A Sunny Morning | Summary and Solved Questions:
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A SUNNY MORNING
SUMMARY:
The conversation between the two seventy-year-olds begins sarcastically, with each accusing the other of encroaching on their private space. Don Gonzalo complains the priests have taken his bench and says Dona Laura is a "Senile old lady! She ought to be at home knitting and counting her beads." She finds him "an ill-natured old man!" He resigns himself to "sit on the bench with the old lady."
A pinch of snuff helps to clear their heads, and they find something in common with alternating sneezes three times each. Dona Laura confides to the audience, "the snuff has made peace between us." They begin to banter back and forth in a friendly manner. Then Don Gonzalo reads out loud from a book of poems. They begin to discuss Valencia and without acknowledging it to each other, realize he and she are two lost lovers. He was a native of Faencia and she spent several seasons at a nearby villa. He remembers her as "The Silver Maiden," and they discuss a duel involving his cousin. When the play ends, they agree to meet at the park again, still not acknowledging what they both know to be true."
Questions and Answers
I. Answer the following questions in a word, a phrase or a sentence each.
Answer: She knows every word by heart
Answer: He did not get any other bench to sit.
Answer: Her appearance has changed a lot
Answer: Her appearance has changed a lot
Answer: Three Priests occupied Gonzalo’s usual bench.
Answer: Laura’s name
Answer: Maricela
Answer: Bread Crumbs.
Answer: Juanito
Answer: Tired but glad
Answer: Petra
Answer: Gratefulness and paying attention
Answer: Scaring the birds away.
Answer: Knitting and counting beads.
Answer: By touching his hat.
Answer: His Handkerchief
Answer: A Pinch of snuff
Answer: To kill time and to hunt
Answer: Don Gonzalo
Answer: The Silver Maiden
II. Answer the following questions in a paragraph of 80 – 100 words each.
IV. Answer the following questions in about 200 words:
Answer: Don Gonzalo is found to be in an ill-tempered state at his first appearance itself. He is so irritated because he finds that not even a single bench is vacant in the park. Moreover, the one on which he used to sit is occupied by three priests.
Answer: Gonzalo shares the same bench on which Dona Laura the old lady is sitting. Both of them annoy each other at first. Laura is angry because Gonzalo scared her pigeons. Gonzalo feels irritated as Laura is annoying him. Then Gonzalo takes out his snuff-box and offers a pinch of snuff to her. Both of them says that they will sneeze three times after taking a pinch of snuff and finds it to be a strange coincidence. This unites Laura and Gonzalo after the disagreement in the park.
Answer: In his conversation with Laura, Don Gonzalo reveals his admiration to the Spanish Romantic poets like Espronceda, Zorrilla, Becquer and the Spanish realist and philosopher Ramón de Campoamor. The mentioning of these Spanish writers’ highlights Gonzalo’s interest in their works. It also throws light on the Spanish literary heritage.
Answer:
Answer: On a sunny autumn morning in a quiet corner of a park in Madrid, Dona Laura, a graceful, white-haired lady of about seventy, is feeding pigeons in the park. Don Gonzalo, a gentleman of seventy, gouty and impatient enters. At first, both of them accuse each other of encroaching on their private space. But after having a snuff, both of them come to terms with each other and start talking about their hometowns and other things. Then Laura reveals that she lived in a villa Maricela, near Valencia-one of the largest cities in Spain. Gonzalo is startled to hear the name “Maricela.” He then tells that he knows a girl who lived in that villa in Maricela, who was perhaps the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He also reveals that the girl’s name was Laura Llorente. This revelation of Gonzalo helps Laura to realize that he was her former lover.
Answer: Gonzalo and Laura loved each other during their youthful days. But the affair was not successful as they were separated by fate. There was a quarrel between Gonzalo and a suitor who was a merchant. The merchant was badly wounded in the duel and Gonzalo had to conceal himself for a few days. Later he fled from his hometown to Seville and then to Madrid. Even though he tried to communicate with Laura through letters, all attempts failed. He then joined the army and went to Africa. According to Don Gonzalo, his ‘cousin- the lover of Laura’ met with a glorious death in Africa. Laura waited for her beloved’s arrival for days, months and a year. But then one day she went to the seashore, wrote her lover’s name on the sand and sat down upon a rock. The tides rose to the rock and swept her out to sea. This is narrated by both Gonzalo and Laura respectively. But in reality, after three months Gonzalo ran off to Paris with a ballet dancer and Laura, on the other hand, got married after two years.
