The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect | Class 11 English Second Semester WBCHSE
1. Who was the man who wished to be perfect? How did he want to fulfil his wish? What did he do to achive the goal?
The man who longed for attaining perfection in occult art was a religious mendicant of the tantrik sect.
The mendicant had already hunted six heads to appease the goddess he worshiped. Now he required to sacrifice one last human head to gain blessing from the goddess and attain mastery over the black art.
The itinerant mendicant met a king who had no issue to succeed his throne. He gave the queen a magic drug that would make her mother of twin sons. He exacted the promise of the royal consort that they had to hand over one of their sons to the mendicant on demand. Sixteen years elapsed when one day the monk stood at the palace gate and took the eldest prince with him.
2. What happened when the mendicant took the king’s elder son? How did the princes react? What did the elder prince do immediately before leaving the royal palace?
The royal consort almost forgot about the promise they had made to the mendicant sixteen years ago. But the mendicant arrived to collect his due. The king and the queen broke into tears. Yet they had to renounce their claim to one of princes. A fierce struggle arose in the hearts of the king and queen. But they apprehended that if they refused the monk’s due, he might turn into ashes not only the royal successors but also their kingdom. They mourned and lamented but finally gave in.
The twin brothers were as handsome as they were brave. The younger implored the elder brother to stay at home as he was the ‘pride of his father’. The elder prince, however, claimed that his brother would stay in the palace as he was the ‘joy of his father’. Finally, the elder prince decided to accompany the monk.
Immediately before leaving the palace, the elder prince planted a tree with his own hands in the courtyard. Pointing his finger to the tree, the prince uttered that if the tree was fresh he would be alive, if yellowing he would be endangered and if fully faded he would cease to exist.
3. What happened on the way when the elder prince followed the mendicant? What does it suggest?
In Lal Behari Dey’s retelling of the folktale ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’, the elder prince left the royal palace and followed the mendicant silently through a woodland trail. Some puppies caught sight of the prince. One whelp asked his mother’s permission and joined the prince. Just a few steps away, the prince sighted on the roadside some young hawks. One of the hawks was impressed to see the future king and asked his dam’s permission before joining him. Thus the elder prince won two companions on his way to the monk’s hut.
In a way, the monk represents an accumulated evil force while the elder prince allegorizes the angelic innocence. For a Christian missionary like Lal Behari Dey, the Prince features Christ, the saviour of souls and the mendicant is the henchman of Satan. Fortunately, innocence and goodness is accompanied by a dog and a hawk who stand for loyalty and farsightedness respectively.
“You are to live in this hut with me”-Who said these words and to when? What did the boy mentioned have to do for the speaker? What did the speaker warn him?
In Lal Behari Dey’s folktale titled ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’. The religious mendicant said these words to the elder prince when they reached the thick forest.
The medicant assigned the young, handsome prince to cull flowers from the forest for his devotions. He could go anywhere and even hunt animals if needs be. He used to walk about with his puppy and hawk till sundown.
The mendicant however, cautioned that the prince should never move towards the north side. In that case danger might befall him.
4. Describe the stag-episode in your own words. Or, “One day as he pierced a stag …..”-Who pierced the stag? Where did the stag take the shooter? What did the person referred to see there?
In Lal Behari Dey’s captivating folktale ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’. The anonymous elder prince shot an arrow and pierced a stag when he was hanging about in the forest with his two familiars-a puppy and a hawk.
It was surprising that the stag, when wounded, made a desperate dash for freedom through the forbidden part of the forest. The young prince instinctively chased the deer and arrived on the northern side-along with the puppy and the hawk.
To his utter amazement, the prince saw no stag there. Instead he caught a glimpse of an edifice where stood a young lady of matchless beauty. This heaven born beauty of the lady enhanted the prince.
5. “Come in, stranger”-Who said these words and to whom? What happened after that?
