Class 12 English Vistas Chapter 6 — On the Face of It
Welcome to HSLC Guru’s complete study guide to “On the Face of It” by Susan Hill, the sixth chapter in the ASSEB (Assam State Board of Secondary Education) / CBSE Class 12 supplementary reader Vistas. This page offers a chapter overview, the full English summary, an Assamese সাৰাংশ, character sketches of Mr. Lamb and Derry, theme analysis, and an exhaustive bank of textbook (Reading with Insight) answers, short and long question-answers, MCQs, and extract-based questions tuned to the HS 2nd Year (Higher Secondary) examination pattern.
“On the Face of It” is a poignant one-act play that exposes the loneliness, prejudice, and emotional isolation faced by people with physical disfigurement. Through the chance meeting between an old man with a tin leg and a young boy with an acid-burnt face, Susan Hill argues that the actual pain caused by physical impairment is far less crushing than the alienation, pity, and revulsion society heaps upon the physically different. The play’s tragic ending leaves a haunting question about whether warmth, friendship, and acceptance can survive in a world that judges people by their faces.
About the Author — Susan Hill
Susan Hill (born 5 February 1942 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England) is a celebrated English novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and literary critic. She studied English at King’s College London and rose to prominence with her early novels I’m the King of the Castle (1970) — which won the Somerset Maugham Award — and The Albatross (1971). She is best known to wider audiences for her chilling Gothic ghost story The Woman in Black (1983), later adapted into a long-running West End stage play and a major motion picture. Hill’s writing characteristically explores loneliness, fear, the inner life of children, the complexity of evil, and the unspoken tensions of human relationships. On the Face of It, originally published in 1975, captures the same brooding sensitivity to vulnerable, isolated minds that defines her novels — but in a compact, deeply moving dramatic form.
Summary (English)
“On the Face of It” is a one-act play in two scenes that traces the brief but transformative encounter between an elderly recluse and a disfigured boy. The play opens in the lush garden of Mr. Lamb, an old man who has lost one leg in the war and now wears a tin leg. He lives alone in a large house surrounded by ripe crab apples, weeds, and bees. Although the garden gate is unlocked, locals rarely visit; children mock him as “Lamey-Lamb” behind his back. Despite this, Mr. Lamb exudes warmth, optimism, and a deep love of all living things — flowers, weeds, books, and even strangers.
One afternoon, fourteen-year-old Derry climbs over the garden wall, believing the place to be empty. Half his face has been disfigured by acid, and he has retreated into a private world of bitterness, certain that everyone who looks at him is repulsed. Startled to find Mr. Lamb sitting beneath a tree, Derry attempts to flee. Mr. Lamb, however, refuses either to gawk at the boy’s burnt face or to pity him. He speaks to Derry as he would to any visitor — calmly, frankly, and with humour. He tells Derry that the gate is always open, that apples are for picking, and that fear lives only inside the head.
As they talk, Derry pours out his anguish: people stare; one woman said only a mother could love such a face; he overheard two strangers say he was better off dead. He has decided to wall himself off and live “where there’s nobody to see.” Mr. Lamb gently dismantles each of his defences. He reminds Derry that he still has two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a tongue, and a brain — and that what matters is what a person does, not how a face looks. He compares people to trees, plants, and weeds: outwardly different, inwardly the same. He reveals his own pain — the cruel nickname, the hollow rhythm of his tin leg — yet insists that loneliness is a choice and the world is full of wonders for those who keep their senses awake.
Slowly, Derry’s hardened shell cracks. He listens to the bees in the hive, asks questions about the books inside the house, and promises to return that very afternoon to help bring down the crab apples and to hear more stories. He runs home to ask his mother’s permission. Scene Two takes place at Derry’s house: his mother forbids him to return, having heard rumours about the “strange” old man. Derry resists for the first time in his life, defends Mr. Lamb passionately, and breaks free, racing back to the garden.
But when he reaches the orchard, the ladder against the apple tree has fallen and Mr. Lamb lies on the grass — he has tumbled while picking the fruit and is dying or already dead. Derry sobs over him, calling out in vain: “I came back. Mr. Lamb, I came back.” The bees still hum. The wind still moves through the tree. The play ends on Derry’s broken cry, leaving the audience to weigh what has been lost. Susan Hill’s closing image is bitterly ironic: at the very moment Derry chooses life and connection, the friend who taught him to choose is taken away. The lesson, however, remains — and so does the play’s central truth that the wound on a face matters less than the wound society inflicts on the heart.
