1st PUC English Textbook Answers Reflections Chapter 9 The Farmer’s Wife

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Karnataka 1st PUC English Textbook Answers Reflections Chapter 9 The Farmer’s Wife

The Farmer’s Wife Questions and Answers, Notes, Summary

The Farmer’s Wife Comprehension I

Question 1.
Who do ‘you’ and T in the poem refer to?
Answer:
‘You’ refers to the farmer and ‘I’ refers to the farmer’s wife. .

Question 2.
Why has the speaker’s husband committed suicide?
OR
Why did the farmer commit suicide?
Answer:
The farmer was in debt and had no crops to sell. He was unable to bear the shame and was unwilling to stretch his hand for help. Being hounded by creditors he committed suicide.

Question 3.
What series of contrasts does the speaker draw between herself and her husband?
Answer:
The speaker says that her husband was virtuous, but she is a sinner, and he is dead while she is alive. There is irony in this series of contrasts because the farmer, unable to bear the shame, committed suicide without wondering what would be the plight of his wife, left behind to face the creditors.

Question 4.
What expressions in the poem bring out the contrast between the speaker and her husband’s plight? What difference does this indicate?
Answer:
Being a man, the farmer was not used to being subservient to others. He could not bear the idea of bending his head or stretching his hand in front of the creditors. But, being a woman, the farmer’s wife was used to obedience and harsh treatment and could pull on even when insulted and deprived. Moreover, being a woman, her motherly instinct made it impossible for her to leave her children behind at the mercy of fate. Though the prospect of bringing up four children in the face of stark poverty is daunting, she faces the challenge and doesn’t take recourse to the easier escape route of suicide. Thus we see that the difference between the man and the woman lies in the way men and women are generally treated in society and the way in which men treat women at home. But the saving grace is the fact that the injustice meted out to women in society and at home makes them strong and gives them the courage to ’embrace life and struggle for life’.

Question 5.
The farmer’s wife in the poem is
(a) complaining about her husband’s death.
(b) lamenting the death of her husband.
(c) angry that her husband has left her.
(d) bitter about her husband’s act.
(e) worried about her future.
(f) all of the above.
Answer:
(f) all of the above.

Question 6.
What memories of her husband trouble her now?
OR
How does the farmer’s wife lament over the death of her husband?
OR
What are the memories of her husband that haunt the farmer’s wife?
Answer:
The woman was ill-treated by her husband in his drunken state. He had abused her both physically and verbally when he was alive. But all this was accepted by the woman because society had made her believe that a man had the right to rule over his wife and even abuse her when displeased as he was the master who went out into the world while she was to deal with family problems. But this idea of the man gets beaten when the farmer is unable to withstand the pressure and commits suicide. Now, the woman has to shoulder the responsibility of both work and home. Naturally, the woman has all negative memories of the man who did no justice to her when alive and did a greater injustice to her by embracing death. The poet wants to point out that while all of us sympathise with the man who was driven to commit suicide, the plight of the woman who has to fend for herself is worse than that of the man who is dead and thereby free of all problems.

Question 7.
What does the phrase ‘harvest of my womb’ suggest? Why is their plight compared to ‘worm-eaten cotton pod’?
Answer:
The phrase ‘harvest of my womb’ refers to the four children the woman has borne. Just as the field produces the crop and has the harvest, the woman has produced children. If she, like her husband, takes the easier way out by committing suicide, the children will be left behind like the ‘worm-eaten cotton pod.’ The woman makes it clear that if the children do not have the parent figure to nourish them they would be like the unripe cotton pods. They cannot reach their mature stage of growth. The poet deliberately uses the simile which compares the orphaned children to worm-eaten cotton pod because it was in cotton-growing areas that the highest number of farmers committed suicide.

Question 8.
To what condition had her husband’s act of committing suicide pushed her?
Answer:
Her husband’s act of committing suicide has pushed her to a state which is worse than death. The woman uses the word ‘death blow’ to show that the death blow of poison which put an end to the farmer’s life is easier than the death blow that the wife has to experience in terms of money, dignity and complexity of bringing up the children without any support.

Question 9.
The poem ends with
(a) an assertion.
(b) a deep sense of failure and despondency.
(c) a will to survive against all odds.
Answer:
(c) a will to survive against all odds.