In Lal Behari Dey’s fascinating folktime ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’, the young anonymous prince shoots an arrow at a stag. The stag happens to sprint towards the north. When the prince gets to the spot, he finds a young lady of rare beauty. This young girl invites the prince with the given words.
The comely forest beauty lured the young prince to have with her a game of dice. The lady put a condition. If the prince lost the game of risk, he should offer his hawk, puppy and himself. If the girl lost the bet, she would also pawn the same. As fate would have it, the lady won all three turns and captured the hawk, the puppy and the prince in a hole covered with a plank. In fact the winsome lady was a cannibal demoness who used her bodily charm to entrap her prey. Thus the prince violated the monk’s admonition and imperilled his life.
6. “Meantime there was great weeping in the house of the prince’s father”-What is the weeping for? How is the problem solved?
In Lal Behari Dey’s engrossing folktale ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’, a religious mendicant of Hindu Trantric order takes one of the twin princes for his devotions. When the elder prince says goodbye to his near and dear ones, he plants a tree with his own hands in the royal courtyard. He predicts: if the tree is green he is alive, if fading he is at risk and if faded he is dead. When the younger prince finds some leaves of the tree fading, he informs his parents that it means the life of the elder prince must be in danger. This alarm results in the great weeping in the palace.
The younger prince rides on the swiftest horse and on the way to the forest he is accompanied by a puppy and a hawk, just like his elder brother. He reaches the monk’s hut and gets to know that his elder brother is in an enchantress’s power. He happens to pierce a stag, chases it and finally defeats the demoness in the game of dice. In this way he rescues the elder prince along with his whelp and hawk.
7. “Don’t kill me and I will tell you a secret”-Who said these words and to whom? What secret did the speaker disclose?
In Lal Behari Dey’s absorbing short story ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’, the anonymons elder prince was trapped by a cannibalistic enchantress. But when the younger prince won the game of dice, she was forced to produce the elder prince. The demoness felt afraid that she might be killed by the twin princes. On the barrelhead she uttered these words to calm down the princes.
The demoness disclosed the secret about the mendicant. The mendicant, a skullman, was a worshipper of goddess Kali. He sought perfection from intercourse with the spirits of departed men. He had already sacrificed at the altar of Kali six human victims whose skulls could be seen in niches inside the temple. She also revealed that the elder prince was going to add another head to the number of the skulls.
8. “But there is one way by which you can escape that fate and do us good.”-Who said this and to whom? What ‘fate’ is refererred to here? What was the ‘one way’ that could do them good?
As predicted by the Rakshasi, the elder Prince entered the Kali temple and heard six skulls laughing aloud. When he asked the reason of laughter, one of the skulls, as spokesperson of the rest, said these words of caution to the elder Prince.
The talking skull spoke of a tragic fate that involved their lives and was going to affect the prince too. He informed that after the completion of the Kali worship the Tantric mendicant requires a human sacrifice to the altar of the goddess. He had already hunted their heads and very soon he would hunt the princes head too.
The spokesperson of the skulls also revealed the only way as to how to escape that ‘fate’. The mendicant would bring the prince into that temple to offer him up as a sacrifice. He would then ask the prince to prostrate himself before mother Kali. The moment he would lie, the Kapalik would cut his head off and finish his ritual.
The skulls then suggested to the prince that when the mendicant would instruct him to bow down, he would refuse. He would rather tell the mendicant to show how to prostrate because as a prince he had never learnt that. The skull finally advised him to chop the monk’s head when he would lie prostrate. His death was the only way the prince could save himself and the other six skulls.
9. Justify the title of the story.
Lal Behari Dey’s folktale is titled ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’ because it encapsulates the theme. ‘The Man’ who is mendicant longs for the attainment of his personal ‘perfection’ in occult art. Ironically, the man’s intent and act stand antithetical to each other. He perfects his worship through the imperfect way of hunting human heads. His presence feels like alpha and omega of the tale. His devotional progression has already cost six innocent lives.
