Question

In what ways can ignorance lead one into a trap and cause losses beyond one's imagination? What values should one imbide in one self to be able to escape such trap? Give the answer in reference to ' villa for sale'.

Answer 1

The story teaches us a couple of moral values. The first and foremost value to be learnt is from Mrs Al Smith's haste. The lesson to be learnt from her is 'never ever be in hurry' while doing major deals involving a huge amount of money. Had she not been in hurry, she could have saved a huge amount of money. Another value we can learn from the play is Mrs Al Smith's vanity, pride, and inexperience. She was too arrogant about her being a clever American. She considered the French to be inferior; and ironically she is outsmarted by a French about whom she is so critical!

Similarly if Juliette were also a little more experienced and alert, she too could have saved the loss of one hundred thousand francs.

So the positive values we learn from the play are Gaston's smartness, patience, readiness to seize the opportunities. The negative values that we should get rid of from our behavior are haste, hurry, conceit, ignorance, etc.