The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1592. It is the only play by Shakespeare in which he used Induction, a framing device and this is why The Taming of the Shrew is also known as ‘A Play within a Play.’ The induction tells the tale of a beggar who finds himself mysteriously in power in a rich man's world. Shakespeare used farcical elements and themes of disguise and mistaken identity in this play which he used again in Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The induction used in the play is often criticized as a faulty framework with an unfulfilled narrative because the whole play ends with the end of the play within the play while leaving the Induction incomplete.

Characters of The Taming of the Shrew:

Petruchio is a young man who visits Padua while searching for a girl to marry. He is the son of a rich man from Verona who is ready to marry any girl with enough money. When he hears about Katherine’s dowry, he becomes interested in marrying her but her cleverness and "shrewishness" excite him genuinely. Lucentio is another male lead who belongs to Florence. He visits Padua to study at the University but falls in love with Bianca. He makes friends with Petruchio but unlike Petruchio, he isn’t interested in Dowry. Both men are well-off, but Lucentio’s father is incomparably rich Pisan. While Lucentio single-mindedly pursues Bianca, he cannot marry her until Bianca’s elder sister Katherina gets engaged.

Katherina Minola or Kate is the shrew to be tamed. She is a beautiful, intelligent, shrewd, and haughty girl who knows that men are pursuing her for the money she will bring as dowry. Her father Baptista is worried about her marriage and suggests two suitors, Hortensio, and Gremio to Kate but she lashes out at them and they run away. Bianca is the younger sister of Kate. She is just opposite to Kate, a moderate well-behaved beautiful girl. Lucentio falls in love with her. Baptista is a wealthy resident of Padua and the father of Katherina and Bianca. He openly prefers his more well-behaved daughter and has no compunction about referring to Katharina as "the veriest shrew of all." Tranio, Lucentio’s servant, helps him woo Bianca by assuming Lucentio’s identity. Horentsio is a suitor of Bianca. He is a foolish and pompous man whom Tranio baits and sends off to woo and marry a rich widow. Gremio is another suitor of Bianca. Other minor characters include Grumio, Petrucho's servant. Christopher Sly, the main character of the Induction. He is a drunkard made to think he is a lord by a real lord who plays a trick on him.

Summary of The Taming of the Shrew:

The Taming of the Shrew is a Five Act play beginning with an Induction. It is the only play by William Shakespeare in which an Induction is used at the beginning as a framing device for the main play. The induction begins as a drunken beggar Christopher Sly gets thrown out of a tavern and falls asleep on the street. A Lord passing by notices Sly and decides to trick him. Sly is carried to the Lord's bedchamber and decked in lavish attire. Upon waking, Christopher Sly is understandably confused. He immediately calls for a drink and is attended to by three servants (supposedly his). The Lord himself assumes a servant’s role and convinces him that Sly is a wealthy nobleman who has recently been mad and has forgotten his true identity. The Lord’s young pageboy dresses up as a lady and pretends to be Sly’s noble wife. Sly resists for a while but when he sees his beautiful wife and a lot of wine, he falls into the trap and decides he must indeed be a lord. Meanwhile, a group of artists arrive at the Lord’s house to perform and they unwittingly perform a drama for Sly, the fake lord. This drama is the main plot of The Taming of the Shrew.

Act 1

Lucentio is the only son of a wealthy Pisan merchant Vincentio. He is a well-behaved studious young man who arrives in Padua to study at the University of Padua. His servant Tranio accompanies him. On the very first day, Lucentio and Tranio see two beautiful young girls with their father as two young men approach them. Lucentio learns that the old man is Baptista a rich merchant of Padua along with his elder daughter Katherina and the younger one Bianca. The two men approaching him are Horentsio and Gremio. Both ask for Bianca’s hand in marriage but Baptista says no one shall court Bianca until her older sister is successfully married. Horentsio objects that Katherina is an ill-tempered, feisty, and quarrelsome "shrew" and they can think of no one who would possibly want to marry her. Baptista intervenes and says that he agrees Katherina is "the veriest shrew of all," and he will allow tutors into his house, but no suitors until Kate is wed. Upon hearing this, Katherina gets furious and lashes out at Honrentsio and Gremio and they flee away from the scene. Bianca gets sad, Lucentio notices her weeping, and falls in love with her. Gremio and Horentsio decide that they will put aside their rivalry until they have found someone to wed the "shrew" Katharina.

Act 2

Lucentio decides to enter the Minola house as a Latin teacher Cambio to teach Bianca. Tranio accompanies him disguised as Lucentio and becomes Bianca's third suitor. Horentsio disguises as a music teacher named Litio to access Bianca as her teacher and woo her. Meanwhile, Petruchio, a young man from Verona arrives and hears that Baptista is willing to marry his elder daughter. When he hears about Katherina’s wittiness and shrewdness, he gets excited and feels he wants her as his wife. He learns that Baptista is rich and decides to marry her. As he reaches Minola’s house, he gets engaged in a furious battle of wits with Katherina. He engages Katherina in an embittered and passionate volley of insults and slurs, each meeting the linguistic challenges posited by the other.

When Baptista, Gremio, and Tranio see them arguing, Baptista intervenes. Petruchio excitedly announces that he and Katharina are to be wed on Sunday. Katherina protests and says, "I'll see thee hanged on Sunday first." Petruchio reassures Baptista that Kate and he have agreed that she will remain "crust" in public though they will be affectionate in private. He then firmly picks Katherina in his arms and takes her away.

Baptista is relieved that his elder ‘shrew’ daughter is finally getting married. He turns to Gremio and Tranio and says that whoever is willing to pay a higher dowry for Bianca will be able to marry her. Tranio assures that his father Vincentio will pay a higher dowry. Baptista says that he will need assurance from Vincentio that Lucentio will be his heir. Tranio then determines to find someone to play the part of Vincentio, to allow Lucentio to win Bianca. Meanwhile, Cambio and Litio both try to woo Bianca while teaching her but Bianca clearly prefers Lucentio, although she is cautious in her judgment.

Act 3

Despite her protest, Katherina feels Petruchio outwitted her and eagerly awaits the wedding day. Sunday approaches and Baptista makes all the arrangements for the wedding in the Church. However, Petruchio doesn’t arrive on time. Katherina becomes worried. When he finally arrives, he is wearing an absurd outfit, which irritates Baptista and Katherina. Petruchio ignores Katherina’s response to his dressing, behaves like a tyrant during the service, and then refuses even to let Katharina stay for the wedding feast, instead sweeping her away to his home in the country. Baptista is bewildered at Petruchio's hastiness but doesn’t intervene. After they leave, Baptista tells Tranio (disguised as Lucentio) that the feast will go as planned, and that he and Bianca may take the seats of the bride and bridegroom if Vincentio assures that Lucentio will be his heir.

