ON DARTMOOR
✰ 𝑵𝒆𝒊𝒍 𝑮𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒕 ✰
Neil Grant was born in Scotland in the Year of the Fire Horse. He learnt to speak Australian at the age of thirteen when his family fled to Melbourne to
escape rain and deep fried Mars Bars. He finished high school at the International School of Kuala Lumpur then spent years blundering through Indonesia, Israel, Yugoslavia, India, Nepal, Thailand, Greece, Italy, the UK and Tasmania. He trained as a high school English teacher but at various times of his life he has been a joiner, a dishwasher, an instrument steriliser, a cook, a brickie's labourer, a roof-tile reclaimer, a carrot picker and a tree planter. He has always been a writer.
★.Questions:
1.State the theme of the play.
☞︎︎︎ Answer:
According to me, the theme of the play is given below:
1. 𝔽𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕀𝕕𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕞 :-
This incident leads to a very interesting dialogue between the friends, in the course of which we are acquainted with their ideas. The function of the exposition or the beginning is to impart information about the main characters and the situation from which the play is to develop.Muriel Armstrong and Leonora Astley are two well-to-do bluestockings, who in order to while away their time have developed an interest in criminals. They call themselves “integral anarchist”, and they hate all institutions that deal with crime and criminals.They are all sympathy and help. They feed him, give him whisky and money, and plan his escape. They seem to be having a time of their life. In their excitement, and in their ignorance of the real world, they do not notice the skill with which the escaped convict leads them on, and plays upon their sentiments.
2. ℂ𝕝𝕒𝕤𝕤 ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕗𝕝𝕚𝕔𝕥:-
The treatment of a maid is more like an object rather than a human being. May be these rich ladies have prejudices against these maid servants. Both Muriel and Leonora sounds arrogant when they talk about maid servants. These characters never appear onto the stage. Whatever is said about them is how rich ladies treat their maid servants. They both reply “We have a cook, a very narrow minded woman, who reads The Morning Post, and there's a maid who has no views on any object except pictures and boys, but who suffers from incipient hysteria. When Bill Syme asks the both girls, anyone else is at home besides them.
☞︎︎︎ Major Themes of The Play :-
- Political conflict between Europe and Russia
- Over fastidious nature
- Ignorance of a real world
- Behavior towards sycophants
- How an officious look plays vital role
- Problems of idle rich
- Grief of commons
- Satire on aristocrats
- The barbaric nature of civilized
- The representation of human beings as sadist
- Farcical nature
✰ Question-2. Bring out the satire in the play.
☞︎︎︎Answer:-
This incident leads to a very interesting dialogue between the friends, in the course of which we are acquainted with their ideas. The function of the exposition or the beginning is to impart information about the main characters and the situation from which the play is to develop. They call themselves “integral anarchist”, and they hate all institutions that deal with crime and criminals.On Dartmoor may appear to be a crime play, but actually it is a satire on a certain type of idealism which may be called fashionable or armchair idealism.
This, the exposition does in the play, and what happens subsequently seems quite natural to us. In their excitement, and in their ignorance of the real world, they do not notice the skill with which the escaped convict leads them on, and plays upon their sentiments. They fail to notice certain things, which to an experienced person may have revealed that the escaped convict was a fake.
✰ Question-3:- Do you find anything farcical in the play? If so, point it out and show its farcical nature.
☞︎︎︎Answer:-
At this point the both girls realized that they have been tricked by a couple of crooks. Which is very ridiculous. And the police call that came in the beginning was also done by those thieves.Fourth is, when Muriel runs to telephone to call police but she realize that the crooks also cut the wire of telephone.
Which makes the readers laugh.First is, when Leonora realizes that someone is in the garden, Muriel tells her that I can not see anything, you are dreaming.Who introduces himself as Fred Lee. Who pleads for help and shelter but both ladies (Agitated) start beating him in despair and frustration. The convict keeps pleading for help. Nobody comes. Moreover, they ignore the escaped prisoner and Muriel pounds him and binds him. Which we find farcical.
✰ Question-4:- Described the trick played upon the two ladies by the two thieves.
☞︎︎︎Answer:-
In a way at some point of time, Bill Syme looks more intellectual than the both girls. It means both ladies are suffering from 'Idealism.' The escaped prisoner, Bill Syme, knows how to judge a person. The both girls, serve drink and food to him. Meanwhile Bill Syme narrates his past story to both of them. And provides the reason behind his punishment by telling the brutality of Police. ( This is where he succeeds in his cruel aim as the both girls consider themselves as an Integral Anarchists, it means they hate all types of rules and regulations.
At the initial part of the play, we observe that the both girls appear to be intellectual and smart. But what we see next is totally opposite of it.They all critically abuse the judge and consider him as a barbarian and sadist. In addition, Bill Syme feels that it is better to live in France or Italy.But fortunately there's no one at present.Which is his future escape plan. The escaped prisoner /Bill Syme praises Russia. In a way that's what the both girls were waiting to hear. Meantime, both ladies ask Bill to change his convict dress and provide the old suit of her grandfather.
They sit down in their old positions. Even Muriel considers PM's speech as a rotten speech. ( As per the newspaper she is reading, PM has commented upon women's clothes ! ) Not only that she criticises England's poor performance in Ashes Tournament.As he makes inquiry further, he goes upstairs and joins his partner Bill Syme there to ransack the house. The both girls think that Sergeant is looking for the escaped prisoner.
