(SHORT STORIES) Chapter-2 - Fritz_ By Satyajit Ray(Workbook Answers)

                                           REVISION QUESTIONS


Question - 1

(c).  Discuss how the use of imagery and suspense adds to the element of horror in Satyajit Ray's
        short-story "Fritz".

Answer:-     In his outstanding short-story "Fritz" , Satyajit Ray has built up an eerie atmosphere of    suspense and mystery by making a deft and dexterous use of imagery which finally leads up to an unusual end of the story.
                     In "Fritz" the main protagonist named Jayanto was fascinated with the idea of revisiting Bundi , a town in Rajasthan , which he had visited thirty one years ago when he was a child of six.
                      The leitmotif of the story revolves around the visit of Jayanto and his friend Shankar to Bundi where they put up in a circuit house. Shankar asks him about his well being when he finds Jayanto in low spirits. Jayanto's imagination runs riot. The reminiscences of his childhood visit to Bundi flashes across his mind's eye. He recalls the incident involving his favourite doll, 'Fritz'. He remembered how two stray dogs tore away his doll into shreds and he buried it under a deodar tree in the far end of the garden in the circuit house.
                      Jayanto had a weird feeling at night. He woke up with the strange feeling that something was walking over his chest. He was horrified to discover the tiny, brown circular marks on the cover of his quilt. Realizing Jayanto's weird obsession with Fritz, Shankar got the earth dug up below the deodar tree. They had a creepy feeling - a feeling of mystery and horror on seeing the skeleton of a little human being, twelve inch long exactly the size of  'Fritz'.
                        By using visual as well as auditory imagery the author has created a super natural world of suspense and horror and leaves us wondering whether Fritz was a ghost or a figment of Jayanto's imagination.