A Matter of Husbands Exercise
A Matter of Husbands Exercise | Questions & Answers Class 12 English | One-Act Play by Ferenc Molnar
Understanding The Text
Answer the following questions.
a. What favour does Earnest Young Woman ask from The Famous Actress?
Answer➡ Earnest Young Woman asks a favour to give her husband back from The Famous Actress. She loves her husband extremely. She has come to know about her husband's deception.
b. What, according to The Earnest Young Woman, are the indications that her husband has fallen in love with a Famous Actress?
Answer➡ According to The Earnest Young Woman, the indications that her husband has fallen in love with a Famous Actress are the love letter written by her husband to her and flowers that were sent to her.
c. Is Earnest Young Woman convinced by the argument of Famous Actress? How?
Answer➡ Earnest Young Woman appears to be convinced based on the basic conversation between Earnest Young Woman and Famous Actress. The Famous Actress informs her that Earnest Young Woman’s husband has arrived and requests that she stage a fake relationship for her to be jealous and return her love. She informs her that many actors readily accept such offers to bring their families together.
d. Where is the Earnest Young Woman’s husband hiding himself as they are talking about him?
Answer➡ According to the play, the Earnest Woman’s husband appears at the end of the play when the Famous Actress calls him to come When Out of her boudoir. This means throughout the entire play the Earnest Young Woman’s husband is hiding in the famous Actress boudoir.
e. When do you feel that a Famous Actress is really good at acting?
Answer➡ I think she's incredibly skilled at acting. Famous Actress tells Earnest Young Woman that her husband plays a game on her to pique her interest so she'll transform herself and do whatever it takes to please him. When Alfred is called out by her, I was stunned.
f. How do we come to know that the Famous Actress and the husband of Earnest Young Woman are in love?
Answer➡ When Earnest young woman was convinced and gone from the Actress's room. She called him to come out from the door of her boudoir then we come to know that the famous Actress and the husband of Earnest Young Woman are in love.
g. Write down the plot of the play in a paragraph.
Answer➡
A Matter of Husbands is a one-act written by the most celebrated and controversial playwright Ferenc Molnar. This play sheds light on the role of actors on the stage and in real life and how much they are capable of keeping us in an illusion.
In the beginning, the Earnest Young Woman rushes to the Famous Actress angrily, asking her to return her husband. The famous Actress boldly denies that she has stolen her husband. She says she knows him because once the contract for a case was given to him. Earnest Young Woman tells her that her husband sends her flowers and writes love letters. She reads her husband’s love letter for the actress.
Upon the circumstance, the actress smiles and still begins to deny that she has received any flowers or any letters from him. Now she fools Earnest Young Woman by saying that a misunderstanding may have arrived between her and her husband. She makes Earnest Young Woman believe that her husband has been playing with her to make her jealous and gain her love back. Then, the Earnest Young woman innocently realises her misdeed and begs for sorry with her. Earnest Young Woman leaves the stage and the famous Actress calls Alfred to come out of her boudoir.
Reference To The Context.
a. Sketch the character of Famous Actress.
Answer➡
The Famous Actress of this play is young and beautiful. She is quite a good actress who works in theatre. She is quite good at acting. She seems so innocent in her outer appearance. But she is quite deceptive and wicked inwardly. Here in this play, she has been suspected and blamed by the Earnest Young Woman. She has a good quality of speech. She defends herself quite tactfully. She convinces Earnest Young Woman with her reasoning. The way she tells stories to prevent a woman from believing that her husband is having an affair with her is cunning and deceitful. She also leads an immoral life which is seen at the end of the story where it is revealed that Alfred, the husband of an Earnest Young Woman, was actually in her house.
b. Shed light on the difference between an ordinary woman and an actress.
Answer➡
An ordinary lady is shown in "A Matter of Husband" as a straightforward and frightened woman who was easily manipulated by the actress's fabricated story. She comes tearful at the actress's home in the belief that she had discovered her husband was cheating on her with the actress but returns happy after hearing her justifications. After hearing a story about how her husband was attempting to win back her affections by doing things to make her jealous, the actress agreed. The ordinary lady trusted her and fell into her story without even asking a single question. Finally, it was revealed that her husband was in the actress's room at the end of the story. There is no arguing that the actress was cleverer than an ordinary human.
c. According to Famous Actress, men associated with theatre use the theatre actresses to make their estranged wives jealous so as to woo them back. Do you agree with her argument? Why? Why not?
Answer➡
According to Famous Actress, men associated with theatre use the theatre actresses to make their estranged wives jealous so as to woo them back. No, I don’t agree with her argument because these are extremely unusual events. Her statement is so superficial that it has little to do with the reality of males who work in theatres. Men in the theatre, she claims, use the actresses to make their emotionally distant wives jealous to win them back.