সাৰাংশ (Assamese Summary)
“On the Face of It” হৈছে চুজান হিলে ৰচনা কৰা এক একাংকিকা নাটক, য’ত শাৰীৰিক বিকলাংগতা আৰু সমাজে দিয়া আৱেগিক একাকীত্বৰ মাজত পৰা দুজন চৰিত্ৰৰ চমু কিন্তু গভীৰ সাক্ষাত বৰ্ণনা কৰা হৈছে। প্ৰথম দৃশ্যত আমি লগ পাওঁ মিষ্টাৰ লেম্বক — এজন বৃদ্ধ যিয়ে যুদ্ধত নিজৰ এখন ভৰি হেৰুৱাইছিল আৰু এতিয়া এখন টিনৰ ভৰি ব্যৱহাৰ কৰে। তেওঁ এটা ডাঙৰ ঘৰত একলে থাকে; ঘৰৰ চাৰিওফালে এটা সুন্দৰ বাগিচা — তাত পকা ক্ৰেব আপেল, বনৰীয়া ফুল, পাত আৰু মৌমাখিৰ চাকেৰে ভৰি আছে। ফাটক সদায় খোলা থাকিলেও মানুহ কেতিয়াও তেওঁৰ ঘৰলৈ নাহে; ল্ল’ৰাবিলাকে তেওঁক “লেমি-লেম্ব” বুলি ঠাট্টা কৰে। তথাপি তেওঁ জীৱনৰ প্ৰতি আশাবাদী, প্ৰকৃতিৰ প্ৰতি আকৰ্ষিত আৰু সকলো জীৱিত বস্তুৰ প্ৰতি স্নেহশীল।
সেই বাগিচাত এদিন এজন চৌধ্য বছৰীয়া ল’ৰা ডেৰি দেৱালৰ পৰা টপি সোমাই আহে। তেওঁৰ মুখৰ এটা ফাল এচিডে পুৰি পেলাইছিল; সেই কাৰণে তেওঁ মানুহক এৰি, ঘৰত লুকাই থাকিবলৈ ভাল পায়। মিষ্টাৰ লেম্বে তেওঁক দেখি আচৰিত নহয় বা কৰুণা প্ৰকাশ নকৰে — সাধাৰণ অতিথিৰ দৰেই সম্ভাষণ কৰে। তেওঁ ডেৰিক বুজায় যে ভয় কেৱল মনৰ সৃষ্টি, যে দুটা চকু, দুটা কাণ, দুখন ভৰি, দুখন হাত আৰু এটা মগজু থাকিলে এজন মানুহে যিকোনো কাম কৰিব পাৰে। তেওঁ ফুল আৰু বন একে বুলি কয় — বাহিৰৰ ৰূপ বেলেগ হ’লেও ভিতৰৰ প্ৰাণ একেই।
লাহে লাহে ডেৰিৰ মন কোমল হ’বলৈ ধৰে। তেওঁ ঠিক কৰে যে ঘৰলৈ গৈ মাকৰ পৰা অনুমতি লৈ পুনৰ আহিব আৰু লেম্ব মহাশয়ৰ সৈতে আপেল চিঙাৰ কামত যোগদান দিব। দ্বিতীয় দৃশ্যত মাকে আপত্তি কৰে; কিন্তু ডেৰিয়ে প্ৰথমবাৰৰ বাবে মাকৰ ইচ্ছা অমান্য কৰি দৌৰি বাগিচালৈ ঘূৰি আহে। কিন্তু আহি দেখে — মই লেম্বে চিৰি ওপৰৰ পৰা পৰি তললৈ আছে আৰু প্ৰাণ এৰিছে। ডেৰিয়ে চিৎকাৰ কৰি কান্দে — “মই ঘূৰি আহিছোঁ, লেম্ব ছাৰ, মই ঘূৰি আহিছোঁ।” নাটকৰ অন্তিম দৃশ্যত মৌমাখিৰ গুঞ্জন আৰু বতাহৰ শব্দ অপৰিৱৰ্তিত — কিন্তু বন্ধু চিৰদিনৰ বাবে হেৰাই গ’ল। চুজান হিলে এই দুঃখজনক অন্তেৰে দেখুৱাইছে যে শাৰীৰিক বিকৃতি কৰিতকৈও বহুত ডাঙৰ আঘাত হৈছে সমাজৰ কৰুণা, ঘৃণা আৰু একাকীত্ব।
Plot Summary — Scene by Scene
Scene 1 — Mr. Lamb’s Garden
The play opens in Mr. Lamb’s overgrown garden on a sunny afternoon. Apples have fallen on the grass; bees are humming around a hive. Mr. Lamb sits in a deck chair when Derry, scrambling over the high garden wall, lands among the apples and tries to leave the moment he sees the old man. Mr. Lamb gently calls out, “Mind the apples!” and engages him in conversation. Derry, suspicious and combative, expects to be stared at and pitied. Instead, Mr. Lamb refuses to acknowledge the burnt face as anything unusual. He calmly admits to having a tin leg, jokes about being called “Lamey-Lamb,” and tells Derry that fear is only what one chooses to feel. He invites him to listen to the bees, to look at the weeds and flowers, and to come and pick crab apples. Derry begins to relax. He confesses that he is “afraid of the way people look at him,” that he hates being seen as a freak, and that he has decided to live where no one can see him. Mr. Lamb counters by saying that the world is full of beautiful things and that hiding will only kill the soul. By the end of the scene, Derry agrees to come back that very evening to help bring the apples down.
Scene 2 — Derry’s Home and Return
Back home, Derry’s mother is preparing tea. She has heard from neighbours that Mr. Lamb is “strange” and forbids her son to go back. Derry argues with her for the first time. He defends Mr. Lamb fiercely, repeating phrases the old man taught him: “He’s the only person in the world who’s never made me feel peculiar.” He bursts out of the house. The scene shifts back to the garden. Mr. Lamb has climbed a ladder to pick more apples. The ladder slides; he falls. When Derry rushes in, panting, he finds Mr. Lamb lying motionless on the ground. He shakes him, weeps over him, and cries, “I came back. I did come back.” Mr. Lamb is dead. The bees continue their soft hum. The play ends, leaving Derry — and the audience — alone with the bitter knowledge that society’s first lesson in acceptance has cost the boy his only friend, but also given him an inner courage no one can take away.
