Character Sketch of Amelia Slater, Henry Slater, Victoria Slater, Elizabeth Jordan, Ben Jordan and Abel Merryweather | The Dear Departed

by | Aug 25, 2023 | General | 0 comments

 

Character Sketch of The Dear Departed

 

Give a Character Sketch of Amelia Slater, Henry Slater, Victoria Slater, Elizabeth Jordan, Ben Jordan and Abel Merryweather from Class 10 Communicative English Chapter 12 (Drama) The Dear Departed

 

Character Sketch of Amelia Slater

Amelia Slater is an energetic and sharp woman. She is married to Henry Slater and has a ten year old daughter, Victoria. She is a very dominating person by nature and makes sure that all things happen according to her own will. She makes her husband do all she wants. She can talk her way through any argument. She is a cunning and sharp person and cares only for the material world. She is a tart and biting person when it comes to her own gain. She is never contended with what she already has. There is always a need for more in her. She wants a major part of her father’s inheritance and tries to get so by unfair means. She is a pretentious person who worries about what people will think about her mourning and therefore she sheds fake tears. She feels no true sorrow for her dead father. In the end when it comes to winning Abel Merryweather’s favour, she alters completely just to get hold of her money. Thus, Mrs. Slater is a pivotal character of the story who is a materialistic and dominating woman.

The Dear Departed Overview – The lesson ‘Dear Departed’ focuses on the family values that are dwindling fast in the society. Materialism has so much affected the modern man’s life that even the respectful relationship between father and daughters has become tainted with it. The lesson highlights this aspect of the tainted relationship with unmatched craftsmanship by weaving a wonderful and absorbing sequence of events. The poetic justice at the end is the real mastery of the playwright. Abel’s vengeful response to the selfish daughters leaves them stupefied and stunned. They are left penitent and remorseful for their meanness.

 

Related: The Dear Departed Summary, Explanation

Some Questions on Character Sketch of Amelia Slater

Q1. What is the relationship between Amelia Slater and Victoria?
Q2. What reason does Amelia give for not getting another doctor to examine Mr Merryweather?
Q3. What does Mrs. Slater want to take away from grandfather’s room? What were her plans after his death
Q4. Jealously and selfishness are popular traits. Analyse the characters of characters from The Dear Departed and Mrs Packletide’s Tiger. Mention instances from the text.

 

Character Sketch of Henry Slater

Henry Slater is a man who has no will of his own and no say in the house. He does what his wife tells him to do. Although he’s not as bad and greedy in nature like his wife Amelia, he helps her in hiding some things of Grandpa before the arrival of Amelia’s sister. He also wears his dead father-in-law’s slippers because his wife asks him to do so.

 

Some Questions on Character Sketch of Henry Slater

Q1. Give instances which show that Henry Slater is a hen-pecked husband.

 

Character Sketch of Victoria Slater

Victoria Slater, a girl of ten was the daughter of the Slaters. Although the elders surrounding her were engaged in their own vain and materialistic preoccupations, she was the only one in the house who realized the loss, her grandfather’s death posed. She was a precocious young girl whose thoughts and actions were governed by a maturity beyond her age. After her grandfather’s death proved to be untrue, she was the only one who experienced any joy. Through her, we understand the innocence of young age. She realizes that the pinching of her grandfather’s possessions by her parents was not only insensitive but also wrong. She is childish, innocent, truthful, and others like her parents are selfish, of competitive nature, without compassion, etc.

 

Some Questions on Character Sketch of Victoria Slater

Q1. Do you think that Victoria Slater loves her family? Support your view with instances from the lesson.

Character Sketch of Elizabeth Jordan

Mrs. Jordan is a stout and complacent woman. She is impassive and always has an irritating air around her. She is very witty and sharp. She holds the capacity to drive a hard bargain over things to gain possession. She too is a greedy person just like her sister who takes every opportunity to criticise the Slaters and finally decides to take her father with her just for the sake of money.

 

Some Questions on Character Sketch of Elizabeth Jordan

Q1. Why does Elizabeth wish to draw up a list of Grandpa’s things?

 

Related: The Dear Departed Important Questions

 

Character Sketch of Ben Jordan

Ben is surely a practical man and a very big hypocrite in the play. He is practical when he says that everyone has got to die someday. This shows that he is not at all mournful of the fact that Abel passed away. Ben called Abel Merry Weather ‘the drunken old beggar’ because the latter had not paid the premium for his insurance. This meant that none of the family members would be able to get his insurance money. This angered and disgusted everyone in their family. This incidence shows that Ben was very logical, and very materialistic. He did not believe in the importance of relationships.

 

Some Questions on Character Sketch of Ben Jordan

Q1. What is Ben most worried about?
Q2. Compare and contrast the characters of Henry Slater and Ben Jordan.

 

Character Sketch of Abel Merryweather

Abel Merryweather is an old widower. Since the death of his wife, he has been living in turns, with his daughters Amelia Slater and Elizabeth Jordan. He is a fun-loving and jovial man, who loves to go to the pub and drink. He is quick-witted and too intelligent to be fooled by any show of affection by his daughters. He knows them too well. But, he lives with them because they are his daughters and he wanted to leave something to them in his will. But when he discovered how they behaved, believing him to be dead, he decides to change his will, and marry a widow, Mrs. John Shorrocks, the keeper of ‘’Ring – O – Bells’. He is a likeable old man, much better than his daughters.

 

Some Questions on Character Sketch of Abel Merryweather

Q1. What change in the grandfather’s will led to another spat between his two daughters? Why?
Q2. Compare and contrast the father-daughter relationship as shown in ‘The Letter’ and ‘The Dear Departed’.

 

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