Seize the Day by Saul Bellow | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Seize the Day is the title of the collection of three short novellas and a one-act play by Saul Bellow that was published in 1956. It was his fourth book and the title novella (Seize the Day) was adapted into a film by the same name in 1986. Seize the Day was republished as a single short novel in 1958. The novel's theme is the well-known American Dream based on Materialism sans emotional and spiritual values. The ultimate American Dream is to succeed in life—mostly by becoming rich. However, the Dream is not reachable for everyone and the novel explores how the pursuit of it can destroy a person. The novel explores failure, suffering, deception, isolation, and the idea of Care Diem (Celebrate the Present).

Characters of Seize the Day:

Wilhelm Adler or Tommy Wilhelm is the main character. He is married, but his wife and children are living apart from him. He asks for divorce but his wife Margaret declines divorcing him and keeps demanding more money to raise their two boys. His mistress Olivia is fed up with him because he cannot get a divorce and marry her. While Wilhelm is a Jew, Olivia is a Catholic and finds it distressing to be sleeping with a married man, and encourages Wilhelm to get divorced. Wilhelm is a failed actor while his father, Doctor Adler is a successful and famous physician who is now retired. Wilhelm seeks financial help from his father but Doctor Adler refuses to help him because he disapproves of his ways and scolds him for his failures and slovenliness. Wilhelm Adler has no stable source of income and to pay Margaret and get a divorce, he continues borrowing money and betting in the stock market. He is knee-deep in financial troubles. Dr. Tamkin is a supposed psychologist who impresses Wilhelm and gains his trust. Wilhelm continues to invest money in the Stock Market on the advice of Dr. Tamkin who suggests investing in lard and rye will prove to be profitable. However, Dr. Tamkin proves to be a fraud. Maurice Venice is a photographer and talent scout who met Wilhelm when he was a young college-going student. Maurice found Wilhelm very handsome and advised him to try acting in Hollywood. But when Maurice took a camera screening test of Wilhelm, he found that Wilhelm was not photogenic and advised him to drop the idea of acting. However, Wilhelm was convinced that he would succeed as an actor but he failed. Catherine is Wilhelm’s sister in her forties. Like Wilhelm, she is also a struggling artist and seeks monetary help from her father. Dr. Adler declines helping Catherine too because he believes she is not good at painting.

Summary of Seize the Day:

Wilhelm Adler is a middle-aged married man in his forties who is living in a luxurious residential hotel in Manhattan called the Gloriana. Many other retired people in the Jewish community live in the same hotel, however, Wilhelm Adler isn’t retired, nor does he have any stable means of earning. He is the son of a very successful and reputed physician Doctor Adler who is now retired and who also lives in the same hotel. Wilhelm had a bright future but he committed some mistakes in the past that have ruined his present. During his college days, he met Maurice Venice, a talent hunter and photographer who encouraged him to try acting in Hollywood. However, after the screening test, Maurice warned him that he tests poorly on camera and he must stay away from acting. Wilhelm ignored his advice and dropped out of college to pursue acting in Hollywood.

After wasting many years, he ended up in a sales job and got married to Margaret with whom he has two sons. However, he is not happy with Margaret and is having an affair with Olivia who works with him. Olivia, being a Catholic insists that he should get a divorce and marry her before they may consummate their relationship. Margaret isn’t willing to divorce him and continues to demand more money for the upbringing of her sons. Wilhelm was expecting a raise and promotion as an executive in the firm he works for. But one of the executives of the company promoted his own son-in-law in place of Wilhelm. Wilhelm felt cheated and disrespected, and in anger, he resigned from the firm. Now, he has no source of income while he is spending the limited money he got after his wealthy mother’s death.

Wilhelm decided to try his luck in the stock market so that he may gain some big amount by the help of which he may get a divorce from Margaret.

He has made acquaintance with Dr. Tamkin, a psychiatrist who also lives in the same hotel. Wilhelm is impressed by Dr. Tamkin for his knowledge of the stock market, and thus he trusts Tamkin to invest his last dollars in lard but that proves to be a failure. He hopes the stock of lard may go high, but for the time being, he is worried since he has no more money.

Wilhelm asked his father for financial help but Doctor Adler refused to help him out because he didn’t approve his ways. Doctor Adler does not respect Wilhelm, considering him slovenly and a failure in his work and marriage. Doctor Adler and one of his friends Mr. Perls warn Wilhelm not to trust Tamkin and laugh at Tamkin's dubious credentials as a doctor of psychology and his tall tales of inventions.

Doctor Tamkin has taken control of Wilhelm’s money and invests it as per his wishes. Dr. Tamkin invested a big amount of Wilhelm’s money in lard which didn’t work well for Wilhelm.

When Wilhelm goes to meet Dr. Tamkin to discuss his financial troubles and if there are any possibilities of profits in the stock market, Dr. Tamkin tells him that he should not worry too much because it won’t help him anyway. He takes Wilhelm to the brokerage office to see how the investments are going. Some prices are down, but others hold steady. Tamkin explains that he recently invested some money in a hedge of rye, and this should offset some unexpected losses. Wilhelm wonders why he continues to trust Dr. Tamkin while his investments never turn out profitable.

At the brokerage office, Tamkin notices that the price of rye stocks appears to be going up. Tamkin feels enthused and takes Wilhelm for lunch. They talk about Margaret and Olivia and Dr. Tamkin tells Wilhelm stories of his patients. It seems just about everyone has a strange mental issue if Tamkin is to be believed. Wilhelm wonders if anything Tamkin says is true. Growing impatient, Wilhelm insists they leave for the brokerage office. Tamkin assures Wilhelm he can't lose money, as modern technology pulls money out before prices drop too low. Tamkin leaves Wilhelm with the expensive lunch bill before excusing himself temporarily. Despite his financial troubles, Wilhelm is forced to pay for the expensive lunch. He goes back to the brokerage office to check the stock market and gets shocked when he sees that the rye price dropped abysmally, and now there is nothing left. He realizes that Tamkin has wasted all his money. He tries to seek him so that he may blame him for his losses but fails to find him.

Wilhelm is now penniless. He goes back to the hotel and asks his father again for some help. He asks his father to cover up his rent for this month but Doctor Adler refuses and sternly tells him that it is time when he either should go back to his home and live with Margaret or get a job. Wilhelm hardly has any choice. He calls Margaret but she is not interested in his troubles. She doesn’t want him to return home unless he returns to the sales job.

