Line By Line Explanation Of Sansom's The Vertical Ladder

 

These lines have been taken from Sansom’s story ‘The Vertical Ladder’. Mr. Flegg was climbing the iron rungs of the ladder. He was very much strained. His muscles had started giving up. His body lost its balance. 

The nerves and muscles of legs and arms seemed to work independently. The movement of their hands and legs is controlled by a certain order. 

The hands that clutched the iron rungs and the feet that stepped on did not act jointly. They acted separately-as if they were not the parts of the same body. The hands and legs moved with a jerk of crippled limbs.

2. His horrified senses suspected…………sank to the earth.

These lines have been taken from Sansom’s story ‘The Vertical Ladder’. The author says that Mr. Flegg had lost his nerves in the climb. He was terribly frightened and had grown desperate. 

He was so much upset that he imagined to himself that in a moment’s time the whole iron structure would collapse with a mere touch of the wind. 

He could not reason out. He was overwhelmed with a sense of fear and extreme nervousness. It was in this state of nervousness that he imagined the iron structure collapsing under the weight of a wild. 

He thought that it was just possible that some supporting frame, which had already rusted and decayed had suddenly snapped under the weight of the gasometer and the whole structure of the gasometer had crumbled to the ground. 

He was so much seized by a powerful vision of his fear that he could see the sheets of iron buckling and folding like a piece of cloth as the huge structure of the gasometer sank to the ground.

3. His ears filled with a hot roaring……..on a nightmare.

These lines have been taken from Sansom’s story “The Vertical Ladder. Here the author depicts the state of mind of Mr. Flegg. He climbed to the platform desperately. But he shivered with fear. 

His ears filled with hot roaring sound. He put to himself the question that whether the iron rungs he was climbing were firm? The question broke into uncounted ripples of sound waves. They came to his ears like hot roaring sound. He did not know the answer. He simply hurried up. He climbed with difficulty the uneasy steps of the gasometer. 

He was working desperately to climb up. He drew oil his last resources of strength. He kept whispering to himself, in despair, urgent meaningless words. But these words seemed to him like the swift whispers that come to a man in his nightmare. 

The author means to suggest that the urgent meaningless whisper seemed like the swift whisper coming to a man in a nightmare. The urgent meaningless words that he uttered had almost a nightmarish effect on his own mind.

4. Plegg stared dumbly.. ..could ever do.

These lines have been taken from Sansom’s story “The Vertical Ladder. Here the author presents the final picture of Mr. Flegg climbing on the gasometer. The end is a dramatically presented as the beginning. 

He is in the last stage of desperateness. He had reached the top of the gasometer. But the few steps to the platform of the gasometer were terrible. He lost heart. He could not do it. He was filled with a sense of despair. 

Above him the five impassable steps to the platform, and below was the huge gulf between himself and the earth. He could not decide what to do. He started dumbly and kept on circling his head like a lost animal. 

He was at his wit’s end. He jammed his legs in the lower rungs and the arms beyond the elbow to the armpits through the top rungs. He was shivering with a sense of fear and despair. He hung on the iron rung not knowing what to do.

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There is something dramatic about the situation. He regretted his mistake when he had climbed fairly high on the iron ladder. But when he reached the top of the gasometer, the platform lay still above him-five impassable steps beyond him. 

He had no courage to steps on nor patience to go down. He hung on the last rung of the ladder lost between the two extremes.

5. In this way his body…….crippled limbs.

Taken from the short story entitled ‘The Vertical Ladder, written by William Sansom, these lines refers to the nervousness of Mr. Flegg when he was climbing the iron rungs of the vertical ladder and got so much tired and nervous that he lost his mental peace and control of himself.

Midway of his climbing, Mr. Flegg got severe strained and his muscle started giving up. He lot the balance of his body. The nerves and muscles of legs and arms seemed to work independently.

His hands that clutched the iron rungs and the feet that stepped on it did not act jointly as if they were not the parts of the same body. They moved with a jerk as if they were crippled.

The description presented by the story writer of the physical and mental state of the child is so real that the whole situation seems created on the inward eyes of the readers which invites interest to read ahead.

6. His horrified senses…………..sank to the earth.

These lines have been called from the short story entitled “The Vertical Ladder’ written by William Sansom. 

These lines carry reference to the occasion when hopeless and desperate Mr. Flegg imagines the collapse of the whole iron structure with a mere touch of the wind.

Mr. Flegg had lost his nerves in the climb. He was so terribly frightened and desperate that he thought that it was just possible that some supporting frame which has already rusted and decayed insight suddenly snapped under the weight of the gasometer and the whole structure of the gasometer might crumble to the ground. 

He was so much seized by this powerful vision that he could see the sheets of iron bucking and folding like a piece of cloth and sinking to the ground.

These lines express Mr. Flegg’s hopelessness and nervousness with impact on the readers.

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Originally published at https://easyenglishnotes.com on September 7, 2023.