Understanding the Text
1. Did the author believe in the prophetic ability of Frau Frieda?
Answer:
2. Why did he think that Frau Frieda’s dreams were a stratagem
for surviving?
Answer:
3. Why does the author compare Neruda to a Renaissance pope?
Answer:
Talking about the Text
Discuss in groups
1. In spite of all the rationality that human beings are capable of,
most of us are suggestible and yield to archaic superstitions.
Answer:
2. Dreams and clairvoyance are as much an element of the poetic
vision as religious superstition.
Answer:
Appreciation
1. The story hinges on a gold ring shaped like a serpent with
emerald eyes. Comment on the responses that this image
evokes in the reader.
Answer:
2. The craft of a master story-teller lies in the ability to interweave
imagination and reality. Do you think that this story illustrates this?
Answer:
3. Bring out the contradiction in the last exchange between the
author and the Portuguese ambassador
‘In concrete terms,’ I asked at last, ‘what did she do?’ ‘Nothing,’
he said, with a certain disenchantment. ‘She dreamed.’
Answer:
4. Comment on the ironical element in the story.