Character Sketches
Mr. Lamb
Mr. Lamb is the moral and emotional centre of the play. An elderly war veteran with a tin leg, he has lived alone for years in a big garden-encircled house. Children mock him as “Lamey-Lamb”; adults avoid his open gate. Yet Mr. Lamb chooses optimism over bitterness. He reads, makes crab-apple jelly, listens to the bees, and welcomes anyone who wanders in. He is wise, witty, gentle, and unintrusive — never asking Derry about his face, never offering pity, never lecturing. He talks of weeds and flowers as equals, of people as growing things, of fear as a self-made cage. Beneath this cheerfulness, however, lies a deep, unspoken loneliness: he confesses that visitors come once and then never come back; he sits alone for hours; he expects rejection. His death at the end — falling from the very ladder he climbed to gather fruit for the boy — is heartbreaking. Mr. Lamb stands for the courage that disability demands and the love that overcomes alienation.
Derry
Derry is a fourteen-year-old boy whose face has been burnt with acid. The disfigurement has left him angry, withdrawn, and full of self-loathing. He believes that everyone stares at him in disgust; he repeats cruel comments he has overheard (“only a mother could love that face,” “he’s better off dead”). He climbs over Mr. Lamb’s wall not to befriend anyone but to hide. Yet under the old man’s calm acceptance, Derry slowly opens up — questioning, listening, even smiling. By the end of Scene One he is determined to come back; by Scene Two he defies his over-protective mother for the first time and runs to the garden. He arrives too late, but the encounter has already changed him: he has discovered that he is more than his scar, that connection is possible, and that fear is something to be conquered. Derry represents every young person whom society writes off because of how they look — and the immense possibility hidden inside such a person when one human being shows them genuine warmth.
Derry’s Mother (Minor Character)
Derry’s mother appears only in Scene Two. She loves her son but has unwittingly become part of his isolation: over-protective, suspicious of strangers, and quick to repeat neighbourhood gossip. Her insistence that Mr. Lamb is “weird” and that Derry must stay away mirrors the wider social prejudice the play criticises. Yet she is also the catalyst for Derry’s first act of independence — by forbidding him, she pushes him to choose for himself.
Themes
- Physical Disability vs. Emotional Alienation — Hill’s central argument is that the actual physical pain caused by impairment is far less than the suffering caused by social rejection, staring, pity, and loneliness.
- Social Prejudice and the Tyranny of Appearance — Society judges people by their faces; both Derry and Mr. Lamb are excluded by this superficial judgement. The play asks us to see past the face.
- Loneliness — Mr. Lamb’s open gate that no one walks through, and Derry’s self-imposed walls, are two sides of the same isolation.
- Friendship and Acceptance — Genuine acceptance, not pity, is what heals. Mr. Lamb gives Derry exactly that, and the change in the boy is immediate and lasting.
- Optimism in Adversity — Mr. Lamb’s cheerful philosophy — “weeds are flowers too if you choose to call them so” — models how to find joy and meaning despite suffering.
- The Open Gate — A recurring symbol: the gate is always unlocked, but society chooses not to enter. Acceptance is offered; people refuse it.
- Tragic Irony — The death of Mr. Lamb at the moment Derry chooses life is a brutal irony, but it also affirms the lesson: the friend dies, but the courage he gives lives on.
- Over-protection as Imprisonment — Derry’s mother loves him, yet her fear and possessiveness contribute to his isolation. The play warns parents that protection without freedom is itself a form of harm.
Reading with Insight — Textbook Questions and Answers
Q1. What is it that draws Derry towards Mr. Lamb in spite of himself?
Answer: Derry comes to Mr. Lamb’s garden expecting to be alone. When he sees the old man, his first instinct is to flee, because he is convinced that anyone who looks at his burnt face will recoil. But Mr. Lamb does the opposite of what Derry expects. He neither stares nor pities him; he speaks to him as he would to any visitor, jokes about his own tin leg, calls weeds “flowers”, invites him to listen to the bees, and tells him plainly that fear is something one chooses. This complete absence of judgement is something Derry has never experienced before. Slowly the old man’s warmth, his openness, his philosophy that every living thing is beautiful in its own way, his refusal to treat Derry as a freak, and his honest admission of his own loneliness all combine to draw Derry out of his shell. Mr. Lamb appeals to the part of Derry that still wants to live, to belong, to be loved for who he is rather than feared for how he looks. By the end of the meeting, Derry finds himself promising to come back — something he has refused to do with anyone else for years.
Q2. In which section of the play does Mr. Lamb show signs of loneliness and disappointment? What are the ways in which Mr. Lamb tries to overcome these feelings?
Answer: Mr. Lamb’s loneliness shows quietly through Scene One. He admits that the gate is always open but no one enters; that visitors come once and never return; that children call him “Lamey-Lamb” behind his back; that he sits in the sun reading because there is no one to talk to. When Derry asks if he has friends, Mr. Lamb avoids a direct answer and says everyone is a friend if you treat them so. His repeated, half-hopeful “You’ll come back, then?” — said almost as a question to himself — shows how deeply he longs for company. To overcome this isolation, Mr. Lamb has built a deliberate philosophy of acceptance. He keeps his gate unlocked. He calls weeds flowers and finds beauty in each one. He reads constantly. He makes jellies and toffees from the fallen apples. He listens to the bees and to the wind in the trees. He talks to anyone who happens to wander in. He insists that he is interested in everything God made — people, plants, sun, rain — and that interest itself is a cure for loneliness. In short, Mr. Lamb fights solitude not by denying it, but by widening his heart to include the whole world.
Q3. The actual pain or inconvenience caused by a physical impairment is often much less than the sense of alienation felt by the person with disabilities. What is the kind of behaviour that the person expects from others?
