“Fake pride ends up in misery’. Vanity always leads to the downfall of a person. This statement truly fits on the character of Mrs. Packletide.
Value Points :
Women belonging to upper class of society try to show off.
They become subjects of mockery and sometimes they need to pay a handsome amount
Mrs Packletide wants to overshadow Loona Bimberton so as to satisfy her vanity by killing a tiger
In the end she had to face financial losses.
She was blackmailed by Miss. Mebbin.
Detailed Answer :
Mrs. Packletide was a jealous and materialistic lady. She has been portrayed as envious and vain. The statement ‘fake pride ends up in misery’ fits on her character. She belong to upper class society where people try to show off and consequently, become subjects of mockery. In this story Mrs. Packletide wanted to overshadow Loona Bimberton who talked of nothing else but her recent travel in an aeroplane by an Algerian aviator. She decided to kill a tiger just to satisfy her vanity. She offered thousand to the villagers to arrange the shooting of a tiger where less risk or exertion is arranged. The villagers readily agreed to help her. The night arrived when the killing was to be done.
A goat was tethered to a tree to act as a bait. They waited for sometime and then they saw a tiger approaching the goat. Mrs. Packletide aimed at him and fired. Both, the goat and the tiger fell down. Miss Mebbin noticed that the mortal wound was on the goat and the tiger had died of heart failure. She told Miss Mebbin that Loona Bimberton would be too happy to know about this fact. Mrs. Packletide got the point. She realised that she had to do something so that Miss Mebbin didn’t give her away. She bought her a weekend cottage at Darking. She had to face financial losses and in the end gave up hunting as ‘incidental expenses’ were too heavy. It was only her pride to show others her superiority that led to financial loss. Thus, the statement ‘pride goes before a fall’ is justified.
