Fifth Form Justice By Angela Brazil | Short Summary | Question-Answers | Video Explanation

-Watch this Video for detailed Explanation-
Fifth Form Justice is a chapter from the novel, Monitress Merle, which was published in 1922. The novel revolves around the story of two Ramsays gurls - Merle and Mavis. In Fifth form Justice, the two sisters are shown struggling to prove themselves against the allegations of cheating in an examination.


- READ THIS CHAPTER -


- SHORT SUMMARY -
The story "Fifth Form of Justice" revolves around two sisters, Merle and Mavis, and their cousin, Clive. In the story, Clive predicts the future playfully one night and helps his cousins by predicting the questions which will be asked on the next day in the examination. He gives them suggestions and questions which will be asked in the exam. Much to their surprise, the question which Clive predicted were all asked in the exam the next day. Merle and Mavis were astounded and surprised by the accuracy of Clive's prophecy and told about it to their friends. 
However, Merle and Mavis were later called in the evening into a meeting of the Fifth form by some of their classmates. They accused them of cheating in the exams after one of their classmate saw Merle entering the study room where the question papers were kept. They were shocked to hear such accusation as they were studying at home the other day. It was only until they came to know at home that it was Clive who entered the study wearing Merle's clothes the other day. Clive confronted them the truth and he was made to do the same at school. Finally, the classmates who represented the Fifth form also got to know the truth and dismissed their court of justice and made amends of their false allegations towards Merle.


- EXPLANATION -
The story begins when Mavis and Merle, the two sisters were revising their lessons hard. They had to work extremely hard as they had missed the school on account of the mumps. They realised it when they attempted the revision , they were absolutely horrified at the amount that had to be done. Still they put in their heart and soul and prepared themselves for the examination.

The day before the examination their cousin Clive told them that the oracle has given some tips for the girls to prepare Celtic words in English language, the life and work of William Cowper and the product of Java and Borneo. The girls ignored him first, but when he told them that he was in communication with the occult and would be their fortune teller ,the girls got excited and requested him to tell their fortune.

Clive now pretended to throw himself into a state of abstraction and said, “ I can see an examination room, desks and girls writing at them. There is a list of questions.’’ So he told them those questions which will be there in the exam paper the next day and went away. Later Merle trusted Clive and started revising what all he had told them. Mavis told Merle that Clive was just fooling them


Merle marched into the school the next morning, joking about her fortune. She told her friends what the oracle had said and how she had ground up those particular bits of information.

In the Fifth Form Room Ms. Mitchell dealt round typewritten sheets and the agony began. To their surprise in the English Paper there were those questions both on William Cowper & Celtic words.

Mavis and Merle looked at each other smilingly. The next Geography paper also had the questions which Clive had told them, so they continuously scribbled till the bell rang.

Merle’s friends now had a doubt that they both had seen the question paper . Now both the girls were in in trouble, as when they reached the school after lunch they found a note laid upon their desk written ‘URGENT’ on it. It was a call for a meeting at the hostel. The innocent girls asked everyone the meaning of the note but nobody answered.

Puzzled and considerably distressed Mavis and Merle walked across the garden to the hostel. There Iva was waiting in company with Nesta, Sybil, Muriel, Aubrey, Edith and Kitty

Now, Iva asked the two sisters to explain how they got to know some of the examination questions beforehand. Ramsays (the two sisters) got overwhelmed with amazement at such a palpable insinuation , turned wrathfully red and said that Clive their cousin had told them.


Nobody believed them, as Sybil had some secret news to share with everyone on this matter. She had seen Merle in the garden among the bushes, the previous day. She added that Merle climbed in at the study window, came back after some time and scooted off as if she didn’t want to meet anyone.

To this Mavis got annoyed and said that she can prove that Merle was at home that time. No one again trusted them. Mavis asked that one witness is not enough to prove it. She also remarked that if Merle had seen the questions ,she would not have told this fact to her friends at all as she was not so stupid.

Mavis asked them to give Merle a chance to prove herself innocent. The boarders gang brought the meeting to an unsatisfactory conclusion.

The Ramsays hurried home, to pour their woes into their mother’s sympathetic ears.

When the girls reached home, they were disappointed to see their mom busy with the callers in the drawing room. So the girls decided to wait in the summer-house. Merle picked her jersey from its peg and left the room in anger. She was upset over being accused. She decided to tell Ms. Mitchell everything that happened. Just then Clive arrived and asked the girls about their exam and offered to help them know their fortune again.