Answer: A physical impairment is not, by itself, the worst part of being disabled. People learn to live with a tin leg, with a scar, with a limp. What truly wounds is the constant sense of being different — of being stared at, whispered about, pitied, avoided, or treated as a freak. Both Mr. Lamb and Derry feel this. People with disabilities do not want sympathy or special treatment. They want to be treated as normal human beings — to be spoken to without averted eyes, to have their abilities recognised rather than their limitations counted, to be allowed to do everyday things without help being thrust upon them, to be loved for who they are. They want friendship, not charity; respect, not pity; conversation, not silence. When Mr. Lamb refuses to discuss Derry’s burnt face and instead talks about apples, weeds, books, and bees, he gives Derry exactly what every disabled person needs — a sense of being seen as a whole human being, not as a damaged exterior. Society’s responsibility is to offer this kind of dignified, casual, equal acceptance.
Q4. Will Derry get back to his old seclusion or will Mr. Lamb’s brief association effect a change in the kind of life he will lead in the future?
Answer: Although the play ends tragically with Mr. Lamb’s death, Derry has clearly been changed forever. The change is already visible before he runs back. He defies his mother for the first time in his life. He defends Mr. Lamb passionately. He repeats phrases that he has learned in a single afternoon — “He’s the only person in the world who’s never made me feel peculiar,” “I’ve got two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a tongue and a brain” — and he means them. The seed Mr. Lamb planted is too deep to be uprooted. Even though he loses his friend at the very moment he chooses friendship, the lesson does not die. Derry now knows that hiding is a choice, that fear is self-made, that he is more than his face, and that there is at least one place in the world where he was accepted as he is. He may grieve. He may struggle. But the boy who ran back to that garden will not retreat into his old seclusion. Mr. Lamb’s brief but powerful association has given him the courage to face the world.
Q5. Have you come across people like Mr. Lamb and Derry in real life? Or, have you read about them? Can you think of some celebrities who have made a public statement of their condition?
Answer: Yes, the world has many real-life Mr. Lambs and Derrys — people who have refused to let physical difference define them and have become an inspiration to others. Helen Keller, born deaf and blind, became one of the world’s great writers and activists. Stephen Hawking, paralysed by motor neurone disease, transformed our understanding of the universe. Sudha Chandran, the Indian dancer who lost a leg in an accident, returned to the stage with a Jaipur foot. Arunima Sinha became the first Indian amputee to climb Mount Everest. Nick Vujicic, born without limbs, travels the world as a motivational speaker. Closer to home, every Indian classroom has children quietly battling burns, polio, blindness, or disfigurement, and every locality has elderly people living alone. The play reminds us that our duty is neither to stare nor to pity but to walk through the open gate, sit down, and treat them as friends.
Working with Words
| Word / Phrase | Meaning in the Play |
|---|---|
| Crab apples | small, sour wild apples used to make jelly |
| Tin leg | artificial / prosthetic leg, made of metal |
| Lamey-Lamb | the cruel nickname children use for Mr. Lamb |
| Peculiar | strange, odd, different from others |
| Weed | any wild plant — Mr. Lamb refuses to distinguish weeds from flowers |
| On the face of it | idiom — at first glance, judging by appearance only |
| Scar / disfigured | permanent mark left by burning; deformed in appearance |
| Acid | corrosive chemical that burnt Derry’s face |
| Hive | home of a colony of bees |
| Deck chair | folding wooden-and-canvas chair used outdoors |
| Seclusion | state of being alone, kept away from others |
| Alienation | feeling of being cut off from others, not belonging |
| Recluse | person who chooses to live in solitude |
Short Answer Questions (2-3 marks)
Q1. Who is Mr. Lamb? How does Derry get into his garden?
Answer: Mr. Lamb is an old man who lives alone in a big house with a large garden. He has a tin leg — a prosthetic limb — having lost his real leg in a war years ago. Children mockingly call him “Lamey-Lamb.” Derry, a fourteen-year-old boy with a face disfigured by acid, climbs over the high garden wall thinking the place is empty. Although the gate is unlocked, Derry chooses to scale the wall because he wants to remain unseen.
Q2. Do you think all this will change Derry’s attitude towards Mr. Lamb?
Answer: Yes, the meeting transforms Derry’s attitude completely. He arrives suspicious, expecting cruelty, ready to flee. By the time he leaves, he has been listened to without judgement, treated as an equal, given a new way of looking at himself, and offered friendship. He runs back the same evening, prepared to defy his mother, because Mr. Lamb has become the only person in his life who never made him feel peculiar.
Q3. Why does Mr. Lamb leave his gate always open?
Answer: Mr. Lamb leaves the gate open as a quiet invitation to the world. He believes a closed gate keeps out friendship, conversation, and life itself. The open gate is also a symbol — anyone who wishes to enter, to talk, to share apples, to listen to bees, is welcome. Sadly, although the gate is open, almost no one walks through it; the openness is one-sided, which is why Mr. Lamb is so deeply lonely.
Q4. What is it that draws Derry towards Mr. Lamb in spite of himself?
Answer: What draws Derry is Mr. Lamb’s complete absence of pity and his casual, equal manner. The old man neither stares at the burnt face nor offers sympathy. He talks of weeds, apples, bees, books, and his own tin leg in the same friendly tone. For the first time, Derry feels seen as a person, not as a scar. That is what pulls him in.
Q5. How does Mr. Lamb try to remove the baseless fears of Derry?
