(8)
Stephen Leacock
My Tailor
Q No. 1: What
were the ways of the tailor?
This essay is taken from a collection of
humorous pieces called “Further
Foolishness”. In this essay Leacock mingles humour with pathos and leaves a
lasting impression on the reader’s mind. Here, he masterfully delineates an
unforgettable character. He presents
his tailor before us to entertain as well as educate us. Writer’s tailor was every special person with
some specific ways and habits.
Writer's relation with him was
thirty years old and in these thirty years, his style never changed. He remained standing in the back part of his
shop with his inches tape round his snack.
He used to greet the writer with a warm smile and asked him what he
wanted. Then, the tailor himself made
the choice of cloth for him as "serge" and then himself chose the
colour as dark blue.
His way of displaying the cloth was
quite amusing. He lifted one knee and
draped the cloth over it, standing upon one leg. The tailor could stand in this posture for an
indefinite time. It was very difficult
for the writer to resist him. So, he readily agreed with his choice. They had a strange way of obliging each
other. The writer always asked him if his dress would be cool and decent. This question pleased the tailor a lot and he
told the writer that it would be so.
Then he took measurements of the
writer, only round the chest. He tried
to flatter him by telling that the writer was growing round the chest. It was like
a psychological trick. Then there was
the matter of billing. The tailor never
talked about the bill rather he turned to other things. This matter was only dealt with by
correspondence. The tailor wrote him a
letter in such a tone that suggested that he would never have written to him if
he were himself not under the pressure of paying for his consignments from
Europe. The writer noticed that these
consignments generally arrived when he had passed the limit of owing for two
suits and had ordered a third one. Then the tailors talked about weather. He always finished his conversation with
weather and that only after the order of the suit. He offered the writer to buy some shirts or
collaring but the write never did. They
walked to the door in a friendly way.
After bidding each other "Good afternoon" they parted.
This was the description of writer’s tailor
that had some specific details and with the help of these details he has
successfully established the salient features of his tailor's personality.
Q No. 2: How
did the deal with the problem of billing?
The writer and his tailor had a
strong relation of courtesy. The tailor
never talked about the bill. Whenever
the writer tried to talk about this matter, he waved it aside and started to discuss
something else. This was the matter they
never spoke of. They dealt it through
correspondence. The tailor wrote him a
letter in a fine, decorous and courteous way.
His manner of asking for the bill was quite apologetic. He would give reasons for his demand of bill
like arrival of heavy consignments from Europe for which he needed money. Writer noticed that these consignments
usually arrived when he had to pay for two suits and had ordered a third one. But it might be a coincidence.
It was their unique style of dealing with the
matter of bill.
Q No 3: Why
did Leacock regard his tailor to be "Immortal"?
The writer had been visiting a very
nice tailor for last thirty years. They
had very courteous and warm relationship.
The writer was extremely shocked when one day he heard the news of his
tailor's sudden death. He never thought
it possible. He had been meeting the
tailor for last thirty years and had expected to see him forever. He regarded him as being immortal. This event carries a criticism on our ways
and behaviors in this world. In fact the
writer wants to make us realize the importance of “man”. Today people are so busy in their own lives
that they cannot see and understand the problems of people living around them.
The modern race of collecting more and more money has blinded the human race
and people care for nothing except their own lust, selfishness and
competition. The modern man regards
people around him as machines and never tries to recognize their personal problems
and worries.
It was the same case with the
writer; he never took his tailor to be a human being. He thought him only to be
a machine that provided him a service and that would never break down. Leacock never tried to know about his
personal life and worries. His relation
with him was only superficial and business like. That's why the news of the tailor’s death
struck him with wonder. The writer was
equally shocked by the existence of his wife and a daughter. The financial problems and the religious
interests of the tailor also seemed strange and unreal to him.
The motive of Stephen Leacock is
only to make us realize this great reality that humanity will never flourish or
be preserved unless the individual man is given importance. The relation ship, the understanding and
helpfulness is very important in the society and it is the lack of all these
things that has made the modern man lonely and helpless. This situation should be rectified and people
should come closer to understand and help each other.
Q No. 4: What
was other side of the tailor's personality?
The writer describes his intercourse
with his tailor in a very effective and amusing way. He tries to invoke us to think deeply about
the human beings and different aspects of their lives.
Every man has a three dimensional
life and character but our rushed life does not give us enough time to look
beyond life’s apparent or obvious facet.
The writer too did same in the case of his tailor. He took his tailor as a worker or “hand” but never
thought about his inner life. The
tailor, besides being a skilled professional, was a religious person. He was interested in music and played the
flute. He had a daughter who was also
learning music. His business was not
going on well. In spite of his smooth
and calm ways, his business worry was mounting up with every passing year and
now it had finally killed him. It was
quite unbelievable for the writer that even the business worries can help to
kill a person. He was told that the
tailor's wife would have to face grave financial problems. It was quite strange for the writer who never
thought about other aspects of the tailor's life. The smiling face and amusing manners of the
tailor were hiding a deeply tragic life and a helpless death behind them. This
is the moral of this essay that pleads us to look through the veil or mask of
human face and discover the troubled and agonized soul of a man behind it. Today’s man needs some companion or helper
who can at least listen to his problems sympathetically.
Q No.5: What
is the moral of this essay?
In this essay, Stephen Leacock
presents a finely knit character of his tailor.
Through this character and the circumstances of his life, he tries to
give us a message. Today the life has
become so busy that human beings have taken the shape of isolated Islands that
lie scattered in the deep and wide ocean of the world completely oblivious of
each other.
Today nobody cares for others. Everyone tries to pursue his own motives and
objectives. The sense of friendship,
co-operation and sympathy has been finished and human beings take no interest
in anybody else's life. Modern man never
comes to know that how many people suffer silently and never share their troubles
with anyone like Stephen Leacock's tailor.
The thesis of the writer is the need
to cultivate love and courtesy in the world so that man can live a humane
life. Today we all are running a race
with machines and technology. The urge
to become rich has killed the soul of humanity and compassion. But we should halt for a moment to take a
breath and think who we are and what are we doing. We are human beings but we live an artificial
life like machines and this is leading us to the tragedies of the tailor's
type. Today a man dies even without
expressing his agonies because nobody can spare a moment to talk about his life
and its troubles. We should try to improve the situation and live like a man
and also consider other people as a “man”.
Thank you
ReplyDeletethnxx
ReplyDelete