Read the following extract from T.S. Arthur’s short story, ‘An Angel in Disguise’ and answer the questions
that follow:
“What is to be done with the children?” That was the chief question now. The dead mother would go
underground, and be forever beyond all care or concern of the villagers. But the children must not be left to
starve.
(i) Describe the way in which the children’s mother died.
What are the factors that led to her death?
(ii) How do the people of the village treat the woman before her death?
How does their manner change after she dies?
What does their behaviour tell us about human nature?
(iii) Name the woman’s three children.
State one fact about each of them that the author mentions at the very beginning of the story.
(iv) What happens to each of the children after the mother’s funeral?
(v) Which of the three children can be considered the ‘Angel in Disguise”? What does the term ‘disguise’ refer to
in the context of this story? How does the child’s arrival transform the home she enters?
Oswaal ISC Question Bank Chapterwise & Topicwise, ENGLISH-2, Class-X 4
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(i) The children’s mother was an excessive alcoholic
person who died at the threshold of her house. Due
to excessive drinking, the mother had a drunken fit
and died.
(ii) The people of village treated the woman
differently. The woman is ‘scoffed at’ and is ‘angrily
denounced’ by everyone in the village. And so she
has no friends or family.
After the woman died, the anger of the people is
replaced by pity and ‘sorrow’ by ‘denunciation’.
This tells us that people can change and get
emotionally attached to others. Though the people
of the village did not like the woman, after her
death they planned a modest funeral for her and
also looked after her children.
(iii) The names of the three children are John, Kate, and
Maggie. John is a ‘stout lad’, Kate is a ‘bright and
active girl’, and Maggie is ‘hopelessly diseased’.
(iv) After the mother’sdeath, farmerJones takes Johnso
that he could help him with farming. Mrs Ellis takes
Kate as she wanted a bound girl. Initially, nobody
wanted to take Maggie and it was decided that she
would be left in the poorhouse. But later, Mr Joe
Thompson showed pity and took her to his house.
(v) Maggiecanbeconsideredasthe‘AngelinDisguise’.
Maggie turns out to be a blessing in the Thompson home. Initially, he states the fact that he plans on
taking her to the poorhouse possibly the next day.
She agrees somehow, but after spending a day and
night with the small child, with every moment Mrs.
Thompson’s heart grows compassionate tending to
the small orphan girl. Not having a child of her own
or any interests or things to take care of, had led her
to become less compassionate. Caring for the child
gives her a sense of purpose and meaning in her
otherwise dull housewife’s life. Thus, the little girl
notonlychangedherattitudetowardsthembutalso
brought light and joy into their home. She becomes
extra careful for Maggie and gives up the idea of
sending her to the poorhouse. She accepts her as
herchildandcarriesherinherheartaswellasarms.
From a rude, ill-tempered and selfish lady, Mrs.
Thompson becomes a living and compassionate
person. Thompson house is filled with boundless
joy which they had never experienced before. Thus
Maggie, becomes an ‘Angel in disguise’ for the
Thompsons.