Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Dark Room was the third novel by R. K. Narayan that was published in the year 1938. The novel is set in the fictitious, yet famous town of Malgudi. Unlike his other works, this novel is a tragedy in which he explores gender inequality in traditional Indian society through the lens of domestic violence.
Characters of The Dark Room
Savitri is the main character of the novel. She is the middle-aged wife of Ramani, an insurance agent who works for Engladia Insurance Company. Savitri is a subservient, obedient wife who continues to strive hard to please her husband but always fails. Ramani is a cruel abusive husband who always remains irritable. Because of his inhuman attitude and bad temper, the atmosphere at home always remains tense and Savitri and her kids, two daughters Kamala and Sumati, and a son Babu live in a state of terror. Shanta Bai is another female character who is just the opposite of Savitri. She deserted her husband to live alone on her own. She joins Engladia Insurance company as a probationer of Ramani. Shanta Bai is an attractive, rebellious, and intimidating woman. She ensnares Ramani n her charms. Gangu is the neighboring talkative wife of one of a teacher. Mari is a blacksmith and a burglar who while swimming in the Sarayu river, finds a woman drowning and saves her. His wife Pooni, suggests the woman who attempted to commit suicide in the waters of Sarayu come with her to her village where she may start her life afresh while living in the village temple as a temple nun.
Summary of The Dark Room
It has been fifteen years since Savitri’s marriage to Ramani. She still remembers the warmth of her husband’s love that she experienced during the first week of their marriage. But since then, he has never shown any dear emotion towards her. He keeps criticizing and abusing her as he can only see flaws and errors in his wife’s service to him. He remains so irritable at home that the children wish their father to remain away from home for some work. Ramani works at Engladia Insurance Company. He never loved his wife but she is a voluptuous beautiful woman. He enjoyed cruelly using her for his sexual satisfaction but with age, her sexual charm is also going weak. Still, she is a good toy for his sadistic pleasure. He beats his wife, criticizes her, ignores her, sneers at her, and never lets her make a single decision on her own. Savitri is a submissive wife with a sensitive temperament. But she is an excellent devoted wife and a better mother. Thus, she keeps bearing all the abuses while never raising her voice or her hands against her husband. Her daughters are growing and she tries her best to shelter her two daughters and maintain their innocence. Ramani is still a bit flexible with Babu, Savitri’s son, but he is too strict with Savitri, Kamala, and Sumati, so much so that he decides what they will eat, when, and how much. The girls are not allowed to go outside the home and Savitri or her daughters cannot invite anyone into their home without Ramani’s permission. While bearing all his atrocities, Savitri has secured a little room in a corner of their home where she goes alone at times to shed her tears. It is a dark room. Just like her favorite room, she also has a favorite bench made of fine teak wood that she loves more than any other possession.
Savitri has devoted her complete self to her husband and her kids. Yet, she still has her own desires. She yearns for Ramani's love, never even gets a smile from him, and neither do his love-starved daughters. Ramani always treated Savitri like this but before the birth of Babu, he still used Savitri for his sexual pleasure. Years have passed since he touched her the last time. Savitri blames herself for this ignorance from her husband and feels she lost all her charms.
Despite all this, Savitri still feels she has a stable married life but one day, Gangu, the talkative wife of the school teacher visits Savitri’s home. While talking to her, she tells her about the rumors of Ramani having an affair with Shanta bai, the new probator who recently joined Engladia Insurance Company under Ramani’s wing of agents. Shanta Bai is a beautiful, middle-aged woman who has left her husband. She is an ambitious lady with loose morals and loves to flirt with men and make them fall for her beauty. To ensure her job, she decides to ensnare Ramani in her charms. Ramani falls for Shanta bai and develops an illicit relationship with her.
When Savitri comes to know about this, she feels utterly downtrodden, yet, she is so low-esteemed that she blames herself for her husband’s immoral behavior. She doesn’t wish her daughters and son to know about this. Savitri convinces herself to bear even this insult quietly, even though it eats away at her. She is too terrified of Ramani's rages to do anything. Hence, she goes to her dark room and wallows in self-pity and questions her own beauty and inability to give more children to Ramani.
Ramani starts spending most of his time with Shanta bai and spends nights at her home, leaving Savitri and the kids alone. Unlike Savitri, who never demanded anything from Ramani, Shanta bai is a high-headed demanding woman and Ramani soon finds himself trying his best to get her whatever she demands. To please her, he starts shifting the beautiful things from his home to her place and one day, he takes away the favorite bench of Savitri Savitri feels rebellious and decides to win her husband back. She wears her best saree and when Ramani returns home, she tries to seduce her, expressing herself in the most seductive way that she could. But Ramani ridicules her and goes back to Shanta bai’s place. This breaks Savitri totally.
Ramani returns home that night and tries to sexually exploit Savitri for the seductive manner she showed. This angers Savitri and she loses her calm when Ramani tries to touch her. All her deep-seated and repressed anger and anguish come out in the form of a meltdown. She dares to express her anguish for the first time during those 15 years of her marriage and shouts, “Don’t touch me!….you are dirty, you are impure.” Her anger breaks all the dams of her patience and she throws away her Mangalsutra, the wedding chain from her neck. She shouts, “I don’t possess anything in the world. What possession can a woman call her own except her body? Everything else that she has is her father’s, her husband’s, or her son’s.” She leaves home to commit suicide by throwing herself in the current of river Sarayu. Mari, the blacksmith, who while crossing the river on his way to his village, sees her body floating on the river and at once rescues her, and saves her life. Mari’s wife Ponni on knowing her plight persuades her to come to their village. There Savitri embarks upon an independent living of her own by working in the temple as a celibate Devadasi.
Life is not easy for her even at the temple. There are many priests in the temple who live a life of celibacy. With the arrival of a beautiful voluptuous woman, they find it difficult to concentrate and many of them fall prey to her natural charms. The head priest of the temple notices all this. He starts mistreating her, openly expressing that he wishes her to go away. As she cannot bear the querulous priest of the temple and as her own homesickness and tormenting anxiety for her daughters nag her, she becomes restless. She realizes the futility of her attempt to escape from her bonds with the temporal world and returns to her husband’s hateful home to sulk in the dark room without much effect on Ramani. Ramani is spitefully triumphant that his rebellious wife has, at last, learned her place. Savitri is content with the fact that she still chose to stand with her daughters to save them against any inadvertent harm. Narayan closes his novel with this cynical conclusion.
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.
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