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| Facing Death by Johan August Strindberg | Summary and Question answer |
Summary
The one act play “Facing Death” written by the most popular Swedish writer, playwright and painter Johan August Srindberg picturizes a heroic sacrifice of a bankrupt father for the sake of happiness of his daughters. The play shows how the wrong decision and relationship between the couple ruins the financial condition of the family if it is not handled wisely. Despite extreme hardships and financial ruin, the father is always more anxious about the future prospects of the children. The father is the most hated and neglected due to insufficient financial resources. So, this play presents a strong relationship crisis and disrespect because of unmanaged financial condition.
According to the play, Monsieur Durand, a former railroad employee, widower and a pension proprietor, is the head of the Durand household with three young daughters namely Adele, Annette and Therese. The relationship between the father and the three daughters is unstable full of disrespect and hatred. The daughters neglect their father’s presence. He is a financial ruin person who has lost his material property due to the reckless and careless behaviour of his wife. To be safe from financial crisis, the Durand household is open for paying guests. Adele works in the kitchen and Durand serves the visitors, cleans, delivers meals to the visitors. The other two daughters Annette and Therese do nothing than flirting and attracting the visitors. The low income is not sufficient for running the family. so, Monsieur Durand borrows goods and money from others to come off the financial difficulties. The work boy Pierre helps in bringing good from the grocer’s, butcher’s and baker’s. when Pierre goes to bring goods from them, he returns empty-handed as they have many unpaid bills. Adele complains Durand for spending money to buy candles rather than buying goods.
Monsieur Durand sees Therese mating with Antonio who, lieutenant in the Italian cavalry regiment, is a paying guest at the Durand household. The daughters never feel uneasy to flirt, and kiss with Antonio in the presence of the father. Durand is heartbroken on being disrespected and tells Antonio to leave the guest house. He refuses the advance money for three months proposed by Antonio. As Durand becomes strict, he is totally ignored by the daughters and helpless. They avoid giving him food to eat. Due to such behaviour, Durand survives himself eating the rat’s feed.
The daughters complain their father that the Durand family has faced this situation due to lack of mother. If the mother were alive, the situation would be better. Durand claims that their ancestral and material property was lost because of their mother’s carelessness. She played lottery and lost money. She taught the daughters to dislike father. She even threatened to be a prostitute if she weren’t given money.
He tells Adele the fact that he was born in France and eloped with her mother despite the unacceptance of their family and migrated to Switzerland where he got citizenship. Moreover, he fought against his native country France in a war. So, he had been telling a lie about his true identity. Monsieur Durand realizes his own wrong attitude and makes a planning. He tells Therese to marry with Antonio and Adele to keep the fire insurance documents. He doesn’t want to load his attitude and be a burden to his daughters. Finally, he makes a secret plan. He counsels his daughters for the happy settlement of their future. He puts fire on the house and poisons himself sacrificing his life to death for the happiness of his daughters.
Also Read: A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez | Summary and Question Answer
Understanding the text.
a. Where does the play take place?
Ans: The play takes place in the dining room of Monsieur Durand who is a former rail road employee. He lives in the house with his three daughters.
b. Why do the grocery, the baker and the butcher send their bills to the Durand household?
Ans: Since Durand is a bankrupt and financially ruined person, he is unable to pay the debt of household goods purchase. Therefore, the grocery, the bakery and the butcher send their bills to Durand household for the payment of bills before they want more goods for consumption.
c. Why does Monsieur Duran spend money on candles when he doesn’t have money to buy even bread?
Ans: Monsieur Durand is in an agony of losing his son. His daughters don’t like and respect him. He is financially ruined as his wife lost material money of lottery purchase. The only thing that pleases him is the memory of his late son, Rene who died at his early age. He spends his money to buy candles to celebrate his death anniversary because he feels the same affection even if he is dead.
d. Why did Monsieur Duran sell his life insurance?
Ans: Monsieur Durand sell his life insurance to pay off the debtor’s loan and fire insurance. He plans to commit suicide and wants to pay all loans before his death.
e. Why has Monsieur Duran paid fire insurance?
Ans: Monsieur Durand has paid fire insurance selling his life insurance policy to make a compensation claim later on. He intends to get 5000 francs as compensation from the fire insurance company by burning his house. He plans to do so for the secure future of his daughters.
f. How did Monsieur Duran and Mrs. Duran run out of their inheritances from both the sides?
Ans: Monsieur Durand and Mrs. Durand ran out of their inheritances on raising their daughters. Mrs. Durand was a gambler. She put all the material property on lottery and it became misfortune to her. She was more careless in the matter of money wastage.
g. Why does Monsieur Durand tell a lie about his birthplace?
Ans: Monsieur Durand tells a lie about his birthplace mainly because of two reasons. One reason is, he left his birthplace in order to marry the girl whom he loved much. The families from both sides weren’t positive about their marriage. So, they left their place and settled in Switzerland. The second reason is, he fought against his own native land France from the side of Switzerland. He felt shameful about his act. So, he tells a lie.
h. What business is Monsieur Durand running to make a living?
Ans: As Monsieur Durand is bankrupt, he turns his house to a guest house. He has converted his house as a lodge to earn money. He provides lodging and dining services to his guests with the help of his three daughters.
i. What plan does Monsieur Durand have to help his daughters with money?
