Chapter 5 — On the Face of It

'On the Face of It' is a one-act play by Susan Hill about two people with physical disabilities who meet in a garden. Derry, a fourteen-year-old, has acid burns on one side of his face; Mr Lamb is an old man with a tin leg. Their conversation in Mr Lamb's garden challenges Derry's bitterness and isolation, showing that the real wound of disability is the fear and alienation it generates, not the physical condition alone.

Derry is a fourteen-year-old boy who had acid burn down one side of his face, which, as he says, 'burned it all away — it ate my face up.' He is withdrawn and defiant, convinced that everyone — even strangers in the street — is afraid of him or pities him. He climbed Mr Lamb's garden wall thinking the place was empty.

Mr Lamb is an old man who lost his real leg — 'it got blown off, years back' in the war. He now walks with a tin leg. Local children call him 'Lamey-Lamb', but he says it 'doesn't trouble me'. He lives alone in a large house without curtains, keeps a garden with an always-open gate, grows crab apples, weeds, flowers, and bees, and makes toffee with honey.

Derry is bitter and withdrawn. He avoids people because he believes everyone is afraid of him or pities him, and he dwells on a cruel remark he once overheard: 'That's a face only a mother could love.' Mr Lamb, by contrast, shrugs off his tin leg — 'Tin doesn't hurt, boy!' — keeps his gate open to all, and says children still come into his garden even while they shout 'Lamey-Lamb'. He is not afraid of others, so they are not afraid of him.

When Derry says there are people he hates, Mr Lamb replies: 'That'd do you more harm than any bottle of acid. Acid only burns your face.' He then adds: 'Like a bomb only blew up my leg. There's worse things can happen. You can burn yourself away inside.' He is warning Derry that inward hatred is more destructive than the outward injury.

Mr Lamb points to a patch of weeds and asks: 'Why is one green, growing plant called a weed and another a flower? Where's the difference? It's all life, growing. Same as you and me.' The weeds represent his philosophy of acceptance — everything has value; the labels 'beautiful' or 'ugly', 'weed' or 'flower', are imposed by others and do not reflect the underlying worth of what grows.

Mr Lamb repeatedly says 'The gate's always open. All welcome.' The open gate symbolises his attitude toward people: he imposes no conditions, asks for no particulars, and considers everyone a friend. Derry had climbed the wall rather than come through the gate, suggesting his habit of entering the world by a hidden, anxious route rather than openly.

Mr Lamb tells Derry about a man who was afraid of everything — buses, germs, a donkey's kick, lightning, love, even people laughing at him — so he locked himself in his room and stayed in bed. Eventually, 'a picture fell off the wall on to his head and killed him.' Derry laughs at this. Mr Lamb's point is that avoiding life does not protect you from it; isolation solves nothing.

Derry's mother warns him not to go back, but Derry insists: 'Things that matter. Things nobody else has ever said. Things I want to think about.' When she tells him to stay, he replies: 'If I don't go back there, I'll never go anywhere in this world again.' He slams the door and runs back, saying: 'I want the world... I want it.' Mr Lamb's attitude has reawakened his desire to engage with life.

In Scene Three, Mr Lamb is picking crab apples from a ladder when it falls and he crashes to the ground. Derry arrives — having kept his promise — to find Mr Lamb fallen and silent. He kneels beside him, saying 'I came back. Lamey-Lamb. I did come back.' Derry begins to weep. The ending is bittersweet: Mr Lamb had privately doubted Derry would return ('They never do, though'), yet Derry does return. The act of returning is itself a transformation — Derry has overcome his isolation.

The play explores disability, isolation, and acceptance. Its central argument is that the real suffering of a disability is not the physical condition but the alienation it produces — from others' pity, fear, or avoidance, and from the sufferer's own withdrawal. Mr Lamb models a way of living that is open, curious, and unafraid; Derry's journey is from bitterness and seclusion toward that openness.

Yes. The NCERT Class 12 English Vistas PDF, including Chapter 5 'On the Face of It', is available for free on CBSE PrepMaster (cbseprepmaster.com). No sign-up or subscription is required — you can read or download it directly.