Class 12 English (Elective) Chapter 4 – Tomorrow Important Question Answers from Kaleidoscope Book Short Stories
Class 12 English (Elective) Tomorrow Question Answers – Looking for questions and answers for CBSE Class 12 English (Elective) Short Stories Chapter 4 – Tomorrow? Look no further! Our comprehensive compilation of important questions will help you brush up on your subject knowledge. Practising Class 12 English question answers can significantly improve your performance in the exam. Improve your chances of scoring high marks by exploring Chapter 4 – Tomorrow now. The questions listed below are based on the latest CBSE exam pattern, wherein we have given NCERT solutions to the chapter’s extract-based questions, multiple choice questions and Extra Question Answers
Also, practising with different kinds of questions can help students learn new ways to solve problems that they may not have seen before. This can ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of the subject matter and better performance on exams.
- Tomorrow NCERT Solutions
- Tomorrow Grammar Exercise
- Tomorrow Extra Question Answers
- Tomorrow Multiple Choice Questions
- Tomorrow Extract Based Questions
Related:
Tomorrow Textbook Questions (NCERT Solutions)
Stop and Think
1. What brought Captain Hagberd to Colebrook?
Ans. Captain Hagberd was looking for his son, Harry Hagberd, who according to the letter visited Colebrook. Old Hagberd sold his house in Colchester and bought the cottage in Colebrook in the hope that his son would visit the place again.
2. Why did the people of Colebrook not have a favourable opinion of Captain Hagberd?
Ans. He has been looking for his son for years and when they asked them how he looked, the Captain described him as a fourteen-year-old kid. The barber thought that he had lost his mind after his wife’s death. He was living miserly to make a home for his son. People took him as insane as he had been looking for his son for years thinking that he would come tomorrow.
3. What sort of a seaman had Captain Hagberd been?
Ans. He hates the sea and loves the land. He has been to sea for eight days and has developed an emotional aversion to it as they can’t meet their family members.
4. Captain Hagberd constantly hinted at something that made Bessie blush. What was it?
Ans. The Captain told Bessie that whenever his son, Harry Hagberd would return, he would make him marry her.
5. What were Bessie’s reactions to old Hagberd’s ravings?
Ans. Bessie chooses to listen to old Hagberd’s ravings as once she questioned him that his son might have drowned in the sea, which agitated him and he ended up arguing with her. In the end, she chooses to listen and ignore, rather than confront the Old Hagberd’s ravings.
6. What sort of a person was Mr Carvil?
Ans. Josiah Carvil was a blind Carvil, the retired boat-builder, a man of evil reputed as a domestic tyrant. He used to shout and call out to his daughter for the things he could do himself. He could appoint a servant for himself, but he chooses to treat her daughter as a servant.
7. What was the point of similarity between Captain Hagberd and old Mr Carvil?
Ans. Old Captain Hagberd and Mr Carvil, both used to mistreat their children, putting their responsibility on them. They are burdening their children by making them choose the path they designed for them. Harry chooses freedom over responsibility, while Bessie chooses to be constricted by responsibility.
8. Why did Bessie sometimes show signs of irritation and disgust?
Ans. Bessie was irritated and agitated as his father kept burdening her with his responsibility. He used to shout at her without any reason. She couldn’t talk about her suffering to anyone around her while everyone shared their feelings with her. Her unexpressed emotions left her irritated and disgusted.
9. Who was the stranger who met Captain Hagberd? What was the Captain’s reaction to the meeting?
Ans. The stranger was Old Hagberd’s son, Harry Hagberd. Old Hagberd was annoyed at meeting him as he was grinning and told him that he had more information about his son. Old Hagberd thought he was making fun of him.
10. What did young Hagberd think it meant when old Hagberd said that his son would be coming home ‘tomorrow’?
Ans. Harry Hagberd, his son thought that someone else on the pretext of being him was coming tomorrow to meet his father, which upset him.
11. What reasons did Bessie give for encouraging old Hagberd in his insane hopes?
Ans. Old Hagberd would be driven crazy if she confronted him about his insane hope for his son’s arrival. Once she did confront him that he might have drowned in the sea, to which he felt annoyed and angry with her.