Answer: Gonzalo and Laura, the two former lovers had to separate from each other. In her youthful days, Dona Laura was known in her locality as ‘The Silver Maiden.’ She was fair as a lily, with jet black hair and black eyes. She was like a dream. She was in love with Gonzalo, the gallant lover. He used to pass by on horseback every morning through the rose garden and tossed up a balcony of flowers to her balcony which she caught. On his way back in the afternoon she would toss the flowers back to him. But Laura’s parents wanted to marry her off to a merchant whom she disliked. One day there was a quarrel between Gonzalo and the merchant, the suitor. The merchant was badly wounded in the duel and Gonzalo had to conceal himself for a few days. Later he fled from his hometown to Seville and then to Madrid. Even though he tried to communicate with Laura through letters, all attempts failed. He then joined the army and went to Africa.
Answer: Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo become friends soon after enjoying a pinch of snuff offered by Don Gonzalo. While Don Gonzalo is reading a book aloud, he comes across a few lines of Spain poet. Incidentally, he tells Laura that it is from Campoamar's works. Then Dona Laura expresses her sympathy for him as he finds it difficult to read the book with his big glasses. At this moment, Don Gonzalo tells her that he is a great friend of many known poets especially Campoamar and he has met him in Valencia. Then he adds that he is a native of Valencia. Dona Laura tells him that she also has spent several seasons in her youth at the villa called Maricela, which is not far from the city of Valencia. The name Maricela surprises Don Gonzalo and he goes on to tell her that he has seen the most beautiful woman there. The moment he tells her name Laura, both look at each other intently. Precisely at this point, they begin to recognize each other.
Answer: The protagonists Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo loved each other in their young. Every day in the morning, he used to pass by on horseback down the rose path under Laura's window. While passing, Gonzalo used to toss up her balcony a bouquet of flowers, later in the afternoon while he was returning by the same path, he would catch the flowers she would toss him. As days pass by, Laura's parents thought of marrying her to a well-known merchant in their locality. One unfortunate night, while Gonzalo was waiting under her window to hear her songs, the merchant came there unexpectedly and insulted him. This led to a quarrel and later turned into a duel. At sunrise, the rich merchant was severely wounded by him. The merchant was highly regarded in the locality as he was a rich man in the city. Gonzalo became apprehensive of consequence and he decided to conceal for a few days. Therefore, he left the place as well his love
Answer: The young lovers, Laura and Gonzalo pine after they separated. Soon after Gonzalo flees to Valencia, then he joins the army in Africa and meets a glorious death on the Warfield. At this, Laura mutters about the story which is concocted cleverly by him and she pretends to sympathize with him, saying that he must have been distressed by the calamity. Taking it as a strong pinot, Gonzalo pretends to say that it is indeed a calamity, but also tries to express his resentment and presumes that on the contrary Laura might have forgotten him and she must have spent days chasing butterflies in the garden without any regret. Dona Laura protests saying no to his comment that it is a woman's way. She narrates a story of her version that the silver maiden awaited the news of Gonzalo for a year. As she did not receive any letters from him and one day she went to see him after sunset, wrote his name on the sand, sat on a rock. Knowing the threnody of her the waves took her into the sea. He mutters himself that it is a worse lie than his. They mutter themselves that they got married after the breakup. From their conversation and reaction to each other, we can conclude that Laura is more passionate as understood by the way she narrates the end of her friend. Now they are very friendly and sweet to each other without unveiling their true identity.
Answer: Don Gonzalo is an old gentleman of seventy years old, gouty and impatient. He is found to be in an ill-natured state at his first appearance itself. When he enters the park, he finds that the bench on which he used to sit is being occupied by the three priests. So he gets irritation and expresses his annoyance by remarking that the priests are idling their time away instead of sitting in the church. Juanito suggests that he could sit on the bench on which Dona Laura is seated. But he tells him that he wants a bench to himself. This instance shows that he is an ill-tempered man. After having no alternatives, he decides to share the bench. While he comes towards the bench he scares the birds away. To this, Laura gets annoyed with him and criticize his actions but Don Gonzalo replied to her in an impolite manner. He seems to be quite rude when he replies to her. The way he justifies his action shows her that he is indeed an ill-natured person. Therefore, she assumes and questions that why must people get so fussy and when they reach a certain age.
