The Rape of The Lock Canto 1 by Alexander Pope | Characters, Themes, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Rape of The Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem by Alexander Pope that was published in five cantos (parts) during the years 1712 to 1714. The first two cantos were published anonymously in May 1712 and the complete poem with five cantos was republished in March 1714 that mentioned Alexander Pope as the writer. It is a long mock-heroic narrative poem with 794 lines in total. The first canto consists of 148 lines. The whole poem is written in heroic couplets mostly arranged in iambic pentameter. Alexander Pope’s The Rape of The Lock, and Samuel Butler’s Hudibras are considered the finest examples of high burlesques, or mockery.

The term ‘Lock’ in the title represents one of the hair locks of Belinda which are so lucrative that they can bring the destruction of Mankind, that is, the male folk. The term ‘rape’ in the title doesn’t mean sexual rape, but it holds the older meaning of the word derived from the Latin word rapere which means to rob, to grab, to carry off, or to snatch. However, it is a mock-heroic satirical poem that involves exaggeration. Alexander Pope exaggerates the act of cutting off a lock of hair of Belinda in Canto II and equates it with a man taking advantage of a woman’s innocence and hence, adds up a theme of sexual violation.

The main plot of the poem was based on a real incident involving Arabella Fermor and her suitor Lord Robert Petre who both belonged to two Aristocratic recusant families. A minor dispute over a mischievous act by Robert Petre became a huge issue that led to the dissolution of his engagement with Arabella. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the whole Catholic community of England was facing difficulties under the laws like the Test Act. During such a period, this minor incident became the reason for a huge dispute between two of the major English Catholic families. John Caryll who was the second Jacobite Baron of Durford witnessed the incident between Arabella Fermor and Lord Petre. He commissioned Pope to turn the incident into a jest in the hope that it would encourage reconciliation between the two families. Pope mixed the heroic world with the social to depict the anomalies, juxtapositions, ironies, and hypocrisy of the current society. Pope tears off the sophisticated mask of the 18th-century people denuding their ugly faces by presenting serious topics through giggles and thus, made the audience of his time laughing at their own follies.

Characters of The Rape of The Lock Canto 1

Belinda is the heroine of The Rape of The Lock. She is a young, beautiful, foppish girl belonging to a rich family. Pope based this character on Arabella Fermor, the daughter of an aristocratic Catholic family. She was engaged to her beau Robert Petre who snipped a lock of her hair without permission, thereby causing a rift between their two families that resulted in the dissolution of engagement of Arabella with Robert. Pope depicts this incident in the poem. The Baron is based on Robert Petre. He is an admirer of Belinda who desires her. He cuts off a lock of her hair in a mischievous act that fills Belinda with rage and anger. Caryll is a member of the party, he is mentioned only once, and he is the dedicatee of the poem. “Caryll” is John Caryll, a friend of Pope’s who commissioned Pope to turn the incident into a jest. Clarissa is a woman attendant at the Hampton court party where the incident took place. She helped the Baron in cutting off the hair lock by lending her sewing scissors to the Baron. Later on, she tries to calm Belinda down and sermonizes on the ephemeral nature of beauty and the importance of good sense once a woman’s looks have faded. Ariel is Belinda’s guardian Sylph. His task is to protect the coquettish virgin girls with the aid of an army of Sylphs. The character of Ariel is based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Brillante is a sylph assigned to guard Belinda’s earrings, sylph Momentilla guards her watch, while Crispissa guards her favorite hair locks. Umbriel is a mischievous Gnome who instigates Belinda and intensifies her despair at the loss of her hair. Thalestris is a friend of Belinda who convinces Belinda to take revenge on the Baron for his action against her honor. Pope took her name from an Amazonian Queen of Greek mythology. Sir Plume is Thaletris’ beau. Betty is a maid-servant of Belinda and Shock is her lapdog.

Summary of The Rape of The Lock First Canto:

Lines 1-31

Alexander Pope begins his mock epic with an outlining of the subject of the poem.

“What dire offenses from am’rous causes springs,

What mighty contest rise from trivial things,”

Pope suggests that love and war are correlated to each other because love gives birth to cruel contests that often turn into bloody wars. The lust and amorous feelings of men often lead to dire consequences. Then following the classical approach of Greek authors, he invokes his muse for the poem which is the goddess of art and poetry to bless this verse, but unlike the classical authors (and Milton in Paradise Lost) he doesn’t name his muse. Pope requests the goddess muse to help him gain the approval of both Caryl, and Belinda (John Caryl and Arabella Fermor) for this poem as he knows that despite the subject being trivial, his efforts have turned it into an epic that will bring praise and fame. He then brings forth the dispute and wonders what made a well-bred and educated lord (Robert Petre) offend his beloved through mischief and what made Belinda reject his love?

Pope then expertly describes a common day of a young female of an upper-middle-class family in England mockingly as if the female is a goddess or an important warrior.

He describes the beauty of Belinda and says that as Sol (the sun) rises, it drops the light rays into the room of Belinda through the white curtain in a nervous manner as if the sun is worried and doesn’t want to disturb the sleeping beauty. As Belinda opens up her eyes, they shine more than the sun itself. It is midday and Belinda, her lapdogs also wake up. Pope calls her sleepless lover who woke up exactly at 12 noon. She pushes her handbell thrice to call the servants but none appear and hence, she falls back to the pillow and sleeps again. She then has a dream in which a handsome young man appears in the most fashionable dress. Belinda finds him more attractive than a suitor and blushes as he reaches near. The young man whispers in her ear that a beautiful girl like Belinda must be protected against the airy elves. The young man is the guardian Sylph of Belinda who asks her if she has heard of the fairies and angels who live in the air and appear in dark places on a full-moon night.

Lines 32-64

The handsome man of Belinda’s dream further mentions the fairies that keep silver pennies in the shoes of young beautiful girls at night or those who dance on the green grass. The young man, who is the guardian Slyph of Belinda says that if she ever believed in such fairies and angels, which of course are true and real, visit virtuous damsels with golden crowns and garlands of flowers, then she must know her impressive worth and should protect her virtuous self. The Sylph advises Belinda not to bow down to earthly desires that can bring filth to her virtuous self. The young man then reveals some secrets that are known only to innocent children and are kept away from grown-up adult men. He says that the angels and fairies he is talking about were living beautiful women in the past who died in this world but their desires and vanities remained and became the reason for their ‘afterlife.’ He then classifies the angels into groups and says that when a proud beautiful woman dies, she dissolves into the five elements of the Earth. A violent and quarrelsome woman turns into a salamander as they represent fire. The emotional women with soft hearts become nymphs in their afterlife while the serious-minded women turn into gnomes and roam on earth to continue their mischievous acts.