12. What makes Bessie convinced that the young man is indeed Harry?
Ans. When Harry Hagberd showed himself in light, he told her that she could look for his features, he looked just like his father. He also told her about his father’s past life and his mother to make her believe that he is the Harry Hagberd that Old Hagberd has been looking for.
13. What kind of life had Harry lived after he left home?
Ans. He has done almost everything except be a tailor or a soldier. He has worked as a boundary rider, shorn sheep, carried his gear, and hunted whales. He has rigged ships, searched for gold, and skinned dead cattle, and he has walked away from more wealth than his father could have earned in his entire life.
14. What does Bessie tell Harry about his father’s plans for him?
Ans. Bessie told him that his father used to starve himself to save money for him. She even told him, ‘All he has in the world is for you’, while he had a sandwich.
15. What did Captain Hagberd call out to Bessie from the window?
Ans. He asked her, if that information fellow, his son had left yet and can she hear him.
She burst into tears and told him that she couldn’t hear him anymore. He laughed triumphantly from above. He told her that she scared him away. They will be alright now. Just be patient. One more day.
Understanding the Text
1. What is the consistency one finds in the old man’s madness?
Ans. The consistency is of ‘Tomorrow’ in Hagberd’s reply. He always says that his son would return ‘tomorrow’. However, that tomorrow never happens and consistently, his reply remains the same.
2. How does Captain Hagberd prepare for Harry’s homecoming?
Ans. He was collecting things for his room, even hiding them from others including Bessie. He was decorating the room for him, by starving himself. There was a box full of packets of flower seeds for the front garden. He filled the other cottage with all kinds of new furniture. She imagined everything shining with varnish, arranged like in a store. There would be tables covered in burlap, rolls of carpets standing up like columns, and the shine of marble tabletops hidden in the dim light from closed curtains. Captain Hagberd would carefully explain his purchases to her as if she cared. The overgrown yard of his cottage could be paved with concrete… after tomorrow.
3. How did Bessie begin to share Hagberd’s insanity regarding his son?
Ans. Bessie would blush whenever Old Hagberd would mention Harry Hagberd’s marriage to her. In the end, she took the same insanity of hope, waiting for him to return while she knew he wouldn’t. She shares the same disappointment and faith in a better tomorrow.
4. What were Harry’s reasons for coming to meet old Hagberd?
Ans. He was partying on the London train when he lost five quid in the game. He and his friends together contributed to his fare. He came to Old Hagberd for money, not for the relationship. His friends were waiting for him to return with money.
5. Why does Harry’s return prove to be a disappointment for Bessie?
Ans. Harry’s return turned out to be a disappointment for Bessie as she couldn’t change him and make him stay for a week. She gave him five quid to forget about everything the Old Hagberd said but even after taking the money, he misbehaved with her and left her. She ran after him to stop but he chose to leave. His return turned out to be a disappointment for her.
Talking about the Text
Discuss in small groups or pairs.
1. ‘Every mental state, even madness, has its equilibrium based upon self-esteem. Its disturbance causes unhappiness’.
Ans. Old Hagberd’s self-esteem was hurt after meeting his son who was grinning at him, he closed the door because he knew that confrontation would drive him to madness. The same thing happened with Bessie, she gave him the money to keep her self-esteem, but when Harry thwarted it, she was driven to madness.
2. Joyce’s ‘Eveline’ and Conrad’s ‘Tomorrow’ are thematically similar.
Ans. Both the woman in the story ‘Eveline’ and ‘Tomorrow’ chooses the life of drudgery as the caretaker of the family, as they are both incapable of seizing an opportunity to live their lives happily being held back by the responsibility.
Appreciation
1. Comment on the technique used by the author to unfold the story of Captain Hagberd’s past.
Ans. Joseph Conrad has used the frame narrative technique which equips a story being told within another story, often with the first person narrator recounting their experience to someone like Harry Hagberd telling about Old Hagberd’s past to Bessie. It helps the readers to look at the character from multiple perspectives while adding complexity to the narrative. Often, the first narrator is unreliable, questioning the facts about the story.
