over others.
The speaker of this poem (a dolphin) narrates how its freedom has been usurped, how its dreams
have been shattered and how drastically its world has changed, thanks to the insatiable greed of
man. The lives of these beautiful sea creatures are completely controlled by man and they are
made to dance to the tunes of the Master. The sense of alienation, their loss of freedom and the
overarching hopelessness makes the poem all the more poignant, especially when they express
their awareness of the inevitable fate that awaits them.
As mentioned earlier, the entire monologue uses a plural instead of a singular, always ‘we’
instead of ‘I’ which suggests that this is not an isolated case. Rather, the mode of oppression
exercised by man extends over a large number of creatures. This sense of solidarity of the
oppressed highlighted by the collective noun ‘we’ lends a great magnitude to the voice of the
oppressed. The poem can also be seen as a commentary on the power relation between man and
vast swathes of society that have faced the full force of oppression based on their gender, race,
caste, creed or nationality. The poem bears a strong feminist undertones by the virtue of which
‘we’ could be used to designate women who have been marginalized in the socio-economic
power structures deeply embedded in our society. The repeated use of ‘man’ as the oppressor to
the collective “us” lends some weight to this reading.