CBSE|UP BOARD|ENGLISH SOLUTION|ENGLISH LITERATURE|CLASS 9th|
Today, I will dive in deep to discuss all the important points of the Chapter ‘ The Beggar‘ written by Anton Chekhov. I ensure you will get a complete idea to write the summary, theme, and explanation orderly. You will be able to write a good answer. After reading this page you will find the secret to score outstanding marks in your examination.
Let’s get started
- Summary Of the Chapter
- Theme and main Ideas
- Keywords and Quick Point after each Stanza
- Videos just like a live class
- Relevant Quotations and statements
- Difficult words
- Question Answer
Theme: The Beggar
This story highlights the importance of hard work and motivation. It’s clearly visible in the story, how these values turned a beggar into a well-settled gentleman.
If you continue to think about what you have always thought, you will continue to get what you have always got. ~ Kevin Trudeau
Summary: The Beggar
The story, ‘ The Beggar ’, is about how a person could bring in a drastic change in someone’s life. The story has three main characters, first, one is a beggar named Lushkoff , who spends his life lying for begging, and is a drunkard too;
The second being an advocate named Sergei, who believes in making efforts to spend one’s life; and the third and the last is the cook of Sergei named Olga, whose efforts bring down the massive change in the beggar’s life.
The story starts with Lushkoff begging for money through a lie, according to which he was a teacher earlier, and was fired due to a conspiracy of his colleagues; now he was very hungry and had nothing to eat or give rent for a room.
He also added that he is offered a post in Kaluga, a state of Russia, and he is unable to reach there due to the economical crisis. But as soon as Sergei identified and asked him that wasn’t he the one who was introducing himself as a student a few days ago.
In return, the beggar denied it. But on giving him police fear, he accepted it. Afterward, when Sergei asked him why he did not earn by working, he replied that there wasn’t any job left for him.
So, when Sergei asked him whether he was interested in chopping the log for money, he was compelled to say ‘yes’. Thereafter, Sergei took him home, and asked the cook, Olga, to show him the shed, where woods are to be cut; and kept his chair near the window from where the view of the shed was clear.
Though the beggar tried to complete the task, he was unable to bang hard the axe on the logs; and the reason behind it was his powerlessness and drinking habits.
This made Sergei very sad. But very soon when he was informed that the work has been accomplished, a pleased Sergei offered him work on every 1st of a month.
At the time when Sergei was to shift to another place, Lushkoff was very sad, he was hardly helping in any shifting work, and even ignoring the taunts of his colleagues. As soon as the packing was over, Sergei gave him an appointment letter of a typewriter.
Thereafter, Sergei met Lushkoff after two years, outside a cinema hall, where he was in a row to buy tickets. Lushkoff told Sergei that he was now working as a notary.
There only Sergei discovered about Olga being the real inspiration behind the changed Lushkoff, as she was the one, who would scold him, cry for him, and chopped the wood for him.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchil
Difficult Words: The Beggar
Copecks: Russian coin equal to one-hundredth of a rouble
Intrigues: make secret plans to do something illicit or detrimental to someone
Calumny: the making of false and defamatory statements about someone in order to damage his/her reputation
Suppliant: a person making a humble plea to someone in power or authority
Mendicant: beggar
Obliged to: compelled, forced
Swindling: cheating a person of money
Fiction: falsehood
Perplexity: state of being puzzled; bewilderment
Irresolutely: hesitantly; undecidedly
Gait: walk
Inclination: interest
Toil: hard work
Wrathfully: with hatred
Shoved him aside: pushed him
Billet: here, a thick piece of wood
Feebly: weakly
Menial labour: an unskilled, inferior job
Waif: a homeless person
Shovel: remove snow with a shovel (a tool resembling a spade with a broad blade and typically upturned sides)
Hauling: transporting
Pretence: to show something which actually does not exist
Jeered at him: made fun of him
Godson: a boy or a man whom one promises to bring up
Roasting: here, scolding
Sot: a habitual drunkard
Question-Answer: The Beggar
1. Has Lushkoff become a beggar by circumstance or by choice?
Answer: Both circumstance and choice played a vital role in his journey as a beggar. Initially, he had been a singer in a Russian choir but was removed due to his drunkenness. Later, he opted to become a beggar as he found this occupation easier.
2. What reasons does he give to Sergei for his telling lies?
Answer: Lushkoff told Sergei that he had been a singer in a Russian choir, but was removed due to his drunkenness. Thereafter, he found it very hard to find a job, and begging was comparatively quite easy. But if he told the truth, people would stop giving him money. So, to earn his livelihood, he had to tell lies.
3. Is Lushkoff a willing worker? Why, then, does he agree to chop wood for Sergei?
Answer: Lushkoff was not at all willing to chop the wood. But, since, he had already agreed in front of Sergei to do any work if given for money, he felt shameful in taking a u-turn.
4. Sergei says, “I am happy that my words have taken effect.” Why does he say so? Is he right in saying this?
Answer: Initially, when Sergei met Lushkoff, he found him as a beggar, who fooled people to earn. But two years later, when he met him he was a completely different man.
Sergei is right in saying so because if he had not offered him work during his begging period, Lushkoff would still be begging in the streets.
5. Lushkoff is earning thirty five roubles a month. How is he obliged to Sergei for this?
Answer: One day when Sergei was shifting to another house, he called Lushkoff and while giving him a letter, he asked him to give it to his friend who will give him the job of the typewriter; and gradually he was promoted to the job of a notary, with the income of thirty-five roubles a month. All this made him obliged to Sergei.
6. During their conversation Lushkoff reveals that Sergei’s cook, Olga, is responsible for the positive change in him. How has Olga saved Lushkoff?
Answer: At first glance, Olga hated him. But eventually, she started feeling pity for him, And as a result, she even chopped the wood for him. All this had an effect on Lushkoff and changed him.
Content Writer- Vaishnavi Tripathi…… Edited by- Shadab Akhtar.