2. Identify instances in the story in which you find streaks of insanity in people other than Hagberd. What implications do they suggest?
Ans. I found insanity in all the characters of Joseph Conrad’s story ‘Tomorrow’. Mr Carvil has been dependent and constantly shouting at Bessie for things he could do on his own. The barber makes fun of Old Hagberd without knowing the truth and judges him for choosing to search for a runaway kid which he wouldn’t do. Bessie, too, has some streaks of insanity as she was ready to give Harry five quid just to forget what Old Hagberd said. Harry Hagberd shows his insanity towards Bessie, though she didn’t do anything wrong to him, still he chooses to misbehave with her as he did with other women.
Language Work
1. Figures of speech: Allusion
Notice the comparison in the following sentence
With his maritime rig, his weather-beaten face, and his beard of Father Neptune, he resembled a deposed sea god who had exchanged the trident for the spade.
In this sentence, there is a comparison made between Hagberd and Neptune, the god of sea in Roman mythology who is shown with a trident in his hand.
The figure of speech which makes a casual or indirect reference to a famous historical or literary event or figure is called allusion.
TASK
Pick out one or two other examples of allusion from the story and comment briefly on the comparison.
Ans. ‘He wanted to turn me into a miserable lawyer’s clerk, and now he wants to make me a blamed tame rabbit in a cage’. Harry believes that his father wants him to be in a cage like a tamed rabbit. The blamed tame rabbit in a cage also symbolises the married, settled life which his father was seeking for him. The ‘Put to rest in Davy Jones’s locker’ symbolises the oceanic abyss, the resting place for drowned sailors.
Tomorrow Grammar Exercises
1. Pronunciation
- Words often have a different stress pattern when their grammatical function changes. Read the following words.
| Verb | Noun |
| ‘inform | infor‘mation |
| ‘hesitate | hesi’tation |
TASK
Now complete the columns below and mark the syllable that receives primary stress.
| Verb | Noun |
| present | ………….. |
| examine | …………. |
| ………… | production |
| calculate | …………… |
| …………… | distribution |
| specialise | ……………. |
Ans.
| Verb | Noun |
| present | Presentation |
| examine | Examination |
| Produce | production |
| calculate | Calculations |
| Distribute | distribution |
| specialise | Specialisation |
CBSE Class 12 English (Elective) Chapter 4 – Tomorrow Extra Question and Answers
1. Why did Harry Hagberd visit Old Hagberd?
Ans. Harry told Bessie that he had come right from a fun party on the London train. He came for five quid. They let their fun go a bit longer and ended up short on cash. He has been drinking for three days. This morning, his friend saw the paper and said he should visit his devoted parent and definitely for five quid. So, they gathered their spare change for the fare.
2. Did Harry ever think about coming back Home?
Ans. No, if it wasn’t for money, Harry wouldn’t even have thought of going back. He even questioned Bessie about what he should have come back for. He doesn’t want to become a lawyer’s clerk and waste away in a place like this. If the old Hagberd had given him a house today, he would tear it down or would rather die there before the third day is up.
3. What’s Harry’s definition of Home?
Ans. Harry said that he could be anywhere in the bush, in the ocean, or on a difficult mountain. If he had to pick, he would say home. The world feels like his home, but he expects he will die in a hospital one day, but that’s okay with him. Any place is fine, as long as he has lived fully.
4. What did Harry do after he left his home?
Ans. He has done almost everything except being a tailor or a soldier. He has worked as a boundary rider, shorn sheep, carried his gear, and hunted whales. He has rigged ships, searched for gold, and skinned dead cattle, and he has walked away from more wealth than his father could have earned in his entire life.