Act 4

At his home, Petruchio’s behavior further deteriorates. He rudely treats all his servants. He constantly corrects and berates Katherine, and pretends to find something wrong with all the food his servants bring her so that she gets nothing to eat. This is all part of his plan to tame her by denying her food and preventing her from even sleeping. He returns to his servants and explains his intention to tame the shrew by out-shrewing her: he will mistreat her and deprive her of what she needs, all under the guise of kindness and love. Thus, by insisting that neither her food nor her bed is worthy of her, he will wear out her spirit with lack of nourishment and sleep.

At Padua, Horentsio realizes that Bianca is preferring Cambio. When Tranio reaches there, he complains that Bianca is flirting with low-class Cambio. Tranio too instigates him and says he would never marry a girl flirting with such low-class people and suggests to Horentsio that they should rather pursue a rich woman who recently got widowed. Horentsio agrees and decides to leave Bianca to flirt with Cambio while he pursues the rich widow. Tranio informs Cambio and Bianca that Horentsio has left and then goes to find a man to pretend to be Vincentio. He finds an old merchant arriving at Padua and lies to him that his life is in danger in Padua and makes him play the part of Vincentio in exchange for saving his life. The old man promptly assists him. Baptista is satisfied after meeting the merchant disguised as Vincentio and agrees to the wedding of Lucentio and Bianca.

Back at Petruchio’s home, Katherina is still hungry. Petruchio arrives at her room with a plate of freshly prepared meat in the hands of Horentsio who visited to congratulate them. Petruchio insists Katherina must thank him for the meat but secretly tells Horentsio to eat all the meat by himself. Petruchio then tells Katherina to dress up in her best garments as they will soon go back to her father’s house for the marriage of Bianca. A Tailor brings a hat and a gown for Katherina which she likes very much but Petruchio declines them saying they are of low quality. Then he tells Katherina to hurry up and come as she is dressed as clothes are of little worth and they should reach Minola’s house by noon. Katherina protests and says that it is already 2 o’clock. Petruchio berates her for constantly contradicting him. His servants notice that Katherina is much more polite than Petruchio now. On the road, Petruchio continues to mistreat Katherina and she continues to subdue. They meet Vincentio. Petruchio greets him as ‘gentlewoman’ and asks Katherina to agree with him, Katherina promptly agrees and calls Vincentio ‘ a budding virgin.’ Shocked by their jester, Vincentio informs that he is going to Padua to meet his son Lucentio. Petruchio then tells him that his son is to be married to Bianca pretty soon.

Act 5

At Padua, Vincentio encounters the old merchant and Tranio disguised as Vincentio and Lucentio. He argues with them, asserting that he is the real Vincentio and Tranio is his servant. Baptista doesn’t believe him and calls for the police to arrest the real Vincentio as an imposter. Cambio and Bianca approach the scene, and Cambio confesses to his deceit and says that he is the real Lucentio while revealing the true identities of the merchant and Tranio. Baptista and Vincentio are upset by all this but ultimately approve of the marriage between Bianca and the real Lucentio. Meanwhile, Horentsio succeeds in marrying the rich widow.

At the feast of Lucentio and Bianca’s wedding, Horentsio and Gremio tease Petruchio for being married to a shrew. Petruchio says that they should call their wives and whoever appears first, should be considered the most obedient wife. Lucentio and Horentsio agree, and all three send messengers to call for their wives. Bianca and the rich widow don’t appear but Katherina appears promptly. Then Petruchio sends her back to call the other two wives. When all three are present, Katherina delivers a long speech detailing a wife's duties owed to her husband. While Horentsio and Lucentio are shocked at witnessing the change in Katherina, Petruchio is pleased as he leaves with Katherina to his bedroom.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth | Structure, Summary, Analysis

 

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Lines Written in Early Spring’ is a lyrical poem by William Wordsworth, written in 1798, and published in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. ‘Lyrical Ballads’ was a combined poetical collection of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge through which they tried to resurrect old poetic traditions such as folk ballads. This poem is a lyrical ballad meant to reflect the poet's emotions.

‘Lines Written in Early Spring’ is a landscape poem discussing nature and its beauty. The poem's speaker is enjoying his solitude as he observes the natural beauty on a spring morning. He perceives the peace and natural beauty of the surroundings and feels that though he and other humans are also a part of nature, they have failed to follow nature's peaceful example. Thus, he moans the cruelty, selfishness, greed, and struggle for superiority that characterizes humanity and says, "what man has made of man." The speaker argues that though Nature contains all of us, we do not follow what nature teaches us.

Wordsworth wrote this poem during the period of the French Revolution when citizens rose up and toppled their despotic monarchy. It was a cultural shock that stunned everyone, including the British literary society. The poem reflects his thoughts about human nature marred with selfishness, greed, and cruelty, and how it differs from the simple pleasures of Nature of which we are all a part.

Structure of Lines Written in Early Spring:

The poem consists of 24 lines set in six stanzas of four lines each (quatrains). It is a lyrical ballad that follows the simple rhythm of ballads ABAB in each stanza. Traditional ballads follow the alternating meter of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter in the stanza. However, Wordsworth brought upon a difference by using iambic tetrameter in the first three lines of the first, second, third, and sixth stanzas, and the last line of these stanzas is written in iambic trimeter.

In the fourth and fifth stanzas, Wordsworth followed the simple ballad meter (alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter lines).

It should be noted that the fourth and fifth stanzas of the poem describe the pure delight of the natural world. Hence, the poet used ballad meter to suggest more balance in nature.

Wordsworth used Alliteration, Assonance, Repetition, Enjambment, Personification, Imagery, and Rhetorical Questioning in the poem.

Summary of Lines Written in Early Spring:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-4

“I heard a thousand blended notes,

While in a grove I sate reclined,

In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts

Bring sad thoughts to the mind.”

The poem begins as the speaker offers a Persona to nature and hears ‘a thousand blended notes.’ The speaker describes nature as a Divine spirit that permeates all objects. The poem begins with a first-person narrative and we may assume that the speaker is Wordsworth himself, as the name or gender of the speaker isn’t mentioned. The speaker feels deeply connected to the world around him—so much so that his sense of natural joy becomes his "faith," his religion. Nature has connected itself to the speaker's soul. He is reclining (sitting idly) in a grove, under the trees. He enjoys nature as his mind is peaceful and his mood is pleasant, but this natural peace reminds him of some sad thoughts. The poet used assonance ‘notes’ and ‘grove.’

Stanza 2 Lines 5-8

“To her fair works did Nature link

The human soul that through me ran;

And much it grieved my heart to think

What man has made of man.”

In the second stanza, the speaker takes the reader away from natural serenity to the troubled noises of the human world. The speaker says that the spirit of nature permeates the human soul and nature links its fair works to the human soul through his description. Yet, humans have failed to realize and appreciate that link and the poet is in much grief while thinking a rhetorical question ‘what man has made of man,’ despite knowing that it is man’s natural state to be close to Nature and follow its example.

