Tomorrow (Joseph Conrad) — NCERT Solutions

Bessie tells Harry that his father has planned a home and marriage for him. She says he expects Harry to return, settle down, and marry a sensible girl—in fact, she hints that the girl is herself. She also tells him that his father has been waiting for him all these years and that the return is part of the old man's mad hope.

From the window, Captain Hagberd shouted that he could see Bessie and that he would tell Harry. The exact call in the chapter is: 'Bessie—I see you. I’ll tell Harry.'

The consistency in the old man's madness is that it always centres on the same fixed idea: Harry will come home tomorrow. No matter how much time passes, he shifts the date to tomorrow and keeps the hope alive. His delusion is steady and unbroken.

Captain Hagberd prepares for Harry's homecoming by buying furniture, collecting household goods, digging and re-digging his front plot, and keeping a box of flower-seeds ready for the garden. He also keeps his home and cottage waiting in expectation of Harry's return.

Bessie begins to share Hagberd's insanity by not contradicting him and by almost half-believing his story. She humours him, listens patiently, smiles at his hopes, and even starts to feel that perhaps the return might really happen. Her pity slowly draws her into his delusion.

Harry comes because he wants the five quid promised by the hoax letter and by his chum's suggestion. He has spent his last money on the railway fare and a shave, is hard up, and hopes to get money from his father. He also comes out of curiosity and to settle the matter.

Harry's return is a disappointment for Bessie because he comes as a restless, self-willed wanderer, not as the loving son of her imagination. He shows no intention of becoming the settled, home-loving man she had dreamed of, and he leaves her emotionally shaken and empty.

The statement means that even a mad mind has its own balance based on self-esteem and fixed beliefs. If that balance is disturbed, the person suffers. In Captain Hagberd's case, people laughing at him or doubting his hope upsets his mental stability and causes distress. His madness is therefore tied to his pride and certainty.

The two stories are similar because both deal with a person who is trapped by hope, memory, fear, and inability to act decisively. In 'Eveline', the girl cannot leave her old life behind; in 'Tomorrow', Bessie is also caught between duty, fear, and dream. In both, the central character is unable to escape a crushing emotional situation.

Conrad unfolds Captain Hagberd's past through a gradual revelation and a story-within-a-story method. The barber's gossip, the narrator's descriptions, and later the direct conversations slowly reveal the old man's history, his loss, and his obsession. This technique creates suspense and lets the reader understand Hagberd step by step.

Streaks of insanity appear in Mr Carvil and in the barber's mocking, cruel imagination. Carvil's tyranny is almost mad in its selfishness, while the barber treats Hagberd's grief as a joke. These details suggest that madness is not confined to one person; it can appear as delusion, cruelty, selfishness, or lack of sympathy in different forms.

One allusion is Father Neptune and sea-god, which compares Hagberd to Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, to stress his maritime look. Another is Davy Jones's locker, an allusion to a sailor's grave at the bottom of the sea, used to suggest that Harry may be dead. Such allusions enrich the story with vivid sea-imagery and legendary associations.

The noun forms are made by changing the stress and adding the correct suffix:

• present → presentation
• examine → examination
• produce → production
• calculate → calculation
• distribute → distribution
• specialise → specialisation

So the completed columns are: