REVISION

Short Story: Games at Twilight by Anita Desai &

Poem: Ode to Fancy by John Keats
 Story: Games at Twilight by Anita
Desai
Plot
The setting is a town in North India which is in the
grip of summer. The children in a large family are
clamoring to be allowed to play outside. When they
are let loose, they decide on a game of hide and
seek. Though unwilling, Raghu is to be “It”. The little
ones scramble to get away from him.
Ravi wriggles into an unused shed with no thought
of how to come out of it and reach the ‘den’. By the
time he comes out and races to the ‘den’, it already
twilight and his siblings and cousins are fast at
another game. Dissolving into tears, he declares
himself winner. But to his dismay, the rest of the
children have forgotten all about him.
CHARACTERS IN THE STORY

Ravi. Ravi is the protagonist of “Games at

Twilight”.

Raghu. Raghu is the oldest child in Ravi's

family.

Mira. Mira is one of the children in Ravi's

family.

Mother.
 Ravi
Ravi is one of the younger children in the family. He is in awe of his older
cousin, the football playing Raghu. Raghu is impatient and a little rough, so to
better him in a game of hide and seek would be dream come true for Ravi.
Ravi craves for attention and success which have not come his way till now. He
feels that today is the day when he can have both.

Ravi hides in a place where he feels he will be safe from Raghu’s ‘seeking’ but
Ravi hides too well, it would seem. He falls out of the other children’s
attention. When he finally appears at twilight teary and distraught, they look
at him at though he is a stranger. They have no patience with his outburst;
even his mother comes to his rescue with a touch of annoyance. Some
summers later, Ravi will be as confident as Raghu but now he is shrinking and
 Raghu

He is older than the rest of the kids and so a bit of a bully. Raghu
has no patience with the younger ones. He wants all of them to
bow to his wishes. Only Mira can put him in his place. The young
ones are in awe of him; he is large and his voice is breaking. He
is on the verge of adolescence and to the little ones, appears
almost grown up.
 Themes

Childhood and its different aspects:

Games at Twilight and Other Stories is a 1978
fiction collection by Indian novelist Anita
Desai. Games at Twilight tells the story of
Ravi, a young boy who is not understood by
his family and who feels ignored.
The theme of childhood and its different
aspects is central to the tale, while innocence,
disappointment, and the ups and downs of
that conflicted period (childhood) of life are
also examined throughout the story.
 Themes of Reality vs Fantasy

Reality means or is referred to the whole story because it's like a

true situation possible to happen. Fantasy is depicted when Ravi is
inside the shed and thinks about the chance he has to win. He is
excited and fancies a lot about him being the winner. It is all his
imagination which never turned into reality. It is the disillusion
(disappointment) that he experiences at the end, when he goes out
and discovers that he hasn’t won the game. He is disheartened and
sad because he notices that none of his siblings realise that he isn't
there. "He would not follow them, he would not be included in this
funeral game. He had wanted victory and triumph- not a funeral.
 Theme of Alienation and Insignificance

Both words describe Ravi.

Alienation because he gets away from everyone to hide. He
spends hours there without going out and being apart. It also
shows how his siblings make him feel alienated. They forget
about him and do not notice his absence. At the end, when the
children are singing the song about death, he decides not to
play, he alienates himself.
Insignificance because his family make him feel that way. As
they are a big family, they don’t care or realise if one is missing.
Children also take advantage of Ravi being one of the little ones.
The episode of the shed, also make him feel insignificant to
everyone "He lay down [...], crushing
his face into it, no longer crying, silenced by a terrible sense of
his insignificance"
 LITERARY DEVICES: IMAGERY
THE IMAGE OF LOSS AND DEATH:
It is depicted through the image of “the dog sprawled out on the ground.” The use of
such words like; “dead fruit” ,“dying travellers” “The outdoor dog lay stretched as if
dead on the veranda mat, his paws and ears and tail all reaching out like dying travellers
in search of water "presents the image of loss.
IMAGERY:
A metaphor describing the dog, emphasizing the emptiness and lifelessness depicted
through its eyes. “His eyes … [were] two white marbles rolling in the purple sockets.”
“... the light at the door grew soft, fuzzier, turned to a kind of crumbling yellow pollen
that turned to yellow fur, blue fur, grey fur” (pg. 126) gives setting information for
visualizing.
Hyperbole-“... stifled the children, making them feel as if their lungs were
stuffed with wool.” (pg. 122) makes reader feel how the children feel.