Stanza 3 Lines 9-12

“Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,

The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;

And ’tis my faith that every flower

Enjoys the air it breathes. ”
In the third stanza, the speaker again describes the beauty of nature surrounding him and says how periwinkle flowers have spread creating a wreath through the primrose tufts in the green bower. The speaker believes that each and every flower breathes and enjoys the same air as he does. In these lines, the poet gives the flowers human-like qualities, such as the ability to experience joy and pleasure. This is a form of Personification. The speaker believes each flower finds joy in its existence and surroundings. In this stanza, the speaker accentuates his earlier claim that Nature permeates every object, including us humans, and there is a distinct connection.

Stanza 4 Lines 13-16

“The birds around me hopped and played,

Their thoughts I cannot measure:—

But the least motion which they made

It seemed a thrill of pleasure.”

The speaker continues to describe the beauty of his surroundings while depicting the little birds hopping and playing around him. He observes that while the birds move around, they are almost still as if contemplating something. He says that he may not come to know what the birds are thinking but it is clear to him that the thoughts of birds relate to thrill and pleasure, which is evident from their little motions, hopping, and playing around. The speaker continues Personification for the birds though he remains sidelined in the whole scene, reclining, with no motion, no thoughts of himself.

Stanza 5 Lines 17-20

“The budding twigs spread out their fan,

To catch the breezy air;

And I must think, do all I can,

That there was pleasure there.”
The speaker continues the beautiful Imagery of the scene around him as he observes ‘budding twigs’ or the new leaves and flowers emerging from the branches of trees and shrubs. He says that the little leaves are spreading out to catch the breezy air, live, and feel the thrill. The speaker notices that it is all pleasurable and it must be pleasurable to each and every part of his enlivened surroundings.

Stanza 6 Lines 21-24

“If this belief from heaven be sent,

If such be Nature’s holy plan,

Have I not reason to lament

What man has made of man?”

The speaker ends his monologue with the same rhetorical question “What man has made of man?” He mentioned he is in a sweet mood while enjoying the serenity of surroundings but the peaceful pleasurable nature prompted him to some sad thoughts about why, humans are not as happy as the other parts of nature are, though he believes Nature permeates all. If Nature’s goal is to spread pleasure to all, the speaker wonders why should not he be sad while noticing how cruel, sadistic, and selfish the human world has become to be. The speaker seems to feel that it is his responsibility to ponder upon the mistakes of humanity. This is shown by his rhetorical question that he repeats (Repetition). He notices that the world of nature, untouched by the miseries of humanity, continues to spread pleasure while the human soul, bound in its rigid cage of mortality and reason, is left behind to experience the misery of the human world. The speaker suggests that man can simultaneously be a part of nature and rational, in control of himself, and in control of his surroundings.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. 'The Ministry of Utmost Happiness' is Arundhati Roy's second novel, published in 2017. It was selected for the long list of the 2017 Man Booker Prize, which ultimately went to George Saunders for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo.

Arundhati Roy is known for her Leftist political activism with some stern and dark shades on her sides. She used her novel to propagandize and spread her ideas related to some harsh realities of modern India and a few incidences during the last half of the 20^th century. Thus, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is a propaganda novel that mixes up the real incidences of history with the fictional and opinionated ideas of the author and her influences. While the novel explores the fictional plight of a particular community in India, it depicts the other side as harsh, villainous, and morally wrong. The novel tries to suggest that the Kashmiri terrorists killing innocent people are somehow reasonable by depicting the authorities trying to stop and nab them as corrupt. In addition, the novel simply ignores the plight of the minority sect of Kashmir who were molested, robbed, murdered, and thrown out of their own homes. The author does so by suggesting that Hindus might be a minority in Kashmir but they are majority in India. To further justify her biasses, she includes a story of caste discrimination within the novel while ignoring the fact that caste discrimination is equally rampant in the Muslims and other sects too (which she highlighted in her first novel The God of Small Things). The author also tried to infuse a semi-autobiographical effect in the novel to offer further base to her opinionated ideas in favor of terrorism in Kashmir by depicting a main character (Tilottma) a little based on herself.

Characters of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness:

Aftab is a major character in the novel who was born with both male and female genitals (intersex) in a Muslim family. His father tries to force him to go through the medical process and become a male but Aftab is more inclined towards feminism. Ultimately, he runs away from his home and joins the community of Hijras (Intersex) at Khwabgah in Delhi. Aftab then goes through medical surgery and gets rid of his penis to become Anjum, a female intersex. When Anjum visits a Muslim shrine in Gujarat, she gets caught in a massacre of Hindu pilgrims and subsequent government reprisals against Muslims. She is deeply traumatized after the Gujrat riots of 2001 and begins to dress like a man for a while. She adopts two girls later and is fiercely jealous of everyone who acts as a mother to them. Eventually, she makes her own home in a graveyard and names it the Jannat Guest House. Mulaqat Ali and Jahanara Begum are his parents. Zainab is one of the adoptive daughters of Anjum who she found near Jama Masjid where her parents deserted her. She is an animal lover and studies fashion design. She grows distant from Anjum when she tries to dress Zainab as a boy to save her from communal rioters. Dayachand is a low-caste man, whose family occupation was to collect cow carcasses since high-caste Hindus won't touch them and use the carcasses to make leather. He witnesses his father being killed by a communal mob when a corrupt police inspector implicates his father in killing a cow, an unholy act for Hindus. He changes his name to Saddam Hussein, after seeing the manner of defiance of the Iraqi dictator at the time of his death in a video. He works several jobs all of which include petty cheating. His aim is to take revenge but with his time spent with Anjum, he gives up the idea of revenge and marries Zannat. S. Tillotma is a student of architecture and a theater actress in Delhi. She is the daughter of a high-caste Syrian Christian mother and a low-caste man her mother fell in love with. After being treated as an adoptive child by her biological mother, she grows distant from people in general. She finds solace in Musa, with whom she could relate as both were odd in their Delhi group of theatre actors. Musa Yeswi is a Kashmiri who came to Delhi to become an architect. After his wife and daughter are killed in gunfire by the army during the Kashmiri Insurgency, he disappears and works as a terrorist (Commander Gulrez). Tillotma continues to support him. Biplab Dasgupta is another friend of S. Tillotma who is smitten by her. He becomes Deputy Station Head of the Intelligence Bureau in Kashmir. Nagaraj Hariharan is another friend of Tillotma whom she met at college. He later becomes a top-notch journalist who works in Kashmir. Tilo marries Naga as suggested by Musa for strategic reasons and later abandons him. Begum Arifa Yeswi is Musa’s wife. Major Amrik Singh is a corrupt and biased military officer in charge of counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir. He murders Jalib Qadri, a well-known lawyer and human rights activist, and subsequently seeks asylum in the US. Later on, he murders himself. Comrade Revathy is a Maoist insurgent who was raped by policemen. She leaves her daughter of rape at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and joins back the insurgency. The daughter is then picked up by Anjum who names her Udaya.

