Night of the Scorpion By-Nissim Ezekiel
Night of the
Scorpion
By-Nissim Ezekiel
I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice.
Parting with his poison - flash
of diabolic tail in the dark room -
he risked the rain again.
The peasants came like swarms of flies
and buzzed the name of God a hundred times
to paralyse the Evil One.
With candles and with lanterns
throwing giant scorpion shadows
on the mud-baked walls
they searched for him: he was not found.
They clicked their tongues.
With every movement that the scorpion made his poison
moved in Mother's blood, they said.
May he sit still, they said
May the sins of your previous birth
be burned away tonight, they said.
May your suffering decrease
the misfortunes of your next birth, they said.
May the sum of all evil
balanced in this unreal world
against the sum of good
become diminished by your pain.
May the poison purify your flesh
of desire, and your spirit of ambition,
they said, and they sat around
on the floor with my mother in the centre,
the peace of understanding on each face.
More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,
more insects, and the endless rain.
My mother twisted through and through,
groaning on a mat.
My father, sceptic, rationalist,
trying every curse and blessing,
powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.
He even poured a little paraffin
upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.
I watched the flame feeding on my mother.
I watched the holy man perform his rites to tame the
poison with an incantation.
After twenty hours
it lost its sting.
My mother only said
Thank God the scorpion picked on me
And spared my children.
There are mainly two themes in the
poem Night of the Scorpion.
·
Superstition
The poem reveals the superstitions
that prevail in the Indian Society. A large number of people gather at poet’s
house after coming to know that his mother is bitten by a scorpion.
However, rather than taking her to
hospital or curing her, they begin giving their own assumptions. Some of them
say that her sins will be forgiven. Some other say that she will not suffer in
after rebirth. Some other begin praying for her well-being after her death.
·
Motherhood
The poem also highlights the motherly
love of poet’s mother. She is bitten by the scorpion and spends 24 hours in
quite unbearable pain. However after recovering, she does not blame the scorpion
and rather says thank God the scorpion picked on me and spared my children.
First stanza
(Lines 1- 10) –
Steady rain – continuous
rain for ten hours. It seems to be a hyperbole since a steady rain would
perhaps bring a greater distress like a possibility of the flood as opposed to
the sting of the scorpion.
Flash – denotes the quickness of the Scorpion. It could
be a parallelism to the flashing of the lightning that a rain is accompanied
with.
Diabolical – evil
Dark room – This could be a continuation of the image of the
flash. A flash is used to take pictures with a camera. A negative is developed
in the dark rooms. This image becomes more interesting when we take into
account the picturesque way the story is narrated in the verse. It seems the
poet by remembering the incident is playing a film.
Second stanza
(Lines 11- 20) –
Swarm – group.
Buzzed – making a noise similar to the flies. It is an
onomatopoeia.
Paralyzed – make something static or unable to move.
Evil one – the Scorpion.
Scorpion
shadows – the people who were chasing
the scorpion cast shadows because of the light from the candles and the
lanterns. Here the poet in his characteristic irony and subdued anger signifies
that the foolish peasants are as harmful to the mother as the Scorpion. In
fact, with the superstitiousness, they are more harmful. This superstition is
as poisonous as the scorpion is. The poison of the scorpion destroys the body
whereas the poison of superstition destroys the society.
Mud-baked
walls – walls made up of mud.
Clicked – making a sound which denotes some distressing
situation. Here it means an ominous situation.
. . .every movement that the scorpion made . . .
Mother’s blood, . . . – it was believed that the more the scorpion could
move the more quickly the poison would move in the body of the mother. It is a
mere superstition obviously.
Third stanza
(Lines 21- 30)
Previous birth
– it is another superstition that says that we
have seven births in this world and that if we do something wrong in this birth
then we will be punished in the next. Further, if one person commits enough
wrong deeds one can also take the shape of a lesser creature like an insect in
the next birth. Yet again if one suffers enough in this birth then in the next
birth we might have fewer sufferings. The poet uses this satirical poem against
the rampant superstition that threatens not only the rational balance of the
society but also the health and even the life of a person. In this case, the
life of the mother of the poet is under threat not so much from the sting and
poison of the scorpion but from the mindless misbelieves of the common
uneducated people in the village. But one can point out that this disease of
the mind infects the city-bred educated people also.
Unreal world – according to the Hindu mythology, theology and
philosophy (in the case of India it often becomes difficult to distinguish
between the three!) the world that we see is Maya which
denotes the temporariness and unreality of the material world. According to the
popular belief of the Hindu philosophy, the world that we can see and touch is
just a shadow of the heaven where gods live.
Sum of good – see ‘previous birth’ above.
Flesh – The body. It is usually believed that pain
and suffering take away the ills of the body.
Fourth stanza
(Last 20 lines)
Desire – Some demand of the mind as well as the flesh.
This desire could be the desire for both material and carnal gains.
Spirit of
ambition – According to Hindu
philosophy since this world is unreal any ambition other than the ambition
of moksha (the riddance of the soul from the cycle of birth
and death or a condition where the soul meets the God and disappears into the
same) is futile.