Answer: Mr. Lamb dismantles Derry’s fears step by step. He reminds him that he still has two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a brain — far more than many people. He compares Derry’s burnt face to a tree’s bark, weeds and flowers, ugly and beautiful both being parts of the same earth. He says fear is only what one chooses to feel, that hiding will kill the soul, and that the world is full of beautiful things waiting for anyone willing to look. He gives examples from his own life of being mocked yet remaining open to people.
Q6. What did Derry’s mother think of Mr. Lamb?
Answer: Derry’s mother had heard local gossip about Mr. Lamb being “strange.” She thought he was an odd, possibly dangerous old man and absolutely forbade Derry to visit him again. Her judgement, like that of the rest of the neighbourhood, was based on rumour rather than acquaintance — exactly the kind of prejudice the play criticises.
Q7. Why did Derry feel that nobody would love him ever?
Answer: Derry had overheard cruel comments — one woman said only a mother could love a face like his; two strangers said he was better off dead. These remarks convinced him that the world saw him as a monster and that no one outside his immediate family could ever care for him. The wound of those words was deeper than the burn itself.
Q8. What is the bond that unites Mr. Lamb and Derry?
Answer: Both are physically different, both have been mocked, both have been pushed into loneliness by society. Mr. Lamb’s tin leg and Derry’s burnt face become the unspoken thread connecting them. But the deeper bond is emotional — both have learned, in their own ways, that the real wound is alienation, not impairment. Mr. Lamb has chosen acceptance and openness; Derry, by the end of the play, chooses the same.
Q9. What did Mr. Lamb tell Derry about the so-called weeds?
Answer: Mr. Lamb refuses to call any plant a weed. He says, “Weeds, flowers — what’s the difference? It’s all life, it’s all growing.” He uses the example to teach Derry that the labels people put on things — “ugly,” “useless,” “abnormal” — are arbitrary. A weed is a flower if you treat it as one; a person is beautiful if you choose to see them so.
Q10. Why does Mr. Lamb call himself “Lamey-Lamb”?
Answer: “Lamey-Lamb” is the cruel nickname the village children give him because of his tin leg. Mr. Lamb tells Derry about it openly, even with a smile. By owning the name himself, he strips it of its power to hurt him — an example to Derry of how to disarm cruelty with humour and self-acceptance.
Q11. What is the significance of the title “On the Face of It”?
Answer: The title is an English idiom meaning “judging only by appearances.” The play’s whole argument is that judging “on the face of it” — by faces, scars, tin legs — is wrong. On the face of it, Derry is a freak; underneath, he is a sensitive, intelligent boy. On the face of it, Mr. Lamb is a strange old man; underneath, he is a wise, loving soul. The title invites us to look past the face.
Q12. How does the play end?
Answer: Derry, having defied his mother, runs back to the garden eager to rejoin Mr. Lamb. He arrives to find that the ladder has fallen and Mr. Lamb is dead on the ground. Derry weeps, cries out that he has come back, and the play closes on his broken voice and the unbroken hum of the bees. The ending is intensely tragic but also affirming — the boy has chosen friendship even though it has been taken from him.
Long Answer Questions (5-6 marks)
Q1. Discuss the theme of “On the Face of It” — that the actual pain caused by physical impairment is often much less than the sense of alienation felt by people with disabilities.
Answer: Susan Hill’s play makes a quiet but devastating argument: a person with a disability suffers more from how society treats them than from the disability itself. Mr. Lamb has lived with a tin leg for decades. The leg does not stop him from gardening, climbing ladders, reading, making jelly, or thinking deeply. Yet he is desperately lonely — children mock him, neighbours avoid him, visitors never return. Derry’s face was burnt by acid. The burn does not stop him from running, talking, or feeling. Yet he overhears strangers say he is “better off dead” and decides to live where no one can see him. In both cases, the body has adapted; the soul has not, because society refuses to let it. Hill shows that the real cure for disability is not medical but social — equal treatment, ordinary conversation, an open gate. When Mr. Lamb gives Derry exactly that, the boy is transformed in a single afternoon. The lesson is that we, the so-called “normal,” are responsible for the alienation of those who look different. We can heal them — or wound them — by the way we look at them.
Q2. Draw a character sketch of Mr. Lamb.
Answer: Mr. Lamb is one of the most memorable characters in modern English drama. An elderly war veteran with a tin leg, he lives alone in a great rambling house and a wild, beautiful garden. The villagers consider him strange; the children call him “Lamey-Lamb.” Yet he refuses to let any of this embitter him. He is warm, generous, philosophical, and gently humorous. He keeps his gate always open, makes crab-apple jelly to give away, reads constantly, listens to the bees, and welcomes anyone who walks in. He has built a life-affirming creed: weeds are flowers, fear is self-made, every living thing is beautiful, and people matter more than appearances. Beneath this cheer, however, lies a deep sadness. He admits that visitors come once and never return, that he sits alone for hours, that he expects rejection. His asking Derry “You will come back, won’t you?” reveals a yearning he tries to hide. His death — falling from the apple tree at the very moment a friend returns to him — is the play’s most heartbreaking moment, but it also crowns his role as Derry’s teacher: he has lived and died teaching the boy how to live.
Q3. Draw a character sketch of Derry.