Wilhelm is heartbroken. He finds it too disrespectful to go back to the same job that he resigned. Moreover, he is not sure he will get that job back. Sorrowfully, he goes to Broadway where he notices a funeral parlor. He thinks he just saw Dr. Tamkin at the funeral parlor and rushes towards him to catch him and blame him for his losses. However, Tamkin notices him coming towards him and scuttles away. As Dr. Tamkin vanishes in the crowd Wilhelm is left in a line to view the open casket. Seeing the dead man before him makes his feelings of despair and shame swell, and he begins crying loudly. The other funeral-goers wonder who he is.

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 Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born author who settled in America. His parents were Jewish migrants from Russia. He was born on June 10, 1915, and died on April 5, 2005.

The Adventures of Augie March was the third novel by Saul Bellow that was published in 1953. It is a picaresque novel with numerous episodes surrounding a likable rogue character of low birth (the picaro). The novel is often termed a twentieth-century rendition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel is also a fine example of the Bildungsroman style as it is structured around the development of the protagonist Augie March into maturity in an autobiographical manner. Saul Bellow won the 1954 National Book Award for Fiction and was also awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for Literature, partly for The Adventures of Augie March.

The novel tells the story of Augie who grows up during the Great Depression and then sees the days of the Second World War.

Characters of The Adventures of Augie March:

Augie March is a Jewish American boy from Chicago whose family is suffering poverty during the Great Depression. Augie continues to grow up and travels through Mexico and Europe, doing various jobs and businesses, joining the War, and finally marrying and settling in Paris. Augie’s mother Rebecca (or Mama) is a simple-minded poor woman who grows her three sons. Simon is Augie’s elder brother who is the topper of his high school class. Simon’s girlfriend Cissy Flexner rejects him for a wealthier man and then Simon woos a rich girl Charlotte Magnus and marries him. After marriage, he manages the coal mining business of his father-in-law and becomes hugely successful. Georgie is Augie’s younger brother who is autistic or ‘idiot’ by birth. Grandma Lausch is an old lady who assists Mama in the upbringing of the boys. She teaches the boys what she learned from her experience as the wife of a successful businessman. She is Machiavellian in nature and believes that the ends justify the means. Einhorn is a crippled old man and an entrepreneur who guides Augie and employs him. Einhorn’s son Arthur wishes to be a poet. Einhorn suffers great losses during the Great Crash. Mr. Renling is a wealthy sporting goods businessman in Evanston who employs Augie. His wife, Mrs. Renling specially likes Augie and takes him with her to holiday parties. Augie meets a beautiful girl Esther Frenschel during such a party and falls in love with her. However, Esther rejects him because she feels Augie is Mrs. Reneling’s gigolo. Her sister Thea becomes infatuated with Augie and develops an affair. Joe Gorman is a well-known criminal who meets Augie in Chicago and appoints him as a partner to rob a leather goods store. Later on, he offers Augie a job to assist him in the illegal importation of immigrants over the Canadian border. Five Properties is a real estate magnate, a rich businessman whom Cissy Flexner marries after rejecting Simon. Mimi-Villar is an attractive waitress who works at a student hash house near the University of Chicago. Augie lives in the same student house where Mimi works and lives. He befriends her while she dates his friend Frazer. Lucy is Charlotte Magnus’s younger sister who falls in love with Augie. Stella is a beautiful woman dating Oliver. When Oliver gets arrested, she asks for the help of Augie to escape to Mexico City. She and Augie fall in love and later on, they marry and settle in Paris where Stella works as an actor for an international film company. Renee is Simon’s assistant at work. She traps Simon and becomes his mistress. She accuses Simon of impregnating her and files a lawsuit but Charlotte intervenes and saves Simon. Robey is an eccentric millionaire of Chicago who appoints Augie to assist him in writing a book on human happiness. Jimmy Klien is a childhood friend of Augie and worked with him at departmental stores. Later on, he becomes a police officer. Clem Tambow is Jimmy’s cousin and a student of psychology at the University of Chicago. He loves Mimi and hence befriends Augie. He advises Augie to join the Army and go to the war. Mintouchain is a successful, older Armenian divorce lawyer in New York. He asks Augie to manage his black market dealings in Europe. Basteshaw is also a native of Chicago whom Augie meets during the war. They survive a shipwreck. Jacqueline is Augie and Stella’s housemaid in Paris.

Summary of The Adventures of Augie March:

The novel begins in Chicago during the Great Depression period. Mama (Rebecca) is raising her three little kids in a poverty-stricken situation. She is a Jew, a simple, kind-hearted woman. It is not known if her husband is dead or if he abandoned her. Simon is her eldest son who is a bright student. Augie is the younger son who is not so bright in education and Georgie is the youngest whom everyone calls an ‘idiot,’ as he appears to be mentally challenged. Rebecca’s eyesight is weak. They are living on rent in a house owned by an old lady whom the kids call Grandma Lausch. She is lonely as her real sons have gone to work and nobody knows much about them.

Grandma Lausch is a scheming woman with an eccentric view of the world. She is cynical and Machiavellian and believes that the ends justify the means. She is dominating and in the absence of their father, she tries to control the boys as their mother is working and half-blind. She forces Simon and Augie to seek a job at the age of twelve so that they may help in raising the family and paying the rent.

As Simon grows old, he begins rebelling against Grandma Lausch and this creates a power struggle within the house. Mama loves her kids but she is completely submissive to Grandma Lausch and doesn’t oppose her much. Grandma Lausch forces the family to send Georgie in an asylum as she thinks he is mentally challenged. This further creates tension in the family. Simon, being older decides to take a corrective course and begins finding out about the sons of Grandma Lausch. With their help, Simon succeeds in sending Grandma Lausch to a nursing home, citing her growing dementia as the reason for her institutionalization.

When Augie enters High School, he loses attention in his studies and begins working for Einorn who is a cripple but an excellent entrepreneur and real-estate tycoon. Augie gets too impressed by him and considers him a father figure. Einhorn appoints Augie as his assistant. Augie becomes closer to Einhorn than his own son Arthur who is negligent towards Einhorn’s business and wishes to become a poet. Though Einhorn is partially paralyzed, he is very hard-working and intelligent. However, he made most of his fortune through shady businesses. As the stock market crashes, Einhorn loses most of his money. Yet, he takes the loss with optimism and decides to work hard again. Meanwhile, Augie and Simon clear their High School exams. Simon tops the class and becomes the high school valedictorian. Augie too passes the exam and to celebrate the occasion, Einhorn takes him to a brothel and offers him drinks.