The Farmer’s Wife Comprehension II

Question 1.
Many times the tone suggests the attitude of the speaker. What kind of attitudes are suggested by the words ‘virtuous’, ‘poor sinner’, ‘he is but a man’, ‘what of this?’, Why is this?’
Answer:
The attitude of the speaker is cynical. She cannot accept her husband’s act of cowardice. She uses the word ‘virtuous’ ironically. She mocks at the possibility of all praising the farmer as a man of dignity who couldn’t bear the idea of taking loans from others. It is customary for all of us to praise the dead and so the farmer would get nothing but sympathy. However, the speaker considers his act cowardly. She says ironically that she will be taken as a ‘poor sinner’ because she is still alive when her virtuous husband has become a martyr.

She is justifiably angry that the ‘man’ of the house has turned out to be a coward. The man who abused her because of his advantage of being ‘but a man’ in a patriarchal society, has left her behind to do the work of a man, that is, earning a living for the sake of the four children. The woman rightly points out that the farmer should have had the strength of character to ask the questions, ‘What of this?’ and ‘Why is this?’ and fought against the odds in life to come out of difficulty. But he showed no such courage and left his family behind in dire straits to fend for themselves.

Question 2.
What kind of questions does the poem raise about the plight of farmers’ widows? Do you think that these questions are only addressed to the speaker’s dead husband?
Answer:
The poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ by the Volga takes up the contemporary problem of many a farmer committing suicide unable to repay the debt taken. It takes a refreshingly different angle of perceiving the problem from the farmer’s wife’s angle. The poem is an eye-opener because generally when we hear or read about the acts of suicide, we think only about the tragic plight of the farmer who was pushed into the act of committing suicide.

While it is true that the state of the farmer deserves our sympathy, it is equally true that not many of us view the problem from the angle of the family that is left behind. The fact remains that the family would continue to be in the state of insolvency and such a family would be in the worst state of affairs because the so-called ‘man of the house’ is dead and the family still has no source of income. The widow of the farmer or any other person who is left behind to shoulder the onus is in a very pitiable condition indeed! Hence, the aim of the poem is not to single out one case of suicide, but to throw light on a social problem which needs government intervention to be resolved.

On the one hand, the poem is a plea to all those who give up their struggle not to do so and to brave the storm courageously, and on the other hand, it is a tribute to the women who show greater forbearance than men in facing difficulty and in tackling problems. The poem also mocks at the idea of a man as the breadwinner and his sense of superiority over the woman he takes for a wife. The poem, at yet another level, is an appeal to the government and perhaps even social organisations to support those people who want to live with dignity but are forced to eat dirt.

The Farmer’s Wife Additional Questions and Answers

I. Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each:

Question 1.
According to the speaker in ‘The Farmer’s Wife’, who is ‘the poor sinner’?
Answer:
The farmer’s wife.

Question 2.
What does the phrase ‘you crossed over’ refer to, in ‘The Farmer’s Wife’?
Answer:
‘You crossed over’ here refers to the suicide committed by the farmer. The farmer crossed over from life to death. The idiom ‘cross over’ is a euphemism for death.

Question 3.
How did the farmer find release from his problems?
Answer:
By committing suicide.

Question 4.
What does the farmer’s wife want to teach her children?
Answer:
She wants to teach them to clench a fist not merely for a handful of rice but also in battle. In other words, she wants to teach them to be fighters and not escapists in life.

Question 5.
According to the farmer’s wife, who is the virtuous one and who is the sinner in the poem?
Answer:
The farmer is the virtuous one and his wife is the sinner.

Question 6.
What does the farmer’s wife want to embrace?
OR
What does the farmer’s wife decide at the end of the poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’?
Answer:
To embrace life.

Question 7.
How many children did the farmer’s wife have?
Answer:
Four.

Question 8.
The phrase ‘the harvest of my womb’ refers to
(a) the crops
(b) her children
(c) her husband.
OR
What does the farmer’s wife mean by ‘harvest of my womb’?
OR
What does ‘the harvest of my womb’ refer to, in ‘The Farmer’s Wife’?
Answer:
Her children.

Question 9.
What crop did the farmer grow?
Answer:
Cotton crop.

