The Snake and the Mirror by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer
Quick answer: The Snake and the Mirror by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Class 9 Beehive: summary with the ending, the doctor's vanity, the thief, themes of ego and humour, exam answers.
A young homeopath admiring himself in a mirror at midnight feels a cobra land on his shoulder and wind round his arm, and only the snake's interest in the glass stands between him and death. Vaikom Muhammad Basheer's comic anecdote is fifth in the Class 9 Beehive textbook.
The story in brief
The doctor tells the tale years later. Newly in practice and poor, he rented a small room without electricity in a house full of rats. One hot night he lights the lamp, sits before the mirror and admires himself, deciding to smile more, grow a thin moustache, and marry a woman doctor with a fat practice and a fat body who could not run after him.
A thud, silence from the rats, and a snake drops onto his chair and coils round his upper arm, hood inches from his face. He sits like stone, praying and cursing his vanity. Then the snake sees the mirror, uncoils, and slides onto the table to gaze at its reflection. The doctor bolts to a friend's house. Next morning he finds a thief has emptied the room, leaving a dirty vest. The snake, he says, must also have been taken with its reflection.
The characters
Themes and meaning
Exams expect vanity punished by fear, pride humbled by nature, and humour used for terror. The sharper reading is that Basheer gives the snake the doctor's own weakness. Both are held by a mirror; the man survives because the snake is the vainer. The narrator's willingness to be laughed at makes him likeable.
The craft
The turn is the snake seeing the mirror, which converts the object of vanity into the instrument of rescue. Basheer plants the mirror three times before the snake arrives, and the thief is a second, dry twist. Judges of Writory's monthly short story contest look for exactly this when scoring Storytelling: an object introduced for character that later drives the plot.
For the exam
Summary in 100 words: A young homeopathic doctor recalls his early days in a cheap rented room without electricity. One hot night he sits before a mirror by lamplight admiring himself, planning a thin moustache and marriage to a wealthy woman doctor. A snake drops onto his chair and coils round his arm near his face. He sits frozen, praying and regretting his vanity. The snake notices its reflection in the mirror, leaves his arm to look at itself, and the doctor flees to a friend's house. Next morning he finds a thief has stripped the room, leaving only a dirty vest.
What writers can take from this
- Name vanity as the theme and prove it with the moustache, the smile and the marriage plan.
- Point out that the mirror is both cause of the doctor's conceit and means of his escape.
- Mention the dirty vest for the ending; examiners check that detail.
- Writers: plant an object three times for character before you let it decide the plot.
- Add a second, smaller twist after the main climax to control the story's final tone.
Try it yourself
Write a comic story in which a character's most vain habit, established early in three small scenes, becomes the only thing that saves them from a real danger, and end on a loss that is trivial next to what they escaped.
Questions
How did the doctor escape from the snake?
The snake, coiled round his arm, noticed its reflection in the mirror on the table. It uncoiled and moved towards the glass, and the doctor ran from the room to a friend's house.
What is the theme of The Snake and the Mirror?
The story mocks human vanity and shows how quickly pride collapses before danger. It uses humour to describe fear, and its mirror unites the doctor's conceit with his rescue.
What did the doctor find when he returned to his room?
A thief had emptied the room during the night. Only a dirty vest was left, and the doctor jokes that the snake too must have been taken with its reflection.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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