Einhorn learns that Augie has made acquaintance with Joe Gormon, a known criminal who appoints Augie in a robbery of a leather goods shop as his assistant. Einhorn admonishes Augie and encourages him to opt for higher studies. Augie then chooses to go to Evanston to get admission to a college at the University of Chicago. He also manages to get a sporting goods sales job. The business is owned by a wealthy old man Mr. Renling who offers Augie a place to live. Mrs. Renling finds Augie very polite and begins considering him as her own son as Renlings are childless. She arranges for his riding lessons and other courses at Northwestern. During the summer holidays, Mrs. Renling takes Augie to a picnic where he meets Esther Frenchel, a beautiful girl in her twenties, and falls in love with her. However, Esther rejects Augie but her younger sister Thea is impressed by him and leaves him a letter that she loves him and that in the future, she will meet him.

After returning to Evanston, Mr. Renling shows his desire to officially adopt Augie as their son and heir of their property and business. Augie declines the offer and infuriates Mrs. Renling and then he is forced to go back to Chicago. Augie meets Joe Gorman again who asks him to be his partner in transporting illegal immigrants into the country. Augie declines the job but agrees to help Joe drive the car out East. On their way, the police track them and Joe Gorman gets arrested. Augie escapes and returns to Chicago through hitchhiking in freight trains.

When he reaches home, he sees that his mother is living alone and she is almost blind now. He learns that Grandma Lausch died away and Simon is absconding as he took too much loan to the betting pool. Simon also sold most of the furniture in the home. He wished to become rich instantly to marry his girlfriend Cissy Flexner who ditched Simon to marry Five Properties, a cousin of Simon and Augie, who is a rich real estate tycoon. Simon was too disappointed and angry at this. He committed some violence and spent a night in jail and then he absconded.

Augie begins seeking jobs and helping his mother. He begins selling books and settles in a small room near the Chicago University where he meets Mimi Villars. She is an attractive waitress who is dating Oliver. Oliver impregnates him and Mimi seeks Augie’s help in aborting the child. After some days, he learns that Simon has married into a wealthy family, taking coal heiress Charlotte Magnus as his wife. Simon wants Augie to marry Charlotte's cousin, Lucy, to gain access to even more of the Magnus family's money. Augie, however, becomes involved in a scandal when he gets caught helping his friend Mimi Villars obtain an illegal abortion. Both the Magnus family and Simon renounce Augie.

One night, Augie hears a knock on his door and as he opens, he finds Thea Frenschel outside. She came looking for him. Augie falls in love with her and they begin living together. Soon Augie learns that Thea is an eccentric girl. She is very honest but violent and fierce. She loves hunting. Thea persuades Augie to travel to Mexico where they settle with a family, living on rent. Thea begins training a hunting hawk. The hawk fails their expectations and Augie meets an accident while training the hawk. Thea then sends the hawk to a zoo and begins collecting venomous snakes. Augie finds Thea’s passion for hunting somewhat crazy and begins seeking some way to get out of the relationship. Meanwhile, he meets Stella who is trying to escape from Mexico City. She asks for his help but Thea is not interested. Augie insists that he should help Stalla out and persuades Thea to let him take Stella halfway. During the travel, Augie sleeps with Stella and when he returns, Thea surmises what might have happened and leaves Augie.

Augie returns to Chicago and learns that Simon has now become a hugely successful businessman. Simon forgives Augie and helps him find a job as an assistant of a rich millionaire tycoon Robey who is attempting to write a book on the history of human happiness. Augie also begins to teach at a local school. Augie learns that Simon has been trapped by his assistant Renee. Augie meets his childhood friend Clem Tambow who notices that Augie has changed. Augie tells him that his dream is to start a school, live with his mother and Georgie, marry a good woman, and raise a family of his own. Clem on the other hand encourages him to join the war.

Augie finally enlists in the army and goes to New York for training. In New York, he meets Stella again and they decide to marry. Stella introduces Augie to a man named Mintouchain who is a successful divorce lawyer. He is having an affair with a friend of Stella. Mintouchain lectures Augie on the tricks of adultery and a happy married life.

Just two days after their marriage, Augie is ordered to join a warship. During their travel, Augie’s ship is attacked by a torpedo and it sinks. Augie somehow survives along with a fellow man named Basteshaw from Chicago who worked as the ship’s carpenter. Soon Augie learns that Basteshaw is a man person with some crazy ideas. Basteshaw plans to take the lifeboat to the Canary Islands, where he can continue his mad experiments in peace, and he ties Augie up when he attempts to signal a passing ship for help. At night, Augie frees himself and takes the help of a British tanker to get away from Basteshaw.

After returning to New York, Augie convinces Stella to go to Europe and they settle in Paris where Stella begins working as an actor at an international film company. Augie begins managing Mintouchain’s dealings in Europe. Gradually, they begin leading a comfortable life. Simon and Charlotte visit them in Paris. Augie asks Simon about Renee and learns that she tried to trap and blackmail him by falsely accusing him of impregnating her. When Simon didn’t succumb to her threats, she sued him. Charlotte came to know all about it and she rescued Simon from Renee’s tricks. Augie realizes that though Simon loves Charlotte, he is disappointed because Charlotte cannot become a mother. Augie himself is not satisfied with Stella and his inability to secure a real profession.

One day, Augie’s housemaid Jacqueline tells him that she wishes to go to Mexico to which Augie laughs and says that he took a whole life to get out of that ditch. He says that he is like Christopher Columbus, who has truly discovered America. The novel ends on this note.

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

Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Fasting, Feasting’ is a novel by Anita Desai that was published in the year 1999. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for fiction in 1999 and was judged the runner-up. The novel offers a contrast between two different cultures and that contrast is silverlined by the title ‘Fasting, Feasting.’ Fasting represents the Indian culture known for its pious and longstanding customs. Feasting, on the other hand, represents the American culture suggesting opulence and sumptuousness. Despite this difference, the problems faced by individuals and society as a whole in both cultures appear similar.

The novel's themes include the importance of individuality and autonomy and how family ties can be suffocating for an individual. The novel hints at the ills of Patriarchy and the ill-treatment of women in both cultures. The author also offers a contrast between two religions (Hinduism & Christianity) and describes both of them as restrictive and oppressive for women.