Summary of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness:

The novel begins at a house built on a graveyard behind the government hospital. An old lonely woman lives there. She doesn’t get many visitors but an old blind man named Imam Ziauddin begins visiting her regularly. She reads the newspaper for him. The Imam learns that her name is Anjum and she was born intersex. Her parents were Mulaqat Ali and Begum Jahanara who wished to have a boy. They named him Aftab and his father tried to force him to go through medical surgery and become a boy. However, Aftab preferred to leave the house and join the society of Hijras at Khwabgah where he lived for many years, and for medical surgery to remove his penis and become a woman named Anjum. She says that after having a male-to-female gender transition surgery, she began feeling like the full version of herself. She became a successful Hijra and got the support of many NGOs, human rights groups, and journalists.

Anjum tells Imam that she found an abandoned baby girl outside the mosque and decided to adopt her. The chief of the Khwabgah supported her and Anjum named the girl Zainab. One day, Zainab got ill and Anjum decided to visit a holy Muslim shrine in Gujarat to pray for her health. One of her associates Zakir Mian accompanied her to Gujarat where they were caught in a massacre. The Hindu mob killed Zakir Mian but left Anjum alive because she was a Hijra. Somehow, she returned to Delhi but was very terrified. To protect Zainab, she began dressing her as a boy. However, Zainab didn’t like her, nor did the chief of Khwabgah who objected to it. Anjum got angry and left Khwabgah and decided to make her own house in the graveyard of her ancestors behind the government hospital, leaving Zainab in one of her associates Hijra  Saeeda’s care.

After some days, a stranger began visiting Anjum at her new home in the graveyard. His name was Dhyanchand, a low-caste man whose father was killed by a mob instigated by the policemen. Anjum allowed him to stay with her and he adopted the name Saddam Hussain. Saddam suggested to Anjum to charge for guests and for funeral services. Soon, Anjum begins calling her home Jannat Guest House and Funeral Services. However, she continued to offer free services and help for outcast downtrodden people.

The story changes to Tillotma who has been missing from her room for many days. Biplab Dasgupta, a bureaucrat in the Indian government notices it. He has been in unrequited love with her since he first saw her when they acted together in a play for their college of architecture. The other two actors were Nagaraj Hariharan and Musa. Biplab realizes Tilottma was more interested in Musa who later became her boyfriend.

Currently, Biplab is appointed Deputy Station Head of the Intelligence Bureau in Kashmir though he works from Delhi. His main objective is to cover up the atrocities committed by the Indian Army in the region. He takes the help of Nagaraja Hariharan who is now a reputed journalist. Biplab trusts Nagraja that he won’t reveal anything to the media more than the government wishes him to. One day, during his visit to Kashmir, Biplab receives a phone call from an interrogation center in Srinagar informing him that they have arrested Tilottma. Biplab sends Nagaraja to help her out.

Meanwhile, Biplab remembers what occurred before Tilottma’s disappearance. A well-known Gandhian activist was on a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar against the rampant corruption in the government and bureaucracy. As the Hunger strike continued to go long, the TV news anchors and journalists began giving him ample coverage. Soon, many other people hoping to grab the limelight gathered around him. Anjum and Saddam Hussain go together to see what is going on with the protest. In the crowd, someone left a newlyborn baby on the pavement in front of the protest. A group named Mothers of the Disappeared found the baby and decided to hand the baby to the police. However, Anjum who wished to adopt the baby girl intervened and suggested that the baby should be given to her. The other people objected and during the debate, the baby disappeared. Nobody knew who took the baby away.
It is later revealed that Tilottma took the baby away and named her Jebeen the second, after Musa’s daughter, who was murdered with her mother, Arifa, in a massacre by the Indian government in Kashmir. From there she went to Kashmir to meet Musa and began assisting her in his terrorist activities. Tillotma believed that now when Arifa is dead, Musa will marry her. However, Musa suggested she marry someone else and keep helping him in a hidden manner. During her operations with Musa, she gets arrested by the military headed by Major Amrik Singh. During the same military raid, Major Amrik Singh murders Commander Gulrez, alias Musa. After the death of Musa, Tillotma vows to take revenge by murdering Major Amrik Singh. However, Major Amrik Singh retires and moves away to the USA where he commits suicide.

When Tilottma is rescued by Nagaraja, she proposes to marry him as she knows he is smitten by her. Musa had advised her to maintain a safe identity while working as a terrorist hideously. However, the baby Zebeen the Second is a major hurdle for Tilottma. Someone suggested she should offer the child to Jannat Guest House. Tilottma writes a letter to Saddam Hussain about the baby she wishes to hand over to the Jannat Guest House. Saddam meets her who is now working as a school teacher, and takes the baby from her and takes her to Anjum.

Anjum embraces the baby wholeheartedly as her own child and renames her as Udaya. Meanwhile, Saddam meets Zainab and they fall in love. They decide to get married as Saddam decides to give up his idea of revenge against the police officer to restart his life with a new perspective. Later it is revealed that Udaya, or Zebeen the Second is the biological daughter of a Maoist insurgent who was tortured and raped by police. Anjum makes sure that she is raised and educated well.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards! 

Berenice by Edgar Allan Poe | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Berenice is a short horror story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1835. The story deals with the themes of mental illness, disease, and death. In the story, Poe describes death not as a permanent state, rather he explores the idea that the body dies but the soul is reborn again and then suggests that death always defies all expectations. In the story, death continues to appear again and again but nobody actually dies. Another important theme of the story is repressed sexuality. The story is about a man who from his childhood, has remained shy, reserved, bibliophile, monastic, and religious.

On the other hand, his cousin is a cheerful, beautiful young girl who cherishes all the colors of life. The man continues to struggle between his monastic ways of life and his natural desires. Though he actively suppresses and ignores his love for Berenice to whom he gets engaged, he subconsciously is attracted towards her and the pleasures of life. This struggle leads him to his madness. His cousin, on the other hand, faces and suffers from disease. Her illness changes her body and personality and then she finally suffers the ‘fatal and primary’ disease of epilepsy. During the episodes of epilepsy, Berenice appears almost dead, but not dead. The fear that Berenice may die disturbs the man further and his madness ‘grows rapidly,’ as he becomes obsessive, which suggests that he actually loved and desired Berenice.

Characters of Berenice:

Egaeus is the main character and the unreliable narrator of the story. Egaeus is unreliable due to his self-admitted mental illness. He belongs to an ancient and well-respected family of thinkers and visionaries. Thus, he doesn’t share his last name because that may tarnish the image of his family. He was born in the library of his home and it was also the place where his mother died, which suggests that his mother too was a well-read person. This is why since his childhood, he has been a studious, reserved, and introspective person, a sickly, gloomy child. He is the only child and after his mother’s death, he develops an idea that the body may die but the soul remains and takes rebirth. Egaeus admits that he is suffering mental disorder, obsessive monomania, and often suffers trance-like states during which he fails to reason. He has been monastic and laborious since always and tries to avoid lust and other pleasures of life for the sake of his reading in the library.

