Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Last Leaf Questions & Answers.
‘The last leaf’ is written by O. Henry, a great American short-story writer and a master of surprise endings. It is a touching story of how a painter inspires a girl to live and in the process, loses his life. Below are mentioned its questions and answers. I have also shared the questions and answers of The Luncheon and The Flying Sikh so, you can check these posts as well.
The Last Leaf Questions & Answers
Question 1: Choose the correct option:
(a) What disease did Johnsy have?
i. cancer
ii. pneumonia
iii. diabetes
iv. heart disease
(b) Where does the story take place?
i. Maine
ii. New York
iii. California
iv. London
(c) The girls lived in ________
i. Notting Hill
ii. Barrington
iii. Greenwich
iv. Riverdale
(d) Who was Behrman?
i. the landlord
ii. Sue’s brother
iii. the downstairs neighbour
iv. the doctor
(e) What was Behrman’s masterpiece?
i. the ivy leaf
ii. the Mona Lisa
iii. the lighthouse
iv. Johnsy’s portrait
Question 2: What brought Sue and Johnsy together?
Answer: Sue and Johnsy met at Delmonico’s Hotel and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that they rented the studio together.
Question 3: What was Johnsy suffering from? Why did the doctor visit Sue and Johnsy?
Answer: Johnsy was suffering from pneumonia. Sue had called the doctor to examine Johnsy.
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Question 4: What did the doctor say after examining Johnsy?
Answer: After examining Johnsy, the doctor said that she has one chance in-let us say, ten. She had made up her mind that she would not get well. She should think about other things than her sickness. She should generate in her will to live.
Question 5: What was the doctor’s observation?
Answer: The doctor examined Johnsy. He was not confident about her ability to fight off pneumonia which had dragged her to the verge of death. He told this to Sue but assured her that Johnsy still had chances of survival if she has the will to live. He promised to give the best medicine but advised Sue to do everything possible to inject some hope and willpower back to Johnsy.
Question 6: What did Sue do after the doctor left?
Answer: Sue was very scared and worried for Johnsy. As soon as the doctor had left, she went into the workroom and cried into a Japanese napkin till it was very wet and soggy.
The Last Leaf Questions & Answers
Question 7: Why did Johnsy keep asking Sue to open the curtains?
Answer: Johnsy was suffering from pneumonia. She was counting the leaves left behind on the old ivy tree in front of her window. She believed that when the last one fell, she would also die. When there was only one left, she was eager to see when it would fall.
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Question 8: Who was Behrman? How did he earn his living?
Answer: Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath Sue and Johnsy. He was old and past sixty and failure in art. He used to earn his living by serving as a model to those young artists in the colony who could not pay the price of a professional.
Question 9: What did Behrman think about Johnsy’s imagination?
Answer: When Sue told Behrman about how she feared losing Johnsy due to her strange fantasy concerning the last ivy leaf, he became quite angry and expressed his contempt and derision for such an idiotic imagination.
Question 10: What was bothering Johnsy as she lay in her sick bed?
Answer: Pneumonia had ravaged Johnsy’s body and mind. She convinced herself that the time to depart had come. She became obsessed with an old vine creeper that was shedding leaves one by one due to the season. She linked the dwindling number of vine leaves to her remaining life span. She concluded that the fall of the last leaf would indicate her death. Thus, she waited for the last leaf to fall.
Question 11: How did Sue try to change Johnsy’s pessimistic attitude?
Answer: Sue tried to change Johnsy’s pessimistic attitude towards life by diverting Johnsy’s mind from the last leaf and her sickness by making her take interest in things around her. She tried to keep up Johnsy’s sagging sprits by bringing her drawing board in Johnsy’s room and whistling.
Question 12: What was Behrman’s masterpiece? Why does Sue say that it is his masterpiece?
Answer: The last ivy leaf on the wall was Behrman’s masterpiece. Sue says that it was his masterpiece because he painted it on the wall without caring for his health, in the middle of heavy rainfall and winds. The last leaf gave hope to Sue and made her want to live again.
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Question 13: What was the cause of Johnsy’s illness? How could the illness be treated?
Answer: Johnsy was bedridden with pneumonia. However, the real cause of her illness was her negative thinking. Pneumonia had damaged her body and mind. She had made up her mind that she was going to die. Quite illogically, she had linked the falling number of vine leaves to her remaining lifespan. Her illness could be treated only by injecting back hope and willpower in her life. Her doctor also said that if she did not want to live then medicines would not help her.
The Last Leaf Questions & Answers
Question 14: How did Behrman save Johnsy’s life?
Answer: Mr. Behrman understood that Johnsy had loved the old ivy vine and was waiting for the last leaf on the vine to fall. Then she would lose all hope of wanting to live. He waited for night when everyone would be asleep. He took a ladder, climbed up the wall opposite to Johnsy’s window and painted an ivy leaf on the wall, next to the vine. He did not care for the rain, winds and the cold. The next day morning, when Sue pulled up the shade of the windows and Johnsy spotted an ivy leaf still clinging to the vine, she changed her mind and got hoped to live and get better. Behrman had influenced and given courage to Johnsy through the picture of the ivy leaf and that is how he saved her life.
Question 15: What did Sue and Johnsy see when they pulled the curtain after the beating rain?
Answer: After the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that had continued through the long night, when Sue and Johnsy pulled up the curtain, they saw the last ivy leaf still on the vine. Still dark green near its stem, but with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from a branch some twenty feet above the ground.
Question 16: Analyze the character of Behrman in the light of the sacrifice he made to save Johnsy’s life. Do you think he was a true friend in need?
Answer: Despite his rough exterior, Behrman was a man with a golden heart. Compassion, humanity and readiness for extreme sacrifice were the hallmarks of his nature. When he realized that Johnsy would cling to her life only as long as the last leaf remained in the creeper, he decided to paint an identical leaf on the creeper to make Johnsy feel that the night’s storm had failed to dislodge the leaf. Doing this, he managed to save a precious life but lost his own. He could not resist a pneumonia attack that was triggered by exposure to the rain, wind and chill of the night. The painting was no doubt his masterpiece which he had all along boasted about without accomplishing it. The sad thing is that he didn’t live to receive the adulation.
Yes, indeed, Behrman was a true friend by all means as he didn’t think twice about the consequence of staying out in cold, autumn night and tried to save his friend’s life-risking his own.
Question 17: Justify the title ‘The Last Leaf.’
Answer: Johnsy felt that when the last leaf from the ivy vine fell, she would also die. Behrman painted a leaf on the ivy branch when the last leaf fell before he died. It was his first and last masterpiece. It saved Johnsy’s life. So the title is apt.
So, these were The Last Leaf questions & answers.