Characters of Fasting, Feasting:

Uma is the central character of the novel. She is the eldest daughter of a conservative Indian family. She has faced discrimination for being a girl since her childhood. She is middle-aged now and single. She has "frazzled" grey hair and spectacles. Uma seeks freedom against family control. She wishes to explore the world. She is delighted when she gets a chance to travel with Mira-Masi. Aruna is Uma’s younger sister. She too faces similar discrimination but she is prettier than Uma and she is rebellious. She gets her way often because she has many prospects for marriage, unlike Uma. She marries a man of her choosing and moves to Bombay, where she lives a sophisticated life. Arun is the youngest child of the family. He was born late in his mother's life but was considered a blessing because he was a boy. He is a weak, sickly child. Mira Masi is a distant relative of Uma. She was widowed at an early age and then she turned spiritual and devoted her life to worshipping Lord Shiva. She tries to help Uma. Mother Agnes is the principal of Uma’s school. Her parents decide to stop her education and Uma begs Mother Agnes to help her but Mother Agnes refuses to help her out. Papa is the father of Uma. He is a successful lawyer. He is taciturn, rigid in his thinking, and strict in his treatment of his daughters. He is immensely proud to have a son. Papa is highly influenced by British culture and embraces many traits of Western life. He despises Arun for being vegetarian and wishes him to play cricket, and use the English language. Mama is Papa’s wife. When she was sixteen years old, her father married her to Papa. She is happy to be the wife of a successful influential man and remains subservient to him. At times, it appears she is more patriarchial than Papa. Dr. Dutt is a family friend and doctor. Like Mira Masi, she realizes the troubles of Uma and tries to help her by involving her in social work but Mama and Papa oppose her. Anamika is Uma’s cousin and daughter of Bakul Uncle and Lila Aunty. Like Mama-Papa, her parents are also patriarchial. Anamika is a beautiful girl and a brilliant student who won a chance and scholarship to go to Oxford University. However, her parents insist that further studies are useless and marry her to a rich and educated person. Her husband turns out to be sadistic and abusive. Her in-laws too torture her and she succumbs to death. Mrs. Joshi is a friendly neighbor of the family. Her husband loved and cared for her. But she had a spiteful mother-in-law like Anamika’s but she survived with the help of her husband. Ramu is Anamika’s younger brother. He is sickly and is hunchbacked. Arvind is Aruna’s husband who loves her. Aisha and Dinesh are Arind and Aruna’s children. Mrs. O’Henry is the wife of a Christian missionary in the U.S. Mrs. Patton is her sister. Mrs. Patton is a generous and kind woman but she doesn’t care much about her family. She is more worried about how she looks. Mr. Patton is her husband. He is a generic suburban father who likes to watch sports and BBQ. He is gruff, self-interested, and intolerant of any perceived threat to his authority. Rod is their son and Melanie is Mrs. Patton’s daughter. While Rod is friendly to Arun, Melanie is hostile towards him. It turns out that she is addicted and bulimic.

Summary of Fasting, Feasting:

The story of the novel is told from a third-person omniscient perspective by an anonymous narrator and the narration shifts between the past and present tenses. The novel is written in two parts.

The story begins in a small town in India where Uma and her younger sister are growing up in a traditional middle-class family. Both go to a convent school. Arnua is younger and prettier than Uma. When Aruna was born, her parents were disappointed because they wished for a son. Their parents, Mama and Papa are very restrictive and try to control their daughters in every way possible. They try to teach them domestic, traditionally feminine skills. Uma takes little interest in marriage or household chores. Though she is not a brilliant student, she likes going to school because it allows her a bit of freedom against her controlling parents. However, she continues to fail in her exams. Her parents always wished to have a son and when Uma’s mother gives birth to her son Arun, Papa insists that Uma must stop going to school and help her mother in taking care of the house. Uma tries to resist and runs away to the convent school, seeking the help of Mother Agnes. However, Mother Agnes shows her inability to help her because of her failing grades. Uma suffers her first seizure and falls on the floor. She is brought back to the house which becomes a jail for her. Because she tried to run away to the convent, her parents became more restrictive and cautious. They blame the convent school and Mother Agnes for trying to convert their daughter to Christianity. Aruna continues to go to school though she too is not a brilliant student. Uma’s cousin Anamika is everything that Uma isn’t. She is a beautiful girl, a brilliant student beloved by everyone.

As they grow old, Anamika continues to excel in education and gets the opportunity to go to Oxford University, but her parents, Lily Aunty and Bakul Uncle don’t allow her to go. Instead, they marry her off to the wealthiest, most educated man they can find. Anamika’s husband turns out to be a sadist and cruel person. Uma learns that Anamika’s husband and her mother-in-law often beat her for no obvious reason.

Meanwhile, Mama-Papa are trying to find a suitable match for Uma but men show little interest in her, preferring her younger sister. Uma faced three failed marriage attempts including two dowry scams. Finally, a man agrees to marry her. He is of the age of Papa, Uma’s father, and appears reluctant while marrying her. Later on, Mama-Papa and Uma learn that he is already married and has children. He married Uma only to claim the money for the dowry. Later on, he abandons Uma. Mama and Papa give up on trying to marry Uma off and she literally becomes a house servant.

Aruna is now a beautiful grown-up woman who gets many marriage proposals. She chooses Aravind, one of them who is a wealthy businessman from Bombay. She moves to Bombay and the family does not see her often. Uma continues to serve as the house servant while Papa, now retired, and Mama continue to order her around. She has no escape and she finds her own house suffocating. She thinks of writing a letter to someone to vent her frustrations. But she wonders to whom she may write a letter? She has a friend Mrs. Joshi who lives next door. It will be odd to write a letter to her. She may write to Aruna but she is too busy with her married life now when she is the mother of two children. Uma thinks of writing to Anamika but she doesn’t know if she is alive. She thinks of writing a letter to Ramu, her cousin, Anamika’s brother, but she doesn’t know where is he nowadays.

Neglected and confined, Uma tries whenever possible to get away from home. On one occasion, her relative Mira-masi, a religious widow who travels the country freely, tricks MamaPapa into letting her bring Uma with her to an ashram, or pilgrimage house. Mira-Masi tells Uma’s father that Uma’s marriage failed because Lord Shiva wants her to serve him and asks him to let Uma go to the ashram with her. At the Ashram, Uma feels highly spiritual, and one day, while bathing in a river she suffers a seizure again. There, Uma wanders around freely and happily for a month, until MamaPapa sends her cousin Ramu to bring her back. On returning, she continues to suffer again. Other women of the society notice her predicament and try to help her out. Mrs. Joshi and other neighbors invite her to socialize and mix with them but Mama-Papa continues to oppose her going out. Doctor Dutt, a family friend visits their house and asks Uma to begin working with her but Papa strictly refuses to let her go. Mama-Papa becomes so insecure about Uma that when she falls ill and her eyes become painful, Papa refuses to allow her to seek medical care. One day, Uma learns that Anamika is found dead, burnt alive. Nobody knows if she committed suicide or if was she killed by her husband and mother-in-law. Lily Aunty and Bakul uncle visit their house before distributing the ashes of Anamika in Ganga.