5. How did Harry describe Gambusino to Bessie?
Ans. Gambusinos knew that land long before anyone else. They were good at finding gold but they didn’t seem to be interested in it. They would find a rich spot, then walk away; maybe take just a little enough for a fun time and then move on again in search of more. They never stayed long where there were homes: they had no wives, no children, no place to call home, no friends. He told her, she couldn’t connect with a Gambusino; they were too restless, here today and gone tomorrow. They never shared their finds, and no Gambusino ever became rich. They didn’t care about the gold; the journey through the rocky land that kept them moving: no woman could keep a Gambusino longer than a week. That’s what Harry’s song was all about. It tells of a beautiful girl who desperately tried to keep her Gambusino lover so he would bring her lots of gold. Yet, he went away, and she never saw him again.
Class 12 Tomorrow Multiple Choice Questions
Q1. Where Old Hagberd used to live before Colebrook?
A. Near barber’s shop
B. Colebrook
C. Colchester
D. Mexico
Ans. C. Colchester
Q2. Who was Bessie?
A. Orphan
B. Harry Hagberd’s sister
C. Josiah Carvil’s Daughter
D. Old Hagberd’s Daughter
Ans. C. Josiah Carvil’s Daughter
Q3. What did Harry Hagberd come for?
A. Colebrook is his place
B. Five quid
C. Bessie
D. His Father
Ans. B. Five quid
Q4. Who said the following line, ‘All he has in the world is for you’?
A. Bessie
B. Barber
C. Old Hagberd
D. Harry Hagberd
Ans. A. Bessie
Q5. What’s the name of Old Hagberd’s son?
A. Bessie
B. Barber
C. Harry Hagberd
D. Carvil
Ans. C. Harry Hagberd
Q6. What was Old Hagberd wanted his son to become?
A. Boat maker
B. Sailor
C. Lawyer’s clerk
D. Businessman
Ans. C. Lawyer’s clerk
Q7. Who said the following lines, ‘He wanted to turn me into a miserable lawyer’s clerk, and now he wants to make me a blamed tame rabbit in a cage’?
A. Harry Hagberd
B. Old Hagberd
C. Barber
D. Bessie
Ans. A. Harry Hagberd
Q8. Who wrote the letter to old Hagberd about his son?
A. Children played a prank on him
B. Harry Hagberd’s friend
C. Harry Hagberd
D. No one
Ans. B. Harry Hagberd’s friend
Q9. Who offered Harry Hagberd the money he needed?
A. No one
B. Bessie
C. Old Hagberd
D. Josiah Carvil
Ans. B. Bessie
Q10. Who is Harry Hagberd talking about in the following line, ‘I haven’t forgotten a single one of you in the world’?
A. His father
B. Women
C. Barber
D. His mother
Ans. B. Women
Q11. Where was Harry Hagberd coming from?
A. At a hospital in Mexico
B. Party in London Train
C. College in Colchester
D. Party in Colebrook
Ans. B. Party in London Train
Q12. Who said the following line, ‘Wouldn’t catch me going crazy over any of my youngsters clearing out. I’ve got eight of them at home’?
A. Old Hagberd
B. Barber
C. Harry Hagberd
D. Bessie
Ans. B. Barber
Q13. What does Captain Hagberd want from Harry?
A. He wants him to earn money
B. He wants him to marry Judy
C. He wants him to settle down
D. He wants him to be a sailor
Ans. C. He wants him to settle down
Q14. Who respects the women in the story ‘Tomorrow’?
A. Old Hagberd
B. Gambusinos
C. Josiah Carvil’s
D. Harry Hagberd
Q15. Who said the following line, ‘Yes! The world’s my home, but I expect I’ll die in a hospital someday’?
A. Bessie
B. Barber
C. Old Hagberd
D. Harry Hagberd
Ans. D. Harry Hagberd
Q16. What problem does Bessie’s father have?
A. He was blind
B. Mentally ill
C. He was crippled
D. He was a dreamer
Ans. A. He was blind
Q17. Whom did Old Hagberd want Harry to marry?
A. The girl mentioned in the letter
B. No one
C. Judy
D. Bessie
Ans. D. Bessie
Q18. Who said the following line, ‘Sometimes I think I am a sort of Gambusino myself’?