Berenice is a young beautiful girl, a cousin of Egaeus. Both were raised side by side at Egaeus’ house. Egaeus affirms that he never actually loved Berenice. He was a lonely child, studious and shy while Berenice was always full of activities, fun and frolic. She is agile, graceful, and overflowing with energy” and spends her time “roaming carelessly through life with no thought of the shadows in her path.” Egaeus admits that he never loved Berenice but always liked her smile. Her teeth are a symbol of mortality.

In her youth, she suffers illnesses that turn her into a sickly, weak, and troubled person. In addition, she develops a “species of epilepsy” which occasionally falls into a catatonic sleep that resembles death. However, her epileptic seizures are short-lived, and soon she regains consciousness. Egaeus never loved her, but he knows that Berenice always loved her and to offer her some solace, he offers to marry her and they get engaged. Just before they are about to marry, she faces another seizure and this time, it takes longer for her to return to normalcy.

The Menial and Maid are the other two minor characters, unnamed servants. The maid finds Berenice suffering an epileptic seizure just before her marriage and tells Egaeus that she is dead. Since her epileptic seizure prolongs, Egaeus and others actually believe that she is dead, though she is not. The Menial finds Berenice alive, mutilated, and exhumed in the library where she was buried alive.

Summary of Berenice:

The story begins as the narrator explains misery and its different manifestations. He then raises the question ‘if good can become the cause of evil.’ which is the story's central idea. He introduces himself as Egaeus and refrains from telling his family name. Though he claims that he belongs to “a race of visionaries,” his family is well respected and well-read which is evident from the copious amount of books, tapestry, and artifacts in the library. He mentions he was born in the library of his house where his mother died. Egaeus believes that he had a past life and his soul had inhabited another body and had another life. The proof is in his dim memories of “sounds, musical yet sad” and “spiritual and meaningful eyes.”

He mentions spending his childhood in the library, studying laboriously and ‘monastically.’ However, as he reached adulthood, ‘noon of manhood’ he felt a stagnation that hindered his intellectual pursuit. This suggests that he struggled between his monastic lifestyle and the natural tendencies of adulthood.

He then introduces Berenice, his cousin who was raised with her at his house. They were of the same age but poles apart. While he was a sickly, gloomy child, Berenice had always been a lively, playful, beautiful person, enchanting everyone. He claims that he never actually loved Berenice which suggests that he actively suppressed his sexual feelings for his monastic behavior and laborious attitude towards his studies.

Things changed when Berenice got ill. She suffered diseases that turned her pale, yet her smile was always enchanting. More than that, she faced a fatal form of epilepsy that the narrator says often pushed her into a trance-like state where it was difficult to say if she was alive or dead. Whenever the servants and Egaeus felt as if she was dead, she returned back to her normal self.

Her condition continued to deteriorate and during the same time, Egaeus too suffered from mental disorders. He suffers from an obsessive disorder, a monomania that makes him fixate on objects. During his disorder, he would fail to reason and understand things properly.

As the health of Berenice continued to deteriorate, Egaeus’ mental situation continued to suffer. His monomaniac episodes cause him to spend hours and hours on “frivolous” objects such as “the typography of a book” or “a quaint shadow falling aslant upon the tapestry.”

He notices the sickly changes in Berenice as she continues to become weak and faint. He mentions that he never loved Berenice even when she was glorious and lively, though he knew she always loved her. To sympathize with her and offer her solace, he proposes to her. This brings a smile to her face. That smile catches his attention and her teeth become Egaeus’ obsession. He notices that though Berenice’s whole body is turning pale and sick, her teeth are still lively, and her smile is alive.

Shortly before they are about to marry, the maid comes and informs Egaeus that Berenice suffered the epileptic attack again, and she is dead. Egaeus sees her and finds no sign of life. Berenice is then buried in the same library where he proposed to her. He never loved her but her death deeply disturbs him.

Alone he reads a book by Ebn Zaiat. The page he is reading says "My companions said to me, if I would visit the grave of my friend, I might somewhat alleviate my worries." While reading, he falls asleep.

He suddenly wakes up and hears “the spirit of a departed sound” of a “shrill and piercing shriek” that he believes came from a woman. He notices a small box belonging to the family physician, a lamp, and a book with the same page on the table. The Menial comes in, horrified, and informs him that the servants were disturbed by the shrieks of a woman coming from the library. When they decided to check, they noticed Berenice’s “violated grave” and discovered that she was still alive, although “enshrouded,” mutilated. The Menial then notices that Egaeus’ clothes are bloody and covered in mud, human nail marks on his hand, and a spade inexplicably sitting in the corner of the room. Realizing what might have happened, Egaeus jumps at the physician’s box, it drops and opens up.’ Egaeus and the Menial see it is full of “thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances.” Those were Berenice's teeth that Egaeus was obsessed with. All 32 of them that he detached from her face during his monomaniac trance, believing she was dead. He read the book by Ebn Zaiat, visited Berenice’s grave, exhumed her, and took away the teeth, without realizing that she was still alive, breathing, and back from her epileptic seizure.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!

A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Allen Ginsberg was known for his confessional poems in free verse with a Jazz & blues influence. He often explored the themes of identity, mortality, love, nature, and politics in his poems. He was deeply influenced by English early Romantic poet William Blake and the other poet he revered and admired was Walt Whitman.

‘A Supermarket in California’ is a prose poem by Ginsberg that he wrote as a tribute to Whitman in the centennial year of the first edition of Leaves of Grass. The poem was published in Howl and Other Poems in 1956.

A Prose Poem is a literary work that combines elements of poetry and prose. It doesn't follow traditional poetry structures, such as rhyme or meter, but instead uses prose's fluidity to explore poetic themes and imagery. Some common techniques used in prose poems are stream-of-consciousness writing style, fragmented narrative, dreamlike sequences, metaphors, symbolism, imagery, and other figures of speech. In ‘A Supermarket in California’, Ginsberg imagines finding Federico García Lorca and Walt Whitman shopping.

Structure of A Supermarket in California:

Being a prose poem, there is no definite meter or rhyme. The lines are written in free verse with allusion, symbolism, imagery, apostrophe, enjambment, metonymy, alliteration, consonance, and assonance. The poem is divided into three stanzas, and each is longer than the last. The stanzas and lines are of varying lengths. The poet assumes that the reader is familiar with Greek mythology, history, and poetry. The allusion to “Charon” and “Lethe” at the end of the poem brings the archaic mood. In Greek mythology, Charon was the ferryman who carried the dead into the underworld, across the river Styx. The River Lethe was a different river in the underworld, which caused those who drank its waters to experience complete forgetfulness. The shades of the dead were required to drink the waters of the Lethe to forget their earthly life.

