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Literature & Language
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Story Questions in “The Blue Jar”

Coursework Instructions:

Story Questions in “The Blue Jar”

 

After reading “The Blue Jar” please answer the following questions.

1. Dinesen’s 3rd person omniscient narrator leaves out a LOT of information, but because this story reads as a myth or fable (ie: “once upon a time”) the reader doesn’t question the lack of information.

However, the story NOT told can sometimes be just as interesting as the story on the page!

Select two story excerpts, identify relevant story questions, and fill in the blank with possible answers.

EXAMPLE 1: “There was once an immensely rich old Englishman who had been a courtier and councilor to the Queen and who now, in his old age, cared for nothing but collecting ancient blue china.”

Story questions: Why is the Englishman no longer working for the Queen? How long has he been collecting ancient blue china? Why blue china? Why doesn’t he care for his daughter? Where is her mother?

Possible answers:  Maybe the dad left the court in disgrace? Maybe he broke the law? Had a love affair gone wrong? Maybe his wife left him, and so he left England to avoid scandal and resents his daughter because she looks exactly like her mother? Or maybe he’s simply old and greedy. His wife died of a broken heart because all her husband loved to do was collect antiques—hence why he doesn’t care for his daughter either.

EXAMPLE 2: “He now wept with joy, and at once took her off to a fashionable watering-place so that she might recover from the hardships she had gone through.”

Story questions: What kind of hardships are we talking about? Medical? Emotional? Is the fashionable watering-place a spa like Bath? How long was Lady Helena there? Did she want to go? Or did she have no choice? Was she not “sick” at all?

Possible answers: The “nine” days on the boat are symbolic. (See Sylvia Path’s poem “Metaphors” I am a riddle in nine syllables…). The fashionable watering-place is a euphemism for the places where unmarried noble women go to have their children in secret. Lady Helena was forced to go there, when really all she wanted to do was to marry her sailor.

2. In addition to leaving much of the story unsaid, Dinesen employs multiple metaphors throughout, allowing you to interpret/supply additional meaning.

Using your imagination and/or drawing on a more traditional interpretation, explain the potential symbolism of at least three of the following story objects:        

fire

water

the blue jar

ancient blue china

the color blue

the soap bubble (p 140-141)

the ship

the ship’s shadow (p.141)

Coursework Sample Content Preview:
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Story Questions in The Blue Jar
Part 1: Story Excerpts, Story Questions, and Possible Answers
Excerpt 1: "In the dark and confusion the old peer was separated from his daughter. Lady Helena got up on deck late, and found the ship quite deserted. In the last moment a young English sailor carried her down into a lifeboat that had been forgotten."
Story Questions: Why did Lady Helena get up on the deck late? How long did she stay below deck? Why did the old Englishman let himself get separated from his daughter? How fast was the fire spreading that the ship was already deserted when she got up? Why was the young English sailor around when she got up on the deck if it was already deserted? Why did he carry her? Did she get injured?
Possible Answers: It is possible that Lady Helena had been sleeping when the fire broke out. It had been a still night, so this is highly likely, and this also accounts for her taking a long time to get up on deck. It was said that they got separated because of the dark and confusion but this suggests that they were together beforehand. This suggests that the fire was spreading quite quickly because the people were evacuated immediately. The young English sailor could have been checking for anybody trapped or missing when he found Lady Helena. Since Lady Helena seemingly had a hard time getting up on deck, she might have injured her leg or feet, so the young English sailor had to carry her.
Excerpt 2: "When Lady Helena recovered, and they gave her the news of the Court and of her family, and in the end also told her how the young sailor had been sent away never to come back, they found that her mind had suffered from the trials, and that she cared for nothing in all the world. She would not go back to her father's castle in its park, nor go to Court, nor travel to any gay town of the continent. The only thing which she now wanted to do was to go, like her father before her, to collect rare blue china. So she began to sail, from one ...
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