Answer: Derry is a fourteen-year-old boy whose face has been horribly burnt by acid. The injury has crushed him emotionally. He believes that everyone who looks at him is disgusted. He has overheard cruel remarks — one woman said his face could be loved only by a mother; two strangers said he was better off dead — and has carried those words like wounds. Withdrawn, suspicious, prickly, he has decided to live where no one can see him. He climbs into Mr. Lamb’s garden expecting solitude. What he finds instead is the first adult outside his family who treats him as an ordinary boy. Slowly Derry’s defences fall. He listens. He questions. He smiles. He promises to return. By the end of the play, he has transformed. He defies his over-protective mother for the first time. He defends his new friend with passion and clarity. He repeats Mr. Lamb’s wisdom: “I’ve got two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a tongue and a brain.” When he finds Mr. Lamb dead, his grief is the grief of someone who has only just learned how to love. Derry is the play’s hope: a wounded boy who, in one afternoon, learns to choose the world rather than hide from it.
Q4. Compare and contrast Mr. Lamb and Derry. In what ways are they two sides of the same coin?
Answer: Both characters are physically different from the rest of society and have been pushed into loneliness because of it. Mr. Lamb has a tin leg; Derry has a burnt face. Both have been mocked. Both have heard cruel words. Both spend long hours alone. In that sense they are alike — two victims of the same prejudice. But their responses are opposite. Mr. Lamb has lived long enough to choose acceptance over bitterness. He calls weeds flowers, keeps his gate open, makes jelly, reads, talks to bees, and finds beauty everywhere. Derry, still young, has chosen rage and withdrawal. He hides behind walls and listens for cruelty. They are two sides of the same coin: same disability, opposite philosophies; same loneliness, opposite remedies. The play’s structure brings them together so the older man can teach the younger one how to live. By the end, Derry begins to mirror Mr. Lamb’s openness — proving that the difference between the two is not fate but choice.
Q5. Comment on the appropriateness of the title “On the Face of It.”
Answer: The title is a perfect English idiom — it means “judging only by surface appearance.” The whole play is an attack on such judgement. On the face of it, Derry is a freak with a horrifying scar; underneath, he is intelligent, sensitive, and full of unspent love. On the face of it, Mr. Lamb is an odd recluse with a tin leg; underneath, he is wise, generous, and brave. On the face of it, weeds are useless and flowers are pretty; underneath, both are growing life. The title is also literal — the play is about faces, about a face burnt by acid, about how the world looks at faces, about a mother who lets gossip shape her judgement of an old man’s “face.” Susan Hill uses the idiom to remind the reader that surface judgement is the cause of alienation, prejudice, and grief. The title therefore captures both the literal subject and the moral message of the play.
Q6. Comment on the ending of the play. Is it tragic, ironic, or hopeful?
Answer: The ending is all three at once. It is tragic because Derry, having just decided to live and to trust, finds his only friend dead. It is ironic because Mr. Lamb falls from the very ladder he climbed to gather apples for Derry — the act of friendship causes the friend’s death. And yet it is also hopeful, because the lesson Mr. Lamb gave Derry does not die with him. The boy has already defied his mother. He has already named what he wants. He has already returned. The world he steps into may be lonelier than before, but he carries Mr. Lamb’s wisdom inside him — that he is more than his face, that fear is self-made, that the world is full of beautiful things. Susan Hill leaves us with a fragile but real hope: a friend dies, but a boy is reborn.
Q7. How does Derry’s mother contribute to his isolation? Discuss with reference to the play.
Answer: Derry’s mother loves her son, but her love is over-protective and fearful. She has shielded him from the outside world, accepted neighbourhood gossip without question, and forbidden him from associating with anyone she does not know. When he comes home full of excitement about Mr. Lamb, she does not ask what the old man said or what made the boy happy — she only repeats the village rumour that Mr. Lamb is “strange” and orders her son to stay away. In doing so, she becomes another pair of walls around Derry, just as the burnt face is. The play subtly criticises this kind of parenting. Real love, Susan Hill suggests, must trust the child enough to let him meet the world. Ironically, the mother’s harsh prohibition triggers Derry’s first act of independence — he disobeys her and runs to the garden — and so, even though she meant to protect him, she pushes him toward the very experience that will change his life.
Q8. What lessons does the play “On the Face of It” teach us about our attitude toward people who are physically different?
Answer: The play teaches us, first and most importantly, that physically different people are no different from anyone else inside. Their wounds, their loneliness, their need for love, their hopes, their fears — all are the same as ours. Second, it teaches us that pity is not kindness; pity is a form of distance, and distance is exactly what hurts most. The right attitude is equality — to talk, walk, work, joke, and live with disabled people as we would with anyone else. Third, the play warns us that gossip and prejudice can wound deeper than acid; one careless sentence can make a child wish he were dead. Fourth, it shows that one act of acceptance — like Mr. Lamb’s open gate — can transform another person’s whole life. Finally, it reminds us that we ourselves can become Mr. Lamb to someone, that anyone with patience, humour, and an open heart can be the person who unlocks another’s loneliness.
Q9. Why is the relationship between Mr. Lamb and Derry significant? What does it reveal about human connection?
Answer: Their relationship is significant because it forms in a single afternoon and yet changes the boy forever. They are strangers, generations apart, with nothing in common except disability and loneliness. Yet within minutes of meeting, Mr. Lamb’s calm, equal manner gives Derry something his family, school, and society had never given him — the experience of being treated as a complete human being. The relationship reveals that human connection does not require time, blood, or background. It requires only honesty, openness, and the refusal to judge. It also reveals how starved the modern world is of such connection — Mr. Lamb has lived for years without a single real visitor, and Derry has lived behind walls. When two such people finally meet, the result is immediate transformation. Susan Hill suggests that connection is the basic medicine of the human soul.