Question 10.
How does the farmer commit suicide in ‘The Farmer’s Wife’?
OR
The farmer committed suicide by _____
Answer:
by drinking poison.

Question 11.
The phrases ‘unable to bend your head’ and ‘or stretch out your hand’ suggest
(a) that he was suffering from joint pain
(b) the flexible attitude of the farmer
(c) the humiliation suffered by the farmer because of the mindset of the society.
Answer:
(c) the humiliation suffered by the farmer because of the mindset of the society.

Question 12.
The lines ‘born with a head bent/a hand outstretched/Not unused to being sold’ suggest
(a) the woman’s plight
(b) physical deformities
(c) weakness.
Answer:
(a) the woman’s plight.

Question 13.
The line ‘poisoning my bitter existence’ refers to
(a) poison as a solution to one’s problems
(b) her husband’s death that added to her woes
(c) using pesticides for the crops.
Answer:
(b) her husband’s death that added to her woes.

Question 14.
In the poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’, the line “You are virtuous and you are gone”, ‘You’ refers to _____
Answer:
‘You’ refers to the farmer, the speaker’s husband.

Question 15.
According to the farmer’s wife, what is she used to?
Answer:
According to the farmer’s wife, she is used to begging and selling her dignity without a head beset and a hand outstretched.

Question 16.
How did the farmer treat his wife when he was drunk?
Answer:
Whenever the farmer was drunk he would kick her using abusive language.

Question 17.
What was the ‘death blow’ given by the farmer to his wife, in ‘The Farmer’s Wife’?
Answer:
‘ The farmer committed suicide, instead of embracing life and facing the struggles of life bravely.

Question 18.
‘Worm-eaten cotton pods’ are compared to ______
Answer:
In this poem, ‘worm-eaten cotton pods’ are compared to the farmer’s malnourished children.

Question 19.
The phrase ‘a bent head’ in ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ refers to
(a) her physical deformity
(b) submissive nature of women in general
(c) aggressive nature of women in general.
Answer:
(b) submissive nature of women in general.

II. Answer the following questions in 80 – 100 words each:

Question 1.
Why and how does the farmer’s wife resolve to live?
OR
Describe the determination of the wife of the dead farmer who wants to carry on her and her children’s existence with dignity.
OR
How does ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ bring out the determination of the woman to survive?
OR
In what way does the farmer’s wife intend to solve the problem?
OR
How does the farmer’s wife resolve to live in ‘The Farmer’s Wife’?
Answer:
The poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ by the Volga begins with the lamentation of the farmer’s wife, who laments over the death of her husband. However, in her lamentation, it is clear that more than mourning over the death of her husband, she expresses her grief over the hopelessness of the situation. Her husband has committed suicide because he was unable to face the creditors. However, his act is not considered an irresponsible act. In fact, people may even think of his act as the virtuous act of a self-respecting man who did not want to bend his head and stretch his arm. But the woman points out that, by committing suicide he has left the woman behind, to bend her head and stretch her hand as she has to continue to live at least for the sake of her four children.

The woman ironically adds that bending the head and stretching the arm pose no problem to her as she has always done that. She has always done that as women are always pushed to the low level. But she cannot understand how her husband, who had always asserted his right over her, simply by virtue of being a man, could drink poison and get released from the worldly bonds in a cowardly way. The woman, in her questioning of his act, implies that his irresponsible act has poisoned her very existence. She suggests that when living was worse than death, embracing death was a selfish and even cruel act on the part of the man as he had no thought for the family that he left behind.

The woman is shocked that the man, who could kick and bully her with the claim of superiority over her, could give her the final death blow by committing suicide. At this point, the woman compares the hardship she suffered in the family over the years and the problem of the cotton crop being destroyed that year. She points out that the pain she had undergone was for a longer period of time, but she had withstood it. The problem of the cotton crop, as she says, ‘is but yesterday’s.’ The juxtaposition of the two problems is done to show that men buckle under pressure more easily than women. Men are self-centred too and when they take recourse to escapism, they don’t give any thought to what would happen to their family. They are not worried over the future of their children either. Hence it becomes double jeopardy for the woman.

