On the face of It | CBSE Class 12 English Notes

This note covers Susan Hill’s play On the Face of It, its three scenes, Derry and Mr Lamb, fear and friendship, appearance and identity, the garden, dramatic techniques, key quotations and the uncertain ending.

What should we know about the author and the text?

Susan Hill is the author of On the Face of It. The work is a play, a text presented through characters’ speech and actions. Its central encounter brings together an old man, Mr Lamb, and a fourteen-year-old boy called Derry.

The play has three scenes. A scene is a division of dramatic action associated with a particular setting or stage in the events. The first and third scenes take place in Mr Lamb’s garden; the second takes place at Derry’s house.

Dialogue, or conversation between characters, carries much of the action. The reader learns about Derry’s injury, Mr Lamb’s artificial leg and their attitudes through what they tell each other. Their disagreements matter as much as the information they exchange.

Stage directions are instructions describing actions, sounds, pauses and delivery. Derry’s initial panic, his later laughter and his final weeping reveal emotional changes that spoken words alone would not fully convey.

The central situation is simple, but its questions are difficult. How does rejection affect someone’s view of life? Can friendship encourage independence? The meeting gives Derry a new reason to enter the world, while Mr Lamb’s private disappointment complicates his outward confidence.

What happens in the play, scene by scene: a summary?

How does Scene One begin?

Derry climbs the wall into Mr Lamb’s garden, believing the place to be empty. Mr Lamb startles him by warning him about fallen crab apples, small apples, in the grass. Derry wants to leave, but Mr Lamb welcomes him and explains that the gate is open.

Derry is fourteen, although Mr Lamb initially guesses that he is about thirteen. The boy insists that other people fear him. He expects them to react to his face with horror or pity, and admits that his own reflection frightens him.

Mr Lamb mentions gathering apples to make jelly, a soft fruit preserve, and invites Derry to help. Derry suspects that he is avoiding the subject of the injury. When Mr Lamb guesses that a fire caused it, Derry corrects him: acid, a substance capable of causing chemical burns, burned one side of his face.

How does their conversation develop?

Mr Lamb explains his interest in living things. He questions the distinction people make between weeds, plants regarded as unwanted, and flowers: both grow and are alive. He also reveals that he has a tin leg, his expression for an artificial leg, after losing his own leg.

Derry argues that Mr Lamb can cover his leg, whereas he cannot conceal his face in the same way. Mr Lamb does not promise that Derry’s appearance will change. Instead, he encourages him to notice the wider world and its possibilities.

Derry rejects comforting comparisons with a fairy tale and recalls an upsetting remark by a woman at a bus stop. Mr Lamb questions whether such words should determine how he hears everything else. He describes listening to bees as though they are singing.

Mr Lamb then tells a story about a man who shuts himself away because he fears danger. A picture falls on the man and kills him. Derry laughs. The story challenges the hope that complete withdrawal can make life completely safe.

The conversation turns to books, open windows, friendship and hatred. Mr Lamb considers Derry a friend without demanding personal details. He warns against inward bitterness and questions the idea that people should be grouped together simply because they have similar physical conditions.

Why does Derry leave the garden?

Derry wants to help with the apples but knows his mother will want to know where he is. Home is three miles away across the fields. Mr Lamb tells him to go back and inform his family; returning must be Derry’s choice.

Derry doubts Mr Lamb’s claims about visitors and accuses him of being lonely. Yet he recognises that Mr Lamb does not regard him with the disgust he expects. He leaves promising to return. Alone, Mr Lamb expresses disappointment that people who promise to return do not do so.

What changes in Scene Two?

At home, Derry’s mother refuses to let him return. She says she has heard warnings about Mr Lamb. Derry challenges her reliance on what others say and explains that Mr Lamb has spoken about things he wants to consider.

His mother interprets his anger through his injured face. Derry insists that his thoughts, feelings and desire to explore matter. Returning now represents something larger than helping with apples. He fears that giving up this choice would mean giving up future movement into the world.

How does Scene Three end?

