Class 11 English Unit 5: Critical Thinking

 

Critical Thinking

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5HfXbVjlk0 

a.      “The looking glass (mirror)” is used as a symbol in the story. What does it symbolise?

In “Looking Glass,” the mirror symbolizes Nellie’s central character traits: her longing to be married and her habit of escaping her dull life into her elaborate fantasies. Protagonist Nellie is introduced, dreamily gazing into her handheld mirror before falling asleep and seeing her “destined one” as clearly as if she were awake.

b.     Chekhov employs the magic trick in the story, using a very elegant transition from reality to imagination to a reality sequence. Discuss its relevance to the lives of young people.

Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Looking Glass” might be relevant to the life of young people due to its fairy-tale quality. It’s as if Nellie turns herself into a distressed princess; her husband becomes a kind of afflicted prince charming. Interestingly, her husband doesn’t have a name. The lack of a name connects to other fairy tales for young readers in which the male love interest is never given a clear name. In Cinderella, for instance, the prince has no name.

Apart from a connection to fairy tales intended for young people, it could be argued that Chekov’s short story underscores how young people tend to dramatize life. It’s not uncommon for books, movies, and TV shows to portray young people as histrionic, overemotional, and hyperbolic. Nellie might represent how young people tend to glamorize love, suffering, and other things that might not be so enchanting in reality. Since some young people are fortunate enough not to have had to personally experience devastating hardship, they might be more inclined to invent their own. If their imagined scene grows too scary, they can, like Nellie, wake up, and it’ll be done with.

When discussing the relevance of “The Looking Glass” to young people, it might be insightful to note that all people, whatever their age, tend to be susceptible to fantasy, exaggeration, and flights of fancy. There are probably just as many overdramatic books, movies, and TV shows for adults as there are for young people. Furthermore, the sensational, slanted nature of social media and news outlets suggests that adults travel back and forth between reality and fantasy more often than they might like to admit.

***

Click for next lesson: https://limbuchandrabahadur.blogspot.com/2025/08/class-11-english-unit-5-writing.html