The Golden Touch

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Answers for all the questions from the lesson ‘The Golden Touch’ included in the CHSE +2 book ‘Invitation to English – 1’.

Think it out – 1

1. What do you learn about King Midas from the first two paragraphs of the story?
Answer – King Midas had fabulous wealth, with an insatiable obsession with gold. He loved his daughter Marygold very much and would lavish gold on her as a symbol of his love. The King derived great satisfaction from his possession of a gold crown.

2. What did he wish when he saw the golden light of the evening sun?
Answer – Upon seeing the golden light of the Sun, he wished if it could turn everything into gold that it fell upon.

3. Why didn’t he like the roses of his garden?
Answer – He considered the roses grown in her garden as too mundane and ordinary. They didn’t enthuse him a bit. He wished his garden had roses of gold.

4. How did he spend his time in his ‘treasure-room’?
Answer – As his favourite pastime, he would walk to his hidden store where gold coins were kept. Then he would count them one by one. The jingle of the coins pleased him a lot. At times, he would hold a gold bar, and start imagining gold cups and plates.

5. How did he come across the stranger?
Answer – The stranger made his appearance inside his top-secret treasure room as soon as the first rays of the Sun came in. The king was baffled to see him. He had a soft smile on his face.

6. How did King Midas answer the stranger’s question, “What else do you want?”
Answer – The King had concluded that the stranger had magical powers. On hearing his query about his want, the king asked him about ways to hasten his amassing of gold. Quite foolishly, the king wanted the power to transform everything he touched to gold.

7. How did the stranger fulfill his wishes?
Answer – In order to fulfill the wishes of King Midas, the stranger assured him that he would get his golden touch as soon as the Sun rose the next day.

Think it out – 2

1. When did the king discover that his desire for the golden touch had been fulfilled?
Answer – Quite early in the morning, the king discovered that his desire for the golden touch had been fulfilled when a piece of cloth near him turned into gold upon his touch.

2. Why was the king not sad when his spectacles turned into gold?
Answer – On touch, the king’s spectacles turned to gold making it useless as a device for vision. However, the king was not unduly perturbed. ‘The golden touch was far more beneficial than a pair of glasses,’ he construed.

3. What was Marygold’s complaint about the golden rose?
Answer – Marygold’s complaint about the red roses was that they had lost both their beauty and sweet scent.

4. How did the king console his daughter?
Answer – The king consoled his daughter by saying that the golden roses were worth much more than the real ones. So, she needn’t be so distraught at the conversion. With these words, the king mollified her.

5. Why couldn’t the king enjoy his breakfast?
Answer – The king couldn’t enjoy his delicious breakfast as it all turned into gold as soon as he tried to eat.

6. What happened to Marygold when the king kissed her?
Answer – When Midas kissed his dear daughter Marygold, she turned into gold. Her sweet little face turned into yellowish gold. She remained frozen in her new Avatar.

Think it out – 3

1. How did the king realize that the golden touch was a useless gift for him?
Answer – The king had rejoiced at his newly-acquired ‘golden touch’ till he touched his dear daughter Marigold. When she froze to a golden, lifeless girl, the king was devastated. He quickly realized his folly and concluded that the ‘golden touch’ was a useless gift.

2. ‘You are wiser than you were’ – why did the stranger say so?
Answer – The king was filled with remorse for so blindly pursuing gold. He realized that all the ordinary worldly things were more useful than gold. When he asked the stranger to revoke the gift, the latter commented like this.

3. What did the stranger advise the king to do to get rid of his golden touch?
Answer – In order to get rid of the curse of the golden touch, the stranger advised the king to wash himself in the river at the end of his garden and to sprinkle water from the same river over anything to change them to their original state.

4. How did the king get back his daughter?
Answer – As soon as King Midas sprinkled water on Marygold, she sprang back to life. The king got back his dearest daughter.

5. Is the story a tragic or a comic one? Give your reason.
Answer – The story is nothing more than a comic, because no such thing can ever happen in reality. The author has contrived a king possessed with the love of gold to add both entertainment and moral value to the story.

Click here for a complete list of all your Invitation to English textbook lessons with their post links.