PPT ON SHADY PLOTMADE BY

NAME -SAGARCLASS-10

ROLL NO-23

About The AuthorName- Elsie BrownBorn on- January 2, 1870Died on- November 11, 1965She is buried at Fort Coffee Cemetery in Spiro, Oklahoma.

CHARACTERSThe characters of The Shady

Plot are :-(1) John Hallock (Narrator)(2) Lavinia Hallock (John's wife) (3) Jenkins (John’s Boss)(4) Helen (Lady Ghost), (5) Laura Hinkle (Lavinia's Friend) (6) Gladolia (Maid)

Theme of The StoryThe story is woven round the theme of conjuring up the spirits of dead people in order to know the unknown. In alight hearted humorous narration it relates the story of an encounter of a writer with a denizen of the realm of ghosts. The story triggers the age old debate on superstitions and the supernatural- whether ghosts do exist and whether spirits like Helen control our lives. Another question that the story raises is whether we have any moral rights to conjure up spirits and disturb them.The story also deals with the sub theme of the unpredictability of the process of creative writing and how the creativity of a writer is curbed when he is pressurized to write on a particular theme.

Summary of the story

John Hallock's publisher Jenkins wants him to write a ‘supernatural story’ to cater to the growing public demand for such fiction. Hallock has hard time thinking of a suitable plot. The success he earlier had with a similar plot eludes him. As he sits in his study, sucking at the end of his pencil and thinking hard for an idea, he hears a strange voice in response to a remark he made to himself aloud. First Encounter with Helen, the Ghost: The voice belongs to a ghost, Helen of New York. She appears to him in stages. She has a long and angular face with fishy eyes behind big bone-rimmed spectacles. She comes over and stands in front of him, staring at him.

He is surprised to hear from her that she is a spirit who has come to him in response to a call he has made for inspiration and that she and some other like minded spirits had organized “The Writer’s Inspiration Bureau’ to help authors without ideas to write. She claims that she has helped him with ideas and inspiration on many occasions in the past. He is further in for a shock when she asks him to tell his wife not to play with Ouija boards and that the group of spirits she belongs to is going to go on a strike to protest being bothered by people. She wants him to exercise his influence and get all his friends and acquaintances to stop using Ouija boards.Lavinia Interrupts the Meeting :

Just at that movement Hallock's wife, Lavinia appears on the scene. So, he requests Helen to beat a hasty retreat and she demobilizes and evaporates but not without reminding him of the spirits’ strike.Lavinia proudly announces that she has bought a Ouija board. Ostensibly her purpose behind buying it is to help John write fantastic ghost stories but the fact is, she is fascinated by Ouija boards and has even invited her friends to a Ouija Board party. No amount of entreaties by Hallock, not to use Ouija board, deters her from going ahead with her plan. Lavinia’ s Ouija Board Party : Next day when he returns home from work Hallock is told by Gladolia

The cook, to get ready and come down as his wife had invited some of her friends for a Ouija Board Party. He finds the parlour of his house full of women-most of them elderly members, of his wife, Lavinia’ s Book Club- busy at Ouija boards in pair. His wife wants him to join one of her friends Miss Laura Hinkle, whose partner Mrs. William Augustus Wainright had failed to make it to the party. That is how Hallock finds himself working the Ouija board with Miss Hinkle, much against his wish and contrary to his promise to Helen, the spirit.While Miss Hinkle and Hallock are moving the Ouija board, a strange thing happens. First it spells the word T-R-A-I-T-O-R and then H-E-L-E-N. Intrigued by this,

Miss Hinkle asks the Ouija board for clues and is shocked to discover that someone by the name of Helen was calling Hallocks a traitor. Immediately she tells Hallocks wife, Lavinia about it. In no time all the Ouija boards in the room begin to call Hallock by name. Obviously, Lavinia is furious and Hallock leaves the room, much too embarrassed and ashamed.Second Encounter with Helen, the Spirit: Suspecting him of cheating her. Lavinia threatens to leave him. At breakfast next morning, it is a note by Lavinia to that effect that greets him instead of the lady. In utter exasperation Hallock remarks, “Oh, I wish I were dead!” At that very moment Helen emerges from nowhere. She tells him that she has come to find out when his wife is going to stop using Ouija boards.

The two are in conversation when first Gladolia interrupts them by announcing that she was going to quit the job because of the hoodoos and the Ouija boards and then it is Lavinia who enters the room to tell him that she was leaving.Hallock behaves strangely on hearing her decision and not wanting to let her see the ghost –Helen of New York –he tries to hide the latter. This arouses Lavinia’s suspicion further. She dismisses Gladolia from the room by telling her to throw the Ouija board in the fireplace and accosts Hallock by saying that he was trying to conceal something from her. He tries in vain to distract her, but she thrusts him back foreibly to find out who was behind him.

The truth is revealed: Helen, the ghost, presents herself before Lavinia, who, contrary to Hallock’s expectations, does not swoon on seeing the apparition. Instead she is relieved to find out that Helen was only an apparition and not a real women or the Helen of Troy. This revelation calms Lavinia down and she realizes her folly of unnecessarily suspecting her husband of cheating on her. While she sheepishly apologizes to him, he has a sudden urge to write for he has got the ‘bulliest plot’ for a ghost story!

Q. Answer the following questions briefly.(a) What genre of stories does Jenkins want the

narrator to write? Why?(b)Does he narrator like writing ghost stories?

Support your answer with evidence from the story.

(c) What makes Helen, the ghost, and her other co-ghosts organize The Writer’s Inspiration Bureau?

(d)Why had Helen, the ghost been helping the narrator write ghost stories? Why was she going on strike? What condition did she place for providing continued help?

(e) How does the ghost undermine the narrator’s faith in his ability to write ghost stories?(f) Why does John want the ghost to disappear before his wife appears on the scene? What impression of his wife’s character do you form from his words?(g) Why does the narrator hesitate to be a partner to Laura Hinkle during the Ouija Board Party?(h) What message does the ghost convey to the group that had assembled in the narrator’s house? What is their reaction to the message?

(i) Do you agree with the narrator calling the assembly of women “manipulators”? Give reasons.(j) Why is John’s wife angry? What does she decide to do?(k) Why does John wish he were dead?(l) When confronted by Lavinia about his flirtations over the Ouija Board, John insists that ‘the affair was quite above- board, I assure you, my love’. Bring out the pun in John’s statement. (m John’s apprehensions about his wife’s reaction to her encounter with the ghost are unfounded. Justify.