NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English (Kaleidoscope) Non Fiction 2 The Mark on the Wall

NCERT
SOLUTIONS
CLASS - 12th

aglase .co

Class : 12th

Subject : English

Chapter : 2

Chapter Name : The Mark on the Wall

Q1 An account of reflections is more important than a description of reality according to the
author. Why?

Answer. Reality is often a dry and monotonous explanation of things. It lacks the luster of
emotions and a description of reality often fails to evoke the feelings that the author wants to
convey through his or her work. Reflections, on the other hand, helps people to introspect. By
composing characters who can reflect upon the deep hidden truths of life, the true meaning of
the work can be conveyed. Woolf believes that true reflections are required to make the
character a round character and the depths of that character can be explored through such
reflections. While reality can inspire the author, however, only portraying the character’s realist
side tends to make it flat and dry devoid of any underlying emotions. Hence, according to the
author an account of reflections is more important than a description of reality.

Page : 144 , Block Name : Understanding the Text

Q2 Looking back at objects and habits of a bygone era can give one a feeling of phantom-like
unreality. What examples does the author give to bring out this idea?

Answer. The author gives the example of William Shakespeare, one of the most popular
Elizabethan dramatists, who perfectly depicts the phantom-like unreality of a bygone era. The
image of Shakespeare sitting by the fireside with his hands in his head in quiet solitude while
the heavens showered him with ideas and inspirations, seemed extremely unreal and
improbable. She does not believe that any such phenomena can take place to provide
inspiration. Inspirations come naturally to a person through his/her surroundings. For her, the
concepts of Hell and Heaven or Good and Evil or Devil and God, all seem too unreal to exist.

Page : 144 , Block Name : Understanding the Text

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Q3 How does the imagery of (i) the fish (ii) the tree, used almost poetically by the author,
emphasize the idea of stillness of living breathing thought?

Answer. Woolf contemplates the life a tree and a fish to depict the idea of the ‘stillness of living,
breathing thought’. She says “Wood is a pleasant thing to think about it. It comes from a tree,
and trees grow, and we don’t know how they grow”. The phenomena of a tree quietly growing
without any external interference describes how nature works in solitude in its own way. She
further explains it using the imagery of a fish saying, “I like to think of the fish balanced against
the stream like flags blown out” to describe the still nature around us which is often left unseen.

Page : 145 , Block Name : Understanding the Text

Q4 How does the author pin her reflections on a variety of subjects on the ‘mark on the wall’?
What does this tell about the way the human mind functions?

Answer. The method of narration portrayed in this chapter is the technique of “Stream of
consciousness”. The author jumps between narrowly related thoughts in order to solve the
mystery behind the mark on the wall. This portrays the workings of the complex human mind
and the mental processes. For solving the mere issue of the mark on the wall, she goes into
unimaginable depths. The mark on the wall makes her dig into history as far as Shakespeare
and consequently provokes her mental process- es to look into the future. Thus, the vast scope
of the human mind is portrayed through this story and it uses the technique of ‘stream of
consciousness’ to depict the complex workings of the human mind.

Page : 145 , Block Name : Understanding the Text

Q5 Not seeing the obvious could lead a perspective mind to reflect upon more philosophical
issues. Discuss this with reference to the ‘snail on the wall’.

Answer. The story ‘The Mark on the Wall’ decidedly revolves around the mark present on the
wall from across the author. Instead of going for the obvious action of getting up from her chair
and inspecting the mark, she decidedly delves into several mental processes in order to solve
the mystery behind it. Through this process, she reflects upon more philosophical issues. She

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Book : Kaliedoscope - Non Fiction Ncert Solutions | Chapter - 2 English - Non Fiction

travels to the past and the future fleeting between thoughts, reflecting upon philosophies and at
the same time trying to solve the mystery behind the mark. It is revealed at the end that the
mark was made by something as simple as a snail. However, she fails to see the obvious and
having a perspective mind, reflected upon a lot of philosophical issues through the entire
process.

Page : 145 , Block Name : Understanding the Text

Q1 ‘In order to fix a date, it is necessary to remember what one saw’. Have you experienced this
at any time? Describe one such incident and the non-chronological details that helped you
remember a particular date.

