Night
of the Scorpion
3.
Why did the peasants in
Ezekiel’s poem want to find out the scorpion?
The peasants believed that with
every movement that the scorpion made, its poison
also would spread in the mother’s blood; so they wanted to
kill the scorpion.
4. What did the father in Ezekiel’s poem do to help the mother?
The father
tried many herbs
and finally poured
some paraffin into
the part of injury and put a match to it.
5. What did the peasants in “Night of the Scorpion” say
about the suffering of the victim?
The peasants hoped
that the mother’s present pain would
burn the sins
of her previous birth and decrease the
misfortunes of her next birth.
Answer: The poem is presented through an incident in
which the poet's mother is bitten by a scorpion on rainy night. The mother
suffers the bite of the scorpion. She groans and moans on the mat twisting
and turning in pain. The villagers on hearing of this unfortunate event, come
to see her, praying to god and giving all kinds of justifications for her
suffering. With their prayers and words they try to console the victim. The
victim’s husband who is otherwise a sceptic and a rationalist also gives in
to every curse and blessing.
The mother bears the pain and suffering for
twenty hours, writhing in pain and when she recovers, she is thankful that
she was bitten and not her children, bringing out the maternal love of a
mother for her children. She epitomizes motherhood and like a typical Indian
mother is selfless in her love for her children.
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- Narrate all the activities in the poem “Night of the Scorpion”?
Nissim
Ezekiel depicts the real picture of the Indian villagers in his poem, “Night of the Scorpion”. Though
the Indian villagers are illiterate and superstitious, they are very helpful to one another. On a rainy
night a scorpion stung the poet’s mother.
Hearing this villagers
came in large numbers.
They buzzed the name of God a hundred times
to dilute the evil power because they believed
that the attack of the scorpion was done by the power of devil.
They searched for the scorpion with candles and lanterns. They did not find the scorpion. They said that the poison would spread in the mother’s body, with every movement of
the scorpion. They consoled her saying that the
present pain would reduce the sufferings of her next birth. Some of them remarked that her pain would balance the sum of evil
against the sum of good in this unreal world. Some others hoped that her pain would purify her desires of flesh and spirit of ambition. They
sat around her consoling her and praying for her. There was peace of
understanding on their faces. More people
came with candles
and lanterns in the rain. The poet sympathizes with the villagers for
their ignorance and superstition and at the same time he appreciates their innocence and helpfulness in an emergency situation.
3.
The portrayal of the peasants in
“Night of the Scorpion”.
Nissim Ezekiel’s
“Night of the Scorpion” is full of superstition. The narrator’s mother is stung by a scorpion on a rainy night. As soon as the news
spreads the peasants in the neighborhood rush to the victim’s house. They are alarmed and ready to do anything
to help her. They are uneducated and superstitious and believe that the devil is behind
this attack, and so utter the name of God, a hundred times to keep away the devil’s influence. They believe that the scorpion
with its poisonous tail is the devil itself.
They search for the creature
with candles and lanterns
so they can kill it. They think
that as long as it moves, the poison in the woman’s body will spread and it can be fatal. Then they console
the woman saying that her suffering is caused by the sins in her previous birth and if she endures
the pain it will burn away her sins and will decrease
her suffering in the next birth. Besides,
the poison will purify her flesh of all desires, and her spirit of ambition. The sum of good and evil should
be balanced in the world
and her pain will diminish
the sum of evil.
4.
Attempt a critical
appreciation of Nissim
Ezekiel’s poem – Night of the Scorpion.
Ans: Nissim Ezekiel is one of the prominent poets writing in English. His
poems contain
incidents which are taken from everyday Indian
life. The feelings
in many of the poems are personal, but
unsentimental, expressed in irony.
The night of the Scorpion
is one of his best known poems.
It is an example of a common
Indian situation made into art. It is
presented from the perspective of a child. It is a narrative poem. The speaker describes how once his mother
was stung by a scorpion
on a rainy night. The poet presents
a concrete situation from life
in objective terms. The mother stung by the scorpion, the peasant’s swarming like flies, their chanting
and ritualistic gestures, and the action of the rationalist father
and the final words of the mother – all reveal a typical Indian situation.
The speaker’s mother was stung by a scorpion. It had been
raining for nearly ten hours. The scorpion which
had remained concealed behind a sack of rice came out and stung the child’s
mother. Hearing these peasants
came to the boy’s house like swarms of flies and started
praying. They were superstitious and they believed
that if the scorpion moved; its poison would spread in the mother’s blood. They searched for the scorpion’s shadow
on the walls. The peasants
were contrasted by the child’s
rationalist father. The world of irrationality co-‐ exists with the world of science in this poem. The father mixed a powder
of herbs and hybrids and even poured paraffin upon the bitten toe. In spite of
all the efforts of the
father and the peasants, the mother suffered pain for twenty hours, till the pain automatically subsided. The mother’s act of thanking
god for sparing
her children from what she suffered reveals
the selfless love of an Indian mother.