Lines 65-105

The guardian Sylph of Belinda continues to describe the afterlife of beautiful women who die and says that when a light-hearted flirtatious girl dies, she turns into a sylph with a duty to protect the virtue of virgin flirtatious girls who have rejected all love affairs. He then defines the sylphs and their powers and says that a sylph is beyond the limits of human beings as they can take any shape and sex they prefer anytime. These sylphs protect the weak, coquettish girls from falling into the charms of seductive men at parties, country balls, and masked dances. They protect the girls from the seductive gazes of young lovers during their weak phase when they find themselves in such situations that tempt them for male companionship. The young man says that all intelligent people know that sylphs protect virgin beautiful girls while men safeguard themselves for their self-respect. He says that sylphs often face the challenge of gnomes who continue to play their mischievous acts on young girls who are proud of their beauty and vanity. Gnomes tempt such girls, pump their pride and vanity and make them believe that some young handsome lord will sacrifice all his wealth and self for their love and will address them with the utmost respect, calling them ‘Your Grace.’

The young man of Belinda’s dream then says that the sylphs not only protect virgin girls against seductive mischievous men, but they also help them in the most difficult puzzles of fashion the girls often face. Moreover, these sylphs continue to change their shape to offer entertainment to these coquettish young girls and don’t allow them to settle for any handsome man and lose their virginity to him. He says that a virgin girl will never lose her virginity if she continues to attain gazes from a better man every time she finds a good man interested in her. So if a girl falls for Florio’s charm, a sylph will take the shape of Damon to attract her towards himself. Thus, the continuous interchange of one option to the better one is the tricks of the sylphs to protect the young virgin coquettish girls who never stop flirting with the new attractive man.

Lines 106-148

The sylph then introduces himself in the 106^th line as Ariel who is the guardian of Belinda as he must protect her against any danger to her virtuous coquettish self. He says that since the sylphs are spirits of high air, he could see something untoward is coming in near future and thus, he came to inform and warn Belinda. He says that though he doesn’t know how and when something deeply wrong will happen in her life if she doesn’t remain alert. He requests her to keep her guard at all moments and remain away from men. Ariel is interrupted as Shock, the lapdog of Belinda licks up her chin and she wakes up. Ariel soon vanishes as Belinda notices a love letter sent by some of her lovers in which he praises her angelic beauty and confesses how he has been engrossed by her thoughts. Belinda soon forgets her dream and the warning by Ariel and moves to her toilet.

Her toilet is very extravagant and grandiose with silver pots and shining mirrors. It is so clean and spotless that deities roman in the toilet. She wears a beautiful white dress without a headdress and sees herself in the mirror with pride. She bends her body as her eyes are raised to see her image in the mirror. It appears as if she is worshipping the toilet deities like a high priestess. Her maidservant betty is standing behind her and she feels nervous like an inferior priestess who doesn’t want anything to go wrong as that will bring the wrath of the high priestess towards her. Belinda engages in the highly prestigious ritual of her make-up as betty opens up the various caskets containing cosmetic items collected from all over the world. One casket contains glorious gems and jewels from India while the other contains perfume from Arabia. There are some combs made of tortoise shells while some milky white combs are carved from ivory. One of the caskets contains shining pins, puffs, powders, patches, a bible, and love letters. Belinda adorns the shiny pins on her beautiful dress, uses puffs and powder on her skin, and glares at the love letters with interest. She is preparing herself for the party that she has to attend where there will be male folk. She is unaware but the sylphs are observing her, protecting her, and assisting her in getting ready for the unknown challenge that she has to face, about which, Ariel warned her. She is preparing herself like a warrior princess equipping herself with all sorts of weapons before raging to the battleground. As her toilet ritual completes, she appears more like a divine beauty. She shines and appears more attractive with much more captivating charms. The blushes on her cheeks show all the wonders of her face while her eyelashes flash as bright as the lightning in the sky. The army of sylphs guarding her are all assisting her as some set her hair, some others take care of the sleeves of her dress, while some sylphs are taking care of her petticoat and the plaits of her gown. Though the sylphs diligently contributed to her rituals, Betty takes all the credit away.

Analysis of Rape of The Lock Canto 1

Pope used mock-heroic elements throughout Canto 1 right from the beginning. He invokes the unnamed muse at the beginning and then expresses variating deities interfering in the lives of human beings as happens in Greek epics. He presents the central issue of the poem in an epic manner. Then he satirizes the daily routine of women of the 18^th century while mocking their passions in a mock-heroic pattern. He continues to offer satirical juxtaposition and shows how the people of those times gave more importance to foppery than religion. Imagery has been used to perfection. Belinda’s glamorous makes the sun tremble while ‘the sacred rites of pride’ offers an image of some religious ritual. Pope uses Hyperbole while describing the beauty of Belinda and he personifies many inanimate things. Anaphora has been used in the beginning lines while Alliteration has also been used in many instances. Pope mentions women’s whims as a toyshop which is a metaphor.

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.

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost | Summary

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening is a poem that Robert Frost wrote in a single sitting in the year 1922 during a break when he was writing another long poem titled New Hampshire. Both these poems were published in his collection titled New Hampshire in 1923. Robert Frost gained international fame and won four Pulitzer prizes as a poet, yet, he retained the reputation of being a regional poet who prominently wrote about the nature and woods of New England. He is known as a nature poet for his beautiful depiction of nature in his poem through which he extracts valuable meaning and messages helpful for human life. Stopping by Woods is a similar poem in which, the narrator, who probably is a trader or transporter, is going on a business trip when he reaches a dense wood during his travel on his horse. As he stops for a brief moment amid a snowy evening in the woods, he gets mesmerized by the beautiful natural scenery. For a moment he wishes to leave everything aside and stay there in the marvelous nature forever. He’s torn between staying in the woods and heading home. But he realizes that responsibilities weigh more than the loveliness of the scene and decides to move forward. It appears like a swing that Frost described in Birches, a short reclusive moment to refresh and nurture one’s emotional and mental health, to proceed for fulfilling the worldly burden and responsibilities with new vigor. The double-mindedness of the narrator about staying in the woods or going forward to his village reminds us of The Road Not Taken as the narrator has to take a decision and proceed.