Earnest Young Woman suddenly accuses her of cheating in this scene. To avoid being held responsible, she fabricates a story about entire men affiliated with the theatre. A weak, simple-minded, and dumb wife is not something that every man affiliated with the theatre has. We find a simple-minded woman in Alfred’s situation. The Famous Actress is a clever woman who is involved with Earnest Young Woman’s husband Alfred in an illicit relationship.
The famous actress makes such a statement to make the earnest young woman believe her weaved story that she and Alfred don’t have an affair.
d. How does Famous Actress make a fool of Earnest Young Woman?
Answer➡
The famous Actress makes a total of Earnest Young woman by giving the example of authors, composers, scene designers, lawyers, orchestra leaders and managers. She says men associated with threaten use the theatre actress to make their estranged wives jealous so as to woo them back. She also added that; they have the consolation of knowing that they are the means of making many a marriage happy that might otherwise have ended in the divorce court. Famous actor convinced the Earnest Young women by saying her husband is playing a little comedy to make her jealous to review her interest in him.
e. The conversation between the two women takes place on the stage of the theatre. What role does the theatre house as a part of the setting the play in A Matter for Husband?
Answer➡
The scene is a drawing room and the design and colourings are exotic and suggestive of the apartment of the famous Hungarian actress in which this dialogue takes place. When the curtain rises the Earnest Young Woman is discovered, poised nervously on the edge of a gilt chair. It is plain she has been sitting there a long time. For perhaps the fiftieth time she is studying the furnishings of the room and regarding the curtained door with a glance that would be impatient if it were not so palpably frightened. At last, the Famous Actress enters through the curtained door at the right which leads to her boudoir.
f. What do you think about the ending of the play?
Answer➡
The ending of this play ‘A Matter of Husbands’ is totally perfect. And it is quiet justify the ending of the play .The writer does the ending of this play is very pertness. He finishes all the nonplus of the character of the play. All the characters are satisfied to one another. The film actress and advocate are very satisfied in the end of the play. They clear the hurdle between them. They ensure to her that they have no affair it is only drama for you. In the end of the play the young woman is very happy about her husband. The film actress and the husband of young woman live together without any obstacle. The ending of the play is too good but full of irony. The film actress narrates to young woman that her husband really loves her but in reality he has no love for his wife. He only cheats his wife.
So, end of the play ‘A Matter of Husbands’, we can assume that “All is well the end is well.” Innocent people always suffer by shrewd people because they are often sincere by hearts but the cunning people always take advantage by their innocence.
Reference beyond the text.
a. Write a paragraph describing your favourite actor/actress.
Answer➡
My Favorite Actor
I like Johnny Depp, an American actor known for his portrayals of unique characters, such as Captain Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.” With the film’s success, it revealed new doors and nominations for his career. The film also opened a new door for me. Since the film Johnny Depp has become my favorite actor. I admire Depp as an actor because of his talent, generosity, and devotion. Johnny Depp is one of the most talent actors I’ve seen. He is perhaps one of the most versatile actors of his day and age in Hollywood. Not only is he extremely talented, but he is also a generous man. He is part of several charitable causes. He supports Make A Wish Foundation, and donates frequent packages to the children. Johnny Depp is also a devoted person. He is exceedingly devoted to his family. His favorite activity is to be home playing with the children. There aren’t many actors like Johnny Depp, and I admire him even more for standing out against the rest. He is a gifted actor, kindhearted, and a devoted person. Johnny Depp is my favorite actor, and I admire him not only as an actor but as a person.
b. John Cassavetes says, “I’m very worried about the depiction of women on the screen. It’s gotten worse than ever and it’s related to their being either high- or low-class concubines . . . . There’s nothing to do with the dreams of women, or of woman as the dream, nothing to do with the quirky part of her, the wonder of her.” How do you assess Famous Actress in the light of Cassavetes’ argument about the portrayal of women?
Answer➡
This famous quote by John Cassavetes is about how women are often portrayed in cinema. In a polygamous society, a concubine is a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives. John wants us to be conscious of contemporary society’s thinking when it comes to depicting women on film with this quote. Women on Screen are always associated with sex by the general public. They do not judge them in the same way that they evaluate males on screen. No one, according to John, recognizes the wonderful and quirky elements of women on screen and portrays them in a negative light.
Famous Actress is also portrayed as a concubine of Alfred, the Earnest Young Woman’s husband, in this play. In the play, they are having a secret affair. The Famous Actress is also depicted in a negative light in “The Matter of Husbands”, similar to Cassavetes’ argument in his famous quote. The negative side of the Famous Actress has been given more importance than the positive, quirky side of her in the play.
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