Read The Tale Of Melon City Question Answer With important Extra Questions Class 11 for NCERT and CBSE final examinations. Students who are in search of the solutions of all textbook questions alongwith extra questions of the chapter can fulfill their needs here. Check the Table of Contents given below and find the suitable link as per your requirement.
Table of Contents
The Tale Of Melon City Question Answer
The Tale Of Melon City Question Answer
Directions- Read and write the following The Tale Of Melon City Question Answers in about 30-40 words each.
Reading with Insight
Q.1. Narrate ‘The Tale of Melon City’ in your own words.
Ans. For self-attempt.
Q.2. What impression would you form of a state where the King was ‘just and placid’?
Ans. The story made it very clear that people could manipulate the king easily as he was indecisive. They could convince him easily. Otherwise, how could the king allow the people to hang him in the end? People replaced their king with a melon on the throne and continued to do what they liked. It was a state where people were indifferent to the person who ruled them and liked to do what they wanted to. The people wanted their personal freedom and for this, they could influence the fate of a king.
Q.3. How, according to you, can peace and liberty be maintained in a state?
Ans. For law and order and peace, a state needs a firm, strong ruler who can handle his people. The ruler should be able to influence, lead and not be manipulated by them. Only a wise, competent ruler can bring peace and liberty. By being just or placid, the ruler would never achieve anything. The story illustrates this fully. There should be a happy balance between state interference and the rights of the citizens. Only then one can expect peace and liberty to be maintained in a state.
Q.4. Suggest a few instances in the poem which highlight humour and irony.
Ans. The king lost his crown under the arch that was built too low. The irate king ordered the builder to be hanged. Then started a game of passing the blame and each accused absolved himself from the blame: Builder to workmen, from workmen to masons, from masons to the architect and the architect boldly, brazenly accusing the king.
• The wisest man declared that the arch must be hanged.
• The king allows himself to be manipulated.
• The crowd’s mood frightening the king and the decision to hang someone to appease the crowd.
• And the king, His Majesty, hanged by the Royal Decree.
• ‘Long-live the king!’ the ministers said. ‘Long- live the king! The king is dead!’
• Humour, satire and irony arouse in the people ask an idiot to declare their next king. He chooses a melon as their king because he is fond of them!
• The final crowning of the melon.
Q.5. ‘The Tale of Melon City’ has been narrated in a verse form. This is a unique style which lends extra charm to an ancient tale. Find similar examples in your language. Share them in the class.
Ans. For self-attempt.
The Tale Of Melon City Extra Questions Answers – SHORT TYPE
Directions- Read and write the following The Tale Of Melon City Extra Questions Answers in about 30-40 words each.
Q.1. What was the king’s desire and why? (The Tale Of Melon City Question Answer)
Ans. The king desired that an arch should be constructed that would cover the main thoroughfare. He hoped that it would improve the onlookers morally and provide aesthetic joy to them.
Q.2. Why did the workers follow his order? (The Tale Of Melon City Question Answer)
Ans. The workers did so because he was the king and they had no choice but to follow the order of their king.
Q.3. What happened when the king passed under the arch? How did he react?
Ans. The arch was built too low, and when the king passed under it, his crown toppled down. The king was angry. He felt insulted and ordered that the chief of builders should be hanged.
Q.4. Why did the king call a ‘halt’ to the hanging of the builder? What does it tell us about the king?
Ans. The builder protested that it was not his fault that the arch was too low, it was the workers who had made the mistake. The king was just and calm. So he changed his decision. It doesn’t show that the king was wise, but it shows that he could be manipulated easily by his people and ministers.
Q.5. What do the words ‘just’ and ‘placid’ tell you about the king? (The Tale Of Melon City Question Answer)
Ans. The words suggest that the king was fair and mild- mannered. He did not lose his temper and was quick to remove any sign of displeasure from his face. He firmly believed in justice and ensured it was given to his subjects.
Q.6. How did the workmen escape punishment? Who was the next to be judged as the culprit? (The Tale Of Melon City Question Answer)
Ans. The workmen were surprised at the order against them. They told the king that they didn’t realise the bricks were made of the wrong size. The king immediately summoned the masons before him. But they escaped the punishment by arguing that the bricks made by the masons were of the wrong size.
Q.7. ‘The king heard this. The king saw red.’ Explain these lines and their importance.
Ans. The masons blamed the architect, and he in turn told that the king himself had made some changes in the plans that were shown to him. This made the king so angry that he almost lost his temperament.
Q.8. ‘This is a tricky thing…’ What was the tricky thing? Whose counsel was taken to solve it?