Meanwhile, Arun had been a weak child. He had little interest in education but he found school better than his house. Arun prefers vegetarianism while his father tries to force him to eat non-vegetarian food so that he may become strong. Papa is influenced by Western culture and wishes Arun to learn English, play cricket, and learn the ways of modern Western people. Arun prefers calm Indian ways. After much hard work, Arun wins a scholarship to study in America. When he arrives in Massachusetts, he tiredly withdraws, spending his first year in school by himself. When the school year ends, he is forced, by circumstances and his parents’ arrangements, to rent a room in the Patton family home during the summer break. Arun, thrust into yet another family web of conflict and obligation, is forced to confront a uniquely American brand of familial alienation and dysfunction. Arun finds that each member of the Patton family is lost in the patterned daily ritual of mindless consumerism and spiritual alienation. Mrs. Patton is the sister of Mrs. O’Henry, the wife of a Christian missionary whom Arun’s father knows. Mr. and Mrs. Patton has two kids, son Rod and daughter Melanie. While Rod is rude, and boasting but friendly to Arun, Melanie is hostile against him. Arun feels like a fish out of water in the suburbs–he is a vegetarian in a land of carnivores, he does not share anyone’s interests, and many of the American customs seem strange and very wasteful. That summer Mrs. Patton tries to make Arun feel welcome, becoming a vegetarian herself and inviting him to go grocery shopping with her. Her attention makes him feel uncomfortable, as does the strained family dynamic. Arun finds that Mr. Patton is rude, impatient, and always angry at his family members. He is too controlling and prefers to dominate everyone. Mrs. Patton is generous and kind but often succumbs to her husband and hardly cares for her kids. Rod is often away from home as he remains busy in car racing and football. Melanie, on the other hand, is reclusive and has got addicted to overeating. Arun notices that she is suffering from bulimia and tries to inform Mrs. Patton about it but she ignores him. Ironically, while the family freezers and cupboards are overflowing with food, the household is starved of nourishing warmth, love, and genuine community. One day in the grocery store, a cashier tells Mrs. Patton that she looks pregnant. Mrs. Patton becomes obsessed with sun tanning, further neglecting her daughter.

After some days, Mrs. Patton invites Arun to visit a local pond along with Melanie. Arun delightedly enjoys the feeling of escaping himself when swimming. Later, while Mrs. Patton is sunbathing, Arun goes to look for Melanie, who has disappeared. He finds her half-conscious in a pile of her own vomit. Mrs. Patton soon arrives, shocked at what she sees.

Finally, Melanie is admitted to a rehabilitation center. Arun receives a packet full of homemade sweets sent by Uma. He gifts the packet to Mrs. Patton and goes back to his college. Arun spends most of his time alone and isolated and tries his best to escape from Western society but in vain. He learns that families in both cultures suffer similar problems, despite the vast difference.

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

The Village by The Sea by Anita Desai | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The Village by The Sea is a novel by Anita Desai published in 1982. The novel tells the story of a family struggling against poverty and how they succeed in alleviating their condition. This ingenious, inspiring work of fiction has touched the hearts of millions. The story describes the lifestyle of the poor families living near the Indian Sea, their only hope of fishing and the palm trees and a family of poor people “of Thul, a village in India. Though the story begins with a sense of pessimism, aloneness, poverty, drunkardness rusticity, and alienation, the situation continues to improve and ends on a hopeful note. The novel's main theme is the strength of familial ties, the kindness of strangers, understanding between freedom and responsibilities, and change and adaptation.

Characters of The Village by the Sea:

Lila is a thirteen-year-old girl living in the seaside village of Thul in the Western Ghats of India near Mumbai. She belongs to a poor family. Her father is a fisherman who got addicted to alcohol and doesn’t earn anything to earn a living. Her mother is a responsible lady but she is sick and bedridden. Despite the hardships she is forced to endure, Lila remains optimistic and tries to help her family. She takes over her mother's responsibilities and takes care of her younger sisters while also cooking and cleaning around the house. She used to go to school but dropped out because she was needed at home. Hari is Lila’s younger brother. He is twelve years old. Like Lila, he too is responsible and cares for his family. He used to go to school but he stopped because his family is no longer in a position to afford it. He begins working in fields to earn some money. Bela and Kamal are two younger sisters of Lila and Hari. Hari insists that they must continue to go to school. The two little girls try their best to help Lila. Biju is a wealthy fisherman of the village who is engaged in smuggling and that’s how he made a huge fortune. He is boastful and arrogant but village people like him because he is one of their own who managed to make a lot of money. In addition, he also helps villagers at the time of their need. Hira Lal is the watchman of Mr. de Silva’s apartment in Mumbai. When Hari reaches there to get a job, Hira helps him and introduces him to Jagu, a restaurant owner who employs Hari and offers him a place to live at his own home. Mr. de Silva is a wealthy man from Bombay who sometimes visits the fishing village where Lila and Hari live. He is a kind man and offers to give Hari a job in Mumbai. After Hari leaves Thul, Mr. de Silva helps Lila in taking care of her sick mother. Mrs. de Silva is the kind-hearted wife of Mr. de Silva who visits the fishing village with him for a vacation. Mina is Lila’s friend from school. Mr. Panwallah is an old watchmaker and repairer who works at his shop near the restaurant of Jagu. Ramu, Bhola, and Mahesh are Hari’s friends from the village. They too are poor and hope for a new fertilizer factory to be initiated in the village so that they may get some jobs.

Summary of The Village by the Sea:

The novel begins at Thul, a fishing village near the sea in the Western Ghats of India. The people of the village are generally poor with their main source of income being fishing and farming. The story is about a young thirteen-year-old girl Lila and her younger brother, twelve-year-old Hari. Leela and Hari have two more younger sisters named Bela and Kamal. The kids also have a pet dog named Pinto. The family used to be economically sound as Lila’s father is a skilled fisherman. However, they suffered bad fortune when Hari’s father paid a large sum of money to a man who promised to get him a job in Mumbai. However, the man lied to him and disappeared with the money. After the incident, the father fell into deep despair and began drinking and neglecting the family. He does not earn a living but borrows money from the neighbors to buy alcohol. Their mother used to be a warm and loving lady but she fell sick of an unknown disease and is now completely bedridden. As the economic conditions dilapidated, Lila and Hari decided to drop out of their school. Lila began taking care of the kitchen and other homely duties while taking care of her sick mother, and three younger siblings. She also works as a housemaid in other houses to earn some money. Hari too begins trying his luck with fishing and he also works as a laborer in the fields of other villagers. Life is miserable for them. Lila has only a few days of work as a servant and Hari works a small plot of land to grow crops. The crops never yield enough food for them and his small fishing net never catches enough fish to fill the stomachs of his family. Hari is strong and wants to get a better job but he cannot tolerate the turmoil of his family. He is sad about dropping out of school and insists that his two younger sisters, Bela and Kamal must complete their education. Hari begins to think about better ways in which he could help his family and believes their prospects might get better when he hears that a factory will be built in their village. All of Hari’s friends are excited, but Hari tries to have a more realistic view of whether he will find work in the factory.

