Revision Summary: On the Face of It (Susan Hill)
1. Unit at a glance
- Single play (no poem) in three scenes from NCERT Vistas.
- Focuses on the meeting between 14-year-old Derry and elderly Mr Lamb in a garden.
- Common theme: physical impairment, loneliness, fear of others, and the possibility of inner change through acceptance.
- Explores how outward appearance creates barriers while shared human needs (company, listening, belonging) can bridge them.
- Ends on an ambiguous note with Derry returning to find Mr Lamb injured.
- Raises questions about whether brief contact can alter a withdrawn person’s future outlook.
2. Prose (the play)
Summary
A disfigured boy named Derry enters Mr Lamb’s garden by climbing the wall. Mr Lamb, who has a tin leg, speaks to him without fear or pity. Through conversation they share experiences of stares, nicknames (“Lamey-Lamb”), and isolation. Mr Lamb emphasises that everything living is equal, that one can choose to live fully, and that the gate is always open. Derry begins to respond positively and promises to return. When he does, he finds Mr Lamb has fallen from a ladder while picking crab apples.
Setting
Mainly Mr Lamb’s overgrown garden (with bees, weeds, crab-apple trees, open windows and no curtains); brief scene at Derry’s house; final return to the garden.
Main characters
- Mr Lamb: elderly man with a tin leg who keeps his gate open and talks to anyone who enters.
- Derry: 14-year-old boy whose face was burned by acid; withdrawn, angry and convinced everyone fears him.
- Derry’s mother: anxious, forbids him to return after hearing rumours about Mr Lamb.
Sequence of key events
- Derry climbs into the garden; Mr Lamb startles him by saying “Mind the apples!”
- They talk about Derry’s face, Mr Lamb’s leg, weeds vs flowers, and people’s fear.
- Mr Lamb tells the story of the man who locked himself in a room and died when a picture fell on him.
- Derry leaves promising to return; his mother tries to stop him.
- Derry runs back, finds Mr Lamb fallen from the ladder, and weeps.
3. Poem
No poem is present in this unit.
4. Themes and messages
The writer shows that physical difference causes less pain than the sense of alienation it creates. Mr Lamb’s line “Acid only burns your face… You can burn yourself away inside” underlines that hatred and withdrawal harm more than the original injury. The play suggests that choosing to “wait… watch… listen” and keeping one’s mind open can lead to a fuller life, even if outward appearance never changes.
5. Literary devices
- Metaphor: “It’s all relative. Beauty and the beast.”
- Imagery: “orange and golden. That’s magic fruit.”
- Irony: Mr Lamb says the man who locked himself away “got into his bed, and stayed there” only to be killed by a falling picture.
- Personification/imagery: “when you listen to bees for a long while, they humm… and hum means ‘sing’.”
- Simile (implied): “You’d have been better off stopping in there… with others like himself.”
6. Vocabulary
- scrump: steal (fruit)
- windfalls: fruit blown down by wind
- signify: matter / be important
- trespassing: entering without permission
- defiant: openly resistant
- withdrawn: shy and avoiding others
7. Exam pitfalls
- Assuming Derry returns permanently or that Mr Lamb survives (text ends with Derry weeping over the fallen man).
- Claiming Mr Lamb has many real friends when the text only shows him hoping people will return.
- Forgetting Derry’s mother’s explicit warning and the three-mile distance when discussing why he might not come back.
- Treating the play as a happy ending instead of an open question about lasting change.