Question

Give the character sketch for the watchman in "A face in the dark"

Answer 1

Explanation:

The story “A Face in the Dark” by Ruskin Bond is set in Simla, a town in Himachal Pradesh, India where an Anglo-Indian teacher Mr. Oliver teaches in a reputed English public school which is regarded as the “Eton of the East”. He is a bachelor and goes to the market some three miles away in the evening and returns back to school at night on a daily basis. He takes the short cut way through the pine forest.

On the day of the story when he is returning late at night, the strong wind is making an eerie sound through the pine trees and the batteries of his torch is running down. Suddenly, he comes across a boy who is crying silently with his head hung down, sitting on a rock. Following a number of questions from the teacher, when the boy finally looks up, Mr. Oliver sees that the boy has no eyes, ears, nose or mouth on his face. “It was just a round smooth head – with a school cap on top of it!”

Answer 2

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In the story “A Face in the Dark” Ruskin Bond has presented the protagonist Mr. Oliver as an Anglo-Indian teacher in a reputed English public school in Simla, Himachal Pradesh, India. The story being very short in length, the author has avoided detailed descriptions of his appearance and feelings. Moreover, Mr. Oliver speaks very little in the course of the story. But still we get a vivid picture of Mr. Oliver’s character from the story.

From the context of the story we can say that Mr. Oliver is a man of knowledge and skills to have got the position of a teacher in a school which had been called “Eton of the East“. He also seems to be professional and able at his business and that is why he has been teaching there ‘for several years’.

Oliver is also a realistic man as the narrator mentions —

Oliver was not a nervous or imaginative man.

We see Mr. Oliver taking the usually lonely path through the pine forest while returning to the school compound from the Simla bazaar even late at night. That only supports the narrator’s comment on him not being nervous. He is seemingly courageous enough to take that lonely way while other people are afraid of the eerie sound made by the wind through the pine forest. We also find Mr. Oliver’s common sense in carrying a torch with him.

From the few words that Oliver utters in the story we find Mr. Oliver as a man of discipline. He does not like the boy being out at that evening as it is against the rule of the school.