Mr Lamb is gathering apples when the ladder falls backwards with him. Derry opens the garden gate and announces that he has returned. He then sees what has happened, approaches Mr Lamb, kneels and tries to reassure him.

Mr Lamb gives no reply. Derry repeats that he came back and begins to weep. The ending joins Derry’s successful decision to return with the shock of Mr Lamb’s fall. It does not show what Derry does afterwards.

How are the main characters presented?

What makes Derry more than a withdrawn boy?

Derry, whose full name is Derek, dislikes being called Derek. His defensive manner grows from painful experiences of being stared at, pitied and discussed. He anticipates rejection even when Mr Lamb offers him a welcome.

Yet Derry is also observant and questioning. He notices the lack of curtains, asks about Mr Lamb’s pain and challenges statements that sound too easy. His objections show that trust cannot be created simply by telling him to be cheerful.

He responds to the garden before trusting its owner. He enjoys the sound of rain on a roof and later wants to listen to the bees. These responses reveal interests beyond his face, even while his injury dominates his understanding of other people.

Derry’s return demonstrates initiative, the ability to act on his own decision. He chooses a relationship and an activity despite opposition. This is a visible change within the play, although it does not establish a complete or permanent solution to his difficulties.

Why is Mr Lamb a complex character?

Mr Lamb lives alone and has an artificial leg because his own leg was blown off in the war. He reads, tends bees, grows plants and makes things from what his garden provides. His activities give practical substance to his interest in life.

He welcomes Derry without requiring an explanation for his arrival. He can be direct and challenging, especially when questioning hatred or Derry’s assumptions about strangers. His kindness includes expecting the boy to make choices.

However, his private words after Derry leaves reveal loneliness and disappointment. His openness does not remove his desire for company. This prevents him from being understood simply as a man who has overcome every emotional difficulty.

What role does Derry’s mother play?

Derry’s mother is protective and suspicious of Mr Lamb because of reports she has heard. She tries to keep Derry at home. Her conversation exposes a conflict between protecting someone and allowing that person to decide where to go and whom to trust.

She also links his hurtful words to his appearance. Derry objects because he wants his ideas and desires recognised in their own right. The scene shows a limitation in her response without proving that she does not love him.

Why does Derry fear other people and resist easy comfort?

Derry experiences alienation, a feeling of being separated from or not accepted by others. His injury is physical, but other people’s reactions deepen his distress. He expects their apparent politeness to conceal fear or disgust.

One painful memory concerns a woman’s remark at a bus stop suggesting that his face could be loved only by a mother. Derry heard the words even though they were spoken to another woman. Their effect on him is clear, whatever the speaker’s intention.

Mr Lamb suggests that the remark was perhaps not intended cruelly. That suggestion must remain a possibility attributed to him. It does not establish the woman’s actual intention, and it does not cancel Derry’s experience of being hurt.

Why do familiar reassurances fail?

Derry resents being compared with people whose conditions are described as worse than his. Such comparisons do not change his face. They also fail to answer his fear that others will continue to reject him.

The Beauty and the Beast story troubles him for a similar reason. He knows that affection will not turn his injured face into an uninjured one. Mr Lamb agrees that his appearance will not change in that way.

Derry also reports worries expressed at home about how he will manage in the future. To him, these conversations suggest that others see his face before they see his abilities. Mr Lamb instead directs attention to the capacities he can use.

Derry’s sweeping belief that everyone fears him is therefore understandable, but remains his belief. Mr Lamb’s willingness to stay near him provides a concrete reason to question it. The play distinguishes an experience of rejection from certainty about every future encounter.

How does Mr Lamb encourage a different way of living?

How does attention change experience?

Mr Lamb practises attentiveness, deliberate attention to what can be seen, heard and learned. He notices plants, insects, fruit, sunshine and sounds. He encourages Derry to discover interests that are not organised around other people’s reactions to his face.

The bees illustrate a difference in perception. Some people describe their sound as buzzing; Mr Lamb hears singing. The point is his way of listening. It should not be turned into a scientific claim about what bees literally do.