Answer: In the play A Sunny Morning, irony has been built throughout the play. There are several instances of irony. The protagonists in the play seem to be very old but their mentality serves like young in a humorous way. After settling on her bench, Dona Laura sends Petra to chat with the guard and makes fun of her. Later when he cleans his shoe from his handkerchief, she mocks at him. Gonzalo starts reading lines aloud from Campoamar's work, she again teases his sight. These three instances make readers laugh. We could guess the characters that they are the old lovers before they recognize each other. Gonzalo reads aloud the lines that " all love is sad but sad as it is" and " twenty years pass. He returns. And each beholding the other exclaims can it be that this is he? Heavens, is it she? These lines are much relevant to this play and taken as dramatic irony and also give a hint that they got separated and their love ended with sadness. After long years, they are meeting and unveiling their identity as Campoamar’s lines. When they unveil their identity, both start to conceal the emotions by narrating the concocted story of their end. Thus, a careful reading of the play reveals that there is a relationship between the old lady and the old gentleman.
Answer: In the beginning of the play, the protagonists enter the park with their servants. The conversation between these two seventy years old gets begun sarcastically with each other accusing the other of encroaching on their private space. Later they start to criticize their actions as haters. However, their feelings towards each other at the beginning of the play become more evident only when Don Gonzalo walks towards her bench, he scares away all the birds. So she warns him in a rash, in return, he arrogantly replies which provokes her to make a personal comment later as he does so. After a few heated exchanges between them, they take a pinch of snuff which makes them relief. Soon after taking snuff, they start conversation friendly. By the end of the play, we find a total change in their attitudes towards each other. In the course of their conversation, they discover that they were lovers once in their youthful days. But neither of them is ready to disclose their identity. However, the animosity that we witness at the beginning of the play is no longer there when they are ready to depart. Before taking leave of each other, they formally thank each other for having met. Both think that it's been a great pleasure to meet and ensure that they are coming to the park the next day. Both of them wave farewell and leave the place as friends.
Answer: Once Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura realize that they are the same old young lovers of Maricela who were separated in life by fate, they make up fictitious stories and conceal their identity. If they are revealed their identity both of them would have been utterly shocked and would have accused each other of deceiving the other. They know that both of them had held the other in high esteem and both of them had fallen deeply in love in their past. They wonder when both realize that they are the lovers of Maricela. They have changed a lot in their appearance. Don Gonzalo has become seventy-year-old and uses a parasol and big glasses to read books. So-called beauty, the silver Maiden has also become old and her appearance has changed too. That is why Dona Laura after listening to Don Gonzalo's praise of her beauty as The Silver Maiden now feels ashamed to confess that she is the old silver maiden of Maricela. Similarly, Don Gonzalo knows that he is grotesque and so wishes to keep his image as a gallant horseman who every day passed under her window by on horseback. Thus they think that it would be better to conceal their identity rather than complaining to each other.
Answer: A Sunny Morning is a short play, written by the Quintero brothers. It is a refreshingly new romantic comedy. It tells the story of
Don Gonzalo and Dona Laura, who are ardent lovers at their young age. But their love is not a successful one as they had to part
from each other in life. They meet each other in a park in Madrid during their old age. The story is presented in a new pattern, unlike
the conventional romantic stories.
The play begins on a sunny morning at a park, the entire play occurs on an autumn sunny morning. Here the title, sunny morning
refers to the youthful of the day and the weather seems to be very pleasant and fresh. The main characters are old age, in spite of this,
the way they think is very much similar to the young minds. At the beginning of the play, she mocks Petra and tells her to chat with
her lover. Generally old age people don't support and talk about love unlike them. When Gonzalo enters the park, they
sarcastically accuse each other like young people. This youthfulness metaphorically refers to the title of the play.
Answer: During the conversation with Dona Laura, Don Gonzalo gives a romantic description of the silver maiden. Dona Laura realizes
that the old man is none other than her former lover Gonzalo. Then, both of them together narrate their romantic affair until they
come to the end of their story. Don Gonzalo rounds it off telling her that his cousin had to hide for a few days and later to
fly. At this point, Dona tells him that he seems to know the story well. Don Gonzalo also tells her the same. Dona Laura tells him that she heard the story from her friend. Don Gonzalo picks up the same lie and tells her that he heard the story from his cousin. Both of
them are now convinced that they were the former lovers of the romantic affair they had just reconstructed. Dona Laura wants to
probe further into the affair. Therefore, she demands an explanation about Gonzalo's vanishing from Valencia.