During such a dire period, Hari feels a ray of hope when a wealthy man Mr. de Silva visits Thul with his wife for a vacation. Mr. de Silva is a rich businessman from Mumbai who likes the nascent, natural, and serene environment of Thul. He has bought some land and has made a nice cottage where he and his wife often visit to spend their holidays. Whenever they visit the village, they always employ small kids to accompany them and help them with some house chores, and pay them handsomely. Lila and Hari start helping them and become their servants. After finding out about their situation, Mr. de Silva offers Hari a job in Bombay as a car washer. The proposal excites Hari but he is not willing to leave his family in the village. Furthermore, he also has some suspicions about this offer as his father was also lured into a similar job proposal and was then fooled. After thinking over it, Hari realizes that his situation is no better in the village. He thinks about Lila who is growing fast and thinks that without money, he will never be able to find a good groom for her. During the same time, one of Hari’s neighbors poisons his dog Pinto as revenge for his father not being able to pay back money that he borrowed to buy alcohol. This further saddens him.

Some men from Mumbai arrive at the village to talk about the changes that the new fertilizer factory may bring about in the village. He talks about jobs for skilled workers but also says that some land will be acquired for the establishment of the factory and for making hundreds of homes for the factory workers. This will require the removal of rice and other crops from the government land that the farmers have been tilling for many years. Some of the villagers, headed by Adrakar oppose this. Biju, a wealthy fisherman suggests, they should go to Mumbai and protest against this move.

Hari is roused by the words of Adarkar and decides to go to Bombay to stand up for his people. He does not tell his sisters.

When Hari arrives in Mumbai, he is stunned by the busy environment of the buzzing city. He sees hugely high buildings and a crowd of four-wheelers on the roads. He follows Adrakar and Biju for a while but soon realizes that he has nothing to do with them. He remembers Mr. de Silva’s offer and manages to find the residence, but the rude servant tells him that Mr. de Silvas is not in town. A kindly watchman Hari offers him some water and listens to him. When Hari says that Mr. de Silva promised him a job, Hari tells him that he will take him to his friend Jagu who will arrange for his job. Jagu runs a small restaurant and he agrees to let Hari work at his restaurant. He offers him a salary of Rupee 1 per day along with food and shelter at his own home. Jagu’s wife is a poor, weary, and troubled woman, she is initially hostile to Hari when Jagu brings the boy home, but she turns kind to him when he confides in her that his father drinks and beats his mother. Hari sends home a postcard letting his sisters know where he is and that he is going to bring his earnings to them. Life is hard for Hari in Bombay but he works hard. While working for Jagu, Hari meets Mr. Panwallah, a watchmaker and repairer who runs his shop near the restaurant. Mr. Panwallah is touched by Hari’s hard work and honesty. He requests Jagu to let Hari work at his shop for an hour every day so that he may teach some watch repairing skills to Hari. Jagu agrees to this and Hari begins training under Mr. Panwallah. Soon he learns most of the techniques and tricks of watch repairing.

Meanwhile, Lila is facing troubles in the village. Her mother gets sicker and she needs immediate help. At such time, Lila remembers Mr. de Silva who could help her. When she visits his home, she finds that Mr. de Silva and his wife are going back to the city. She requests them to take her mother to the hospital. Mr. de Silva immediately agrees and says he will take care of everything. When Lila’s father hears of this, he yells at her in a drunken rage, but he goes to the hospital and remains at his wife’s side. He also gives up drinking and is much more subdued. Lila visits every week, and her mother improves more and more. Mr. de Silva departs soon but another guest appears at his cottage. He is an old politician who loves bird-watching. He also continues to help Lila and pays her dearly for homely chores.

Hari continues to learn new skills in Mumbai. When Monsoon arrives, he hears the news of some fishermen's boats being caught in the storm. This reminds him of his village and he begins missing his sister. He decides that he will go back to the village to celebrate Diwali with his family. He begins taking more interest in learning the watchmaking trade from Mr. Panwallah.

Near the season of the Deewali festival, he decided to return back to Thul. When he gets home, he finds that his mother’s condition has improved and that his father is slowly beginning to recover from his alcoholism. He starts a small business raising animals and thinks about using what he learned from Mr. Panwallah to open his own watch repair shop in the village.

The novel ends with the family contentedly celebrating, grateful for the positive changes in their lives.

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!

Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Clear Light of Day is a novel by Anita Desai that was published in 1980. The novel is based on the Indo-Pak partition and it describes the tensions in a post-partition Indian family. Unlike other Partition novels or books on the partition of India (1947), Clear Light of Day doesn’t talk about the gory details of the religious and social struggles of that time, nor does it highlight the inappropriate political environment of that era. Rather, the novel describes the effects of all that on a common Indian family. The strength of familial relationships and the importance of forgiveness are the major themes of the novel. The novel also suggests how ‘time’ preserves, destroys, and rebuilds a family, a society, and a nation.

The novel also suggests biased religious undertones as Muslims are described as sophisticated, rich, educated, heroic, hardworking, and civilized while the characters belonging to other religions are depicted as lazy, lecherous, and uneducated. In addition, Urdu as a language is depicted as a language of intellectuals, poets, and educated and sophisticated people while Hindi is described as a banal language.

Characters of Clear Light of Day:

Bimla Das (Bim) is the eldest daughter of Das family. She is a history teacher and a great advocate of independence and individuality. She had her dreams and wished to lead an ideal heroic life but she finds herself a failure. She takes care of her brother and sick aunt even when everyone else deserts her. She wrestles with her anger towards her brother Raja, but she comes to forgive him and finds peace in her tempestuous family relations. Raja Das is Bim’s younger brother. He used to be very close to Bim in their earlier years. Raja is intelligent, romantic, and has a great passion for Urdu poetry. He hero-worships Hyder Ali, their Muslim neighbor and landlord. He is arrogant, irresponsible, ambitious, and occasionally insensitive. He later marries Benazir, Hyder Ali's daughter, and leaves his siblings in Old Delhi. Tara is the youngest sister of Bim and Raja. Unlike Bim and Raja, she is not intellectual and as a child, she hated going to school. She didn’t pursue higher education as her only dream was to be a housewife and become a mother. She has anxiety and avoids confrontation, but occasionally demonstrates more self-possession than Bim and Bakul give her credit for. Baba is Bim, Tara, and Raja’s youngest sibling. He is autistic and entirely dependent on Bim. Bakul is Tara's husband and a diplomat. He is arrogant, likes to impress other people, and is a narcissist who dislikes when he is not the center of attention. He is disdainful of the Das family and does not want Tara to be affected by its unruliness. Mr. and Mrs. Das were the parents of Bim, Tara, Raja, and Baba. Both of them hardly cared about the family. Mr. Das was often busy with his friends playing Bridge while Mrs. Das was a diabetic. Both died during the growing years of their children. Aunt Mira is a distant cousin of Mrs. Das. She was widowed when she was twelve and was blamed for her husband's death; thus she was made to work as an unpaid servant for her in-laws. She begins to age prematurely because of this. She is sent to take care of Baba, but all of the children are elated to have her since their parents don't care for them. Later on, she becomes an alcoholic and gets sick. Mr. Mishra and his family are neighbors of Das family. He made a huge fortune as a businessman during his younger days but his three sons are lazy, lecherous, and unprincipled who ruin his business. His two daughters Jaya and Sarla had no ambition, except to get married, and thus didn't complete their studies. Ironically, this is why they are deserted by their husbands. They run and provide for the Misra household by teaching dance and music to teen girls. They like the simple and unambitious Tara more than the independent and headstrong Bim. Dr. Biswas is the doctor who treated Raja when he was suffering from tuberculosis and Aunt Mira when she began to fall apart. He completed his education in Germany and returned to India. He likes Bim romantically but Bim shows no interest in him.