Ans: For a financially secured and happy living in future, Monsieur Durand plans to set fire on his own house and commit suicide. For which he has sold his life insurance and paid the debt of debtor’s and bought fire insurance policy. He hopes that his daughters will get a good amount as a compensation from the fire insurance company. He plans to sacrifice his life to death for the sake of the happiness of his daughters.
j. How does Monsieur Durand die?
Ans: Monsieur Durand dies poisoning himself.
Reference to the context
a. Sketch the character of Monsieur Durand.
Ans: Monsieur Durand is the main character in the play ‘Facing Death’. He is a bankrupt man whose all ancestral and material property is lost by the carelessness and wrong speculation of his wife. He is a pension holder, former railroad employee. He has three daughters under whose help he has run a boarding house at his house. He is determined to his thoughts. He wants be a good father who openly accepts death for the sake of his daughters’ happiness. He is a caring, loving and protective father. Although he has a miserable life due to financial ruin, he gives priority to his daughters’ happiness than his own life. He loves his daughters instead he gets disrespected and hated from his daughters. Moreover to this, he is a loving husband because he has not only left his motherland but also given his material property to his wife when she wants to play lottery. He has a strong endurance power. He faces death in every step of his life but never reveals his misery and difficulties. He shows his heroic sacrifices for the happiness of his daughters.
b. How do we know that the Duran family has reached a dead end?
Ans: Definitely, we can say that the Durand family has reached a dead end. The Durand family is living a miserable life for they have lost material and parental inheritances due to financial careless behaviour and over ambitious speculation of Mrs. Durand. She had put the property at high risk which brought financial crisis in the family. The Durand household has so many bills unpaid and the grocer, baker and butcher have stopped the Durand family to provide anything until the bills are paid off. They have converted their house to a boarding house. The only income source of the family is the money received from the guests that is not enough to maintain family expenses. Apart from this, the relationship between the father and the daughters is so bad that the daughters extremely hate the father however, Monsieur Durand loves them and his more anxious about their future.
c. ‘The mother, though already dead, seems to have had a great influence on the daughters, especially Theresa.’ Do you agree?
Ans: Yes, I agree that the daughters seem to have had a great influence on the daughters. Mrs. Durand’s behaviour and attitude is totally imitated by the daughters. They learned to dislike and hate their father from mother. During the time she was alive, she never loved Mr. Durand. She spoilt all the material and ancestral inheritances and left nothing to Durand. Monsieur Durand endured all the hatred and never revealed the truth of his wife’s behavoiur and attitude to the daughters. Among three daughters, Therese is more influence because she behaves rudely to her father. She snatches match and doesn’t give milk to the father. He is deprived of necessary things. She is unkind, rude and unfair towards her father.
d. Discuss the relationship between Monsieur Duran and his wife.
Ans: The relationship between Monsieur Durand and his wife was unfavorable to each other. Although they had a love marriage, they remained as enemy, especially Mrs. Durand. She ruined all the material and ancestral property on buying lottery tickets. She hated Monsieur Durand and taught her daughters to hate and misbehave to him. she even threatened Monsieur Durand to work as prostitute when all property was lost. She died before times. Monsieur Durand led a miserable life because of his wife’s foolish speculation and monetary carelessness.
e. ‘Money determines the relationship between characters in this play.’ Elaborate this statement with examples from the play.
Ans: The root cause of relationship failure among husband and wife and daughters is the money. It is the money which has broken the marital relationship between Monsieur Durand his wife. Mrs. Durand lost all ancestral inheritances disregarding the family necessities. For money, she was ready to live a prostitute life disrespecting her husband and his love to her. Similarly, the relationship between three daughters and Monsieur Durand derailed because of the money crisis. The daughters hated the father. Therese openly flirted, and kissed Antonio who was just a paying guest. Durand was speechless seeing her mischievous behaviour. Durand’s social status was dimmed because of debts. By the crisis of money, he came to suicide. So. The money has determined the relationship in this play.
f. Monsieur Durand kills himself so that his daughters would get 5000 francs as the compensation from the insurance company. What does his plan tell us about him?
Ans: Mr. Durand is a tragic hero in the play who poisons himself and burns down his house for the sake of compensation from the insurance company to uplift his daughters' financial condition. The Durand family is having a difficult time due to economic crisis. He is being judged as an unsuccessful and irresponsible father by his three daughters. Hence, he plans to compensate his daughters from the fire insurance at the cost of his life than to be called an unsuccessful father.
g. Discuss Facing Death as a modern tragedy.
Ans: Modern tragedy is the type of play in which the problems like crisis in family relationship, social cultural problems, separation, destruction, failures etc. of a modern man are presented. The play ‘Facing Death’ is an example of a modern tragedy because the characters of the play are the victim of economic crisis, relationship crisis, disrespect, hatred, relationship dysfunction and cultural crisis. Monsieur Durand has a dysfunctional character who fails in his responsibility function. Being an unsuccessful man, he finally commits suicide and has a tragic end. So, it is modern tragedy.
About the Author:
Tanka Bhattarai is a Second class Secondary Level English teacher currently teaching at Shahid Smriti Secondary School, Dharan, Sunsari. He is also an MToT of Education Training Centre, Koshi Province.