Q10. Discuss the play “On the Face of It” as a one-act play. What dramatic devices does Susan Hill use to maximise its emotional impact?
Answer: As a one-act play, On the Face of It is a small, tightly compressed work, but its emotional power is enormous. Hill uses several dramatic devices skilfully. First, the setting — a sun-filled garden full of life, bees, apples — contrasts beautifully with the inner darkness of the characters, making their pain stand out. Second, the play uses parallel disability — old man with tin leg, boy with burnt face — to deepen the theme without explanation. Third, Hill uses symbolism: the open gate represents acceptance, the wall represents prejudice, the apples represent friendship and the gifts of life. Fourth, the dialogue is largely conversational, with no soliloquies or melodrama; the audience learns about both characters through ordinary talk, which makes the emotional moments all the more piercing. Fifth, Hill builds toward a tragic climax — Mr. Lamb’s fall — that is brutally swift and unexpected, and uses the unbroken hum of the bees in the final moment as a haunting auditory image of life carrying on. Together these devices give the small play a vast emotional reach.
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
Q1. Who is the author of “On the Face of It”?
(a) Tishani Doshi (b) Kalki Koechlin (c) Susan Hill (d) Jack Finney
Answer: (c) Susan Hill
Q2. “On the Face of It” is a:
(a) novel (b) short story (c) one-act play (d) poem
Answer: (c) one-act play
Q3. How does Derry enter Mr. Lamb’s garden?
(a) through the gate (b) by climbing over the wall (c) through the back door (d) through a hole in the fence
Answer: (b) by climbing over the wall
Q4. What is the cause of Mr. Lamb’s tin leg?
(a) a road accident (b) a war injury (c) a fall from a tree (d) a factory mishap
Answer: (b) a war injury
Q5. What disfigures Derry’s face?
(a) fire (b) acid (c) a road accident (d) a knife
Answer: (b) acid
Q6. How old is Derry?
(a) twelve (b) thirteen (c) fourteen (d) sixteen
Answer: (c) fourteen
Q7. What nickname do children give to Mr. Lamb?
(a) Old Lamb (b) Lamey-Lamb (c) Crazy Lamb (d) Mr. Apple
Answer: (b) Lamey-Lamb
Q8. What grows in abundance in Mr. Lamb’s garden?
(a) mango trees (b) crab apples (c) roses (d) sunflowers
Answer: (b) crab apples
Q9. Why is Mr. Lamb’s gate always open?
(a) it is broken (b) to invite anyone in (c) the lock is missing (d) for ventilation
Answer: (b) to invite anyone in
Q10. According to Mr. Lamb, what is the difference between a weed and a flower?
(a) the colour (b) the size (c) what people choose to call them (d) the smell
Answer: (c) what people choose to call them
Q11. What does Mr. Lamb do with the apples he gathers?
(a) sells them (b) makes jelly (c) feeds them to birds (d) throws them away
Answer: (b) makes jelly
Q12. Whom does Derry overhear saying his face is unlovable?
(a) his teacher (b) a woman in the street (c) his cousin (d) a doctor
Answer: (b) a woman in the street
Q13. According to Mr. Lamb, what is fear?
(a) something natural and unavoidable (b) something we choose to feel (c) a sign of weakness (d) a gift from God
Answer: (b) something we choose to feel
Q14. What does Derry say his mother thinks of his face?
(a) she finds it beautiful (b) only she can love it (c) she pretends nothing has happened (d) she is ashamed of it
Answer: (b) only she can love it
Q15. Why does Derry’s mother forbid him from going back to Mr. Lamb?
(a) he has homework (b) Mr. Lamb is poor (c) she has heard rumours that Mr. Lamb is strange (d) it is too far
Answer: (c) she has heard rumours that Mr. Lamb is strange
Q16. What insect’s hum is heard repeatedly in the garden?
(a) crickets (b) bees (c) flies (d) butterflies
Answer: (b) bees
Q17. What is Mr. Lamb doing when he falls?
(a) gardening (b) reading a book (c) picking apples from a ladder (d) cooking jelly
Answer: (c) picking apples from a ladder
Q18. How does the play end?
(a) Derry returns and they make jelly together (b) Mr. Lamb visits Derry’s home (c) Mr. Lamb dies after falling from the ladder (d) Derry stops visiting
Answer: (c) Mr. Lamb dies after falling from the ladder
Q19. The phrase “on the face of it” means:
(a) very obviously (b) judging by surface appearance (c) being honest (d) face to face
Answer: (b) judging by surface appearance
Q20. Which of the following is NOT a theme of the play?
(a) loneliness (b) social prejudice (c) heroic warfare (d) acceptance
Answer: (c) heroic warfare
Q21. What body parts does Mr. Lamb remind Derry he still has?
(a) only legs (b) only eyes (c) two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a tongue, a brain (d) a heart only
Answer: (c) two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a tongue, a brain
Q22. Mr. Lamb mostly spends his time:
(a) gambling (b) sleeping (c) reading and gardening (d) hunting
Answer: (c) reading and gardening
Q23. Why does Derry choose to climb the wall instead of using the gate?
(a) the gate is locked (b) he wants to be unseen (c) the gate is too narrow (d) he is showing off
Answer: (b) he wants to be unseen
Q24. The play primarily focuses on:
(a) physical pain alone (b) emotional alienation due to disability (c) old age (d) garden maintenance
Answer: (b) emotional alienation due to disability
Q25. The most important message of the play is:
(a) avoid old people (b) judge people by their appearance (c) accept and love people for who they are (d) stay indoors to be safe
Answer: (c) accept and love people for who they are
Extract-Based Questions
Extract 1: “Mind the apples! Mind the apples, lad. Some are bad, but most are good. Falling all day. They’ll bring some down.”
