Lesson Plan
Name of the lesson: THE THIRD LEVEL written by: JACK FINNEY Page A
Class: XII
GIST OF THE LESSON
Theme: Charley a thirty one year old having worked late at night enters Grand Central Station from Vanderbilt avenue, with the aim of boarding a train home. As the station is large consisting of various corridors and two levels catering for different trains, he loses his way. He finds himself in what he thinks is the third level of the station. He realizes that something is different there as the people are dressed differently and the area is lit not with the electric light of the modern times but with open gas fires. He suddenly makes the discovery that
The men would be smoking cigars and talking quietly. The women would be waving palm leaf fans. There were fireflies all around. It was a peaceful world that had not been ravaged by the two World Wars of the twentieth century.
Q. 1 Do you see an intersection of time and space in the story "The Third Level”?
A free play between fantasy and reality in "The Third Level" makes the story transcend all barriers of time and space. Thus Charley strays into 1894at the third level and then gets back to the 20th century. Sam transports himself to Galesburg, Illinois in 1894 and yet his communication with Charley in the 20th Century brings about a convincing intersection of time and space.
Q. 2 How did the psychiatrist explain Charley's flight to the non-existent "third level'?
The psychiatrist explained that Charley couldn't obviously have reached the third level as it didn't exist at all. He was of the view that fear, insecurity, war, worry and the like, made his tension-ridden mind work out an escape route for himself. The third level was a creation of his own imagination and waking-dream wish fulfillment i.e. Charley's experience of the third level was a rationalization of his dreams and unfulfilled wishes of the subconscious mind. The flight never took place as the whole episode was a figment of his imagination.
Q. 3 'Yes, I've taken the obvious stem. 'Why does Charley term meeting he psychiatrist as an obvious step’?
The moment Charley talked about his