Personification-“The scent of earth receiving water, slaking its thirst in great

gulps ...” (pg. 126) gives reader information on the scent and the heat and
feeling of the air and atmosphere

Simile-“His paws and ears and tail all reaching out like dying travellers in
search of water.” (pg. 123) makes reader virtualize the way the dog was
laying.
 Line Figurative The Poetry
Language

3 Hyperbole At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,

POEM: ODE TO
4 Simile Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;
FANCY
BY JOHN KEATS
6 Alliteration, Through the thought still spread
Personification beyond her:

7 Metaphor Open wide the mind's cage-door

Figurative Language
8 Personification She'll dart forth, and cloudward
Used in the Poem soar.

9 Personification O sweet Fancy! let her loose;

14 Personification Blushing through the mist and dew,
18 Metaphor Spirit of a winter's night;
22 Metaphor When the Night doth meet the Noon
24 Metaphor, Personification, To banish Even from her sky.
27 Personification Fancy, high-commission'd:—send her!
28 Personification She has vassals to attend her:
29 Personification She will bring, in spite of frost,
30 Metaphor Beauties that the earth hath lost;
31 Personification She will bring thee, all together,
33 Metaphor All the buds and bells of May,
35 Metaphor All the heaped Autumn's wealth,
37 Personification She will mix these pleasures up
38 Simile Like three fit wines in a cup,
39 Repetition And thou shalt quaff it:—thou shalt hear
42 Metaphor, Personification Sweet birds antheming the morn:
45 Personification Or the rooks, with busy caw

52 Metaphor Sapphire queen of the mid-May;

54 Alliteration, Hyperbole Pearled with the self-same shower.

55 Personification Thou shalt see the field-mouse peep

64 Personification When the bee-hive casts its swarm;

66 Metaphor While the autumn breezes sing.

67 Personification Oh, sweet Fancy! let her loose;

77 Hyperbole At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth

78 Simile Like to bubbles when rain pelteth.

79 Metaphor Let, then, winged Fancy find

 Images

Home Bubbles Rai

Cage-door Spring Autum

Mist Dew Caked Snow

Night Noon Frost

Summer Sticks Harvest-Caro

Ploughboy Red-lipp’d fruitage Flower

Queen Eye Face

 Themes
The Theme of Imagination and Creativity
The theme of imagination and creativity is central to "Fancy."
Keats describes the power of the human mind to create
beauty and joy, even in the midst of pain and hardship. In the
first stanza, he writes:
Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home: At a
touch sweet Pleasure melteth, Like to bubbles when rain
pelteth; Then let winged Fancy find Thee a mistress to thy
mind:
Here, Keats encourages the reader to let their imagination
run wild and find pleasure in the world of their own creation.
He suggests that true pleasure cannot be found in external
sources, but must be conjured from within through the power
of imagination.
This theme is further developed in the second stanza, where Keats describes
a "bowery, unforbidden bliss" that can only be found in the realm of the
imagination. He writes:
Fancy, that hath led me oft, From my fillèd heart and soft, Spoken
something to my brain, Hath my lips not dared to feign. This is certain, that I
heard What I thought, or dreamed, or—erred.
Here, Keats suggests that the power of imagination is so strong that it can
even deceive the senses. He acknowledges that what he has heard or
dreamed may not be real, but still affirms the importance of the creative
process.
 The Beauty of Nature

Another important theme in "Fancy" is the beauty of nature.

Keats uses vivid imagery to describe the natural world and
its ability to inspire the imagination. In the third stanza, he
writes:
Fancy, to thee the Adieu, Since it was thy will to sue Meekly
for a verse from me. What I answer shall be free; Leave me,
if I scoff and jeer, For I still will follow thee.
Here, Keats personifies Fancy as a kind of muse, urging the
speaker to create poetry inspired by the beauty of the
natural world. He suggests that the imagination is most
powerful when grounded in the physical world, and that the
two are intimately connected.
This theme is further developed in the final
stanza, where Keats describes the natural
world as a source of endless inspiration.
He writes:

Still through the hawthorn blows the cold

wind, Says winter in his year. But the heart
of rosy spring Lives another life within, And
fondly loves the gentle air.

Here, Keats contrasts the harshness of

winter with the beauty and vitality of
spring. He suggests that even in the
bleakest of seasons, the human
imagination can find joy and inspiration in
the natural world.
 CLASSWORK
Q= REVISE THE THEMES AND LITERARY DEVICES USED IN
THE SHORT STORY “GAMES AT TWILIGHT” BY ANITA
DESAI AND POEM “ODE TO FANCY” BY JOHN KEATS.