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The Lunatic - Four Levels and Question Answers | Laxmi Prasad Devkota | Mero solution

The Lunatic Four Levels and Question Answers 

The Lunatic four levels and question answers

     Four Levels of The Lunatic

                                              - Laxmi Prasad Devkota

1.LITERAL COMPREHENSION :
The poetic persona in the poem is mad, so he is different from an ordinary man in the sense that he can see sound, hears the scene, taste the smell, understand birds language. He says that for him one minus one is always zero. He has very much different sense because he sees a flower in the stone. Similarly he does that all because he was highly creative and imaginative man but that lack to ordinary men. The majority of people lack such mind, so they call him lunatic but in fact, he is not so.
He praises the poor, and rustic life. He hates the rich men because they have over ambition to collect the matter, so they can not be happy what they have and think to possess more matter till their death. Likewise, he hates the prostitute, political leader too. For him, prostitutes are dead in their life and the political leaders are so corrupted and only think their own life. They hate humanity and they do not speak for poor people. Flatterers also using their clever mind cheat the innocent people. At last of the poem, he is so rebellions and thinks to punish them but in reality, he cannot. Anyway the poet, Devkota pretending himself as mad, aims to show bad aspects of society.

2.INTERPRETATION :
The poet contrasts lunatic persona with the world of sane and even with conventional lunatic. The world of lunatic persona is so creative and imaginative. He can perceive many things which sane people can not because they are bound to sense organs and due to their inability to perceive such things, they say others lunatic man who can perceive those things. For example, sitting on earth, they can see the hidden mystery of heaven, can hear scene, see sound and even can understand bird's language. It is true that ordinary men uses their mind to understand them but a lunatic persona uses his heart and can easily understand them. In this regard, we can say that he uses the sixth sense where a worldly men are constrained by 5 senses.

3.CRITICAL THINKING :
For an ordinary reader, there are many unreliable ideas has been expressed by the Devkota. Truly, for a sane man, Devkota seems to be a real lunatic. So, we can raise many questions on his expressed ideas and thought. Is there existence of soul? Can one minus one become zero? Can a man see sound, hear sight, taste the smell and understand the bird's language? Is there heaven? Likewise can dream be interpreted meaningfully? Using the heart, can we understand? Is it possible to have six senses? Likewise, is it reliable to compare alive prostitute with dead human being? Are lower class people than kings and emperors?

4. ASSIMILATION :
After reading this story, I remembered my past life when I was 10 years old, at that time there was a mad man in our locality. He often spoke unbelievable things. Sometime he claimed that he could know other people's thought. He claimed that he was the son of God who had got birth on earth to give the message of god to the earthly people. But villager often abused and insulted him by giving the name, Baulaha(mad). Now I realized that he might not he mad but he had got supreme sense that ordinary people lacked. He had imaginative and creative mind that lacked other, so they said him Bahula (mad). In fact, majority of the people in earth lack such sense. innovative and noble thought keeping men are victimized by them. Truly, they did not understand him and did not try to understand his words, I think that he might be more intelligent as Devkota was.

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Question Answers of The Lunatic 

Q.1. Paraphrase the poem in one paragraph using your own words.

ANSWER : In the poem, poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota himself presents as a lunatic persona. He is different from ordinary people because he can see or visualize sound, hear the scene (sight), taste the sweet smell. Not only this much, he can also see flowers in the stone and also understands the bird's language. Likewise, for him dream and imagination are real and he con also interpret them meaningfully. Similarly, in winter night, he can see the heaven in the sky. He is quite sensible man, so he feels sorry seeing weak and dying people. He also believes in existence of soul. For him one minus one is always one as our individual soul after our death mixes with cosmic soul and again becomes one. He is so angry with upper class people who mostly exploit poor class people to fulfill their desire. To maintain their superiority, they invite their relative and give wine party. But for him, what the upper class drink is the blood of poor people. Likewise, he is also angry with prostitutes who sell body for money. For him, they are dead women though they are alive, He sees that poor men are richer than the king and emperor because they have unlimited wish and desire. He also hates the leaders who are for him blind leader because they are made by people but they hate the humanity. He rather praises the poor and ordinary people

Q.2. How is the poem, "Lunatic" romantic in theme?

ANSWER : The romanticism in poetry started by English poet William Wordsworth in 19th century. Devkota seems to be influencing by English romantic poet, William Wordsworth. Many Nepalese also prefer to call him Nepali Wordsworth. Like William Wordsworth, in his autobiographical poem, "Lunatic", he also highly praises the simplicity, originality, rustic life as well as he also presents himself as a highly imaginative and creative man. Similarly, he gives more emphasis in heart or feeling rather than mind. That's why; the poem lunatic is romantic in theme.