Answer. The technique employed by the author is the technique of ‘Stream of consciousness’. It
is when the mind hops, skips and jumps from one thought to another related by a narrow thread
of similarity between them. Thus when the author says, “In order to fix a date, it is necessary to
remember what one saw”, she means to say that since the mind is more receptive to images
than writings, hence, if someone has to mark an important date, and if he has forgotten about it,
the visual images that happened on that particular day may help him trace back to the date of
the day.

Page : 145 , Block Name : Talking about the Text

Q2 ‘Tablecloths of a different kind were not real tablecloths’. Does this sentence embody the
idea of blind adherence to rules and tradition? Discuss with reference to ‘Understanding
Freedom and Discipline’ by J. Krishnamurti that you’ve already read.

Answer. The concept of freedom has been restructured by both J. Krishnamurthi and Virginia
Woolf in their works. Both are against the concept of blind adherence to rules without
questioning their intent and purpose. In both their works, ‘The Mark on the Wall’ and
‘Understanding Freedom and Discipline’, they bring to the notice of the readers that rules have
gravely restricted individual freedom. People are made to question their desires. Woolf also
pinpoints the importance given to knowledge and learning and the depiction of Shakespearean
reality and by rejecting these traditional norms she implements her own ideas on learning and
reality.

Page : 145 , Block Name : Talking about the Text

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Q3 According to the author, nature prompts action as a way of ending thought. Do we tacitly
assume that ‘men of action are men who don’t think’?

Answer. Woolf assumed that nature is creating distractions to end the mental process- es of her
thoughts i.e. it is providing obstacles in her thought processes. She takes this as a challenge
and does not give in to the temptation of standing up and solving the mystery behind the mark
on the wall, in less than a minute. Instead, she chooses to take her own time and solve the
mystery with her powerful mental process. This leads to a flood of thoughts in vast directions.
For the narrator, knowledge is all about the ability to think and nature sets hurdles for us. Those
who act, don’t think, according to the narrator and therefore in the context of the story it is right
to say that, ‘Men of actions are men who don’t think’.

Page : 145 , Block Name : Talking about the Text

Q1 Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of narration: one, where the reader would remain
aware of some outside voice telling him/her what’s going on; two, a narration that seeks to
reproduce, without the narrator’s intervention, the full spectrum and continuous flow of a
character’s mental process. Which of these is exemplified in this essay? Illustrate.

Answer. ‘The mark on the wall’ is a perfect example of Virginia Woolf’s ‘Stream of
Consciousness’, which is a narration that seeks to reproduce, without the narrator’s intervention,
the full spectrum of and continuous flow of a character’s mental process. Throughout the story,
the narrator focused on her interpretations of the mark across from her, on the wall. Through the
process of solving the mystery behind the mark, Woolf comes up with a collection of vast
unconnected thoughts and opinions. The flood of thoughts that the mark provokes in the
narrator’s mind is completely unrelated to the actual reason behind the mark- the snail. Her
contemplations on and interpretations of several philosophical ideas set the narrative technique
of the essay. It portrays the ‘stream of consciousness’ narrative technique exemplified in the
essay.

Page : 145 , Block Name : Appreciation

Q2 This essay frequently uses the non-periodic or loose sentence structure: the component
members are continuous, but so loosely joined, that the sentence could have easily broken

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without damage to or break in thought. Locate a few such sentences, and discuss how they
contribute to the relaxed and conversational effect of the narration.

Answer. The following set of sentences drawn from the text is a perfect example of the
continuous loosely joined sentence structure. This narrative structure provides a relaxed tone to
the narration. The depiction of the narrator, sitting on her chair, smoking her cigarette and trying
to solve the mystery behind the mark on the wall implies her reluctance to stand up and solve
the mystery in less than a minute, thus providing an aura of sluggishness to the scene. At the
same time the broken tone is adding up a conversational effect to the text, so the reader is
completely involved in it and knows that the narrator is actually talking to him/her. This tone
adds a sort of curiosity in the mind of the readers to know about the mysterious mark on the
wall. “I want to sink deeper and deeper, away from the surface, with its hard separate facts. To
steady myself, let me catch hold of the first idea that passes... Shakespeare... Well, he will do
as well as another. A man who sat solidly in an arm-chair, and looked into the fire, so- A shower
of ideas fell perpetually from some very high Heaven down thoughts his mind. He leaned his
forehead on his hand, and people, looking in through the open door,- for this scene is supposed
to take place on a summer’s evening- But how dull this is, this historical fiction! It doesn’t interest
me at all”

Page : 145 , Block Name : Appreciation

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