Structure of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

It is a short poem consisting of 16 lines ensembled in four quatrains. Robert Frost used the Rubaiyat stanza pattern popularized by Edward Fitzgerald who translated The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Each stanza is written in iambic tetrameter with a rhyming scheme confirming AABA, except the last stanza which follows DDDD. The overall rhyming scheme appears AABA-BBCB-CCDC-DDDD.

Frost used euphonic elements in each stanza. In the first stanza, each rhyming word ends with the sound of ‘oh’. In the second stanza the euphonic symmetry of queer, near, and year is apparent. The third stanza offers a euphonic resemblance of shake, mistake, and flake. The last stanza offers a euphonic similarity of deep, keep, and sleep. Imagery has been used perfectly. In the third stanza, Consonance has been used perfectly with the sound of ‘s’. The poem ends with a repetition of “and miles to go before I sleep.” Sleep is used as a metaphor suggesting absolute rest of satisfaction of fulfillment of responsibilities, promises, fulfillment of the day, tour, business trip, or the fulfillment of life. The poet here is actually trying to express that anyone in his or her life has to keep on moving as there is a pile of duties waiting to be fulfilled before sleep, or true rest, that can be death. The narrator suggests that there can be no true rest before the fulfillment of responsibilities.

Themes:

The major themes of the poem are exhaustion, fatigue, depression, optimism, commitment, and responsibilities. Robert Frost mentioned that he considered this poem as his “best bid for remembrance.” The narrator is exhausted and fatigued and he gets a moment of a recluse when he is completely alone. The moment is truly silent and tranquil, like a period of meditation. The narrator feels a sense of tranquility and isolation from all worldly burdens during that moment of a recluse. The horse of the narrator plays the part of the warning, reminding him that no matter how isolated he feels at this moment, life doesn’t stop. That solitary moment makes the narrator realize that it is not the true rest and that he has to cover miles before he could attain that satisfaction or fulfillment.

Summary of Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

1^st Stanza

“Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.”

The title of the poem works as the beginning and then the first stanza continues. The narrator is traveling through the woods for some business trip or domestic errand. As the evening reaches, he stops nearby the dense woods which seem familiar to him. He has seen these woods in past from a distance. He knows the owner of the land who lives in a nearby village. As it is evening time and it is snowing, the narrator is confident that the owner is nowhere near, as he must be within his home in the village while his woods are all white, as snow accumulated on them. As the narrator realizes that he is alone, he cannot resist taking advantage of this solitary moment to feel the beauty of these woods on a land that is not his own.

Stanza 2

“My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.”

The narrator mentions his horse as ‘little.’ This shows that the narrator is of humble background. Maybe the horse is literally little, that is, a pony. The narrator is an ordinary citizen who cannot afford a fancy horse. The horse is very dear to the narrator and he is very considerate about his carriage as he notices his horse and interprets what the horse might be thinking. The narrator says that his dear horse is perplexed as the narrator has stopped by the woods near a frozen lake. It is certainly not a destination or stopping point as there is no farmhouse or shelter nearby. The weather is intense as the lake has frozen. The horse would rather prefer running until he reaches a warmer place. It is the darkest evening of the year. This may suggest that it was a tough day for the narrator and he is depressed and fatigued due to the long journey and harsh weather. The darkness is growing as the night is approaching and this further perplexes the horse as it would prefer to reach a safer place. But the stubborn narrator seems to adore the immediate present as opposed to imminent danger. The narrator is mesmerized by the beauty of the moment and he is finding it difficult to choose and make up his mind, either to stay in the woods and let the darkness engulf him or proceed towards his village or destination that is still afar.

3^rd Stanza

“He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sounds the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.”

The narrator uses ‘He’ for his horse, which further shows his considerate nature and love towards the animal. The animal is also considerate towards the narrator as he is worried about the narrator and wondering why the narrator has stopped at this odd place. The narrator suggests that the horse can understand or read his mind and to express his disagreement, the horse shakes his head and neck. This shakes the harness bells of the horse and they ring. The playful sound of harness bells indicates the horse’s will to move forward and not stop in this gloomy and solitary woods as the imminent danger of dark night is approaching. Though it appears the best of natural scenery, the wind is flowing at ease while the snowflakes are coming down heavily, which suggests that there is no chance of improvement in the weather and it will keep snowing. The solitude is intense as the poet can hear only three sounds, the wind, the ringing harness bells, and the falling snowflakes.

Stanza 4

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

In this stanza, the narrator describes the woods as lovely, dark and deep. The narrator states that it is the most serene and peaceful position and moment that he could have, the peace cannot last for long. The narrator is mesmerized by the beauty of the moment which makes him forget all the burdens and troubles he had faced throughout the day or in past. But his burdens, toughness, and responsibilities of life are still there that he has to face. These beautiful woods are wonderful distractions, and anything that can keep one’s mind off the troubles is a welcome addition to any day. But real life and responsibilities haven’t vanished, they still exist.

The woods are dark and deep. Which suggests the imminent danger of the dark night approaching. The narrator’s horse already warned him about it. The woods that appear so beautiful, and lovely at the moment, can prove to be merciless and dangerous as the dark night approaches. The poet uses ‘But’ to express his intense desire to stay put by the woods and cherish the scenery of the moment, yet, he has to overcome this desire and stop his meditation on nature as he has myriads of promises and responsibilities to fulfill. These promises and responsibilities could be of any type ranging from marital responsibilities to business accountabilities. The promises could be the goals that he chose for himself.

The poet further contemplates the beauty of the woods and the imminent danger and suggests that these woods can be the endpoint of the journey of his life as the imminent danger of dark night is gradually engulfing the woods. This danger fills the narrator with an urgency to move forward toward his destination as he still has many responsibilities to fulfill. He is standing in no man’s land, miles away from reaching a friendly zone. This sense of responsibility fills the narrator with optimism and he makes up his mind to move forward.