Summary of Clear Light of Day:

The novel is divided into Four Parts.

Part 1

The story begins in a house in Old Delhi during the 1950s-1960s where Bim, an unmarried history teacher lives with her younger brother Baba. The house is owned by her brother Raja. Their sister Tara and her husband, Bakul, a diplomat, live in Washington, D.C. Tara is attractive, but, unlike the intelligent and fiercely self-possessed Bim, she is mild-mannered, pliable, and dependent on her husband. They come to Delhi for a brief visit on their way to their niece’s wedding. As soon as their two teenage daughters join them, Tara and Bakul plan to go to Hyderabad to attend the wedding. The bride is a daughter of Raja, the oldest of the four Das children. Tara tries to persuade Bim to come along with her and Bakul to attend the wedding. Bim insists that she will not attend the wedding; she no longer has anything to do with Raja. Bim expresses her resentment at being saddled with the house and with Baba while Tara and Raja live exciting lives. Baba is autistic and spends all his day listening to Gramaphone. Tara tries to encourage him to go to the office but he declines. She gets sad at his situation and worries about Bim who has taken responsibility for Baba.

In the evening, Tara and Bim go to their neighbor’s house along with Bakul. The Misras were a rich family fallen into hard times due to their sons’ debauchery, vices, and laziness. Their sisters, separated from their husbands, work hard to feed the family and yet are marginalized. The youngest of the Misra brothers is Mulk who is angry because his music consort was rejected. Bakul calms him down. Bim then decides to return back to home to avoid burdening the Misra family with the arrangement of their dinner. After returning home, Bim and Tara engage in their talks. Bim says how she misses Aunt Mira and often she would see her specter. Tara begins remembering their childhood, the Partition of India and Pakistan, and the events that followed. Tara talks about the impressive Urdu poems that Raja wrote during his younger days. After their father’s death, Raja inherited the business. He left Bim alone to take care of Baba without offering any monetary help. After Hyder Ali’s death, he inherited the house in which Bim was living. Bim shows Tara a letter that Raja wrote to her after the death of his father-in-law, Hyder Ali, who left his property to Raja. Bim is still angry because in the letter Raja made it clear that he was now her landlord, thus implying that he ranked above Bim. He insisted that he would never sell the house nor raise the rent. Bim took such offense at this letter that she hasn’t spoken to Raja in years and doesn’t plan to attend his daughter Moyna’s wedding.

Part 2

This part is retrospective which begins in 1947 when the Partition of India had resulted in sectarian strife. Hindu radicals at Raja’s school pressure him to join their movement, but after he contracts tuberculosis and is confined to his home they leave him alone. In fact, although they are Hindus, the members of the Das family have always been friendly with their Muslim neighbor Hyder Ali, and he has taken a special interest in Raja. Bim and Raja are close at this time, sharing a passion for poetry. Raja, despite being Hindu, develops a fascination for Urdu language and literature, associated with the Muslim population of India. Raja becomes drawn into the intellectual circles of their wealthy neighbor Hyder Ali. They exclude Bim from this male and predominantly Muslim world, so she devotes her time to her own studies in history. The Das children become even more distanced from their parents when their mother falls ill, and the duty of caring for their Aunt Mira who has an alcohol addiction, and their brother Baba, who has an intellectual disability, falls almost entirely to Bim. Both parents die, and when Raja falls ill with tuberculosis, it is Bim who cares for him, too. Tara spends more time with Misra's sisters, whom Bim finds unambitious. Tara meets Bakul there and is love-struck, although Bim finds him pompous, arrogant, and dull. Dr. Biswas, a young man who frequently ministers to Raja and Aunt Mira (the latter of whom is descending into a senile, drunken disaster), begins to be infatuated with Bim and invites her to a concert. She is not at all interested, and even though she agrees to a meeting with his mother, she realizes that she is not interested in marriage. After their father’s death, Raja gains control of his father’s business but Bim too holds some shares. Raja is not interested in business. He leaves it to be managed by Mr. Mishra.

He rather wishes to follow Hyder Ali and be a hero. Hyder Ali and his family left for Hyderabad due to the communal tensions in Old Delhi during the period of Partition. Raja is still ill and doesn’t know about the departure of Hyder Ali. He insists Bim to visit Hyder Ali’s house and get information about him and his family. Bim doesn’t wish to do so but goes along with Baba on Raja’s request. She finds that Hyder Ali and his family have left Delhi for Hyderabad. Baba finds Hyder Ali’s daughter Benazir’s old gramophone in his house and brings it to Bim’s house. On returning Bim informs Raja that Hyder Ali has left. Bim notices that despite all her efforts and care for Raja when he is ill, he becomes more arrogant and dismissive of her. Bakul marries Tara and takes her with him. Aunt Mira grows worse and, after a series of embarrassing accidents, dies in her bed. She is buried in her only sari, which she never wore in life. Now that his health is improved, Raja leaves for Hyderabad to look for Hyder Ali. Baba and Bim are left together, and Bim decides to take responsibility of Baba, who is autistic.

Part 3

Part 3 further goes back to the past when Bim and Raja’s mother Mrs. Das gave birth to her fourth (and unexpected) child, Baba. He begins exhibiting some growth defects, so she calls for Aunt Mira to take care of the kids as she is suffering from diabetes. Aunt Mira was a distant cousin of Bim’s mother who was widowed in her early teenage years (in the 1940s) and was thus reduced to unpaid house help. She started aging prematurely and hideously, and so was deemed unfit for the men of her household. Initially, the kids do not like her but soon they become close to her.