(a) Who says this and to whom?
Answer: Mr. Lamb says these words to Derry, the moment Derry climbs over the garden wall and lands among the fallen apples.
(b) What does the warning suggest about Mr. Lamb’s character?
Answer: It shows that Mr. Lamb is gentle, observant, and welcoming. He neither stares at the boy nor scolds him for trespassing — he simply warns him not to slip on the apples. The casual concern hints at the kindness that defines him.
(c) What is the symbolic meaning of the apples in the play?
Answer: The apples symbolise the gifts of life — abundance, sweetness, sharing — that fall freely for anyone willing to receive them. They also become the bond between the two characters and, tragically, the cause of Mr. Lamb’s death.
Extract 2: “Some call them weeds. If you like, then — a weed garden, that. There’s fruit and there are flowers, and there are trees and there are weeds. I say all of them, all of them are something.”
(a) Who says this and what is the speaker’s philosophy?
Answer: Mr. Lamb says this. His philosophy is that all living things have value; the labels “weed” or “flower” are arbitrary human judgements. Every growing thing — and by extension every person — is “something.”
(b) How does this relate to the play’s theme?
Answer: The weed-flower analogy mirrors the play’s central argument that physical difference does not make a person less valuable. Just as a weed is a flower if you choose to call it so, a “different” face is no less human than a “normal” one.
(c) How does Derry react to this philosophy?
Answer: Derry is initially silent and sceptical. As Mr. Lamb keeps applying the same idea to people, however, Derry begins to understand. By the end of the conversation he repeats Mr. Lamb’s reasoning when defending himself.
Extract 3: “I’ve got two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, a tongue and a brain. I’ve got a few other things, too. I’ll go anywhere. The world is there, isn’t it?”
(a) Who speaks these lines and where?
Answer: Derry speaks these lines in Scene Two, at home, while arguing with his mother. He is repeating the lesson Mr. Lamb has just taught him.
(b) What change in the speaker do these lines reveal?
Answer: They reveal a complete transformation. Earlier Derry could only speak of his face and the cruelty of others. Now he speaks of what he has rather than what he lacks — a sign that Mr. Lamb’s philosophy has taken root.
(c) Whose philosophy is reflected here?
Answer: Mr. Lamb’s philosophy of self-acceptance, optimism, and counting blessings rather than wounds.
Extract 4: “Only a mother could love that face. That’s what she said. I heard. She didn’t know I was listening.”
(a) Who said the words quoted here? About whom?
Answer: An unknown woman in the street had said this about Derry, not knowing that he was within earshot.
(b) What effect did these words have on Derry?
Answer: They wounded him deeply. The remark convinced him that no one outside his family could love a face like his and pushed him into self-imposed isolation.
(c) What does this incident tell us about society?
Answer: It shows that thoughtless, public cruelty — gossip, mockery, judgement — can wound a child far more deeply than the original injury. The play uses this incident to argue that society itself is the worst part of disability.
Extract 5: “I came back. Mr. Lamb, I came back. I did come back.”
(a) Who speaks these lines and at what moment?
Answer: Derry speaks these lines at the very end of the play, kneeling beside the fallen body of Mr. Lamb who has just died after slipping from the apple ladder.
(b) Why are these lines emotionally powerful?
Answer: Because they capture the full weight of the play’s tragic irony. Throughout Scene One, Mr. Lamb had quietly hoped Derry would come back, half-expecting he wouldn’t. Derry has now done the impossible — defied his mother, run all the way back, chosen friendship — only to find his friend dead. The simple, broken sentence “I did come back” carries grief, love, regret, and pride all at once.
(c) What hope, if any, does the closing scene leave the audience with?
Answer: Although Mr. Lamb is dead, the lesson he has given Derry is alive. Derry has already made the most important journey of his life — the journey from his closed bedroom to an open garden. The play ends in tragedy but also affirms that the boy will not return to his old seclusion. The friend has gone; the courage remains.
Talking About the Text — Discussion Points
- Pity vs. Acceptance: Why does Derry react badly to pity but well to Mr. Lamb’s casual treatment? Discuss what kind of behaviour is helpful to people with disabilities.
- The role of parents: Was Derry’s mother right to forbid him from visiting Mr. Lamb? When does protective love become harmful?
- Society’s responsibility: What can a school, neighbourhood, or government do to ensure that physically different people are not isolated?
- Open gates: Mr. Lamb’s gate is open but no one walks in. How is this true of our society today as well?
- Tragic endings: Did Susan Hill have to kill Mr. Lamb? Would the play be stronger or weaker with a happy ending?
Conclusion
“On the Face of It” is a small play with a giant moral. In the space of two short scenes, Susan Hill demolishes the idea that disability is mainly a physical issue. The body learns to live with a tin leg or a burnt face; what kills the spirit is the staring, the whispering, the pity, the rejection, the silence behind the open gate. Mr. Lamb is the rare human being who refuses to do any of those things — and the moment he treats Derry as an equal, the boy begins to come alive. The friendship is brief, the ending heartbreaking, but the lesson is permanent. We are responsible, all of us, for the loneliness of those whom society has marked as different. The cure lies in something so small that any one of us can do it — walk through an open gate, sit down, and talk to a stranger as a friend.