TASKS for Chapters 28-29

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What seemed the most scaring for Julia in the talk with her son on the first day of his arrival?

This was his suggestion that if she went into an empty room and someone suddenly opened the door there would be nobody there.

2. How did Julia prepare for the play?

She studied her part. Julia did not deliberately create the character she was going to act by observation; she had a knack of getting into the shoes of the woman she had to portray so that she thought with her mind and felt with her senses. Her intuition suggested to her a hundred small touches that afterwards amazed people by their verisimilitude; but when they asked her where she had got them she could not say.

3. How did she act at the dress-rehearsal? Why?

 Julia spared herself. She had no intention of giving all she had to give till the first night.

5. Who did Julia talk to about her conversation with Roger? Why? What did she need to get from the conversation?

 She talked to Charles and she expected him to be sympathetic

6. Describe the state Julia was in before a first night? Compare her attitude towards first-night acting with the bygone years?

In bygone years she had been intolerably nervous before a first night. She had felt slightly sick all day and as the hours passed got into such a state that she almost thought she would have to leave the stage. But by now, after having passed through the ordeal so many times, she had acquired a certain nonchalance. Throughout the early part of the day she felt only happy and mildly excited; it was not till late in the afternoon that she began to feel ill at ease. She grew silent and wanted to be left alone. She also grew irritable, and Michael, having learnt from experience, took care to keep out of her way. Her hands and feet got cold and by the time she reached the theatre they were like lumps of ice. But still the apprehension that filled her was not unpleasant.

7. Who did she meet while wandering the streets of London at noon, 6 hours before the first night? Where did they go?

Julia met Tom and she agreed to have a cup of tea with him.

8. What thoughts accompanied Julia when she visited Tom's place?

The love that had consumed her then, the jealousy she had stifled, the ecstasy of surrender, it had no more reality than one of the innumerable parts she had played in the past. She relished her indifference.

9. Why did Julia change her attitude to Tom? What phrase does Julia pronounce to herself at the end of chapter 28? Comment on it.

Julia became indifferent to Tom and the phrase "I dare say there's something in what Roger said. Love isn't worth all the fuss they make about it" proves it.

10. Was the first night a success for Julia? For Avice? Why?

The first night was success for Julia, as she deliberately killed Avice’s performance.

 11. What was Tom's attitude towards Avice's acting? How does the scene in Julia's dressing-room characterize him?

Tom found Avice’s acting a rotten one. The scene in Julia’s dressing-room characterizes him as a man who is ready to give up a person if he/she is not successful.

 12. Why do you think Julia refused to supper with Tom that night?

Julia refused to supper with Tom that night, as that was the end with him and Avice.

13. How did Julia spend that night? Was it typical of her? Why did she prefer this?

She wanted to be alone and enjoy herself and that’s why she went to the restaurant. She did not want to share such a moment with anybody.

14. What was peculiar about Julia's appearance and order at the Berkeley? Do you feel that night was somehow significant to her? Why?

She neither painted her lips nor rouged her cheeks. She put on again the brown coat and skirt in which she had come to the theatre and the same hat. It was a felt hat with a brim, and this she pulled down over one eye so that it should hide as much of her face as possible. When she was ready she looked at herself in the glass. She did it to analyze her life and everything that happened to her. So that was a very important moment.

15. How does she reflect about the day passed? Does she feel satisfied? Why? Prove your point of view. It was enchanting to be alone and allow her mind to wander. She thought once more of Tom and spiritually shrugged a humorous shoulder. "It was an amusing experience."

16. Describe the place in a restaurant where Julia was having supper? What was special about it? Why had she chosen to be seated there?

The room in which she sat was connected by three archways with the big dining-room where they supped and danced; amid the crowd doubtless were a certain number who had been to the play. How surprised they would be if they knew that the quiet little woman in the corner of the adjoining room, her face half hidden by a felt hat, was Julia Lambert. It gave her a pleasant sense of independence to sit there unknown and unnoticed. They were acting a play for her and she was the audience. She caught brief glimpses of them as they passed the archway, young men and young women, young men and women not so young, men with bald heads and men with fat bellies, old harridans clinging desperately to their painted semblance of youth. Some were in love, and some were jealous, and some were indifferent.

17. What conclusion did Julia come to while sitting at the Berkeley and "throwing prudence to the winds?"

 “People are our raw material. We are the meaning of their lives. We take their silly little emotions and turn them into art, out of them we create beauty, and their significance is that they form the audience we must have to fulfil ourselves. They are the instruments on which we play, and what is an instrument without somebody to play on it?”

TASKS for Chapters 25-27

III. Answer the following questions:

1. Why was Julia doubtful about her beauty and sex appeal the night after her adventure with Charles? It happened because Charles did not desire her.

2. How did she put her looks to the test? Why did she need it?

That afternoon, when she had had her sleep, she got up, made up a little more than usual, and without calling Evie put on a dress that was neither plain nor obviously expensive and a red straw hat with a wide brim. She needed it to find out whether she had sex appeal or not.

3. Describe Julia's feelings when she had caught a young man's eye in the street? Rely on the lines starting with, "Suddenly her heart gave an exultant leap..." (Ch.25) and use your stylistic and linguistic knowledge while commenting.