A. Bessie
B. Barber
C. Harry Hagberd
D. Old Hagberd
Ans. C. Harry Hagberd
Q19. What was Bessie’s father used to do?
A. Farmer
B. Vagabond
C. Sailor
D. Boat Builder
Ans. D. Boat Builder
Q20. Who wrote the short story ‘Tomorrow’?
A. Rudyard Kipling
B. James Joyce
C. Joseph Conrad
D. Pablo Neruda
Ans. C. Joseph Conrad
CBSE Class 12 English (Elective) Chapter Tomorrow Extract-Based Questions
Answer the following extract-based questions.
A. Noticing a stranger listening to him with a vacant grin, he explained, stretching out his legs cynically, that this queer old Hagberd, a retired coasting skipper, was waiting for the return of a son of his. The boy had been driven away from home, he shouldn’t wonder; had run away to sea and had never been heard of since. Put to rest in Davy Jones’s locker this many a day, as likely not. That old man came flying to Colebrook three years ago all in black broadcloth (had lost his wife lately then), getting out of a third-class smoker as if the devil had been at his heels; and the only thing that brought him down was a letter—a hoax probably. Some joker had written to him about a seafaring man with some such name who was supposed to be hanging about some girl or other, either in Colebrook or in the neighbourhood. ‘Funny, ain’t it?’ The old chap had been advertising in the London papers for Harry Hagberd, and offering rewards for any sort of likely information. And the barber would go on to describe with sardonic gusto how that stranger in mourning had been seen exploring the country, in carts, on foot, taking everybody into his confidence, visiting all the inns and alehouses for miles around, stopping people on the road with his questions, looking into the very ditches almost; first in the greatest excitement, then with a plodding sort of perseverance, growing slower and slower, and he could not even tell you plainly how his son looked. The sailor was supposed to be one of two that had left a timber ship, and to have been seen dangling after some girl; but the old man described a boy of fourteen or so—‘a clever-looking, high-spirited boy’. And when people only smiled at this he would rub his forehead in a confused sort of way before he slunk off, looking offended. He found nobody, of course; not a trace of anybody—never heard of anything worth belief, at any rate; but he had not been able, somehow, to tear himself away from Colebrook.
1. What was the name of Hagberd’s son?
Ans. Captain Hagberd’s son’s name was Harry Hagberd.
2. What happened to his son?
Ans. Captain Hagberd’s son ran away from his home.
3.Why did Hagberd come to Colebrook?
Ans. Captain Hagberd was looking for his son as someone wrote him a letter that his son was in Colebrook.
4. What did the barber find funny?
Ans. The barber finds Captain Hagberd’s coming to Colebrook funny as someone has written to him about his son in Colebrook and Old Hagberd believed the letter.
5. Did he give up on his son with time?
Ans. No, he didn’t give up searching for his son even though the people of Colebrook made fun of him.
B. ‘It was the shock of this disappointment, perhaps, coming soon after the loss of his wife, that had driven him crazy on that point,’ the barber suggested, with an air of great psychological insight. After a time the old man abandoned the active search. His son had gone away, but he settled himself to wait. His son had been once in Colebrook in preference to his native place. There must have been some reason for it, he seemed to think, some very powerful inducement that would bring him back to Colebrook again.
‘Ha, ha, ha! Why, of course, Colebrook? Where else? That’s the only place in the United Kingdom for your long-lost sons. So he sold up his old home in Colchester, and down he came here. Well, it’s a craze, like any other. Wouldn’t catch me going crazy over any of my youngsters clearing out. I’ve got eight of them at home.’ The barber was showing off his strength of mind amid laughter that shook the taproom.
1. Where was Captain Hagberd living before he visited Colebrook?
Ans. Captain Hagberd was living in Colchester.
2. What are the reasons cited by the barber for the Captain’s craziness?
Ans. The barber thinks that Old Hagberd’s wife’s death is the reason behind his craziness.
3. What would the barber do if he were in Captain Hagberd’s place?
Ans. He won’t be going crazy over his child who chooses to run away.