His house has no curtains because he dislikes shutting things in or out. He enjoys light, darkness and the sound of wind. Derry’s pleasure in hearing rain gives them common ground without requiring them to have identical experiences.

What does his friendship offer?

Mr Lamb’s welcome is unconditional in the immediate encounter: Derry does not have to supply his name and background before being treated as a friend. At the same time, Derry remains free to decide whether he regards Mr Lamb as his friend.

When Derry worries that other visitors might reject him, Mr Lamb allows both possibilities: they might, or they might not. Meeting them involves a risk. His advice offers a reason to try, without guaranteeing a favourable response.

Helping with apples gives Derry a possible role as a participant, someone involved in shared activity. Mr Lamb does not merely discuss his injury or offer sympathy. He invites him to contribute to something ordinary and useful.

Why is choice central to his advice?

Mr Lamb acknowledges that he cannot decide everything for Derry. He challenges the boy to consider whether the obstacle to returning will be his family’s refusal or his own reluctance. Derry must discover what he wants through attention and experience.

Mr Lamb’s story about the frightened man also questions withdrawal. Locking himself away does not save the man from danger. The story encourages engagement with life, but does not prove that ordinary risks disappear or that caution is pointless.

What themes and messages emerge from the encounter?

How does appearance differ from identity?

A theme is a central concern developed through a work. Here, appearance and identity are closely connected but should not be treated as identical. Derry’s face affects his experience, yet his interests, intelligence and capacity for affection extend beyond it.

Mr Lamb challenges the idea that people with similar injuries must be alike. His discussion of plants also questions labels that dismiss some living things as worthless. Shared life and individual difference can exist together.

How can social responses deepen suffering?

Prejudice means judging people through an unfair assumption rather than understanding them as individuals. Derry’s remembered encounters show how remarks, stares and proposals to separate people according to disability can make someone feel excluded.

The play invites attention to emotional injury as well as physical pain. Its message is not that bodily pain is unreal. Mr Lamb acknowledges pain after losing his leg and occasional discomfort in wet weather.

How does friendship support independence?

Friendship becomes valuable because it gives Derry room to think and choose. Mr Lamb does not demand obedience in exchange for acceptance. He offers company, questions and an activity, while leaving the decision to return with Derry.

Derry’s mother wants him to remain at home. Mr Lamb’s influence helps him argue that his thoughts and wishes matter. The contrast explores the difference between care that protects and care that enables participation.

Why are openness and loneliness connected?

Openness in the play means a willingness to meet people and attend to the world. Mr Lamb’s garden and conversation express it, but his private disappointment shows that an open attitude does not guarantee lasting companionship.

Derry initially assumes that Mr Lamb must be miserable if he lives alone. The play allows a more complicated reading: Mr Lamb can enjoy life and still feel lonely. Neither feeling has to erase the other.

What does the play suggest about hatred?

Mr Lamb warns that hatred can damage a person inwardly. He contrasts visible injury with bitterness that affects one’s relation to life. This is his moral argument, not a medical comparison between acid burns and emotions.

The message encourages Derry to avoid letting cruelty control every future relationship. It does not require him to pretend that cruelty never happened. His eventual return shows willingness to trust one person despite what he has experienced elsewhere.

How do the title and the garden deepen the meaning?

The expression on the face of it means judging something by its first or outward appearance. The title can therefore be read on two levels: it recalls Derry’s visibly injured face and questions conclusions based on appearances.

Derry assumes that others will reject him. He also doubts that Mr Lamb has friends because he lives alone. His mother accepts warnings about Mr Lamb. In different ways, all these responses raise questions about what people know and what they merely assume.

What can the garden represent?

A symbol is a concrete object or place that suggests a wider idea. The garden can be read as a symbol of contact with life. It contains different kinds of growing things and offers space for conversation, work and discovery.

The open gate can suggest welcome. Derry first climbs the wall because he thinks the place is empty; at the end, he opens the gate to return. This change in entry can be read as a movement towards accepted belonging.