Suddenly her heart gave an exultant leap. She had caught a young man's eye and she was sure that there was a gleam in it. He passed, and she had all she could do not to turn round. She started, for in a moment he passed her again, he had retraced his steps, and this time he gave her a stare. She shot him a glance and then modestly lowered her eyes. He fell back and she was conscious that he was following her. It was all right. She stopped to look into a shop window and he stopped too. She knew how to behave now. She pretended to be absorbed in the goods that were displayed, but just before she moved on gave him a quick flash of her faintly smiling eyes.

4. Did the date meet Julia's expectations? What were the man's real intentions towards having a cup of tea with Julia? Julia did not expect that the man only wanted to take an autograph for his wife that’s why the date did not meet her expectations.

5. The young man didn't seem to be very polite and well-bred. Prove it using the text and comment on the techniques the author employs to create a desirable effect upon the reader.

There was a sort of impudence in his manner that Julia did not much like, but then, as she sensibly reflected, you could hardly expect the modesty of the violet in a young man who picked you up in the Edgware Road. (Before we go any further let's 'ave this autograph, eh? Do it now, that's my motto. Let me bring my young lady to see you in your dressing-room one day. Just shake 'ands with her, see? It would mean a rare lot to her. Why, she'd go on talking about it the rest of her life.)

6. After the stroll, what thoughts occurred to Julia when she got back home and started reflecting over herself? Rely on the lines starting with, "When she got home she went upstairs to her room..." (Ch.25) and use your stylistic and linguistic knowledge while commenting.

Having come, the woman began speaking to herself, asking rhetorical questions, what shows her emotionality and acting skills as if she was on stage at that moment: Old, old, old. There are no two ways about it; I'm entirely devoid of sex appeal. You wouldn't believe it, would you? You'd say it was preposterous. What other explanation is there? I walk from one end of the Edgware Road to the other and God knows I'd dressed the part perfectly, and not a man pays the smallest attention to me except a bloody little shop-assistant who wants my autograph for his young lady. It's absurd. It's ridiculous to suppose that I could have got to my position if I hadn't got sex appeal. What do people come to see an actress for? Because they want to go to bed with her. Do you mean to tell me that I could fill a theatre for three months with a rotten play if I hadn't got sex appeal? What is sex appeal anyway?

8. What was the name of the play Michael was putting on?

Nowadays

9. How did Julia feel before the rehearsals?

The first rehearsal still made her almost sick with excitement. It was the beginning of a new adventure. She did not feel like a leading lady then, she felt as gay and eager as if she were a girl playing her first small part. But at the same time she had a delicious sense of her own powers. Once more she had the chance to exercise them.

10. The play Michael was staging was a modern version of The Second Mrs. Tanqueray by Arthur Pinero (1855-1934), an English playwright. What changes did Michael introduce to the original?

Some of the old characters were introduced, and Aubrey Tanqueray, now a very old man, appeared in the second act. He was now a retired brigadier-general who played golf and deplored the decline of the British Empire.

12. What motifs did Julia have to praise the mediocre Avice Crichton and keep her in the cast?

She knew her well enough to be sure that if she were dismissed she would tell Tom that it was because Julia was jealous of her. He loved her and would believe anything she said. He might even think that Julia had put this affront on her in revenge for his desertion. No, no, she must stay. She must play the part, and fail; and Tom must see with his own eyes what a bad actress she was. They both of them thought the play would make her. Fools. It would kill her.

13. What pains did Julia take to make herself look nice to meet Roger? How does that characterize her as an actress and a mother?

She wanted Roger to be proud of her, and certainly she looked very young and pretty in her summer frock as she strolled up and down the platform. You would have thought, but wrongly, that she was perfectly unconscious of the attention she attracted. Roger, after a month in the sun, was very brown, but he was still rather spotty and he seemed thinner than when he had left London at the New Year. She hugged him with exuberant affection.

14. What did Michael ask Julia to discuss with Roger?

Now that he was going to Cambridge so soon he ought to make up his mind what he wanted to do. Michael was afraid that he would drift through his time there and then go into a broker's office or even on the stage. Thinking that Julia had more tact than he, and more influence with the boy, he had urged her to put before him the advantages of the Foreign Office and the brilliant possibilities of the Bar.

 15. How did Julia react on Roger's reflection about his future? What did they eventually talk about?

 She had a feeling of acute discomfort.

16. During their conversation, Julia notices some new traits in her son's character and behavior. What are they?

He seemed a trifle apathetic; he had none of her sparkling vitality. He listened with his slow, quiet smile; but she had an uneasy feeling that he did not think it quite so funny as she did. She sighed in her heart. Poor lamb, he could have no sense of humour.

17. Roger sounds reproachful to Julia. What doesn't he approve of? Do you agree with him?

He does not approve of her affair with Tom. I agree with him, for Tom was much younger than she and wanted only her money and position.

 18. What were Julia's arguments to support her point of view about acting? Do you feel they are ground and serious? Why?

She said: “If an actress felt the emotions she represented she'd tear herself to pieces”.

19. How did their talk end?

Their talk ended with conversation about Tom and Julia. The scene was intolerable. But later they heard a car drive up. That was Michael.

20. What was the thing Roger said that bothered Julia most?

Julia had a sickening fear that Roger knew that Tom had been her lover. It was impossible, it was only her guilty conscience that made her think so; at Taplow there had been nothing; it was incredible that any of the horrid gossip had reached his ears; and yet there was something in his expression that made her certain that he knew. She was ashamed..