The Oval Portrait by Edgar Ellen Poe story warns that we should maintain balance and not let addictions or obsessions displace our humanity and care for other people. Life and relationships should not be sacrificed in the name of work or any other pursuit, no matter how talented one is at it. ( Class 11 English Stories Unit 2 ) Class 11 The Oval Portrait Exercise Questions Answers and it’s summary is discussed in this article.
Class 11 Oval Portrait Exercise Questions Answers and detailed summary are discussed in this article.
The Oval Portrait
EXERCISES
Understanding the text
Answer these questions.
a. Where did the narrator
and his servant make forcible entrance?
Answer: The narrator and his servant made forcible
entrance into the chateau which is located in the Appennines of central Italy. It
was a deserted chateau where they were going to spend the night.
b. Which special picture did
the narrator notice in the room?
Answer:
The special picture he noticed in the room was the oval-shaped picture of a
young girl in the room which is seen when the rays of candelabrum fell on it.
c. Describe the portrait
that the narrator saw in the room.
Answer:
The portrait that the narrator saw in the room was in an oval-shaped frame. It
was quite artistic and natural. It revealed the head and shoulders of the young
woman. The arms, the bosom, and even the ends of the radiant hair dissolved
untraceably into the unclear yet deep shadow which formed the background of the
whole.
d. What is the relationship
between the portrait painter and its subject?
Answer: The relationship between the portrait and its subject is husband and wife. The portrait painter is quite passionate in painting. He is so devoted to paint the portrait of the subject (his wife). He has spent many days to paint the portrait of his wife.
Reference to the context
a. What is the central theme
of the story? Who is the woman depicted in the oval portrait?
Answer: The central theme of the story “The Oval Portrait” is the relationship between art and life. It is seen that too much devotion in art may take the life of a person. Art is shown as a killer and it is responsible for the young bride’s death. In this context, art is equivalent to death. In this story the association between art and life is considered as rivalry. The story suggests that art can reveal the artist’s weakness and can destroy the life. The woman depicted in the oval portrait is the wife of the painter who has painted the oval portrait and she is also the victim of the painter’s passion for painting.
b. “The Oval
Portrait” is a short horror story by Edgar Allan Poe involving the
disturbing circumstances surrounding a portrait in a chateau. Elaborate.
Answer: The story “The Oval Portrait” is a frame narrative story with its dark setting and mood of the narration. It is also a short horror story. The setting of the story is a gloomy abandoned one. The chateau is deserted and old one. It contains objects of a dark and mysterious past – such as the oval portrait itself. The apartments inside the chateau are messy and dirty. The apartment where the narrator and his valet stay, contains many things as decoration including the oval portrait itself. It is in one of the corners of the apartment. The antiquity of the interior where its walls are decorated with tapestry and manifold and multiform armorial trophies, and a great number of spirited modern paintings. The dark setting and shadowy circumstances of the prior events provide the impression that the story has a bizarre twist. The portrait seems quite valueless in the apartment.
c. “The Oval
Portrait” suggests that the woman’s beauty condemns her to death. Discuss.
Answer: ‘The Oval Portrait’ suggests that woman’s beauty condemns her to death. The painting described in the story states that the young lady in the portrait is very beautiful. She loses her life because her husband compels her to sit for many weeks until he finishes the portrait. His aim is to make the most beautiful portrait of her. Though the lady sits next to her husband, he is so obsessed in his painting to create the most beautiful portrait of her. But he doesn’t realize that his wife is becoming weaker and weaker day by day. Her life is withdrawing from her body slowly. It reveals the sad reality of the husband’s failure to witness the beauty of his wife. By the time he finishes the portrait, he finds his wife lying dead. In this way, her beauty condemns her to own death.
d. Discuss the story as a
frame narrative (a story within a story).
Answer: The Oval Portrait is a frame narrative, or a
story that contains another story. In the first part of the story, we encounter
the unnamed narrator, who is injured and stranded at night for unknown reasons.
He along with his valet, Pedro, take shelter in an abandoned chateau. The
narrator stays awake while his servant sleeps. He is captivated by the
paintings of the apartment. The next story is that he finds a book which gives
amazing description of the oval portrait and studies a book containing their
history. In a frame narrative we find another story within a story like in this
story. So, this story is a frame narrative.
e. The story is told in a descriptive style, with plenty of imagery and symbolism. Which images and symbols do you find in the story?
Answer: The story is told in a descriptive style with plenty of
imagery and symbolisms. The chateau is abandoned and worn-out. The turret room
is in a remote section of the mansion. There is
immense use of darkness and the light of candelabrum. The room is rich in
decorations with wall tapestries, trophies, paintings etc. This vivid
description of the mansion provides the gothic image. Likewise, the
descriptions of the portrait describe how real and beautiful it is.
In the same way the dark gloominess of the abandoned house is a classic background for a gothic story. Some symbols are also used in the story as the painter is the symbol of passion and devotion. The oval portrait symbolizes the immortality of art. The artwork symbolizes the painter’s obsession to his artwork.
f. What does the expression
“She was dead!” mean?
Answer: The expression ‘She was dead!’ means the painter’s realization of the death of his beloved because of his devotion to the portrait. It is the shocking moment of the death of the painter’s wife. The painter is very obsessed in his artwork. As the work continues his wife becomes weaker and weaker. He doesn’t care about the physical condition of his wife. He continues to paint desperately, without taking his eyes off the canvas. When he turns to his wife for sharing his happiness after finishing his artwork, he gets his wife dead on the chair.
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Summary
‘The Oval Portrait’ (1842) is one of the shortest tales Edgar Allan Poe ever wrote. In just a few pages, he offers a powerful story about the relationship between art and life, through the narrator’s encounter with the oval portrait of a young woman in a chateau in the Apennines. The story repays close analysis because of the way Poe offers his story as a subtle commentary on link between life and art.
First, a brief summary of this briefest of stories. The narrator, wounded and delirious, has sought shelter in an old mansion with his valet or manservant, Pedro. He holes up in one of the rooms, and contemplates the strange paintings adorning the walls of the room, and reads a small book he had found on the pillow of the bed, which contains information about the paintings. At around midnight, he adjusts the candelabrum in the room and his eye catches a portrait he hadn’t previously noticed, in an oval-shaped frame, depicting a young girl on the threshold of womanhood.
The narrator is captivated by this portrait, which seems so life-like; but he soon becomes appalled by it. He turns to the book and reads the entry detailing the history behind the oval portrait. The woman depicted in it was the young bride of the painter, and was a perfect wife in every respect – except that she was jealous of her husband’s art that distracted him from her. The artist paints a portrait of his wife, and becomes more and more obsessed with capturing her likeness, until he ends up spending all of his time gazing at the portrait of his wife, and hardly any time looking at her. She becomes weaker and weaker, dispirited from losing her husband’s love as he stops paying her attention and becomes more and more preoccupied with the painting. When he has just about finished the portrait and turns to regard his wife, it is to find that she has died.
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