Good-Bye, Mr. Chips!
Simplified Detailed Summary
Brookfield School was very famous in the middle of the
nineteenth century. When Mr. Chips joined it, there were 500 odd students who
were notorious for their mischievous behavior. They enjoyed much by teasing the
new masters when they entered the class for the first time. It was an exciting
sport for them and it had also become a tradition for them.
Individually, they were decent boys, but they were at
their worst in behavior and creating trouble for their teacher as a mob.
As Mr. Chips took his seat at the desk on the dais, he assumed a
frown on his eyebrows just to show that he was very serious and he also wanted
to hide his nervousness. Suddenly someone dropped a desk lid on the floor in
the classroom. It was the time for Mr. Chips to react strongly to establish his
authority on them. He said loudly: ‘You there in the fifth row, you with the
red hair-----what’s your name?’
“Colley, sir!”
“Very well, Colley, you have a hundred lines to write.”
After that, there was no trouble.
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
There is a gap of years in the story now.
That boy ‘Colley’ grew up to become an alderman (member of
council) of the city of London and he also gained much reputation to get more
titles. He had a son who was also red-haired like him. He sent him to
Brookfield.
One day, Mr. Chips told the boy, “Colley, your father was the
first boy I ever punished when I came here twenty-five years ago. He deserved
it then and you deserve it now.”
The whole class was laughed and Sir Richard (Mr. Colley senior)
also laughed that day when his son wrote the story in next Sunday letter to his
father.
Mr. Chips was very resourceful in creating funny remarks and
situations. There was always a touch of humour in the way he presented things.
Again, many years after, a funny thing happened. The third-gen
Colley (the son of the 2nd Colley)
joined the school.
One day, Mr. Chips remarked to him, “Colley, you
are-----umph-----a splendid example of------umph-----inherited traditions. I
remember your grandfather-----umph----he could never grasp the elements of
grammar. And your father, too---umph----I remember him----um----he used to sit
at that far desk by the wall---he wasn’t much better. But I do believe, my dear
Colley, that you are----umph----um----the biggest fool of the lot!”
Such types of remarks always created roars of laughter in the
class and kept Mr. Chips’ classes the happiest ones and the boys loved him very
much.
ABOUT BROOKFIELD
Brookfield was an old institution that was established in the
rule of Queen Elizabeth as a grammar school. It was rebuilt with large
additions during the rule of George I. Several rich families supported it and
the school created several history-making men like judges, members of
parliament, colonial administrators, peers and bishops.
By the year1880, Mr. Chips had become the part and parcel of
Brookfield. His humour made him popular among a large section of students. In a
way, he had become a living legend (celebrity, a tale). Mr. Chips did not like
to isolate himself from the students. He used to watch the students playing. He
would smile and exchange a few words with them when they touched their caps to
him. He had made a point to know all the new boys and having tea with
them. The older students also told the new ones about Mr. Chips’ good nature.
Mr. Chips also grew old with the institution and its
traditions. In 1900, Mr. Meldrum, who had been the principal of Brookfield for
decades died. Mr. Chips became acting Head of Brookfield. It was hoped that the
Governors would make his appointment permanent. But it did not happen. A young
man of thirty-seven was appointed as the head of the school.. He had such a
strict personality that the mere lifting of his eyebrow would create silence in
the Big Hall. Mr. Chips knew that he could not become that kind of person as
Mr. Ralston, the new principal was.
There also developed a row (quarrel) between Mr. Chips and Mr.
Ralston, who was an ambitious and efficient principal.
Chips served him willingly and loyally. He had the advantage of age
and seniority and it saved him from the fate of other masters whom Ralston
failed to like.
In 1908, Mr. Chips turned sixty and Ralston sent him an ultimatum
in a cultured manner: “Mr. Chipping, have you ever thought you would like to
retire?”
Mr. Chips at once rejected the idea. After that, Mr. Ralston
said in plain words that his methods of teaching were outdated and
insufficient. His personal habits are also odd and he ignored his instructions.
It all showed his insubordination.
Ralston further said that his gown was also a source of
continual amusement in the whole school. He also added that his pronunciation
of Latin was also not satisfactory.
After that Mr. Chips said that he did not agree with the new
pronunciation. He was against pronouncing ‘Cicero’ as ‘kickero’. He could not
pronounce ‘VICISSISM’ as ‘We kiss ‘im’. Saying that Mr. Chips chuckled
(laughed quietly) forgetting that he was in Ralston's study and not in his room.
Mr. Ralston said that he aimed to make Brookfield a fully
up-to-date school as parents had started to demand modern things.
Suddenly, everything was clear to Mr. Chips. Ralston wanted to
run Brookfield like a factory---- a factory that would create snob cultures
based on money and machinery. The old gentlemanly traditions of family, etc.
all were changing.
At present, all these thoughts made Mr. Chips angry, but
he did not say even a single word. He only walked away. While coming out at the
gate, he uttered, “I don’t---umph----intend to resign---and you can do what you
like about it!”
It happened that a small boy was listening to the whole
conversation outside the door and he spread this among his friends. Some of
them, in a very short time told their parents that Mr. Ralston insulted Mr.
Chips and demanded his resignation.
Mr. Chips had never imagined that the parents would show such a
great sympathy for him. Mr. Chips also found out the truth about Mr. Ralston
that he was feared and respected but not liked. That issue made Mr. Chips more
respected. Even young masters, who felt that Chips was hopelessly
old-fashioned, rallied around him because they hated Mr. Ralston’s nature of
making teachers his slaves.
One day, Sir John Rivers, the chairperson of the Governors
visited Brookfield. Ignoring Ralston, he went direct to Chips. While walking
around the deserted cricket pitches, Sir John said, “Chips, old boy, sorry to
hear about your row with Ralston. We want you to know that Governors are with
you to a man. We don’t like that fellow a great deal. …….Please don’t resign.”
Thus Mr. Chips stayed on there. But now, he was sixty-five and
he had an attack of bronchitis which compelled him to resign. He received
farewell presentations and made a speech which was greatly uproarious
(extremely funny) He used many Latin quotations in it but the reference to the
captain of the school was the most amusing one. He said that the captain was
guilty of exaggeration (overstatement) in speaking about Chips’ service to the
school. Thus he kept speaking in his typical funny style.
It was around 1933 when Chips
fell into a kind of somnolence drowsiness like sleep). He had a dream-like state
full of faces, voices, old scenes, cheers, and laughter, and over it all, the
Brookfield bells.
Once he heard the doctor whispering near his bed: ‘Poor old
chap---he must have lived a lonely sort of life, all by himself.’
The attendant said that he had married and after a year or so
his wife died.
The doctor showing pity on him and remarked that he could not
have children. At that, Mr. Chips opened his eyes as wide as he could and said,
“ I thought I heard you say I never had ---umph-um---any children, eh! But you
know I have…’And then the chorus sang: ‘Pettifer, Pollet, Potts, Pullman,
Purvis, Pym Wilson…come round me now, all of you, for the last word and a joke…my
boys…’
Soon he was asleep.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
