Prose
5. Guilty (Horace J Gardiner and Bonneriere)
1. Answer any two of the following questions in about 100 words each. [2×4 =8 marks]
1) Describe the importance of Mrs. Moore’s role in Guilty
2) Ma Ryan puts what she thinks is two and two together and makes four out of it. Discuss the developments that lead ( or, rather mislead ) Ma Ryan into making this mistake.
3) Sketch the character of Jim in the light of Ma Ryan’s comments like it is the same! but how did it get into Jim’s pocket?
4) “Ma, you’re talking like someone in a fog, without any sense.” Are these words from Jim an order or exception? Explain.
The delightful and humorous one-act play Guilty is written by Horace J. Gardiner and Bonneviere. Horace J.Gardiner was born in the U.S.A not much is known to the world about him. People consider Horace J. Gardiner and Bonneviere Arnaud a single author, for the apparent reason of the Non-availability of any work by them individually.
Jim Ryan is the central character of this one-act play. He is an engineering graduate. But he has been compelled to work as a night watchman, for want of a better job. Jim’s mother Ma Ryan knows about her son well. She has unflinching love towards her son, but what stresses her most is that Jim still keeps some of the bad company. She says that she is very much afraid that the boy remains unemployed forever. She worries a lot that he would get discouraged, and depressed. One could do anything when it becomes difficult to survive. The neighbouring woman Mrs. Moore says that the boy is not that sort and he won’t do anything wrong. Ma Ryan, too, agrees Mrs. Moore always
One night, the neighbour Mrs. Moore calls on Ma Ryan and shows her in a news item in the newspaper. It is about a stolen Diamond robbery is committed at the Van Kings Warehouse, the previous night where Jim is working. The thieves have stolen the famous Van King’s diamond pendant, coincidentally Ma Ryan has found a jewel wrapped in a kerchief in Jim’s sweater. She immediately calls her son at the warehouse and learns he doesn’t work there. Hearing this she is filled with despair as she remembered Larry Wilson, a boy in the neighbourhood who was sentenced for ten years . Mother doubts if it is the stolen diamond of Van King. She grows anxious, she fears that her son would be sent to Jail.
The next movement a police officer calls at their house. In the meantime her son enters with a stranger who gives him money. She is now convinced that the stranger wasn’t a good man. She is determined to return the diamond to the rightful owner. Ma Ryan asked Jim to run away from home, then the stranger says that she guessed it wrongly it is indeed Mr. Jim, who somehow got the Diamond. Later, Jim clarifies that all her fears are untrue, and she is totally confused. The stranger as well as her son cautioned her never to jump to conclusion so easily. Appearances sometime can be deceptive.
The play is full of gripping narrations and it delivers a clear social message.
” Don’t jump to conclusions– there may be a perfectly good explanation to what you just saw.”
(OR)
The play “Guilty” is written by Horace J. Gardiner and Bonneviere.
Jim Ryan is a young engineering graduate. He works as a nightwatchman at Van King Warehouse. Mrs Moore the neighbour, shows Jim’s mother, Ma Ryan a newspaper report about a robbery at the Van King Warehouse. As Ma Ryan cleaning up Jim’s room, she finds the robbed diamond pendant in the pocket of Jim’s sweater. She starts worrying that her son is mixed up in the robbery. She puts two and two together. But very soon, she discovers her mistake. And all is well that ends well.
The play is full of gripping narrations and it delivers a clear social message.