But the pitcher of his sin has been filled now. A prince of his own creation proves a frankestein. The prince chops his head. The anonymity of the tantrik monk signifies the insignificance of his entity. He raves and rants, enters and exits like a poor actor. His is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Thus the title focuses on the ‘wishes’ rather than its fulfilment’, his vision rather than his mission.
10. Sketch the character of the mendicant ‘who wished to be perfect’. Or, Role of the religious mendicant in Lal Behari Dey’s story.
In Lal Behari Dey’s folktale ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’, the religious mendicant seems to be the protagonist but turns out to be the antagonist. He appears to be a benevolent hermit when he blesses the king with fatherhood. Soon, however his intent is clear. He puts a condition that one of his twin princes should be handed over. After sixteen years, he takes the elder prince into the thick forest. He assigns the innocent prince to cull flowers for Kali worship.
Luckily, the prince gets to know from the demoness and the skulls that this tantric priest has sacrificed six humans and now is on the brink of attaining perfection by hunting the last victim, the prince himself. But he is paid back in his own coin when the prince decapitates him. So he is a selfish seeker of self-perfection. He mistakes vice of killing for virtue of perfection. He is an accumulated evil, a hypocrite, a cruel skullman. His death relieves him from the cycle of sins.
11. Sketch the character of the Elder Prince and describe his role in the story.
Ans. In Lal Behari Dey’s folktale ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’, the elder prince is the protagnist the acknowledged hero. In a way the selfish perfection- monger who appears as a bonafide monk created him as a Frankenstein. The Prince is as handsome as he is brave and generous. His innocence attracts the whelp and the hawk. He doesn’t hesitate to seek truth even if that risks his life. He is aided by the Rakshari also. He is like a Christ who is assigned to save the sinners. Thus he volunteers to gamble, squeeze the secret, meet the skulls and finally beheads the mendicant.
He, therefore, obtains Kali’s final blessing and returns victorious. Allegorically, he saves the souls of six skulls who suffer the sequel of their past sins. He also rescues the enchantress who pehaps remains captive in the curse of the mendicant. Finally, he also releases the mendicant once and for all from the cycle of births and rebirths.
12. How does the elder Prince win the blessings of Kali? Or, How does the elder prince fail the plan of the selfish mendicant and punish him? Or, Write a note on the ending of the story.
Lal Behari Dey’s folktale takes the reader through mysterious, secrets and puzzling occurences. The Prince unearths the truth that lies hidden into the folds of time. The Rakshasi unveils that the mendicant is a skullman and the skulls in the niche confirm the fact. The mendicant lures the prince before the altar and suggests him to lie prostrate. Here the seemingly naive prince modestly relates to him that as a prince he has never done so before. The moment the monk demonstrates how to prostrate, the prince beheads him.
Thus the story shows a happy ending. The vicious cycle of the blood-thirsty tantric is broken. The six skulls are restored to life. The prince obtains Kali’s blessing and returns victorious.
13. Do you find any underlying message in Lal Behari Dey’s story? Or, Find out the images and symbols.
Lal Behari Dey‘s folktale ‘The Man Who Wished To Be Perfect’ both delights and instructs. The innocent looking mendicant directs his energy to master occult art. To accomplish this goal, he drags the most blameless youths and hunts their heads. Finally, the prince, whom he wished to offer as his final sacrifice, chops his head. This shows the conquest of virtue over vice, purity over cruelty. The prince culls flowers which stand for beauty, divinity and self-sacrifice.
The skulls represent repentant souls who suffer the consequence of their past sins. The enchantress may be a cursed soul or a captive spirit who works for the evil tantric. All these sinners, however, are liberated by the blessed prince. The puppies and the hawks symbolize obedience and foresight, sight and insight respectively. The blessing of the goddess finally falls on the selfless, compassionate Prince. The blood of the tantric bathes his sin and presages a spiritual rebirth.
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