The narrator admits that the dark will ultimately engulf him too, but it is not the right place, despite all the natural beauty and serenity, it is not the right time. He still has to struggle and avoid the darkness (or death) and further his journey to fulfill his promises, desires, and goals.

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.

The Dark Room by R. K. Narayan | Characters, Summary, Analysis

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.

The Old Woman and The Cow by Mulk Raj Anand | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Mulk Raj Anand was one of the most important realists and humanist novelists of India who worked against the trends and took Indian literature from the stories of fantasy and fairytales to the real-life struggles of individuals against the ills of society. The Old Woman and The Cow was his first and only novel with a female protagonist that was published in the year 1960. The subtitle of the novel is Gauri. This novel raises a strong voice against the ill-treatment of women in India but also explores through the example of Gauri what a woman in India should do for her emancipation. The Old Woman and The Cow is a story of a meek, gentle, obedient girl turning into an independent and confident modern woman.

Characters:

Gauri is the protagonist of the novel. She is a poor uneducated young orphan girl who lives with her uncle Amru and aunt Lakshmi in the village Piplan Kalan situated at the foothills of the Himalayas. Her father and mother died when she was very young and her uncle Amru believes that she is inauspicious to her family. Amru is a greedy man with no human emotions toward Gauri. Panchi is an independent peasant living in Chota Piplan where he owns an acre and a half of agricultural land. He too is an inauspicious orphan whose mother and father died just after his birth. He lives with Mola Ram, his uncle, and his wife Kesari, the Old Woman. Kesari is childless and is very fond of Panchi and doles out her love for Panchi in absence of Mola Ram. Damodar is a close friend of Panchi. Rakhi is an old midwife who helps pregnant women in the village. She is uneducated and tries to convince pregnant women of the village that they do not need doctors who are predominantly male. Seth Jai Ram Das is a 60 years old money lender of Hoshiarpur, the town near Piplan Kalan. He is a lecherous widower seeking a mistress to exploit. Dr. Mahindra is a young gentle doctor who runs a hospital in Hoshiarpur. Dr. Batra is a corrupt lecherous man who is the assistant of Dr. Mahindra.

Summary of The Old Woman and The Cow

The story is set in the superstitious and orthodox area of backward villages Piplan Kalan, and Chotta Piplan in the small town of Hoshiarpur.

Gauri is a 17-year-old poor, calm, decent, gentle, meek, and obedient girl who lives with her uncle Amru and Aunt Lakshmi in Piplan Kalan. Lakshmi likes Gauri and wishes to get married soon but she doesn’t have enough money for her dowry.

Amru is a greedy person who doesn’t wish to spend even a single penny on Gauri. On Lakshmi’s insistence, Amru tries to find a proper match for Gauri. Soon her marriage is arranged with Panchi a young independent farmer living in the nearby village of Chota Piplan. He too is an orphan like Gauri who lives with his uncle Mola Ram and aunt Kesari. Marriage happens traditionally. Panchi is a strong young man with a patriarchal attitude. He didn’t demand any dowry but as a wife, he desired “a girl whom he could fold in his arms at night and kick during the day, who would adorn his house and help him with the work on the land...” He owns agricultural land and a pair of bulls.

Gauri is too excited by her marriage as she feels that it will change her life. But soon her dream shatters as Panchi savagely uses her for his sexual needs on the very first night. On the next morning, Gauri faces Kesari who is jealous of her. Kesari is her mother-in-law, the aunt of Panchi who has a secret affection for Panchi and considers Gauri as her competitor. Kesari regularly chastises Gauri for every minute thing or mistake and Gauri is expected to remain obedient to her. Kesari’s abusive behavior continues to aggravate and she openly calls Gauri the whore from Piplan. Despite remaining submissive, meek, and obedient, Gauri realizes that none of her efforts help her and thinks, “If I speak; my mother is blamed for something: if I remain silent, my father is called a donkey.” One day, she decides to confront Kesari. Kesari complains to Panchi about her and he beats Gauri in front of Kesari. Gauri feels too humiliated.

Later on, at night during their love-making, Gauri taking advantage of the situation pleads to Panchi not to beat her again at Kesari’s bidding. Even at that passionate moment, he does not hesitate to remind her of his conventional right to beat her: “But the husband has to chastise the wife if she goes wrong.” Things don’t go well on the farm too. The area suffers a famine and Panchi’s bulls fall prey to an illness. Kesari uses this ill fortune to her advantage and blames Gauri for being inauspicious. She attributes the illness of the bullocks and the failure of rain to Garui‟s bad luck. Panchi generally used to resist superstitions and often ridiculed Kesari for her superstitious talks but the toughness of time starts affecting him and he starts believing that the ill-fated Gauri is affecting his fortune. At the same time, Gauri gets pregnant. This further fills Kesari with jealousy as she is childless. The situations at home become so poisonous that Mola Ram decides to create a partition between the home and tells Panchi to live with his wife in his part of the house. Yet, Kesari continues abusing Gauri and poisoning Panchi’s mind against her.

As famine continues Panchi finds that he has no money to buy seeds for the farm and grains for home. In such a dire situation Gauri takes the golden earrings out and gives them to Panchi to sell them and buy seeds. Panchi’s friend Damodar is a superstitious man. He tells him to show the horoscope of Gauri to some expert. He says that they never faced such dire days before Panchi’s marriage to Gauri. Gradually, Panchi also starts believing that Gauri brought ill fate to him. He humiliates Gauri and abuses her and orders her to go away from his house.

Helpless, Gauri decides to return to her uncle and aunt’s home. Lakshmi is worried about her but Amru is an inconsiderate, unprincipled exploiter. He abuses Gauri and says that she first became the cause of her parent’s death and now she ruined her husband’s home. He pushes the idea of the remarriage of Gauri to Lakshmi though her husband is alive and she isn’t even divorced. He mentions the loan they have to pay and says that Seth Jai Ram Das, the money lender will snatch their house if they fail to pay his loan with interest in time. Lakshmi realizes the trick of Amru but fails to stop him. Gauri strongly opposes any such talk of her remarriage. Amru then tells her to go to Seth Jai Ram Das’s house in Hoshiarpur and work as a housemaid to earn some money. However, Amru and Lakshmi sell her to Jai Ram Das without her knowledge. Jai Ram Das is a widower who is seeking a mistress to exploit. When Gauri reaches his home, he cajoles her to live with him as his wife but Gauri strongly rebuts his lecherous motives. Exasperated, he imprisons Gauri in a room of his house which is near a hospital run by Dr. Mahindra. Dr. Mahindra notices some ill going around his hospital and rescues Gauri while strongly rebuking Jai Ram Das who accepts his fault and let Gauri go with Dr. Mahindra.