Themes of A Supermarket in California:

The poem is an ode to Ginsberg’s poetic hero and major influence, Walt Whitman. Ginsberg also pays homage to Federico Garcia Lorca, who was an influential Spanish poet in the early 20th century. Lorca was killed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War by the right-wing Spanish Nationalists for his own leftist political views. Thus, one of the themes of the poem is Ginsberg’s political leanings to the left. The poet creates a dream-like sequence in the poem and imagines invoking the spirits of Walt Whitman and Garcia Lorca. He talks with them and walks side-by-side while remaining so vibrantly alive in his dream that he never loses touch with reality while describing his night at the supermarket. The poet criticizes the consumerism and capitalism sprawling in postwar America and imagines Walt Whitman mourning the “lost America of love.” Walt Whitman stood for a kind of celebration of the common man, the nobility of labor, and people’s individuality. However, modern America appears just the opposite, it is marred with consumerist culture, suffering the idea of the American Dream that equates money and happiness. The poem is set in California, the home of Hollywood and the rich and famous, a place where lives are ostensibly filled with artificial sunshine and joy, where there is no place for the natural beauty of life. The poet also criticizes the conformity that society forces on individuals. Society tells people that buying things will bring them happiness, and then teaches people to want to buy all the same things—the same "blue automobiles" and "fancy" artichokes. The poet says that in such a consumerist environment, individuals too become products. That's why there are "Aisles full of husbands." The poet suggests that husbands, "Wives," and "babies" are more things to be desired to project the image of a perfect American life. Homoeroticism or homosexuality is also a significant theme of the poem. The poet, his muse Walt Whitman, and Federico Garcia Lorca, to whom he pays homage, all were believed to be homosexuals.

Summary of A Supermarket in California:

Stanza 1 Lines 1-2

“What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the sidestreets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.
         In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!”

The poem begins with an Apostrophe, as the speaker directly addresses Walt Whitman, a long-dead poet, and greets him as if he is standing aside. The poet says that he was thinking of Walt Whitman as he walked down the street. He was suffering a mild headache and was a bit nervous, and self-conscious, and the only thing in his mind was Walt Whitman who was standing now in front of him in a supermarket in California. The poet suggests that he is lost in the glamorous supermarket of California and feeling dizzy with a headache, and he seeks guidance from Walt Whitman. Whitman lived in the 1800’s while Ginsberg was in the 20^th century. Thus, it is improbable that Whitman could have given any direction to Ginsberg who was apparently more modern. The poet alludes to Dante’s Inferno in which the ancient Roman poet Virgil appears to guide him. Same way, Whitman appears to guide Ginsberg. The speaker says that he felt hungry and tired, and entered the supermarket to shop some images. He entered the ‘neon fruit supermarket’ thinking of ‘your’ or Whitman’s enumeration. The hungry and tired speaker didn’t seek food or fruits but images. Which suggests that he used a metaphor to express his spiritual and intellectual longing.

Enumeration means a list, here enumeration suggests Whitman’s works, poetry. The poet creates imagery of bright lights and catchy products in the reader’s mind while using metonymy to contrast the supermarket with the simplicity of Leaves of Grass. The poet is seeking guidance from Whitman to quench his spiritual and intellectual hunger that can’t be fulfilled by the sparkling fruits stashed in the ‘neon fruit supermarket.’ The speaker hoped the supermarket would hold a glimpse of the world Whitman spoke of in his poetry.

Line 3

“What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!—and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?”

In the second part of the first stanza, the poet brings contrast. While he was lonely as he walked down the street, the supermarket was full of activities. He sees peaches, with some dark spots or shrouds (penumbras). The speaker suggests that behind all these flashlights, there are dark secrets, while the glamour of the supermarket hides the dark reality. There are so many families around the supermarket. The husbands are in the aisles while the wives are in the avocados and the babies are in the tomatoes. While it seems they are all buying things, the poet also alludes that they are products too, husbands can be brought in aisles, while wives are available in the avocados and the children can be brought with the tomatoes. The poet alludes to the darkness of industrialized society that demanded the illusion of the perfect nuclear family while he says that this glorious show has its own penumbras, the families are dysfunctional.

Then the speaker uses an apostrophe again and addresses Garcia Lorca, the Spanish poet who was executed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

Stanza 2 Lines 4-7

 “I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.
         I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
         I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans following you, and followed in my imagination by the store detective.
         We strode down the open corridors together in our solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen delicacy, and never passing the cashier.”

The speaker begins with Apostrophe again and addresses Whitman, saying that he saw Whitman testing the meatballs kept in the refrigerator of the supermarket. “poking among the meats” is also a double entendre, a crude term for male/anal intercourse.

He addresses Whitman as a ‘childless, lonely old grubber’ and mentions he saw him ‘eyeing the grocery boys.’ Walt Whitman is usually described as either homosexual or bisexual. Garcia Lorca and Ginsberg too were homosexuals. Thus, the poet brings the theme of sexual freedom in this stanza. The poet says that he eavesdropped Walt Whitman who was asking questions to the grocery boys, ‘Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?” The speaker creates a camaraderie with Whitman, suggesting that he noticed him flirting with young grocery boys at the supermarket.

Whitman’s question ‘Are you my Angel,?’ also suggests that he might be seeking salvation from this miserable place, the supermarket, a consumerist society detached from nature and a humanity that lost its individuality. In Whitman’s age, it was common for a buyer to know how the meat he was buying was procured, whether was it safe, or not. However, Whitman could not get an answer to that question in a supermarket. Whitman and the speaker strode down the open corridor of the supermarket, tasting various delicacies without paying or facing the cashier. The speaker alludes to the symbol of the natural, without having to pay for its pleasures. This ‘natural’ is directly opposite to the consumerism of the supermarket which demands profit and payment.

Stanza 3 Lines 8-12

“Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight?
         (I touch your book and dream of our odyssey in the supermarket and feel absurd.)
         Will we walk all night through solitary streets? The trees add shade to shade, lights out in the houses, we'll both be lonely.
         Will we stroll dreaming of the lost America of love past blue automobiles in driveways, home to our silent cottage?
         Ah, dear father, graybeard, lonely old courage-teacher, what America did you have when Charon quit poling his ferry and you got out on a smoking bank and stood watching the boat disappear on the black waters of Lethe?”
The third stanza again begins with an apostrophe and it brings a tone of gloom. The speaker questions Whitman ‘Where are we going,?’ and reminds him that the supermarket is about to close. The speaker admits that the vision he is having cannot last. Whitman’s glorification of the natural world cannot stand in the face of economic modernity where everything is for sale and everything has a price. The consumerism of the real world is about grasping and devouring the freedom and naturalness of his dream. The speaker confesses that finding a book of Whitman in the supermarket made him dream of his odyssey with Whitman, but now it feels absurd. He says that seeking the aesthetic beauty of nature in a supermarket is absurd, supermarkets are known for false glamour, artificial beauty, and hiding dark secrets. He further contemplates where he can go with Whitman to find someplace where Whitman’s pure vision of the natural society and the natural man can be realized, but finds that there is no such place in modern America which used to be the home of Whitman. They may continue to search for such a natural place of their dream in the solitary streets but they will find nothing but loneliness.