Q.3. The poet's method in "The Lunatic" capitalizes on the contrasts between the world of lunatic and sane people. What are some of these contrasty and how do they bring out the irony of the poem?

ANSWER : Truly, Devkota's method in the poem "The Lunatic capitalizes on the contrasts between the world of lunatic and sane people. The world of lunatic is so creative and imaginative. He can sense the many things of paradise sitting in the earth. Truly a lunatic man has six sense organs while a sane man lacks so and confines within his five senses. Lunatic persona can hear scene, see sound and can understand birds and animal languages. He is guided by heart but not by mind. Lunatic persona distorts moral law and does not follow the norms and values of the society. He has his own rules. A lunatic man also tries to prove unreal ideas as real one.

Q.4. Explain the term "iconoclast of ugliness".

ANSWER : The term "iconoclast of ugliness" means here a rebel who wants to finish the dark side of the life, political unrest and corruption. The poet is so rebel in the poem. According to the poetic persona, this world is run by the blind people. Here blind people stand for the rulers or political leaders. He criticizes those leaders who hate poor, helpless people. He also criticizes the flatterer who control other people thought by their false ideas. He attacking both types of people i.e, man hatter and flatterer wants to bring complete change in the society because he is so frustrated and unhappy with the existing society which is for him so corrupted due to the bad people handling over the innocent people.

Q.5. 'One minus one is always one recalls the famous phrase of the Isha Upanishad: If you take out absolute from absolute, what remains is absolute.' Do you think that is Devkota's intent ?

ANSWER : Yes, the poet's referring to the phrase from Upanishad while saying "one minus one is always one." Devkota, well acquainted with the Upanishad's teaching meant the same. The line from the Upanishad says if you take away everything from a perfect, it is not diminished; it remains full. If you take absolute from absolute, what remains is absolute. But in practical life this does not apply. Here one minus one is always zero. So most of the people, ignorant about the teachings of Upanishad, think it is the sign of abnormality to say 'one minus one is still one'.

Q.6. Is it natural for the tiger to pounce upon the Innocent deer and for the bigger fish to swallow the smaller fish. Why is the lunatic disturbed by what is natural?

ANSWER : It is natural for the tiger to pounce upon the innocent deer and for the bigger fish to swallow the smaller fish. "The tiger" and "the small fish" symbolized for poor, innocent and helpless people who are exploited. The lunatic persona can not bear any injustice. So, the lunatic persona protests against it.
               In the poem, poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota himself presents as a lunatic persona. He is different from ordinary people because he can see or visualize sound, hear the scene (sight), taste the sweet smell. Not only this much, he can also see flowers in the stone and also understands the bird's language. Likewise, for him dream and imagination are real and he con also interpret them meaningfully. Similarly, in winter night, he can see the heaven in the sky. He is quite sensible man, so he feels sorry seeing weak and dying people. He also believes in existence of soul. For him one minus one is always one as our individual soul after our death mixes with cosmic soul and again becomes one. He is so angry with upper class people who mostly exploit poor class people to fulfill their desire. To maintain their superiority, they invite their relative and give wine party. But for him, what the upper class drink is the blood of poor people. Likewise, he is also angry with prostitutes who sell body for money. For him, they are dead women though they are alive, He sees that poor men are richer than the king and emperor because they have unlimited wish and desire. He also hates the leaders who are for him blind leader because they are made by people but they hate the humanity. He rather praises the poor and ordinary people.

Q.7. Discuss "the Lunatic "as a political protest" poem.

ANSWER : "The Lunatic" is political protest poem which shows the Devkota's contemporary times political unrest and corrupted nature of leaders or rulers. In the poem, he is so rebellious and attacks to upper class people and leaders. Not only this much, he also shows other dark side of his time. show the dark sides of that time, he pretends himself as a mad man. He is so angry with his time upper class people who would exploit poor class people to fulfill their desire. To maintain their superiority, they would invite their relative and friends and would give wine party. But for him, what the upper class would drink was the blood of poor people. Likewise, he is also angry with prostitutes who would sell body for money. For him, they were dead in their life. He admires poor men but he hates the king, emperor, the flatterer and the leader who were t him real cause of degrading the society and nation.

Particularly, this poem, Lunatic was published in 1950s in which time the condition of politics was vulnerable and unrest and whole country was also in the process of transitional phase from Rana's dictatorship to the democratic world of freedom. It is said that in 1950s, Rana's atrocity tremendously reached in peak and many innocent people were brutally killed, hung or punished. There was everywhere unrest and chaotic situation. In fact, Devkota writing this poem wants to criticize or attack that time bad rulers, leaders and bad system. In specific, through this poem, he expresses his anger upon Ranas' rule which was full of oppressive to the ordinary people.
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