Hi Everyone!! This article will share Mrs Packletide’s Tiger Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of The Solitary Reaper, The Purple Children and The Monkey’s Paw so, you can check these posts as well.
Mrs Packletide’s Tiger Questions & Answers
Question 1: What made Mrs Packletide so keen to kill a tiger? Give evidence from the text and all the reasons you can think of.
Answer: Mrs Packletide’s rival Loona Bimberton had recently been carried eleven miles in an aeroplane by an Algerian avaitor and she talked of nothing else. Mrs Packletide thought that getting her photograph taken in the press with a tiger skin would show her up. She wanted to outdo Loona Bimberton.
Question 2: What elaborate plans did Mrs Packletide make in her mind for her return to Curzon Street? Why?
Answer: Mrs Packletide planned to give a lunch at her house in Curzon Street where a tiger-skin rug would hold pride of place. She also planned to present Loona with a tigerclaw brooch to make her rival jealous.
Question 3: ‘In a world that is supposed to be chiefly swayed by hunger and by love, Mrs Packletide was an exception.’ In what way was Mrs Packletide as exception, on both counts? Show that this statement is true, with evidence from the text.
Answer: Almost all the people are driven in life by two things, i.e. food and love. But Mrs Packletide was different; the motivating factor in her life was Loona Bimberton. She had planned to host a dinner party for Loona and others, not because she loved them and wished to serve them good food, but only to show off what she had hunted.
Question 4: How did the villagers behave? What, according to the author, prompted them to behave as they did?
Answer: The villagers wanted to get the thousand rupees that Mrs Packletide had offered so they posted children on the outskirts of the jungle to prevent the tiger from going to another place. They also left cheaper goats outside as a bait for the tiger and so that he wouldn’t die of hunger. Women would stop their kids from making noise, lest the tiger be frightened away.
Question 5: What information are we given about the ‘venerable herd-robber’?
Answer: The tiger belonged to respectable ancestors, but, since it had become very old and unable to hunt, it depended entirely on domestic animals for food. It had, therefore, strayed nearer to the inhabited places.
Mrs Packletide’s Tiger Questions & Answers
Question 6: What do you understand by the term ‘paid companion’ in reference to Miss Mebbin? What might have been her role and was she prepared to fill such a role?
Answer: Miss Mebbin was paid for her services to Mrs Packletide, to accompany her on the hunt; but she was very calculating, and would not give more services than what she was paid for.
Miss Mebbin was very shrewd and cunning character who knew how to grab a chance to gain wealth and when opportunity knocked at her door. She can be called opportunist.
Question 7: How did the tiger die?
Answer: The goat was in death-throes from a mortal bullet-wound, while no trace of the rifle’s deadly work could be found on the tiger. Evidently, the wrong animal had been hit and the beast of prey had succumbed to heart failure, caused by the sudden report of the rifle, accelerated by senile decay.
Question 8: What was Clovis’ suggestion and what was the reaction to it? Why was it tempting?
Answer: Clovis’ tempting suggestion of a premeval dance party was that everyone should wear the skins of beast they had recently slain. He was rather a Baby Bunting condition with a miserable rabbit-skin or two to wrap up in, but then, with a rather malicious glance at Diana’s proportions his figure was quite as good as that Russian dancing boy’s.
Question 9: How did Louisa Mebbin acquire her cottage?
Answer: Louisa Mebbin blackmailed Mrs Packletide into giving her the money to buy a house, saying she would tell everyone that she had not killed the tiger, but the goat.
Question 10: Read and answer the questions:
1. ‘Now, now!’ urged Miss Mebbin with some excitement; ‘if he doesn’t touch the goat we needn’t pay for it.’
(a) What did Miss Mebbin mean when she said ‘Now, now!’?
Answer: She’s asking her companion to shoot the tiger instantly. She thinks only about money, and so is excited that they may not have to pay for the goat if the tiger died without touching the goat.
(b) When did Miss Mebbin make this statement and why was she excited?
Answer: Miss Mebbin made this statement when she saw the tiger sit down a little distance away from the goat, as if to rest. She was excited because if the tiger did not attack the goat, they would save some money.
(c) What does the statement confirm about Miss Mebbin?
Answer: The statement confirms about Miss Mebbin that she is very money-minded and calculating.
2. …. and her letter of thanks for the gift of a tiger-claw brooch was a model of repressed emotions.
(a) Who is being referred to in this statement?
Answer: Loona Bimberton is being referred to in this statement.
(b) Who made the gift and why?
Answer: Mrs Packletide made the gift to show off her hunt, and make Loona jealous of her achievement.
(c) Why did the sender of the letter repress her emotions and how did she ensure that her emotions would not released?
Answer: The sender of the letter repressed her emotions because she did not want to accept that she had indeed been outdone, (she was jealous) and so she declined the invitation to the luncheon party; she was not sure that she would be able to hold back her feelings anymore if she went there.
So, these were Mrs Packletide’s Tiger Questions & Answers.