I. Active Vocabulary

Doris lessing

The black madonna

I. Active Vocabulary

1. Study the words and word combinations. Recall the situations they were used in. Use the same vocabulary in the situations of your own:

fraternity

wistful respect

comrade-in-arms

lot

hub

barbarity

to bring sth home to sb

crony

do a good turn

bring to heel

stand to attention

court martial

obeisance

ally

legerdemain

exile

virtue

fecklessness

nausea

oblivious

endure

2. Match the words with their TWO synonyms:

1. beneficent a) surreal i) awkward

2. resentful b) useless j) unreliable

3. uncanny c) brown k) unconscious

4. obsolete d) beneficial l) colored

5. oblivious e) clumsy m) wholesome

6. swarthy f) unaware n) put out,

7. feckless g) old-fashioned o) primitive

8. gawky h) annoyed p) outlandish

3. Explain who or what is meant by the words and expressions:

internment camp, honorary ally, Wop, vintage, bush, storm-trooper, the Cape

3. Paraphrase and/or explain:

1. Zambesia is a tough, sunburnt, virile, positive country contemptuous of subtleties and sensibility…

2. …the dignity of labor, a subject in which they were well versed …

3. We were all bored to extinction by dances, fancy-dress balls…

4. He was singing an air so wild, so sad, that the Captain was uneasy.

5. Michael turned his head and looked at the Captain from the horizontal.

6. I paint this picture as an offering to the Madonna.

7. The Captain…suddenly came rocking up to the General, and steaded himself by laying his hand on the august shoulder.

8. He shied away from the thought of Michael as if it were dangerous.

4. Answer the questions

1. The first nineteen paragraphs of the story, while they introduce Michele, are chiefly devoted to portraying Zambesia. What is its social structure? Who are its “comfortable minority”? What are their attitudes toward (a) Art, (b) liberty/freedom, (c) fraternity, (d) leisure, (e) democracy, (f) foreigners, (g) Michele’s painting? What division of interest and concern marks off the women from the men?

2. In paragraphs 1, 3, 9, 16, and 17, the narrator uses the first person plural pronoun in its various forms (we, our, ourselves, us). To whom does this pronoun refer in the earlier two paragraphs? in the latter three? To what extent does the narrator include herself in each group? What is her attitude toward the “culture-loving ladies” and the “military gentlemen,” and how is it conveyed? Explain the meaning and tone of paragraphs 14 (on “the dignity of labor”) and 16 (on “charitable entertainments”).

3. What does Michele express in his art? Discuss his feelings and attitudes, and those of the British characters, toward each of the following: (a) the painting in the P.O.W. camp, (b) the commissioned portraits of children—and of women, (c) the Black Madonna, (d) the “village,” (e) the painting for Stocker with “no haloes.”

4. Contrast the characters of Michele and Captain Stocker. In what respects are they opposites? Compare their attitudes toward work, war, the native popula­tion, the sexes, jealousy, drink, self-discipline, duty, men weeping, friendship, happiness.

5. Trace the progress of Captain Stocker’s association with Michele from their first meeting until his rescue of Michele from the bombarded village. How does his attitude toward Michele change during this time? What effect does the association have on his behavior? Is Michele’s influence on him good or bad? Why does Stocker not want the three weeks to end? Is his drunken assertion to the General of his friendship for Michele (page 87) sincere? What causes Stocker’s breakdown after his rescue of Michele? Why does he reject Michele’s present and turn Michele away?

6. Why is the village suddenly changed from “a German village” to “an English village”? Discuss the ironies involved in this climax of the attempt to improve morale by giving the ladies “some idea of what war was actually like.”

7. Who is the protagonist of this story?

8. Defend one of the following propositions: (a) Captain Stocker has undergone a small but permanent change in character as a result of his association with Michele. He will never be quite the same again, (b) Although Captain Stocker undergoes a large change in his characteristic behavior during his association with Michele, it is only temporary. At the end of the story he is reverting to type and will soon be the same Captain Stocker as before.

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