Ginsberg ends the poem with an allusion to the Greek mythology. He asks Whitman what America he imagined when Charon was taking his ferry through the river Styx to Hades, but America was leading towards River Lethe. Whitman got out on a smoking bank of the river Lethe and watched America going down. In Greek mythology, River Lethe would cause complete forgetfulness for those who drank from its waters. The modern American society suffers the same fate. Instead of reaching the natural heaven of Hades, the American society drank the water of Lethe and forgot its past and what is natural. The peach and the ‘pork-chops’ in the supermarket have no relation for those that buy it to the natural world from which it came. Its past has been forgotten. This is the state of the world that capitalism and modernity have brought. And thus, Whitman is lonely, a forgotten hero, and so is the speaker.

This is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The God of Small Things is the first novel by Arundhati Roy which was published in 1997. The novel won the Booker’s Prize in 1997. The novel is based on the themes of illusive love, social restrictions, caste and class-based struggles, and grotesque randomness of life. The novel stresses that caste-based discrimination exists even in Christian, Muslim, and even communist circles of India. Another important theme is the contrast between the small things, incidences, or feelings often neglected or sacrificed by people while they ardently protect the bigger issues like caste, politics, religion, and others. The novel is set in Ayemenem, Kerala, India, the birthplace of Arundhati Roy.

The novel is a semi-autobiographical literary fiction, a family drama presented in a disjointed non-sequential narrative style. One of the main characters is based on the author’s mother’s life. The story is nonlinear and meanders between past and present, flipping back and forth between childhood and adulthood perspectives shifting between 1969 and 1993. To represent the perspective and viewpoint of children, the novelist used the technique of Capitalization of certain words and phrases to give them significance. The story is about a Syrian-Christian family living in India.

Characters of The God of Small Things:

Estha is the protagonist of the novel. He is Rahel's fraternal twin, the female protagonist. She is 18 minutes younger than Estha. Estha is a serious, contemplative, intelligent, and shy child. As a child he is molested by a man and that trauma further increases his nervousness.

Rahel is outspoken and impulsive. She often feels that she is considered lesser than her brother. Past incidents push her away from society and she becomes a drifter. In her adulthood, she experiences a failed relationship with an American man that further pushes her away from society. She is training as an architectural draftsman. Chacko is Rahel and Estha's maternal uncle. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He is a Communist. He took over Paradise Pickles & Preserves from Mammachi. Chacko's marriage to Margaret Kochamma crumbled after she could no longer stand his flabby, lazy nature. After divorcing Chacko, Margaret married Joe who raised Sophie as her stepfather. Joe died of illness and Margaret returned to Aymenem with Sophie. Chacko loves and cares for Margaret and Sophie though he remains idle and sluggish while promoting communist ideology.

Sophie Mol is another child, the daughter of Chacko and Margaret Kochamma. After her stepfather Joe dies, she visits Ayemenem with her mother. She befriends Estha and Rahel, her cousins. Circumstances lead to her death which is a pivotal incident in the novel.

Ammu is Estha and Rahel’s mother. She is a sister of Chacko. She married Babu, a tea plantation worker in Assam. But her husband was alcoholic and abusive. When her husband forces her to sleep with his boss, she leaves him and returns to Ayemenem with Rahel and Estha. Later, she falls in love with Velutha, a man of a lower caste considered untouchable. Her love creates a scandal and she is banished from her house. She dies at the age of 31 during a business trip. Mammachi (Soshamma Ipe) is Ammu and Chacko’s mother. She is a hard-working, strict, and reserved woman who started Paradise Pickles & Preserves, a pickle factory all by herself. Like Ammu, she suffered domestic violence. Her husband and Ammu’s father Pappachi (Benaan John Ipe) used to beat her until their son Chacko became big enough to intervene and stop him. Velutha is a lower caste (Paravan) who serves as a handyman to Ammu. He is a skilled carpenter at the Ipe family's pickle factory. He is deeply involved in the local Communist movement, has a forbidden affair with Ammu, and faces brutal punishment. Kuttapen is his paralyzed brother. Velutha appears to be the titular character, the God of small things in the story. He develops an intimate relationship with small kids Rahel, Esha, and Sophie who admire him deeply. Unlike other adults, who keenly observe religious, caste-based, and class-based discrimination, he remains free of such prejudices, spending most of his time in little pleasures of life that often remain untouched by others. Vellya Pappen is his father, a former acquaintance of Mammachi. When he comes to know about Velutha’s affair with Ammu, he informs Pappachi and offers to strangle Velutha to death by his own hands. Baby Kochamma is Pappachi’s younger sister, Rahel, and Estha’s grandaunt. She remained unmarried because of her unrequited love for Father Mulligan. Father Mulligan never accepted her love and rejected the church to be a devoted worshiper of Vishnu. Because of this rejection, Baby Kochamma turns frustrated and embittered. Mr. Hollick is Babu’s boss in Assam who threatens him that if he doesn’t force Ammu to sleep with him, Babu will lose his job. Comrade Pillai is the local leader of communist groups. Despite being a communist, he is highly bigoted and declines to help Velutha because of his lower caste. Inspector Thomas Mathew is the local inspector who ignores his constable’s unreasonable atrocities against the lower caste members of Ayemenem. Orangedrink Lemondrink man is a vendor at the Abhilask talkies where Ammu goes with Estha and Rahel to watch a movie (The Sound of Music). He sexually molests Estha in the lobby Rahel witnesses.

Summary of The God of Small Things:

Rahel is a 31-year-old single woman returning to Ayemenem after learning that her estranged fraternal brother Estha is returning home too. She remembers how several years ago, they were together but were forced to separate. She remembers the funeral of her cousin Sophie Mol when the twins were seven years old. At the funeral, Rahel that the painter of the cathedral’s ceiling has fallen to the floor and his head is spilling blood out “like a secret.” She also felt that Sophie Mol was alive and calling out as she was being lowered into the earth in her coffin. She curiously spoke of it but nobody noticed her. Those fearful memories still haunt her. She remembers her mother Ammu while returning from the funeral of Sophie could not say anything but kept muttering, the words “He’s dead . . . I’ve killed him.” After the funeral, Estha was sent to Assam to live with his estranged father Babu.

Presently, Rahel looks out on the family's former factory, Paradise Pickles & Preserves, and wonders about all the difficulties their family faces after Sophie's death. When she reaches Ayemenem, she accidentally meets Comrade Pillai who shows her an old photo of her and Estha with Sophie.