On the one hand, she has to come to terms with the death of her husband, on the other she has to worry over the future of her children. Here also the poet draws an analogy between the natural crop and the children. The woman points out that when the crop failed, her husband committed suicide; if she were to do the same thing, her children wouldn’t have a bright future. She adds that she is not prepared to allow the harvest of her womb to perish. She cannot leave her children helpless like the worm-eaten cotton pods in the wind. The woman rightly points out that meeting one’s end is over in a moment. It’s not a long struggle. But the struggle in life, for life to sustain and continue, is a long struggle, full of perils. For this, one needs a brave heart.

Only the one with a firm heart will analyse the difficult situation with questions like, ‘What of this?’ or ‘Why is this?’ When a person asks, ‘What of this?’, he probably wonders about what would be the final outcome of all the struggle. When he asks, ‘Why is this?’, he definitely has a sense of self-pity. Yet he should never lose his reasoning ability and the determination to fight his misfortune. Otherwise, his children would become orphans. That is why the farmer’s wife asserts that she would continue to live to teach her children how to live.

She wants to instil in her children the fighting spirit which her husband lacked. That is why she says that she would continue to be alive to teach her children to fight with a clenched fist for not only the basic need of food but also more important things, attaining which might be nothing less than a battle. For this, she pledges to embrace life and not death, though life would present a long and painful struggle.

Thus the poem is a tribute paid to the dauntless spirit of the woman and a plea to the weak-hearted not to lose hope.

Question 2.
How did the farmer poison his wife’s existence?
Answer:
The woman was ill-treated and abused both physically and verbally by her husband when he was alive. But all this was accepted by the woman because society had made her believe that a man had the right to rule over his wife and even abuse her when displeased as he was the master who went out into the world while she was to deal with family problems. But this idea of the man takes a beating when the farmer is unable to withstand the pressure and commits suicide by consuming poison. He thereby poisoned his wife’s existence as, now, the woman has to shoulder the responsibility of both work and home.

She has to struggle hard to repay the loan suffering humiliation and also earn enough to keep her children and herself alive. Naturally, the woman has all negative memories of the man who did no justice to her when alive and did a greater injustice to her by embracing death. The poet wants to point out that while all of us sympathise with the man who was driven to commit suicide, the plight of the woman who has to fend for herself is worse than that of the man who is dead and thereby free of all problems.

Question 3.
How does the farmer’s wife resolve to live in ‘The Farmer’s Wife’?
Answer:
The woman points out that meeting one’s end is over in a moment. It’s not a long struggle. But the struggle in life, for life to sustain and continue, is a long struggle, full of perils. For this, one needs a brave heart. Only the one with a firm heart will analyse the difficult situation. Yet he should never lose his reasoning ability and the determination to fight his misfortune. Otherwise, his children would become orphans. That is why the farmer’s wife asserts that she would continue to live, to teach her children how to live. She wants to instil in her children the fighting spirit which her husband lacked. That is why she says that she would continue to be alive to teach her children to fight with a clenched fist for not only the basic need of food but also more important things, attaining which might be nothing less than a battle. For this, she pledges to embrace life and not death, though life would present a long and painful struggle.

Question 4.
How does the farmer’s wife embrace life with dignity?
Answer:
‘The Farmer’s Wife’ presents the pathetic and miserable predicament of a farmer’s wife whose husband had committed suicide for not having the courage to withstand the insults and humiliation of his money lenders. The poem is in the form of a dramatic monologue in which the farmer’s wife is pouring out her woes openly. In the first half of the poem, she admonishes her husband for letting her down and giving her a death blow. In the next part of the poem, the farmer’s wife declares that she would not let her children die like worm-eaten cotton pods, but with a firm heart, she would face the battle of life and not embrace death. She would teach her children to clench their fist not for begging for a handful of rice but to face the struggle for life and with courage and determination stay alive and not die like a coward.

III. Answer the following questions in 200 words each:

Question 1.
Bring out the plight of the woman in the poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’.
OR
Describe the suffering of the farmer’s wife.
OR
How is the plight of the farmer’s wife depicted in the poem?
OR
To what condition had her husband’s act of committing suicide pushed her?
OR
How does the poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ bring out the plight of the woman and her courage?
OR
The poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ highlights the plight of widows after the death of their husbands. Discuss.
Answer:
The poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ by the Volga begins with the lamentation of the farmer’s wife, who laments over the death of her husband. However, in her lamentation, it is clear that more than mourning over the death of her husband, she expresses her grief over the hopelessness of the situation. Her husband has committed suicide because he was unable to face the creditors. However, his act is not considered an irresponsible act. In fact, people may even think of his act as the virtuous act of a self-respecting man who did not want to bend his head and stretch his arm. But the woman points out that, by committing suicide he has left the woman behind, to bend her head and stretch her hand as she has to continue to live at least for the sake of her four children.