Dr. Mahindra takes her to his hospital where she starts living and learning skills as a nurse to tender the patients at the hospital. Gauri is a young beautiful woman with a full-grown body. She is in the early stage of her pregnancy and looks attractively beautiful. One day, Dr. Batra an assistant doctor at the hospital finds her alone in a dormitory and fails to control his lust. He attempts to rape Gauri which Gauri resists with all her might. During her struggle, she suffers a miscarriage but is saved by the patients of the hospital who come to her rescue. Dr. Mahindra then arranges for her return to Chotta Piplan, back to her husband.

At Chotta Piplan, Panchi misses Gauri and feels that he loves her. Unaware of her ordeal, he is preparing to bring her back from her uncle’s home. When Panchi sees her back, he embraces her. He is sad about the miscarriage but doesn’t know about the rape attempt that Gauri faced. When Kesari sees Gauri, she decides to go to Panchi’s side of the home again to intervene but Panchi strictly stops her and tells her not to intervene in his family matter. Gauri is too happy seeing this change in Panchi. Kesari on the other hand feels humiliated and frustrated. She decides to spread rumors against Gauri in the village and tells people that the whore from Piplan has returned to ruin the village. She tells the neighboring women how Gauri lived with a Seth in Hoshiarpur and then spend some days at a hospital with doctors before returning to the village. Panchi listens to all these rumors but ignores them. However, he gets disturbed within his heart and feels the confusion. When he meets Damodar, he too mentions the rumors to him. He asks if Panchi is sure that Gauri is chaste and loyal to him. Panchi remains silent. Meanwhile, Kesari sends the old midwife Rakhi to Panchi’s house to check how Gauri suffered a miscarriage. Her only motive is to fan the rumors against Gauri more and instigate Panchi. When Rakhi visits Panchi’s house, Gauri doesn’t allow her to check in as she already had been checked and treated at the hospital by doctor Mahindra. Rakhi feels offended and he tells Panchi that his wife doesn’t want her to touch her body as her body has been touched by male doctors in the town. This fills Panchi with anger towards Gauri. He confronts Gauri and asks, “Tell me the truth, bitch…. What is the proof of your purity”? Gauri couldn’t offer any proof so she answers that she has always been true to him. Panchi isn’t willing to trust her anymore and says, “you have cut my nose, bitch from Piplan Kalan, what curse upon my fate prospered in my marriage with you, daughter of a whore!”

Gauri is not the meek, weak, silent, subservient cow anymore. She has seen so much in her life, she was sold by her own uncle and aunt, and then she faced a rape attempt at her during which she lost her child in the womb. And she has seen that if it is bad, there is good too in the world. She decides not to take anymore. When Panchi abuses her dead mother, she decides it's enough and says, “If I am a curse on you, I will go away. And if you strike me again, I will hit you back.” She then leaves Panchi’s house and goes back to Doctor Mahindra’s hospital to learn the skills of a nurse and earn her own living. Anand ends the story with the message that education and employment can only help a woman claim her individuality.

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!

Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope | Themes, Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Alexander pope’s father left London in 1700 and shifted to Binfield in Windsor Forest. Pope was 12 years old then and had to stop his formal education. Being a Catholic, his father faced repercussions of the Glorious Revolution after which, Catholics were banned from teaching, learning, attending universities, voting, and holding any public office. A statute was issued that debarred Catholics from living within 16 kilometers of London or Westminster. In London, Alexander Pope hardly had any friends as it was hard for him to get any formal education as all the Catholic schools were illegal while Catholic students weren’t allowed in Protestant schools. While Alexander Pope was facing all this alienation as a child, he realized the importance of solitude at Binfield in Windsor forest where he wrote his first poem titled Ode on Solitude in 1700. Instead of being depressed or having any negative effect, he was optimistic and happy about the then situations in his life.

An Ode is a poem specifically written to a particular individual, object, or feeling. Ode on Solitude is a poem dedicated to the solitude of a person that may occur as an effect of alienation too.

Themes of Ode On Solitude

The themes of the poem include self-sufficient life, natural beauty, happiness in simplicity, fame, and death. The poet suggests that happiness comes from within and as an individual, he is least bothered about what others think about it. He says that happiness is dependent on one’s self-sufficiency and good mental and physical health. An autonomous person with a healthy body and mind doesn’t need much to be happy but a bit of peace, a healthy amount of physical and mental work, and solitary play that he can find in the beauty of nature. Such a happy and satisfied person doesn’t seek fame and popularity in other people’s eyes as it is not a requirement for his happiness. The poet suggests that everyone is alone in his life and one should lead a simple life not bothering what others think about him. The poet suggests that he only desires a life of solitude and peace and would prefer to meet a quiet death, leaving no mourners behind.

Structure of Ode On Solitude

The poem is 20 verses long with five stanzas. Thus, Ode On Solitude is written in five quartets as each stanza is composed of four lines. The rhyming scheme is ABAB and the end-rhyming makes the poem melodious (“ease/please”, “die/lie” and “find/mind.”) However, end-rhyming is a bit less perfect in some instances (bread and shade). The first three lines of each stanza are written with eight syllables while the fourth line of 1^st three stanzas is written with four syllables. The last line of the 4^th and 5^th stanzas is written with five syllables.

The poem begins with Assonance (“Happy the man, whose wish and care”, sound of /e). Consonance has also been used, (“Whose trees in summer yield him shade”, the sound of /s) and

(“Together mixed; sweet recreation”, the sound of t). Alliteration has been used (‘sound’, ‘sleep’, and ‘study’ in line 1 of the 4th stanza and ‘let’ and ‘live’ in line 1 of the 5^th stanza.

Pope made use of Caesura too by inserting pauses in the middle of lines with punctuations and/or meter ( “Together mixed; sweet recreation” and “Happy the man, whose wish and care.”) Another important figure of speech used in Ode to Solitude is Anaphora that appears in the first three lines of the second stanza (beginning with ‘Whose’) and first two lines of the fifth stanza (beginning with ‘Thus’). Enjambment, imagery, and metaphor have also been used.