That reading remains an interpretation of the actions. The gate is also a real entrance used by the characters. Its significance comes from its connection with Mr Lamb’s repeated welcome and Derry’s changing willingness to approach him.

Why do weeds and apples matter?

Weeds and flowers allow Mr Lamb to question judgements of value. The plants are different, yet both are alive and growing. His comparison supports a view of people that recognises common humanity without making everyone interchangeable.

The crab apples connect thought with action. Mr Lamb plans to make jelly, and Derry wants to help. Gathering them provides the immediate reason for returning and also brings about the final accident, joining possibility with vulnerability.

The garden should therefore not be treated as a place where suffering cannot enter. Its welcome is real, but so is the danger of the fall. This tension makes the ending more difficult than a simple promise of safety.

How do dramatic techniques shape the uncertain ending?

What do sound and silence reveal?

The opening garden sounds create a living setting before the relationship develops. Derry’s hesitant movements and startled response contrast with Mr Lamb’s ease. Later, Derry’s laughter marks a moment when fear briefly gives way to shared enjoyment.

In the final scene, the sounds of apples falling, the ladder crashing and the following silence communicate the accident. Mr Lamb’s lack of response makes Derry’s repeated attempts to speak to him increasingly painful.

Repetition, the recurrence of words or actions, also matters. Mr Lamb repeatedly offers access to his garden. Derry repeatedly announces his return at the end, trying to make Mr Lamb recognise that he has kept his promise.

How are contrast and anticipation used?

Contrast places differences alongside each other to make them clearer. Derry’s early suspicion contrasts with his later determination to return. His mother’s insistence that he stay at home contrasts with Mr Lamb’s emphasis on personal choice.

Foreshadowing is an earlier detail that anticipates a later event. Derry asks what might happen if Mr Lamb fell while alone. The later ladder accident recalls this fear, but does not confirm a specific injury such as a broken neck.

The ending also creates irony, a meaningful contrast between expectation and outcome. Mr Lamb doubts that Derry will return, yet Derry does. The hoped-for reunion is then disrupted because Mr Lamb has fallen and does not answer.

What can we conclude, and what remains open?

The fall, silence and Derry’s weeping strongly suggest a tragic outcome. However, the final directions do not explicitly declare Mr Lamb dead. A careful reading distinguishes that implication from a directly stated fact.

Derry’s return is certain within the action. His lifelong response is not. His desire to explore supports hope that the meeting will continue to influence him, while his grief leaves open how difficult that future may be.

Note: The visible change is Derry’s decision to return. A lasting transformation and Mr Lamb’s death are interpretations requiring qualification, not events explicitly confirmed after the final silence.

Which key quotations support analytical answers?

A quotation reproduces a speaker’s exact words. Its value comes from linking the words to their situation and significance. These brief lines show how welcome, human worth and personal choice develop through the play.

How does Mr Lamb express welcome?

“The gate’s always open.”

Speaker and context: Mr Lamb speaks to Derry about access to the garden. The statement supports a reading of the gate as an invitation to companionship. His welcome is offered even when Derry behaves defensively.

How does he challenge dismissive judgements?

“People are never just nothing. Never.”

Speaker and context: Mr Lamb responds when Derry treats people who are neither friends nor enemies as insignificant. The emphatic repetition expresses his refusal to dismiss a person’s value merely because no lasting relationship has developed.

How does his conduct answer Derry’s fear?

“I’ve not moved.”

Speaker and context: Mr Lamb answers Derry’s belief that people avoid being near him. Instead of promising how everybody will behave, he points to his own behaviour. His continued presence provides evidence against Derry’s universal expectation of rejection.

How does Derry express his changed desire?

“I want the world”

Speaker and context: Derry speaks while running back after the argument at home. The words express a desire to participate and discover. They support the claim that he has changed during the meeting, without proving what his entire future will become.

