The Mirror of Matsuyama: Bed First English
Summary, Theme and Important Questions
Summary of the Story The Mirror of Matsuyama by F Hadland Davis
Characters:
Matsuyama (Father), a business man
Mother
Daughter
Woman (Step-mother)
Setting: Remote part of Japan
Once upon a time, there was a man with his wife and a daughter who lived in a remote part of Japan. Before leaving home for a business trip to faraway Kyoto, the man told his daughter that he would bring her a present. At home, he gave his daughter a beautiful doll, a box of cakes and a metal mirror for his wife.
Since this woman had never seen a mirror before, she discovered that another woman was looking at her and she looked at her with increasing surprise. Her husband said it was her face and asked her to take care of the mirror.
Before long, the woman fell ill and before she died, she gave the mirror to her daughter and asked her to look at it when she felt most alone. Then the man came and got married. The girl felt lonely and looked in the mirror and saw that her mother was young and beautiful.
One day, the girl’s mother-in-law saw her squatting in an angle above an object (mirror) and thought that the girl was performing some strange magic, so she went to her husband to tell him that the young girl was try her. Best to kill her. by witchcraft. The husband believes her and is angry with her daughter. The girl feels unfair. Seeing that the girl was hiding something in her sleeve, he asked her what was the matter. The young girl replied that she had a mirror given to her by her mother, in which she saw her young and beautiful mother. Only then did the man and his mother-in-law understand what had really happened. The mother is embarrassed and begs for forgiveness. The girl also knows the mirror.
Important Question-Answer
1. What is the moral of the story ?
Ans: From the story, we understand that people who don’t understand something clearly will increasingly suspect more unrelated things. Lack of education makes people more and more miserable. Little knowledge becomes a dangerous thing. The lack of understanding about the mirror causes the mother-in-law to have negative thoughts about her daughter. Inadequate knowledge creates illusions and destroys human relationships.
2) Describe the step-mother of the child.
Ans. The mother-in-law did not know the function of the mirror. She knows nothing. She hates the child and believes that her stepdaughter also hates her. She was suspicious, so she imagined that the little girl was performing some strange magic to kill her. She believes in witchcraft.
3) Why was the step-mother ashamed ?
Ans. The mother-in-law was embarrassed by imagining the little girl practicing some strange magic and told her husband that she was trying her best to kill herself with magic, but that was a mistake. Then she begged him for forgiveness.
4) Are all the step-mothers of the same cruel nature? Write your opinions.
Ans. Today, we see fewer mothers-in-law in the community than before. So the beliefs people make about the cruelty of stepmothers are less observed. After all, not all mothers-in-law are equally cruel. Some mothers-in-law turn out to be just as good with their children as mothers. They treat their own children as their own. Today, women are educated not to show such cruelty. They behave with humanity and humanity’s spirituality in mind.