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Night of the Scorpion L/O: Learning about the context and main ideas of the poem.
Night of the Scorpion
L/O: Learning about the context and main ideas of the poem.
Nissim EzekielNissim EzekielNissim Ezekiel was born in Bombay to Jewish parents in 1924. He was raised in a Hindu culture and was influenced by atheist views.As a Jew living in a Hindu society Ezekiel was something of an outsider. ‘Not being Hindu I cannot identify myself with India's past as a comprehensive heritage or reject it as if it were mine to reject’. He wrote about modern India and the little mysteries of everyday life.
The Night of the Scorpion
• What is Night of the Scorpion about? • The poem is about the night when a woman (the
poet's mother) in a poor village in India is stung by a scorpion. Concerned neighbours pour into her hut to offer advice and help. All sorts of cures are tried by the neighbours, her husband and the local holy man, but time proves to be the best healer - 'After twenty hours / it lost its sting.'.
• After her ordeal, the mother is thankful that the scorpion stung her and not the children.
ReincarnationReincarnationThe Hindu belief in reincarnation is in Night of the Scorpion. This is the idea that when individuals die the spirit leaves the body and is reborn into a new body.
A person’s new self on reincarnation is determined by the good (or bad) things he or she has committed in his or her preceding life.
What Happens?
Lines What is happening?
1 - 7 The scorpion comes into the home to escape the
rain and stings the poet’s mother
8 - 33
34 - 48
There are three main parts to the poem. Do you know what they are? The first one has been
done for you
Night of the Scorpion
I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice.
Parting with his poison - flash
First person
The poet’s mother
Alliteration
Scorpion is just Trying to stay dry
Religious imageryStung the mother
of diabolic tail in the dark room –
he risked the rain again.
The peasants came like swarms of flies
and buzzed the name of God a hundred times
to paralyse the Evil One.
Religious imagery to showThe scorpion is demonic
Scorpion is afraid and risks therain to get away from the people
Symbolic of theDevil – capitalisedTo make it a name
Simile which makes thepeasants seem panic-stricken and illogical
Sets the sceneby showing it’s
a poor Indian house
With every movement that the scorpion made
his poison moved in Mother's blood, they said.
May he sit still, they said.
May the sins of your previous birth
be burned away tonight, they said.
Superstition shows how ill-educated the
peasants are
Sounds like a prayer, but having the same wordAt the start of so many lines makes this reaction
Seem repetitive and unsympathetic
Talking about reincarnation – they think
she will die
May your suffering decrease
the misfortunes of your next birth, they said.
May the sum of evil
balanced in this unreal world
against the sum of good
become diminished by your pain.
Reincarnation again.Religious imagery
Pain is seen as a way of cleansingthe soul before the next life
May the poison purify your fleshof desire, and your spirit of ambition,they said, and they sat aroundon the floor with my mother in the centre,the peace of understanding on each face.More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,more insects, and the endless rain.
Shows the superstition about
the afterlife
They think that she is going to
die.
Repetition of the word more
My mother twisted through and through,
groaning on a mat.
My father , sceptic rationalist,
trying every curse and blessing,
powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.
he even poured a little paraffin
upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.
The event was so serious that his father tried anything to save
her.
Desperation.
I watched the flame feeding on my mother.
I watched the holy man perform his rites
to tame the poison with an incantation.
After twenty hours
It lost its sting.
My mother only said
Thank God the scorpion picked on me
and spared my children.
Repetition Personification of the flame/ alliteration.
Chanting
Shows the nature of a
mother’s love.
Separate stanza concluding the story. The mother is rational
which contrasts with the villages.
Time was the only healer.
ImageryLook at the description of the village peasants. What does the imagery suggest about them?
The ImagesThe Images Notes on the imagesNotes on the images
they ‘came like swarms of flies’
they ‘buzzed the name of God’
They threw ‘giant scorpion shadows /on the mud-baked walls’
They ‘clicked their tongues’