Ramsays tried to ask him about the questions he had told them. Clive pulled his face into variety of grimaces. Merle chased him as he tried to fled from there. She took her hands out from her pockets to catch hold of him, and as she did so, out flew a penknife on the grass.


Clive pounced upon it immediately and picked it up. Now, Mavis was sure that he must have worn Merle’s jersey , dressed up in her clothes and gone to school. At last he mockingly accepted that he had entered the exam room through the window ,which he found open. He found exam papers all over the table, so he made a plan to rag the two sisters.

The two sisters filled with rage asked him to accept his mistake and get them out of that trouble. It took a long time for the girls to get Clive to see the serious side of his escapade and realise what an exceedingly grave charge had been brought against their honour.

At the end by dint of scolding, entreaty, coercion and even bribery, they succeeded in persuading Clive to meet Ms. Mitchell and tell her the whole story.

Ms. Mitchell told them that she was glad to know that it was not Merle, as she had also seen her climbing into the exam room. She added that she was upset all day long thinking how Merle could attempt this offence. Merle requested her to explain it to the boarders as well. Clive much subdued, blurted out a kind of apology before he left, which Ms. Mitchell accepted with dignity. It was decided that it would be fair to just cross those questions off in their paper and not to count them.



- WORD MEANINGS -
  • Mumps - Swelling in the salivary glands.
  • Oracle - Person who make Predictions
  • Occult - Supernatural
  • Abstraction - Deep thought isolation
  • Ragging - Teasing
  • Shrugged - Showing Indifference
  • Palpable - Easily noticeable
  • Insinuation - Suggesting something unpleasant is true
  • Fibs - Lies
  • Primed - Prepared
  • Monitresses - Girl in charge of class
  • Grimaces - Expression of disgust
  • Intuition - Belief
  • Tam o'shanter - Scottish cap
  • Coercion - Using force to control

-LITERARY DEVICE -
Suspense is the literary device used in the story to keep the readers hooked to it. It gives a feeling that something dangerous and risky might happen. In this story Mavis & Merle find a small note upon their desks. It had no signature but the handwriting looked like Iva. This scene creates an atmosphere of suspense.



- QUESTION /ANSWERS -

Q. What were Mavis and Merle doing when the story opened? why?
Q. What did Mrs. Ramsay advise her daughters?
Q. What did Clive do after seizing a glass paperweight?
Q. Who was Clive? How did he help Mavis and Merle? 
Q. Which topics were guessed by Clive, and which subjects did these topics belong to?
Q. Which were the questions hinted at in the Geography paper?
Q. Did Mavis and Merle keep the information a secret? 
Q. What did their classmates think? What action did they take?
Q. Why did Iva call the meeting of borders?
Q. What was the conclusion of the meeting?
Q. How did the Jacket get wet?
Q. How was the mystery solved ?
Q. Who was the culprit ? How did the truth come out ?
Q. What did Clive do to clear their names?
Q. Write the character sketch of Clive on the basis of the chapter ‘Fifth Form Justice.


Q. Reference to context 

A.

“ Clive’s only fooling! ”

a. Who said this ? Who was Clive ?
b. Was Clive actually fooling them ?

B. 

“ I saw Merle come back, hurry among the bushes 
and climb in at the study window. ”

a. Who said this ?
b. Who was the speaker addressing ?
c. Was the speaker correct ?

C. 

“ How did you manage to guess those questions ?
There were actually in our papers! ”

a. Who said this ?
b. Who had managed to guess the questions in the exam paper ?
c. Was it a guess, a premonition or a prank ?
FEED

D. 

“You atrocious imp! Look here! you don’t know 
what a scrape you have got us into.”

a. Who said this? Who was the imp ?
b. Who had been referred to as “us ” here ?
c. What scrape did the imp get them into ?

E. 

“I know! And you’ve got to stop it. I’ve been sent to tell you
to shut those books up at once!”

a. Who is the speaker ? 
b. Whom is he talking to ?
c. who had sent the speaker ?

- ANSWERS -

- Self Evaluation Test -

This is a quiz based test which is consist of 20 Multiple Choice Questions to test your Understanding about this Chapter...



Location : India