The Duchess and the Jeweler – A Selection of Short Stories Notes

Q No:-01. Viginia woolf depicts a change in the English society. Discuss?

OR

How does the story reflect the normal decadence of english aristocracy?

Answer:

The story presents the true picture of English society. It is a commentary on declining moral and economic values. The English aristocracy of those days had many social and moral vices. The high-ups were coming down and commoners were taken the lead. The people of rich class tried to deceive others.

In the story, the Duchess represents aristocracy of England. She tries to maintain her old traditions in slum. She begins to sell the family jewels and pearls. She had sold these many times. She wants to sell them for gambling. She has three daughters. The jeweler loves the youngest. The other two are also busy in husband hunting. So the fall is all round.

The Duchess tries to cheat the jeweler “Bacon” and sold false pearls to him. The jeweler Bacon is a common person of London. He has born in a poor family. He passed his childhood in slumps. He used to sell dogs of the rich people in his boyhood. He becomes the most famous jeweler of the world by the dint of hard work. The jeweler has risen in status where as the Duchess has fallen down.

Duchess invites the jeweler to visits her estate and ride with her daughter. This shows how the rich people lacked moral values. Then, when Duchess appreciates to Bacon to sell her pearl, he marks her wait for ten minutes. Then high up has to wait for commoner.

Thus we see that both the classes of English society are changing. The high ups started coming shown because of their moral and economic decadence.

 Q No:-02: Why does jeweler buy the false pearls while he knows they are not genuine?

OR

The characters of the Duchess and oliver depicts a loss of faith in human values?

 Answer:

Bacon was an expert jeweler. He was the most famous and efficient jeweler of London. It was impossible to cheat him in his profession. He knew that the pearls were not genuine. She has three daughters. The jeweler loves the youngest. The other two are also busy in husband hunting.

The Duchess tried to cheat the jeweler Bacon. The Duchess has already cheated him. This time he did not want to let her go with testing jewels. The Duchess was very clever lady. She knew the weakness of the jeweler. She knew that the jeweler was in love with her daughter Diana. She took the advantage of that weakness and exploited in fully. She once again cheated the jeweler, although he knew that the jewels were not real.

She told the jeweler in very impressive manner that she was hard in these days. She needs money badly. She began to talk to him very sweetly. She invited him to spend the weekend at her estate at the riverbank. That is why he could not control himself and gave her the heavy amount of money.