Peace of
understanding – Ironically enough the poet
says that while the mother was in pain the neighbors had a calmness which was
more irritating for the poet. The people surrounding the mother are not in pain
and thus could just have a fake understanding of the pain.
Twisted through and through – the mother
convulsed and writhed in pain.
Sceptic – one who does not believe something by its
appearance only.
Rationalist – one who believes that the world functions due to
some higher rationality or everything around us are governed by some set plans
and a cause and effect relationship.
Curse and
blessing – this oxymoron create an
interesting balance and contrast especially when we take into consideration the
fact that the father of the poet was a skeptic and a rationalist. The phrase
heightens the irony of the poem.
Herb – a plant having medicinal qualities.
Hybrid – a mixture of two things or an advanced form of
something.
Paraffin – wax
Flame feeding
– the flame of fire burning the toe of the mother
and thus causing extra pain.
Holy man – the father of the poet.
Rites – holy acts.
Tame – reduce the effect of poison.
Incantation – saying a hymn.
Questions
and Answers:-
1. Who is the only rational person among the villagers?
Answer: The poet’s father is the only rational
person among the villagers.
2. How is the mother going to be benefited
from her suffering?
Answer: She will either reduce her sins of
past birth or her next birth.
3. Where was the scorpion hiding before he
stung the mother?
Answer: The scorpion was hiding beneath a sack
of rice.
4. Why is the scorpion’s tail called
‘diabolic’?
Answer: The scorpion is compared to the devil
and the devil is supposed to be diabolic.
5. Why are the peasants buzzing the name of
God?
Answer: The peasants are buzzing the name of
God to paralyze the scorpion.
6. What is the poison going to purify?
Answer: The poison will purify the flesh of
desire and the spirit of ambition.
Answer the following questions
1. How was the mother bitten by the scorpion?
The poet and his family lived in a village. It was night
time. There was continuous rain for 10 hours. Due to rain, a
scorpion entered the poet’s house. It stung the poet’s mother and crawled
under a sack of rice. The poison was spreading through the body of the
mother. The scorpion may have foreseen that the villagers will search for
it and kill it. So, it risked the rain again and escaped from the house.
Who bit the mother? Is it the scorpion or the evil deed of the mother in
the past? It is mysterious.
The farmers in the village came to know that the mother was
bitten by a scorpion. They rushed to her house like “swarms of
flies.” They had candles and lanterns in their hand. They threw
giant sized scorpion shadows on the wall. They searched for the scorpion
but they could not find it. They were uneducated and they had their own
village gods. They uttered the name of the God to paralyze the Evil One
that had entered the mother’s body. The poet indirectly makes a contrast
between the selfishness of the city people and the villagers’ concern for
others.
3. How did the peasants view the stinging in
a positive manner?
The peasants of the village believe in Karma theory. They
believe that the sins committed in the previous birth will be purified if only
the concerned person suffers in this birth. They say that the mother’s
suffering by the scorpion burns away her sins in the previous birth. They
also say that the mother’s suffering decreases the misfortunes in her next
birth. According to them, the mother’s flesh and spirit are purified from
desire because of this suffering. The writer does not say whether their
belief at this critical moment is right or
wrong. He just presents it to be decided over by the readers.
4. What type of man was the father? How
did he treat his wife?
The father was a sceptic . He was a rationalist. So
he did not compromise with the beliefs of the villagers. He applied
different kinds of medicinal herbs and a certain curative powder. He also
melted paraffin and poured it on the bitten toe and set fire to it. The
father tested every scientific way to find the recovery. After twenty
hours, the mother was saved. Again the writer keeps a neutral
position. He doesn’t say whether the father’s treatment cured the mother
or the belief and rites of the villagers.
5. How did the mother respond after the
recovery?
Q. What drove the scorpion inside the house?
Q. Where did the
scorpion crawl?
Q. Choose the correct option to complete the following
sentence.
The word ‘flash’ means —
(i)
a cowardly action
(ii)
a quick and sudden action
(iii)
a wicked action
Q. Why does he call
the tail ‘diabolic’?
Q. Who came into the house?
Q. What is the scorpion referred to in the third line?
Q. Why did the
peasants say the name of God a hundred times?
Q. Whose shadows were thrown on the walls?
Q. Choose the correct option
The phrase ‘clicked
their tongues’ expresses
(i)
The peasants’ worries about the sting.
(ii)
The peasants’
sorrow for the mother.
(iii)
The peasants’ failure to find the scorpion.
Q .
Pick out a simile and a metaphor from the above lines.
Q
(a) How many times ‘they said’ has been repeated?
(b) Who are ‘they’
in the above lines?
(c) Why did they
want the scorpion to sit still?
Q. The poet says that his father who was a rationalist tried
everything. Why did he do so?
Q . Pick out the correct answer from the options given below:
(i) because the father
had changed
(ii) because the father wanted to do what others were doing
(iii) because the father was deeply concerned
Q. Why did the mother feel relieved?
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