In reply, Don Gonzalo tells her that after staying hidden indoors in Valencia for some time, his cousin went to Seville and then came
to Madrid, where he wrote letters to Laura. But, since the letters were intercepted by her parents, she did not get his letters at all and
so she did not write back to him. He tells her that Gonzalo, then in despair, believing that he had lost his love forever, joined the
army, went to Africa and there is a trench met a glorious death grasping the flag of Spain and whispering the name of his beloved
Laura. Immediately, Dona also creates a story. She tells him that after waiting for a year for Gonzalo, she went to the beach after
sunset one evening. She wrote his name on the sand and then sat down on a rock, her gaze fixed upon the horizon. Then the waves
slowly crept up to the rock, where the maiden was sitting and the high rising tide rose with a boom and swept her out to sea. Thus
ended the sad love affair.
Answer: A Sunny Morning' presents the story of two young lovers who were once passionately attached to each other. Their love would
have ended in their marriage but they were separated by a cruel blow of fate. Gonzalo was a young man living in Valencia. Not far
from his house there was a villa near the sea, known as Maricela. There lived a beautiful young lady Laura Lorente and everyone
called her ‘The Silver Maiden'. A romantic affair developed between the two. Gonzalo used to pass by on horseback every morning
down the rose path under her window and tossed up a bouquet of flowers to her balcony which she would catch. Later, in the
afternoon, when he returned by the same path, he would catch the bouquet of flowers she tossed him. However, the parents of Laura
wanted to marry her to a merchant against her wish. One night when Gonzalo was waiting under her window her merchant-suitor
came there unexpectedly and insulted Gonzalo. Soon, there resulted in a duel (fight) in which Gonzalo injured the merchant. Since the
merchant was well known in that locality, Gonzalo fled to Seville and then to Madrid. Though the lovers tried to contact each other
through letters, their letters were intercepted and they were separated forever.
However, the ways of fate being strange, both the lovers Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo who are now in their 70's, meet again in a
retired corner of a park in Madrid. Though initially, they make rude remarks about each other, they gradually discover that they were
the very same lovers of their youth when they were living in Maricela in Valencia.
Answer: Narrating his story as his cousin's, Dona Gonzalo said that his cousin loved the Silver Maiden every morning, he would pass on horseback, tossing up a bouquet of flowers. She too would toss them in the evening. Once, when Gonzalo's cousin waited under her window to hear her singing, a merchant, whom she was expected to marry, appeared and insulted the cousin. There was a quarrel that led to a duel. As a result, the merchant was badly wounded. And so, his cousin had to conceal himself for a few days. Fearing the consequences of a duel with a person highly regarded in that locality, he had to take refuge in his house. He went to Seville and, then, to Madrid. He wrote many letters to Laura. None of the letters ever reached her, so they went unanswered. He thought that he had lost his love forever, joined the army, went to Africa and there in a trench, met a glorious death, grasping the flag of Spain and whispering the name of his beloved, Laura.
Answer: The play A Sunny Morning' is a romantic comedy that blends both the elements of romance and comedy. The play deals
with the love story of Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo and the dialogues of the play are humorous and lively. The play begins in the
park where Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo meet when they are old. They both were lovers when they were young. But now, both do
not recognize each other. Once, when they start talking, they understand the reality but both do not want to reveal their identities.
One day when Dona Laura was feeding the pigeons with bread crumbs, Don Gonzalo, the old man, comes with his servant and sits
on the same bench. Laura gets angry with Gonzalo for frightening the birds. Both get annoyed with each other. He starts reading
poems from his book. Then, he tells her that he belonged to Valencia, a city in Spain. Laura is surprised and tells that she too spent
her youth there in a villa called Maricela.
When Gonzalo asks her if she remembered the name Laura, she lies to him that she was a friend of Laura. They both discuss the
story of Laura's friend and Gonzalo's cousin which was really their own story. Laura tells him that her friend waited for her lover for
many years and later was married to a merchant. Gonzalo replies that his cousin joined the army and died as a soldier. In the play, we
find that both the central characters do not reveal their true identity. They hope to meet every morning there. The play ends on a
positive note and we find a beautiful mix of romance and comedy, last like a sunny morning cold and heat and depart from the park.
Here, we see that they do not acknowledge the fact of being old but lost lovers; rather they prefer to think that they have befooled
each other with their fictitious stories. In fact, they do not want to remember their past and they want to be frozen in time in each
other's memories, as they once were. Their such an attitude makes us think that everything is fair in love and war'.