Resumo de Death Disk

DEATH DISK ? from THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES OF MARK TWAIN

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are better known than Mark Twain, though the latter happens to be the great writer who gave life to these characters. But Mark Twain was essentially a journalist. We can guess this even if we are not acquainted with the biography of the writer if we read his short stories collection. We can find one or two hilarious stories about editors. The most important prerequisite for an editor is that he should not know anything about the subject he is writing or editing. Mark twain?s legendary sense of humour runs through all the fifty and odd short stories. But we see a different Mark Twain in this little story titled ?Death Disk?. The text for this story is a touching incident mentioned in Thomas Carlyle?s ?Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell.? Now to the story.

It was Oliver Cromwell?s time. A thirty year old officer and two of his colleagues are to be shot for disobedience. Not that they are bad guys. They overstepped their limits. They were asked to engage a superior enemy unit in a fake warfare so that their unit of the army can safely retreat in the meantime. These brave and experienced officers boldly took on the enemy and got victorious. The Lord General praised them but sent them to court for disobedience. The court finds them guilty and the Lord General, Oliver Cromwell, gives them death sentence. But the other judges plead for mercy and ask that at least two can be let free. At first Cromwell refuses but relents and instructs his officers to decide the man to be shot by lot. The sentenced officers themselves have to draw the lot. But they have refused to draw the lot as that would amount to suicide which is forbidden by Christianity. The matter is not yet resolved. They are now let on their honour to be with their families before the execution of the sentence. The story starts here.

It is one of the families of the sentenced soldiers. The couple has a seven old child named Abby. Their home is very near to Tower frequented by Oliver Cromwell. The child enters the room in which the distraught couple is seated. She has come to say good night to them. The father gives a strong hug to the child and kisses the child fervently. The child rebukes the father affectionately for undoing her hair. The father begs pardon. But the child is not convinced that the father truly repents. So the father accepts that he will take punishment from Abby. And the punishment is this: the father should tell a story. The father tells his own story without letting the child know that he is going to be shot the next day. Meanwhile the soldiers come and take the officer to the tower.

Next day morning the mother is very ill. All relatives are there at the home and they ask her to go outside and play. Then it occurs to the child that the father has not yet returned from the Tower. And she decides to personally attend the matter. In the meantime Cromwell, having come to know that the officers have refused to draw the lot, sends for a child to do the work. In comes our little angel and straight she goes to the man before whom powerful men tremble. She tells Cromwell that she knows him and both have met in the street and asks whether Cromwell remembers her. She even admonishes him for forgetting her when she remembers him. The dreaded Protector of the State has no answer and tells he will obey her commands as a punishment. Before that she is to do the job of slipping the three disks in the hands of men standing in the next room with their faces to the wall. Without knowing that her father is going to be shot she drops that particular death disk into his hand as it was more beautiful with a red ribbon. Then she goes before the father and declares her arrival. All come to know that the child is none other than the child of the sentenced officer. The vastness of the tragedy moves the officers and the released prisoners and their eyes are filled with tears. Now the child wants to take the father home as her mother is very ill. The officer refuses with pain. Then the child goes to the next room, comes out dragging Oliver Cromwell and complains about the officer and asks Cromwell to allow her to take her father. At first Cromwell refuses. Then the child reminds him that he has given his word that he would obey her commands and reproaches him for disobeying the very first command. That decides the matter and the officer is let free.

SATHYA

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