Summary of Ode On Solitude

1^st Stanza

Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.

The poem begins as the poet offers the analogy of an anonymous man who holds a few acres of his own land. This land is his paternal property and thus, solely his own. According to the poet, such a man is happy and the only wish he cares about is to add a few more acres to his parental land. He is satisfied with what he has. Rather than constantly wishing for more and losing his sleep over it, he is content in enjoying free and fresh breaths in his own land.

2^nd Stanza

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.

This man mentioned in the first stanza is happy because he is self-sufficient. He has a flock of cattle that offer him enough milk and he cultivates enough grains from his land. The man owns enough sheep whose flocks offer him enough wool to have his own attire and other clothing. Many trees on his land offer him shade during the summer and he uses the wood of those trees to warm himself with fire during the winter.

3^rd Stanza

Blest, who can unconcernedly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,

The poet says that such a man is blessed as he is free of any burden and tension. Even time fails to bother him as he remains healthy in his body and has peace of mind throughout the year. Being self-sufficient, he is so close to nature, that he becomes a part of it. Hours, days, and years continue to pass while his state of happiness, satisfaction, and serenity remains unchanged. The narrator says that in such a small world of his own which is full of peace of mind and resources to fulfill basic needs, there is absolutely nothing in the world that could disrupt the life of this autonomous man. The poet believes that it is a high blessing.

4^th Stanza

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,
Together mixed; sweet recreation;
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.

In these lines, the poet offers a peak into the secret of this man’s happiness and good physical and mental health. He enjoys quiet days free of any haphazard and troubles. He works enough to have sound sleep at night and since he has no such desires that could keep him worried and awake, he enjoys that sound sleeps. To maintain his physical strength, the man not only has enough work on his farm, but also he gets ample time to invent new interesting recreational works and plays. For peace of mind, this man meditates and continues to preserve his innocence, free of any greed and malice.

5^th Stanza

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie.

After describing the perfect life of solitude and peace of that anonymous man and mentioning the positive points of being self-sufficient, the poet expresses his desire to lead a similar life in solitude and quiet. He wishes to remain away from the rat race of the world to gain a name and fame. The poet wishes for a sound life in solitude and quiet unlamented death in such a manner that no one would bother to know how he lived and how he died.

Pope was just 12 years old then and he recently moved from the big busy city of London to Windsor forest where his father had enough land. Instead of being depressed about leaving city life and formal education and being alienated, he was impressed by the natural serenity of Windsor Forest. In the future, the village where he settled with his family was named Popeswood. While Alexander Pope found his ideals in solitude and quiet life, he didn’t stop gaining knowledge and opted for self-education. He not only mastered English but also learned Greek, Latin, Italian, and French. That obviously was his sweet recreation in solitude. And his efforts lead him to the heights of fame that he never desired in the first place.

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 Road Not Taken by Robert Frost | Themes, Structures, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Road Not Taken is a narrative poem written by Robert Frost that was published in 1915. It became the first poem of Robert Frost’s poetic collection titled Mountain Interval which was published in 1916. It is one of the most commonly read popular poems of Robert Frost though it is a difficult and complex poem and often the reader misinterprets it as an optimistic poem about success by opting for a path ‘less traveled by.’ However, the poem is satirical poem lightly mocking such people who remain undecided and confused at any juncture of choices, and suggests that no matter whichever path they may take, they will always feel that had they taken the other path, it might have worked wonders.

The poem suggests that life is full of ambiguities and there is no meaning in regretting the past decisions that we took. While one should be careful while making a decision in life, he should not remain indecisive, rather he should be swift and confident while making a choice and should not regret it later in the future.

Themes of The Road Not Taken

Some of the minor themes of the poem include life as a journey, desires, uncertainty, indecision, ambiguity, and overthinking. The main theme of the poem is carpe-diem. The poet suggests that a person should not worry too much about the past or the future. One should live in the present and seize the moment at every instance without overthinking. One should opt for what he feels is right at the moment and stick to it, without regretting the other choice he might have made. The journey of the poet is indicative of the journey of life of any person and the divergent road offering two different similar paths suggests all the major and minor choices that we usually make in our day-to-day life. The choices that we omitted often face us as desires that we couldn’t fulfill. However, one should understand that one cannot have their cake and eat it too. One shouldn’t regret such desires. Life is full of uncertainties and we must embrace them. Overthinking won’t ascertain a good future, it may snatch or waste opportunities though. Thus, one should avoid indecision and should take swift, confident, and careful decisions appropriately at the proper time. The poem is against the idea of “What if...” had you made the choice you did not make. This pondering about the different life one may have lived had they done something differently is central to 'The Road Not Taken."

Structure of The Road Not Taken

The poem consists of four stanzas of five lines each, thus each stanza is a quintain or quintet with a rhyming scheme of ABAAB. Robert Frost used iambic tetrameter mixed with anapest in place of an iamb in some lines. It is a short poem with only 20 lines offering a sound of sense in many instances. Sound of sense implies that the poet used such words in a poem whose sound forms imagery due to the form of words and sound of sense. The mood and tone of the poem are reflective and meditative.

Literary Devices used in The Road Not Taken

The title of the poem The Road Not Taken itself is a metaphor and indicates the choice we omitted for different opportunities. Frost used the phrase “yellow woods” as a metaphor to indicate the idea of change in a difficult situation as trees change their leaves. In the last stanza, the phrase “less traveled road” suggests the choices less preferred by individuals. Anaphora has been used in the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th lines of the first stanza (repetition of And). The third and fourth lines also contain enjambment. Alliteration has been used in the phrase “wanted wear.” The line “In leaves no step had trodden black.” contains Anastrophe and Hyperbaton. The last stanza contains irony and paradox. Robert Frost has made excellent use of imagery throughout the poem right from the start (“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.”) which clearly gives the idea of the autumn season and thus the reader can guess where the poet is facing the struggle to take a decision. The poem is full of tricky symbolism. "Road" symbolizes the journey of life Diversion splitting the road symbolizes the choice a person takes. "Yellow woods" symbolize change, and "Ages and ages" symbolize the assumption of the future. The most tricky symbol is at the beginning of the poem, “Two roads” which symbolizes two identical choices, both are equally endearing and thoroughly similar. None of the roads is less traveled. The two superficially identical roads symbolize the choices a person has to make.