4. Why did Captain Hagberd choose to stay in Colebrook?
Ans. Captain Hagberd chooses to stay in Colebrook because he believes that his son will again visit it.
5. Why did the barber say, ‘Ha, ha, ha! Why, of course, Colebrook? Where else?’
Ans. The baber said that people visit Colebrook for their lost sons as it is the only place in the United Kingdom to look for their long-lost sons.
C. Captain Hagberd, daunted by the allusion to his clothing, had retreated inside, taking his spade with him; and the two at the gate, startled by the unexpected slamming of the door, heard the bolts being shot, the snapping of the lock, and the echo of an affected gurgling laugh within.
‘I didn’t want to upset him,’ the man said, after a short silence. ‘What’s the meaning of all this? He isn’t quite crazy?’
‘He has been worrying a long time about his lost son,’ said Bessie, in a low, apologetic tone.
‘Well, I am his son.’
‘Harry!’ she cried—and was profoundly silent.
‘Know my name? Friends with the old man, eh?’
‘He’s our landlord,’ Bessie faltered out, catching hold of the iron railing.
‘Owns both of them rabbit-hutches, does he?’ commented young Hagberd scornfully: ‘just the thing he would be proud of. Can you tell me who’s that chap coming tomorrow? You must know something of it. I tell you, it’s a swindle on the old man—nothing else.’
She did not answer, helpless before an insurmountable difficulty, appalled before the necessity, the impossibility and the dread of an explanation in which she and madness seemed involved together.
‘Oh—I am so sorry,’ she murmured.
‘What’s the matter?’ he said, with serenity. ‘You needn’t be afraid of upsetting me. It’s the other fellow that’ll be upset when he least expects it. I don’t care a hang, but there will be some fun when he shows his mug tomorrow. I don’t care for the old man’s pieces, but right is right. You shall see me put a head on that coon—whoever he is!’
1. Who was the stranger?
Ans. The stranger was Old Hagberd’s son, Harry Hagberd.
2. Who was the other Chap referred to in this context?
Ans. Harry thought that there was another boy who would be coming tomorrow as Harry.
3. Why was Old Hagberd upset with him?
Ans. Harry was grinning like other people of Colebrook, which Old Hagberd finds annoying.
4. Who locked the door and why?
Ans. Old Hagberd locked the door as he found the stranger’s grinning annoying and he had all the information about his son. He doesn’t want any information from him.
5. What did Harry Hagberd mean by rabbit hutches?
Ans. The rabbit hutches refer to the cottages owned by the old Hagberd.
D. What was known of Captain Hagberd in the little seaport of Colebrook was not exactly in his favour. He did not belong to the place. He had come to settle there under circumstances not at all mysterious—he used to be very communicative about them at the time—but extremely morbid and unreasonable. He was possessed of some little money, because he bought a plot of ground, and had a pair of ugly yellow brick cottages run up very cheaply. He occupied one of them himself and left the other to Josiah Carvil—blind Carvil, the retired boat-builder—a man of evil repute as a domestic tyrant. These cottages had one wall in common, shared in a line of iron railing dividing their front gardens; a wooden fence separated their back gardens. Miss Bessie Carvil was allowed, as it were of right, to throw over it the tea cloths, blue rags, or an apron that wanted drying. ‘It rots the wood, Bessie my girl,’ the captain would remark mildly, from his side of the fence, each time he saw her exercising that privilege.
1. Why did Captain Hagberd come to Colebrook?
Ans. Captain Hagberd came to Colebrook to search for his son, Harry Hagberd.
2. What did he do with the money?
Ans. He bought two yellow cottages, one he lived in and the other one he rented to Josiah Carvil and his daughter.
3. What would Old Hagberd do when Bessie throws clothes over the wooden fence?
Ans. Old Hagberd would tell her softly that it would rot the wooden fence.
4. Who was Bessie to Old Hagberd?
Ans. Bessie was Old Hagberd’s tenant. He shares a fatherly bond with her.
5. Why was Old Hagberd scolding her?
Ans. Bessie threw over the wet clothes on the wooden fence that would rot it. Moreover, they share the same fence.