Ans. The tricky thing was that the king declared himself to be guilty in planning the construction of the arch which was the root of the incident. The king ordered the wisest man of his country to solve the tricky problem of who should be hanged. The wisest man was so old that he could neither see nor walk. He was carried to the Royal Court.
Q.9. On what basis was the wisest man chosen? What judgement did he pass?
Ans. The wisest man was chosen on the basis of his age. The old man believed that the culprit must be hanged, and since the arch had toppled the crown, it must be hanged.
Q.10. Why did the king tremble at the stage? What did he decide to do?
Ans. The king saw the crowd getting restless and their mood was not in his favour. He decided that the nation wanted a hanging so they must set up a noose.
Q.11. Who was ultimately hanged? What did the ministers think of the hanging?
Ans. The noose was too high and it needed a tall man. The king, being the tallest, was hanged to death by Royal Decree. The ministers heaved a sigh of relief because they had finally found someone to be hanged that prevented the crowd from turning violent against the king.
Q.12. Who decided the next ruler and how? (The Tale Of Melon City Question Answer)
Ans. The first to pass the City Gate was an idiot. His standard answer to every question was ‘A melon’. The ministers promptly crowned a melon as their king and carried it to the throne.
Q.13. Why did the people accept a melon as their king?
Ans. The people accepted the melon as their king and rejoiced because the new king did not interfere with their liberty and let them live in peace.
Q.14. Why was the crowd restless?
Ans. The crowd gathered there to see the culprit being hanged. But due to the indecisive behaviour of the king and the blame game, the hanging was delayed. So the crowd grew restless.
Q.15. What was the criterion for choosing a man to be hanged? Who was found fit?
Ans. When the king and his ministers were unable to find a man to be hanged, they decided to find a person as high as a noose to be hanged. It was none other than the king who was tall enough to fit the noose. So he was hanged.
Q.16. What was the funny advice of the ‘wisest man’?
Ans. The so-called ‘wisest man’ advised the king to hang the arch because it was the arch that toppled the crown of the king. Thus the arch was the culprit and must be hanged.
Q.17. How did the melon become the new king?
Ans. To solve the dilemma of who would be the next king, it was proclaimed that the first person to passes the City Gate would choose the king. An idiot passed the gate whose standard answer to any questions was melon, as he liked the melons very much. Thus, a melon became the king.
Q.19. Explain the principle of ‘laissez-faire’? Explain with reference to the people.
Ans. Laissez-faire is a policy which is based on the idea that the government and the law should not interfere with business, finance, or the conditions of people’s life. So, when the melon was crowned, people rejoiced that the new king would not interfere with their liberty. Thus, the poet commented that the principle of laissez-faire had been established in the city.
The Tale Of Melon City Extra Questions Answers – LONG TYPE
Directions- Read and write the following The Tale Of Melon City Extra Questions Answers in about 120-150 words each.
Q.1. How and why did the ‘just and placid’ king get executed in the end?
Ans. The king, in the poem, had been called just, but his sense of justice was absurd. It was devoid of rationality. He wanted to punish the man who built the arch that tumbled his crown. The chief builder was held responsible, but he passed the blame to the workmen. Without applying his mind, the king ordered all the workmen to be hanged.
Each person in his turn blamed the other workmen blamed the masons, the masons blamed the architect, who in turn blamed the king himself. The confused king, bent upon being just, sought the advice of a so- called wise man, who blamed the arch itself. By now the restless crowd wanted someone to be hanged. The noose was set so high, only the king fitted the noose, and he was hanged.
Q.2. The poem is a satire on foolish rulers and the equally foolish public. Discuss.
Ans. The head of the state should be a firm and strong person, who could handle his people. He should be a strict disciplinarian otherwise there will be anarchy in the state. The poem ‘The Tale of Melon City’ is a satire on the rulers who are indecisive and can easily be manipulated by the people. The poem depicts the story of a king who is so placid that he never took any independent decision.
The people could sway him and convince him easily. Otherwise, how could a king allow the people to hang him in the full view of the public? The poet satirises the foolish public, who very contemptuously, eliminate their king and make a melon sit on the throne on the advice of an idiot.
Q.3. The king was not so foolish, he had made a clever plan, but made one fatal mistake for which he had to pay the price. Explain how.
Ans. The king was not foolish enough to be hanged so easily. After seeing the blame game of so many people, who were responsible for making the arch that toppled the king’s crown while he was passing underneath it. It was found out that the king himself was responsible for making changes in the design.
He made a clever plan to save himself from the hanging. Seeing the public, who gathered there to witness the hanging, he decided to hang anyone who was high enough to reach the noose. But he had to pay the price of his fatal mistake by laying down his life because it was only he who was tall enough to fit the noose and was hanged.
Read More–