The essence of this chapter for last-minute revision: key facts, themes, lines to remember and a fast recap. The full notes, with the whole explanation, are available separately.
1 The Play in One Line Each
2 The Play, Scene by Scene
3 Key Facts and Numbers
| Fact | Detail from the play |
|---|---|
| Author | Susan Hill; genre is a one-act play |
| Mr Lamb’s injury | Real leg blown off by a bomb, in the war; wears a tin leg |
| Derry’s injury | Face burned by acid down one side |
| Nickname | Children call Mr Lamb “Lamey-Lamb” |
| Setting | Mr Lamb’s garden in September (Scene One); Derry’s house (Scene Two) and the garden again (Scene Three), no month stated |
| Mr Lamb’s philosophy | “Watching. Listening. Thinking.” (later “Waiting. Watching. Listening.”) |
| Weed-garden argument | “It’s all life…. growing. Same as you and me” |
| The parable | A man who fears everything is still killed by a falling picture |
| Cruel remark | A stranger’s whisper: “That’s a face only a mother could love” |
| The ending | Mr Lamb falls from a ladder; Derry returns and weeps; his fate is not stated |
4 Themes
Disability and alienation
The book’s RWI Q3: the pain of an impairment “is often much less than the sense of alienation felt by the person with disabilities.”
Appearance versus reality
Surface appearances, a burned face, a tin leg, are misleading measures of a person’s worth.
Fear versus openness
Mr Lamb’s open gate and curtain-free house versus Derry’s fearful withdrawal.
Unconditional friendship
Mr Lamb accepts Derry without knowing his name, history or family.
The danger of pity
Assuming rather than listening (Derry’s reply suggests his mother does this) can alienate as much as cruelty.
Mr Lamb’s loneliness (RWI Q2)
Signs in Scene One: he lives alone; Derry says he is “all by yourself and miserable”; alone, he says, “They never do, though. Not them. Never do come back.” He copes through the open gate, talk (“I like to talk. Have company.”), bees, books and garden.
5 Devices and the Title
| Device | Example |
|---|---|
| Stage directions as sound | Birdsong, footsteps, the ladder’s creak-crash-thump-silence |
| Dramatic/situational irony | The fearful man’s parable foreshadows Mr Lamb’s own accident |
| Symbolism | One reading: open gate = welcome; no curtains = nothing hidden; weeds = wrongly-labelled life |
| Parable/allegory | The fearful man killed by a falling picture |
| Repetition | “The gate’s always open”; “Watching. Listening. Thinking.” |
| Open ending | Mr Lamb’s fate after the fall is never confirmed in words |
Title, “On the Face of It”: literally, Derry’s disfigured face; idiomatically, “as it appears at first glance,” meaning surface appearances can be deceptive.
- Susan Hill’s one-act play, three scenes, told almost entirely through dialogue and sound-based stage directions
- Mr Lamb: tin leg (bomb, war), “Lamey-Lamb,” no curtains, keeps bees, “Watching. Listening. Thinking.”
- Derry (real name Derek): fourteen, face burned by acid, says he can “see” what people think, “I won’t change”
- Key line: “You’ve got a burned face, I’ve got a tin leg. Not important…. Where’s the difference?”
- The parable of the fearful man killed by a falling picture: hiding from life does not protect you from it
- Scene Two: mother forbids the visit; “I want the world…. I want it…. I want it…”
- Scene Three: Mr Lamb falls; Derry returns, kneels, “I came back. Lamey-Lamb. I did…..come back,” then weeps
- The ending is open; Mr Lamb’s fate is never confirmed
- Mr Lamb’s loneliness (RWI Q2): “Never do come back”; he copes through the open gate, talk, bees, books and garden