"They" Flashcards
by Rudyard Kipling — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: "They"
How does the narrator first discover the blind woman's estate?
He stumbles upon it while driving his motorcar through the winding lanes of the Sussex countryside, becoming lost and arriving at the secluded house by accident.
How many visits does the narrator make to the estate?
Three visits, spread across a single summer from beginning to end.
What does the narrator see (or almost see) in the gardens during his first visit?
He catches fleeting glimpses of children playing — a glint of blue shirt, a form behind a window — but they vanish whenever he tries to look directly at them.
What happens during the narrator's second visit to the estate?
A distraught woman begs the blind woman for help with a sick grandchild, and the narrator drives frantically to find a doctor and nurse.
What revelation occurs at the end of the story?
A ghostly child's hand slips into the narrator's and kisses his palm, and he recognizes the gesture as belonging to his own dead daughter.
Why does the narrator decide never to return to the estate?
He realizes the children are ghosts of the dead and that the barrier between the living and the dead must not be crossed, no matter how comforting the connection.
Who is the blind woman (Miss Florence)?
She is the owner of the secluded estate, blind since childhood, who has never had children of her own but whose deep longing has drawn the spirits of dead children to her home.
What special ability does the blind woman possess?
She has a form of telepathic perception, experiencing other people's thoughts as colors, and can sense the presence of the ghostly children.
Who is the narrator of "They"?
An unnamed motorist who is gradually revealed to be a bereaved father mourning the death of his own child.
Who are "they" in the story?
They are the ghosts of dead children who are drawn to the blind woman's estate, lingering between the worlds of the living and the dead.
What is the central theme of "They"?
Grief and the painful boundary between the living and the dead — love persists beyond death, but the living must ultimately accept that boundary.
How does the story contrast physical sight and spiritual perception?
The blind woman cannot see physically but perceives the ghostly children spiritually, while the sighted narrator can see the material world but struggles to perceive the supernatural.
What does the story suggest about communing with the dead?
It suggests that even though the dead may linger and love endures, the living must resist the temptation to cross the barrier and must return to the world of the living.
How does "They" explore the theme of maternal or parental love?
Through the blind woman's unfulfilled longing for children and the narrator's grief for his dead daughter, showing how parental love transcends even death.
What narrative technique does Kipling use in "They"?
He uses an imperfectly informed first-person narrator who describes events without fully understanding their supernatural significance, creating dramatic irony.
What does the blind woman's blindness symbolize?
It symbolizes spiritual vision — her inability to see the physical world corresponds to her heightened ability to perceive the spiritual realm and the ghostly children.
What does the motorcar symbolize in "They"?
It represents modernity and the material world, contrasting with the timeless, supernatural realm of the estate and serving as a vehicle of passage between the two worlds.
How does Kipling use setting to create atmosphere?
He employs lush, Pre-Raphaelite pastoral imagery to create a dreamlike, fairy-tale quality that blurs the boundary between the natural and supernatural worlds.
What type of irony is present in the blind woman's statement "Lucky you to be able to see them"?
Dramatic irony — neither the narrator nor the reader yet understands that the children are ghosts, making her comment about "seeing" them deeply layered.
What is the significance of the child's kiss pressed into the narrator's palm?
It is a gesture of intimate recognition — a specific habit of the narrator's dead daughter — that triggers his devastating realization about the children's true nature.
What personal tragedy inspired Kipling to write "They"?
The death of his six-year-old daughter Josephine from pneumonia in 1899 during the family's visit to America.
In what collection was "They" published?
Traffics and Discoveries, published in 1904.
What famous modernist poem was partly inspired by "They"?
T. S. Eliot's "Burnt Norton" (1935), the first of the Four Quartets, which features a similar scene of ghostly children laughing in a garden.
What poem accompanies "They" as an epigraph?
"The Return of the Children," which reinforces the story's themes of children's spirits lingering between worlds.
How does the estate's landscape function in the story?
The winding, hidden roads leading to the estate suggest a passage between the everyday world and a supernatural realm, reinforcing the fairy-tale quality of the narrative.