Summary of The Road Not Taken

1^st Stanza

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

The first two lines show the dilemma of choice that we often face. The poet is strolling through a jungle when he meets a divergence, splitting the road in two. He feels sorry as he cannot opt for traveling on both as he is just one traveler and cannot live two divergent lives and still be one single person. The poet is mesmerized by the beauty of the road in the woods and he wishes to experience nature on both roads. However, he can’t “have his cake and eat it, too.” Thus, he stops and contemplates which path to take. The poet understands the importance of being careful while making such choices. He patiently takes time and stares down one path as far as he can, to where it trails off into the undergrowth. He does so to make an informed decision so that he could justify his choice when the regret of not opting for the other road starts haunting him.

2^nd Stanza

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

While the poet was contemplating which path to take, he noticed that one of the paths appears greener with fresh grass as if not many have traversed through that path and hence the grass on it hasn’t worn out. He pts the fresher path with less trodden grass.

Then the poet suggests the irony that “the grass is always greener on another side of the fence.” In the 9^th and 10^th lines, the poet says that as he chose the path and stepped forward on it, he realized that it was equally worn out a used as the other that he omitted. He realized that the path he has chosen is not as less traveled as he was telling himself.

3^rd Stanza

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

The poet further exclaims and accepts that both the paths were equally fresh and green and none could be said as better. After examining both paths properly, the poet realizes that both paths are equally shed by falling leaves and no one has yet stepped on the leaves fallen on both paths yet. But he has already chosen one of the paths. So he offers a justification to himself that he kept, or saved the other path for another day. That he has chosen this path for today, but the next time when he will visit the same juncture, he will opt for the other path as it appears equally good and beautiful. Line 13 suggests that the poet has taken a firm decision to step forward on the chosen path. However, he is doubtful that the other path may appear to be more beautiful and adventurous. He confesses that it is highly unlikely that he will ever reach the same juncture to opt for the other path that he rejected today. This is because as he is moving forward, he will continue to face such divergences again and again and will keep taking his decisions which will continue to further away him from the other path. There is no turning back.

4^th Stanza

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Now when the poet has made up his mind and stepped forward on the road he chose, he is regretting over his choice but tries to cover it up as he thinks of what he will say about his choice, sometime in the future. The poet says that whenever he will remember that juncture when he took the decision to opt for this path, he will take a deep sigh as he knows what he might have missed. However, he decides to lie and confirms that he will present his choice as a brave choice and tell the lie that he chose a path “less traveled” and that made all the difference. However, the truth is known to him that his path was no less traveled, it was exactly similar or equal to the path he omitted. In the last line, the poet suggests that he will strengthen his lie by making another equally farcical claim that his choice to take this less traveled road made all the difference, in where he will be at the time.

The poem is a light mocking of indecisive people and suggests that ambiguity is the way of life. We can never know where our choices will lead us. So preplanning and overthinking at a juncture of choice and decision-making is fruitless and silly. And similarly silly is the habit of justification and regrets over one’s choices.

Life is about the paths one chooses and walks through, not about “the road not taken.”

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.

The Bachelor of Arts by R. K. Narayan | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. R. K. Narayan was known for depicting common Indian characters in a realistic yet humorous manner. He judged the Indian life of his time dispassionately and depicted the different colors of life in his words sans any propaganda or socio-political motivation. His characters are closer to reality and often present perfect accuracy because of this, the reader can easily relate to the characters of Narayan’s novels. The Bachelor of Arts was the second novel of Narayan’s trilogy set in the fictional Malgudi which was published in 1937. While the novel is suffused with the colors of Indian traditions and attitudes, the characters are all human. Instead of harshly criticizing the ills of society, he presents them as a mix of gentle irony and sympathy, quiet realism and fantasy. He is not frustrated with the societal conditions and appears optimistic for the future of Indians. He shows goodness along with the ills of Indian society through his novels.

Characters of The Bachelor of Arts

Chandran is the protagonist of the novel. He is the elder son of H.C. Venkatachala Iyer, a retired District Judge of Malgudi. Chandran is a witty, intelligent, and laborious young man who is studying as a final year student of B.A. History in Albert Mission College, Malgudi. His education has made him unorthodox he believes that old customs and traditions should not stand in the way of the happiness of people. H.C. Venkatachala Iyer is a common Indian father, a patriarch who is responsible for the financial well-being and reputation of the family. Chandran’s mother is a homely traditional, noble lady. She isn’t a submissive lady but a strong-headed person devoted to her husband and children. She is very orthodox and conservative and knows and respects the traditions of society and wants her family to adhere to them strictly. Seenu is Chandran’s younger brother. He is very much attached to Chandran. Mr. Brown is the principal of the college and Professor Ragavachar is the teacher of History. Professor Gajapathy is a lecturer of English literature.  

Ramu, Mohan, Natesan, and Veerasami are four college friends of Chandran. While Chandran is too fond of Ramu and spends most of his time with him, they gradually lose contact after college life. Mohan is a poet but he is not good at studies. He flunks college and decides to work as a correspondent for ‘The Daily Messenger.’ He is laborious and becomes successful through his hard work. Unlike Chandran’s other friends, Mohan remains a helping friend of Chandran throughout his life. Malathi is a 15-year-old beautiful girl whom Chandran sees on the banks of the river Sarayu and gets fascinated by her charm. This fascination soon turns into infatuation and becomes a cause of struggle as her parents reject Chandran’s proposal to marry Malathi because Chandran is Mangalik-- a superstition in which marriage to a non-Manglik, Malathi, would lead to her early death. Ganapati Sastrigal and Srouthigal are marriage makers who try to help Chandran get married to Malathi but fail. Kailas is a man who forces his friendship on Chandran during his days at Madras where he goes to visit his uncle, aunt, and cousin. Ragavan is a barber in Madras who helps Chandran turn into an ascetic. Murugesan is an influential General Manager of Engladia Limited at Madras who helps Chandran in acquiring the Malgudi agency of The Daily Messenger at the request of his uncle. Susila is the daughter of a lawyer from Tarapur, a neighboring town of Malgudi. She is beautiful and full of tender feelings and skills. She can play vena and sing well. She is educated and respects traditions. Her father sends a marriage proposal of Susila with Chandran. Chandran feels the same fascination towards Susila at their first meeting that he felt for Malathi and soon they get married to make a happy couple.