Glossary

• Defiant — Openly resistant to control or opposition, as Derry is in some of his replies.
• Tentatively — Hesitantly and without full confidence, describing Derry’s first movement through the garden.
• Windfalls — Fruit that has fallen from a tree, like the apples lying in the grass.
• Scrump — To steal fruit from trees, as the boys sometimes do with apples.
• Crab apples — Small apples that Mr Lamb gathers from his tree to make into jelly.
• Herbs — Plants valued for uses such as flavouring or scent, included among Mr Lamb’s garden plants.
• Relative — Dependent on comparison or viewpoint, rather than having one fixed meaning in every situation.
• Signify — To matter or have importance, as when personal details are discussed in relation to friendship.
• Peculiar — Unusual or strange to someone, the word Derry uses for Mr Lamb’s remarks.
• Trespassing — Entering another person’s land without permission, a concern Derry raises about entering the garden.
• Hive — A structure in which a colony of bees lives, located behind trees in Mr Lamb’s garden.
• Seclusion — A condition of living apart from others, relevant to the question of Derry’s future.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Derry’s face was burned in a fire. Correct: Mr Lamb initially guesses this, but Derry explains that acid burned one side of his face.
• Misconception: Derry is thirteen. Correct: He tells Mr Lamb that he is fourteen, correcting the older man’s initial estimate.
• Misconception: Mr Lamb promises that Derry will become physically handsome. Correct: He agrees that Derry’s appearance will not change in the way the fairy tale suggests.
• Misconception: Mr Lamb is never lonely. Correct: His private words after Derry leaves reveal disappointment about people failing to return, despite his public welcome.
• Misconception: Mr Lamb guarantees that every visitor will accept Derry. Correct: He says rejection might or might not happen, and meeting others involves risk.
• Misconception: The final directions explicitly confirm death and a broken neck. Correct: They show a fall, silence and Derry’s tears; the fatal interpretation is strongly suggested, not expressly confirmed.
• Misconception: Derry’s whole future is settled by the ending. Correct: He returns and shows new determination, but his response beyond the final scene remains open.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Derry enters by climbing the garden wall because he believes the place is empty. Mr Lamb welcomes him and explains that the gate is open. What does this reveal about each character’s attitude towards company? [2 marks]

1. Derry seeks an apparently empty place, suggesting that he initially feels more comfortable without company.
2. Mr Lamb welcomes an unexpected visitor, showing willingness to share his space and begin a relationship.

Q2. Mr Lamb claims to welcome visitors, but after Derry leaves he privately expresses disappointment that people who promise to return do not do so. What two conclusions can be drawn about him? [2 marks]

1. His welcome coexists with loneliness: valuing company does not guarantee that companionship lasts.
2. His private disappointment makes him emotionally vulnerable and complicates the impression that he is completely content.

Q3. Derry says Mr Lamb can cover his artificial leg while his own burned face attracts stares. He recalls a hurtful remark about his face and rejects a fairy tale in which love changes appearance. Explain three reasons why easy reassurance fails him. [3 marks]

1. Derry sees a practical difference between a leg that can be covered and a visible facial injury. A general comparison does not fully address his experience of being stared at.
2. The remembered remark gives his fear an actual basis. Reassurance must recognise that other people’s words have caused him emotional pain.
3. The fairy tale promises a physical transformation he does not expect. He needs acceptance in his present condition, rather than comfort based on becoming different.

Q4. Mr Lamb questions why a growing plant is dismissed as a weed, treats Derry as a friend before learning his details, stays beside him despite his fear of rejection, and says other visitors might or might not avoid him. Analyse four aspects of his approach. [4 marks]

1. The plant comparison challenges dismissive labels. He asks Derry to recognise shared life before accepting judgements that some beings have less value.
2. Friendship precedes personal information. His welcome suggests that Derry does not need to prove his worth through an account of his background.
3. Remaining beside Derry makes his acceptance practical. He offers immediate evidence that rejection is not the necessary outcome of every meeting.
4. His uncertainty about other visitors preserves realism. He encourages Derry to take a social risk without guaranteeing that everybody will respond kindly.

