English Language & Literature — CBSE Class 10 board question

Both Ogden Nash and Anton Chekhov use language cleverly to create humour for the reader/audience.

In 'The Tale of Custard the Dragon', Nash uses comic contrast — everyone else boasts of bravery, yet Custard, who is described as a "cowardly dragon," actually defeats the pirate. Nash uses playful invented words like "realio, trulio" and deliberate misspellings to create a childlike, mock-heroic tone. The exaggerated similes ("mouth like a fireplace," "daggers in his teeth") add absurd comedy.

In 'The Proposal', Chekhov creates humour through the characters' ridiculous behaviour — Lomov and Natalya quarrel bitterly over trivial matters like land and a dog instead of discussing the marriage proposal. The rapid shift from romance to argument and back again is comic. Repetitive bickering, pompous language, and Lomov's hypochondria all heighten the farce.

Both writers use exaggeration and incongruity as their primary comic devices.

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• Examiners expect you to name specific techniques (mock-heroic tone, invented words, exaggeration, farce, incongruity) with brief textual evidence from each text.
• Give roughly equal space to both texts — 2–3 points each.
• End with a comparative observation linking both texts; this earns full marks.
• Note: The source passages provided did not contain the actual texts of these two works, so the answer is grounded in standard CBSE Class 10 textbook content for these chapters.