Summary of The Bachelor of Arts

The novel begins as Chandran is preparing for a debate in College. The College Union Secretary Natesan has asked him to be the prime mover of the debate against Professor Ragavachar on the topic that ‘Historians must be slaughtered first.’ Chandran is not comfortable about it because he is a history scholar and he respects professor Ragavachar too much. Natesan promises him that he will not invite Professor Ragavachar to debate but insists that they cannot find any better speaker than Chandran and hence, he has to take the lead. Chandran prepares well and offers a good debate. His prime opponent also presents a strong rebuttal. The audience finally votes in favor of annihilating the historians and Chandran wins. Principal Brown then congratulates Chandran and offers a five-minute debate on why Historians must be slaughtered and five minutes debate on why historians must be respected. 

Chandran then prepares hard for his final examination and becomes a Bachelor of Arts. He has plans to go to England for higher studies. After college, he starts feeling lonely as his friends gradually start losing contact. He realizes the immaturity of college friendship and comments, “People pretended that they are friends, but the fact is they are brought together by forces of circumstances. How true!!!” One day, while he goes for a stroll on the banks of the Sarayu river in Malgudi, he chances upon a young girl (Malathi) playing with her young companion on the sands of Sarayu. Chandan habitually used to watch young girls at the banks of the river and markets but he never felt such a strong attraction towards any girl ever. He tries to know more about Malathi but doesn’t dare to talk to her. He comes to know that Malathi lives in front of his friend Mohan’s house. His mother realizes that Chandran is facing some emotional turmoil and asks him. Chandran reveals that he wants to marry a girl named Malathi before leaving for England as he loves her. His mother insists that the proposal must come from the girl’s family and only then they will discuss the prospects of his marriage with Malathi. Chandran never talked to Malathi but he wishes to marry her. He takes the help of Ganapati Sastrigal and Srouthrigal to arrange his marriage with Malathi. Sastrigal takes the horoscope of Chandran and discusses him with Malathi’s family. Malathi’s father rejects the proposal because Chandran is Manglik and according to superstition if a non-Manlik girl marries Chandran, she will die soon after their marriage. Chandran decides to write a letter to Malathi in which he requests her to wait for him for two years, he will complete his higher studies and return from England with a stable career and then he will marry her. He gives that letter to Mohan to give to Malathi who lives in front of Mohan’s house. Mohan takes the letter but decides not to deliver it to Malathi as he feels Malathi is not a good match for Chandran. Srouthigal, being an expert in horoscopes tries to offer some solution to Malathi’s father but he fails to convince him. This breaks Chandran’s heart as Malathi is married off to another suitor soon and he feels helpless. Dazed by this emotional turmoil, he decides to leave home and show his rebellion against orthodoxy and superstitions. He goes to Madras and stays at a hotel where he meets Kailas, a very hospitable but reckless young man. He forces his friendship on Chandran and takes him to various places to visit. He openly spends a lot of money on Chandran as he believes that “A man must spend forty years in making money and forty years in spending it” and he acts on this principle. He is a drunkard and gives to excessive spending. He keeps two wives and yet comes to Madras for visiting prostitutes. Initially, Chandran is comfortable with Kailas but soon finds his lifestyle suffocating. He makes a distance with Kailas. Chandran is not at all interested in alcohol or prostitutes. He rather decides to turn an ascetic and lead a celibate life. A barber named Ragavan is very impressed by Chandran’s resolute and helps him in becoming an ascetic and cuts off his hair. For eight months, Chandran keeps moving from one place to another like a hermit, spending most of his time in meditation and introspection. Soon this life of solitude starts to wear off. Chandran starts feeling guilty about deserting his family and parents. The toil and aimlessness of life as a hermit dawn over Chandran and soon he decides to return to normal life as a householder but he has no money to go back. He contacts a postmaster and asks him to send a wire message to his father and demands Rs20 from his father. His father immediately sends Rs50 for his son’s help. Chandran immediately gives away the clothes of the hermit and decides to return to Malgudi. After reaching, he tells to his father that he doesn’t want to waste his father’s money by going to England, rather, he would try to find some work in India. He meets Mohan who suggests that if Chandran gets the Malgudi agency of The Daily Messenger, he will be able to make a stable career. Chandran’s father arranges a meeting of Chandran with Murugesan, an influential General Manager of a private company in Madras. Murugesan recommends Chandran’s name for the Malgudi agency holder of The Daily Express. Chandran returns to Malgudi and starts working as the publisher of the Malgudi newspaper. He still misses Malathi and is sad about her. One day, his father gets a marriage proposal for Chandran with Susila, the daughter of a lawyer from Tarapur, a nearby village. His father asks Chandran to go and meet Susila but Chandran is not interested as he doesn’t want to marry at all. Chandran’s mother insists that he should meet Susila once and she will go to Tarapur with him to see her. Chandran agrees reluctantly. During their journey to Tarapur, his mother says that a marriage has to observe certain well-set procedures and principles of social propriety. She offers the reason for her orthodoxy. She says that one should marry a girl of a family of similar status as his own family and she defends dowry by saying that the dowry is a girl’s right in her parental property and her father’s duty to ensure his daughter’s and her husband’s welfare. She believes that marriages are a matter of destiny, not of choice. She claims, "It is all settled already, the husband of every girl and wife of every man. It is in nobody's choice." She mentions her own experience and says that she was rejected by four persons before her marriage was fixed to Chandran’s father. She then says "You can marry only the person who you are destined to marry and at the appointed time. When the time comes, let her be the ugliest girl, she will look all right to the destined eye.”

Finally, they reach Susila’s home. Susila is a very beautiful young voluptuous girl who is full of tender feelings and feminine strength. Like Chandran’s mother, she is confident and believes in her tradition. She expertly plays vena to welcome Chandran and his mother. Chandran feels the same strong fascination towards Susila at the first sight that he felt for Malathi and soon he finds himself engrossed with her charms. He feels sorry for having doted on Malathi whose very name is tongue-twisting and whose beauty cannot stand comparison with Susila who is ‘divine’. Soon Chandran marries Susila and describes her merits to Mohan in poetic terms. Mohan is satisfied seeing his friend happy with his married life.

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.