Q5. Initially, Derry wants to leave Mr Lamb’s garden and expects rejection. During the conversation he laughs, notices shared pleasure in natural sounds and wants to help gather apples. At home he argues that his thoughts and wishes matter, then returns despite his mother’s refusal. Assess his development in five points without predicting an unwritten future. [5 marks]

1. His initial wish to leave shows that fear shapes his response to an unfamiliar person. He expects another encounter to repeat the rejection he associates with others.
2. His laughter indicates a temporary relaxation of that defensive attitude. The conversation allows him to respond with enjoyment instead of interpreting everything through anticipated injury.
3. His pleasure in natural sounds reveals interests beyond his appearance. Shared attention gives him a basis for connection that does not depend on discussing his face.
4. Wanting to help with apples changes his position from an uneasy visitor to a possible contributor. He begins to imagine an active place in the relationship.
5. His argument at home and actual return demonstrate independent choice. These actions establish change during the play, while his later life remains outside the events shown.

Q6. Earlier, Derry asks about the danger of Mr Lamb falling while alone. Mr Lamb later doubts that Derry will return. In the final scene the ladder falls with Mr Lamb; Derry returns, kneels beside him, receives no reply and weeps. Explain six dramatic effects, distinguishing evidence from inference. [6 marks]

1. Derry’s earlier concern anticipates the fall. This is foreshadowing, because a possibility raised in conversation becomes connected with a later event.
2. Derry’s actual return contradicts Mr Lamb’s expectation that he will stay away. This contrast creates irony and confirms that Derry keeps his promise.
3. The fall interrupts the possibility of a reunion. The audience encounters Derry’s successful decision alongside a sudden threat to the relationship he values.
4. Mr Lamb’s silence leaves Derry speaking without reassurance. The lack of response makes the emotional distance at this moment especially painful.
5. Derry’s kneeling and weeping reveal concern and grief through action. The stage directions carry meaning beyond the words with which he announces his return.
6. The sequence strongly suggests a tragic outcome, but does not explicitly declare death or a broken neck. A careful answer presents those possibilities with appropriate qualification.

Key takeaways

• Susan Hill’s play follows an encounter that challenges Derry’s expectation of rejection and encourages him to choose participation.
• Derry’s acid injury affects his appearance, while remembered remarks and anticipated stares deepen his feeling of separation from others.
• Mr Lamb offers conversation, practical activity and freedom of choice, recognising interests and abilities beyond Derry’s face.
• The garden’s open gate can suggest welcome, while weeds and flowers invite reflection on labels and shared life.
• Mr Lamb’s private disappointment reveals loneliness beneath his sociable manner, giving his character emotional complexity.
• Derry’s return proves that he acts on his new desire to explore, though his lifelong development remains unknown.
• The final fall and silence suggest tragedy, but the stage directions do not explicitly confirm Mr Lamb’s death.
• Sound, pauses, repetition, contrast and the anticipated danger of falling help the play communicate its emotional movement.

Test yourself

What caused Derry’s facial injury, and what explanation does he correct?

Acid burned one side of his face. He corrects Mr Lamb’s initial suggestion that he was injured in a fire.

Why does the difference between the wall and the gate matter?

Derry initially climbs the wall into an apparently empty garden. He later returns through the gate, a change that can suggest growing willingness to accept welcome.

What does the story of the frightened man challenge?

It challenges the belief that withdrawing completely from life guarantees safety. The man locks himself away, but a falling picture kills him.

How do Mr Lamb’s private words complicate his character?

They reveal disappointment about people not returning, suggesting loneliness alongside his enjoyment of life and willingness to welcome visitors.

Why is Derry’s return more than an offer of help?

It enacts his own choice to seek company, listen and explore despite opposition, giving practical form to his changed attitude.

Does Mr Lamb promise that all people will accept Derry?

No. He allows that people might or might not reject him, encouraging an encounter without guaranteeing its outcome.

Which earlier detail anticipates the ending?

Derry raises the possibility of Mr Lamb falling while alone. The later ladder accident recalls that concern without confirming the specific injury Derry imagined.

What remains uncertain after the final scene?

Mr Lamb’s death is strongly suggested rather than explicitly declared, and Derry’s life after his return and grief is not shown.