Rahel remembers she was nervous when she heard that her aunt Margaret and cousin Sophie were coming back to live with them. Sophie was the child of Margarate and Chacko, Rahel’s uncle. After she was born, Margaret divorced Chacko because of his laziness and unwillingness to do anything. Later on, she married Joe who carefully raised Sophie as his stepdaughter. When Sophie was nine years old, Joe died, and then Margaret and Sophie decided to return to Ayemenem.

Rahel worried that Ammu would have less time for her. However, Sophie soon befriended her and Estha and the three made a good team under the guidance of Velutha whom all the three admired. She then remembers her mother once took her and Estha to Kochin to watch a movie The Sound of Music at Abhilask Talkies. Estha loved the movie and began singing along. As others were disturbed by his singing, he was sent back to the lobby. Rahel kept an eye on him and she noticed that something awfully wrong was happening to him. The vendor whom the kids called the Orandedrink Lemondrink Man sexually found the kid alone and sexually molested him. Rahel couldn’t understand what was going on but noticed something strange and abruptly snapped at Ammu to inform. Ammu scolds her and says that those who hurt others are loved less. Rahel shuts up as she fears Ammu will love Estha more. Estha becomes nauseated and the trauma forces him to remain shut and nervous. Ammu never realizes that her son was raped by the vendor. Later, Rahel asks Ammu whom she loves more, and Ammu playfully answers that she loves Estha a little more (considering he is ill and frightened). However, Rahel takes it seriously and struggles with it.

Ammu and Estha were happy while visiting Kochin with Ammu to receive Sophie Mol and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, upon their arrival from England. On their way, they see their servant, Velutha, marching with a group of Communists. At home, Rahel keeps repeating that she saw Velutha with the communists, and Baby Kochamma, her strict grandaunt notices this. Rahel observes that everyone is trying to impress Sophie and Margaret Kochamma with new clothing, English sayings, and forced upbeat attitudes. She feels a bit jealous but soon Sophie befriends her and Estha.

Rahel remembers the day when Ammu died. She was banished from her house and the factory and was forced to seek a job. During a travel for a job interview, she died. Rahel saw her body being pushed into the cremation oven. Estha was not there as he was already sent back to Assam to live with his father and nobody considered it important to inform him about his mother’s death.

She then remembers the welcoming ceremony of Sophie and Margaret. The whole family sang songs and ate cake. However, Rahel felt lonely. Velutha, the handyman of Ammu noticed it and entertained Rahel by playing with the kid. Ammu noticed how gleefully Velutha took care of her daughter and felt a certain love for him for the first time.

Rahel remembers when Estha and Rahel decided to visit Velutha at History House where he lived with his paralyzed brother and old father. Estha and Rahel pushed an old broken boat into the river and somehow crossed it. When Velutha notices them, he promises to fix the boat for them. Velutha was trying to suppress his feelings for Ammu though he earnestly loved her. His constant touch with Rahel and Estha further escalates his feelings for her. Rahel and Estha once insisted that Ammu should accompany them to the river bank to play. Velutha also visited the bank that evening where he and Ammu accepted their love for each other as he embraced Ammu in his arms. The two deeply fell in love but kept their affair a secret. Rahel and Estha were too young to notice anything though Rahel saw Velutha making love with Ammu in her room in the house.

While thinking all this, Rahel reaches the temple where he sees Estha after so many years. They silently greet each other and decide to watch Kathakali dancers act out a violent story of retribution all night.

Baby Kochamma was already infuriated against Velutha when she learned that he was standing with the Communist protesters. One day, Vellya Pappen visits their house to inform Pappachi about the affair of Velutha and Ammu. Vellya had seen them embracing each other at the river bank in the dark of evening. Vellya apologizes for his son's sin and offers to kill Velutha with his bare hands for having an affair with Ammu, a woman of a higher caste. Pappachi, who often remains angry and frustrated, tries to ignore the scandal but Baby Kochamma becomes infuriated. She locks Ammu in her room and makes a false police complaint that Velutha raped Ammu. Mammachi summons Velutha and fires him from her factory. She bans him from entering any of her properties. While doing so, she feels very much troubled because she knows Velutha is a good man who could have taken good care of Ammu and her kids. As Velutha goes away, Mammachi suffers a heart attack and dies.

Knowing that he has been falsely blamed for raping Ammu, Velutha goes to Comrade Pillai to ask for help. Comrade Pillai insults him and tells him that he doesn't wish to have any relationship with a low-caste Paravan. Velutha tells him that caste discrimination has no place in communism but Comrade Pillai ignores his appeal.

Meanwhile, Ammu blames Rahel and Estha for the wrongs done to her and Velutha and terribly insults them. Pained by her words, Rahel and Estha go to Velutha at History House. Sophie too joins them as she doesn’t want to remain away from them. When they try to cross the river in the same old boat, it capsizes in the river flow and Sophie drowns in the river. Rahel and Estha somehow reach the other side and go to the History House.

The police constables couldn’t digest that a man of a lower caste could touch and rape a woman of a higher caste. They go in search of Velutha. Rahel and Estha were sleeping when the police came to arrest Velutha. They saw the policemen brutally beating him. The police then brought Velutha and the kids to the station. Inspector Thomas Mathew notices that Velutha has been brutally beaten and he may not survive. He summons Baby Kochamma and threatens her of making a false complaint against Velutha. When Baby Kochamma sees Rahel and Estha at the police station and learns about Sophie’s death, she convinces them to accuse Velutha of kidnapping them. She threatens them that if they won’t do so, Estha will be jailed for the death of Sophie. She also says that if the kids follow her order, she will ascertain that Ammu is safe. Frightened, the kids do as were told. This allows Inspector Mathew a valid reason to arrest Velutha who soon dies out of the brutal injuries he suffered.

Back at home, Chacko and Margaret are shocked after learning about the death of Sophie. Baby Kochamma blames Estha for her death and coerces Chacko to evict Ammu from his house. Infuriated Chacko does so and sends Estha back to Assam to live with his estranged father. Ammu couldn’t take care of both the kids now when she had no home or job. As Estha leaves for Assam, Rahel cries as if a part of her is leaving her. She could feel the pain even in the present, though now Estha was sitting beside her as they both watched the Kathakali dance.

After returning home, they feel uneasy as the past memories keep haunting them. They visit the room where Ammu used to live. Rahel and Estha feel a sudden rush of grief, guilt, and sin and embrace each other while remembering Ammu and Velutha. They do sex not out of love but out of their guilt, frustration, pain, and helplessness. While in the love act, Estha and Rahel remember how Velutha and Ammu used to meet secretly and make love, and every time Velutha used to ask if she would meet him again ‘Tomorrow,’? He used to insist until Ammu would answer him affirmatively. They remember how Velutha compelled Ammu to say ‘Tomorrow’ the last time they met before his arrest and ultimate death.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!