Echoes
QUALITY
Question : Do you think ‘Quality’ as an appropriate title for the short story. Give reason to support your answer.
Answer : The title of the story ‘Quality’ is appropriate and thought provoking. By using the word quality, the author means to say about the degree of excellence that someone or something has, or the characteristic features of someone or something. It makes the reader to think about the topic of the story on which it is based.
When the narrator once asked him
“Isn’t it awfully hard to do, Mr. Gessler?“
And his answer, given with sudden smile from out of the sardonic redness of his beard : “ID is an Ardt !”
It was the quality of their product that drove the customers like narrator repeatedly to their shop and made them order more than their requirements.
The title appropriately leads the reader, to read the entire story and appreciate the quality of the artists and their art of shoe making.
QUALITY
Question : Do you think ‘Quality’ as an appropriate title for the short story. Give reason to support your answer.
Answer : The title of the story ‘Quality’ is appropriate and thought provoking. By using the word quality, the author means to say about the degree of excellence that someone or something has, or the characteristic features of someone or something. It makes the reader to think about the topic of the story on which it is based.
The title has two connotations –
- The quality of Gessler Brothers as human beings, who value integrity, honesty and quality of their product more than money.
- The quality of the shoes made by the Gessler Brothers.
Quality is the story of the Gessler Brothers who run their business of shoe – making in West End, England (London) , during Industrial Revolution.
The younger one of the two brothers is referred to as Mr. Gessler by the author.
- He was the man who is truly devoted to his work, for him shoe making is not only a craft but also a sublime art.
When the narrator once asked him
“Isn’t it awfully hard to do, Mr. Gessler?“
And his answer, given with sudden smile from out of the sardonic redness of his beard : “ID is an Ardt !”
- He was the perfectionist, who made custom fit shoes for each individual customer. He himself worked on every piece of leather, with the only support of his elder brother, who made equally good shoes.
- The most important quality of the Gessler Brothers was that they never compromised on the quality and excellence even if it meant overworking, dwindling customers, consequent starvation and ultimately their death.
- They never believed in advertisement but in quality.The small shop owned by Gessler Brothers was verbally known for making high quality shoes,there was no signboard for their advertisement. In narrator’s own words –
“…..there was no sign upon its face that he made for any of the Royal Family – merely his own German name of Gessler Brothers; and in the window a few pairs of boots.”
It was the quality of their product that drove the customers like narrator repeatedly to their shop and made them order more than their requirements.
- They were so perfect in their art that the narrator wonder as if they have seen the soul of the shoes. The shoes they made were extra – ordinary ” incarnating the very spirit of all foot gear. ” Due to the superior quality of leather ,their shoes were durable too.
As the narrator said-
“…..his boots lasted terribly, having something beyond the temporary – some, as ift were, essence of boot stitched into them.”
The title appropriately leads the reader, to read the entire story and appreciate the quality of the artists and their art of shoe making.