Thus the poem is a tribute paid to the dauntless spirit of the woman and a plea to the weak-hearted not to lose hope.

Question 2.
How does the poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ bring out the plight of the woman and her assertion?
Answer:
The poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ is structured like a dramatic monologue in which the woman addresses her dead husband, as though he was sitting right in front of her.

In veiled anger and a mocking tone she tells him that it was a virtue that he had died without being forced to suffer the humiliation of standing before his creditors with a bent head and a hand stretched out or selling off his crops. But she is a sinner and hence having been born as a woman, with a bent head and a hand outstretched, had to sell her self-esteem all through her life. She asks him why he had left her to suffer despite knowing her status in society. She accuses him of intentionally committing suicide, despite being aware of her predicament as a ‘widow’. She castigates him for consuming poison and poisoning her existence.

Using the cotton crop as an analogy, she tries to convey the idea that the ‘cotton crop’ has a limited life and once it is sold, or it perishes owing to vagaries of weather, we forget it once and for all. But, her family has to continue to eke out a living, generation after generation.

She questions the popular idea of ‘manhood’ as propagated by society. She recalls how she had struggled hard to keep his family alive, despite being kicked and verbally abused by him, in a drunken mood. She tells him sarcastically, that she had suffered such cruel treatment, only because she had firmly believed that he would act like a real ‘man’ and would take care of her family. She mocks him for dying like a coward and giving her a death blow. She accuses him of being selfish, self-centred and irresponsible. She admits that it was true that the crop he had hoped to raise had perished and hence his debts had remained unpaid.

Consequently, they were looked down upon and were forced to cry in humiliation. At this juncture, he had only thought of ‘his crop’ and ‘his dignity’ and hence had taken recourse to suicide. But, by doing so, he had proved that he was utterly selfish, an irresponsible husband and father. He should also have thought of his duty and responsibility, as a husband and to his four children, which she had borne and harvested from her womb. She asks a rhetorical question ‘Can I leave them to the wind like worm-eaten cotton pods?’ She intends to say that ‘crops’ can be left to perish and not her children.

She expresses her contempt saying that he had died like a coward most irresponsibly without bothering about his kids.
In the last part, she expresses her stance as a ‘mother’. She declares that she would stay alive not merely to take care of her children but also to show to her children how to embrace life and to struggle for life with a clenched fist.

The Farmer’s Wife by Volga A Note on the Poet:

Volga is the pen name of the well known Telugu writer P. Lalita Kumari (b.1950). She was born in Guntur, one of the big towns and educational centres in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Her stories, novels, and poetry reflect well-articulated feminist positions without compromising either the quality of the literary form or failing to represent the ‘reality’ of the characters. In her poetry, a metaphor not only facilitates form but also celebrates the ‘ideas’ depicted.

The Farmer’s Wife Summary in English

The poem ‘The Farmer’s Wife’ by the Volga begins with the lamentation of the farmer’s wife, who laments over the death of her husband. However, in her lamentation, it is clear that more than mourning over the death of her husband, she expresses her grief over the hopelessness of the situation. Her husband has committed suicide because he was unable to face the creditors. However, his act is not considered an irresponsible act. In fact, people may even think of his act as the virtuous act of a self-respecting man who did not want to bend his head and stretch his arm. But the woman points out that, by committing suicide he has left the woman behind, to bend her head and stretch her hand as she has to continue to live at least for the sake of her four children.

The Farmer's Wife Summary in Kannada 1

Thus the poem is a tribute paid to the dauntless spirit of the woman and a plea to the weak-hearted not to lose hope.

The Farmer’s Wife Summary in Kannada

The Farmer's Wife Summary in Kannada 2

Glossary:

cotton crop: highest number of farmers have committed suicide in cotton-growing areas
revile (v): (usually ‘be reviled’) criticize in an abusive or angrily insulting manner
cotton pod: unripe cotton shell