While Bim and Raja were bright students and had higher dreams for their future, Tara was still a growing child and had bad memories of some childhood incidents, like the shooting of a rabid dog and the dismissal of a teacher for being in love with a foreigner. Bim, who does well at school and defends the principal in her firing of the teacher, becomes a figure of resentment for Tara. Tara soon loses interest in her studies. She begins dreaming of being a housewife and a mother. Bim and Raja begin ridiculing her. While Bim and Raja were close during those years, Raja began taking more interest in Hyder Ali, their neighbor, and his daughter Benazir. This forced Bim to be closer to Tara. However, Tara further had bad experiences with Bim. Once Bim forced Tara to to smoke while they dressed up in Raja’s pants and discovered a sense of power in wearing male clothing. Bim wished to feel the freedom the boys enjoyed so she cut down her hair and forced Tara to cut her hair too but Tara was not happy about it. Once Tara left Bim to face the bees alone. Tare begins to grow apart from her siblings and closer to Jaya and Sarla Misra, as there is levity and life in their house as compared to her own house. The Misra sisters treated her kindly and would frequently take her out to clubs and other places. At their marriage parties, Bim tells Tara she disapproves of the Misra girls marrying without proper education; she asserts that she doesn’t intend to marry.

Part 4

This part returns to the current times. Tara realizes how difficult Bim’s life is who is still taking care of their autistic brother Baba. She remembers how she took care of Aunt Mira and Raja too when he got ill. She notices that Bim got nothing from their parent’s fortune yet, she continues to take on her responsibilities while Raja never tries to help her. Tara witnesses that Bim is suffering financial troubles. Bim complains that Raja was “rich, fat and successful” when he last visited her and even brought them gifts they didn’t want, but in reality, she resents that her siblings live such easy, luxurious lives while she is still stuck at home, taking care of Baba and struggling to make ends meet.

Mr. Mishra offers a proposal to Bim and asks him to sell her shares in the business to him. Bim decides that she is going to sell off the family’s shares and refuses Tara’s advice to consult Bakul first. She starts treating Tara with cruelty, and then even tells Baba that he might have to move to Hyderabad with Raja—but catches herself, apologizes, and realizes that she loves her family but has to forgive them if she really wants to move forward in life. She spends all night throwing away old paperwork and finally tears up Raja’s letter. She finds that she can forgive Raja after all. She is overcome by a sense of wholeness and peace. The next day, Bakul, Tara, and their daughters, who’d arrived recently, prepared to depart for the wedding. As Tara leaves for the wedding, Bim tells her that, while she and Baba are not coming to the wedding because they do not leave the house anymore, she would love it if Raja came back here and brought the whole family. The novel closes with Bim attending a party at the Misras’ house, thinking about her family’s traditions and enduring connections, and resolving to grow back together with them.

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!

Tam O’Shanter by Robert Burns | Structure, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Tam O’Shanter is a long narrative poem by Robert Burns that he wrote in 1790. It was first published in the Edinburgh Herald and the Edinburgh Magazine in March 1791. However, the poem was written for the second volume of the collection of Francis Grose’s Antiquities of Scotland in which the poem was republished in April 1791. Robert Burns wrote the entire poem within a day and the central character of Tam O’Shanter was based on Douglas Graham, one of Robert Burns’ friends. The early version of the poem had 228 lines but the second revised version had 224 lines as Robert Burns deleted four lines at the request of his friends. The basic theme of Tam O’Shanter is the reality of the macabre and things beyond explanation. The titular character sets off late on a dark night, full of drink, on his horse Meg Maggie). On his travels, he spots a wild gathering of witches and warlocks partying with the devil. Having inadvertently called out to one of the witches, he sets off at high speed in search of home, with the ghastly crew in hot pursuit. He makes it away in the nick of time, but not before one of the witches has snatched off Meg’s tail.

The poem stresses the celebration of life-affirming enjoyment of the joys of this world while recognizing that human pleasure is fleeting and thus more precious. The poem also suggests that one should be careful about the consequences of their actions.

Structure of Tam O’Shanter:

Robert Burns wrote the poem in a mixture of Scots and English in a mock-epic form, with iambic tetrameters, with nine syllables or lines of eight and often four emphasized syllables each line, are used in the composition of the poem. The lines are arranged in couplets – rhyming a/a, b/b, c/c, etc. This creates a pacey, lively feel. The supernatural comedy uses folktales that horrified locals or had only recently terrified their hits on the horrifying aspects of eighteenth-century life. Burns used alliteration, consonance, assonance, metaphor, juxtaposition, and contrast in this poem.

Summary of Tam O’Shanter:

The opening stanza describes Ayr as a calm place where Tam is enjoying daily life. The poem begins with a cliche “it was a dark and stormy night” and describes a dark and stormy late October night in the Scottish town of Ayrshire. In the first stanza, the poet describes the atmosphere in Ayr at the end of a busy market day. Tam O’Shanter is a farmer who brought his harvest into town to sell it and after profitable dealing, he celebrates with his friends in the tavern. In the pub, he is sitting with his friends around a roaring fire. The atmosphere appears calm and relaxed but things change from the 7th line. Tam begins thinking of returning to his home as he knows it would be best to start the long trip home not just because of the inclement weather but because his wife, Kate, admonished him not to be late. The poet describes Tam's hurdles in the passage from the inn to his home: "The mosses, waters, slaps, and styles”. Tam remembers his wife and how intimidating she is “Gathering her brows like a gathering storm / Nursing her wrath to keep it warm” (Lines 11-12). These lines suggest that Tam’s wife Kate is a responsible housewife and mother, nursing her child, but she appears dominant with a streak of vengeance against Tam.

The poet again describes Tam as an honest, calm, and fun-loving person. But Tam’s wife Kate has a different opinion of him and describes him as “a blethering, blustering, drunken blellum (Line 20)”. Burns used a nice combination of Alliteration, Onomatopoeia, and Assonance to suggest that Kate believes Tam is a useless drunkard. Tam would often get drunk. Kate admonished him that whenever he goes to the market with the miller, he gets drunk. Whenever he goes with the blacksmith, he drinks a lot. When he went to the Lord’s House even on Sunday he returned drunk. Kate prophesized that one day he may get so drunk that he may get drowned in the river Doon or get caught by intimidating ‘warlocks’ at ‘the auld, haunted kirk’ of Alloway Church (Line 32). Here, the poet introduces the paranormal forces he is about to describe.

However, like any other husband, Tam preferred to ignore the wise pieces of advice of his wife. He continues to enjoy the atmosphere with his friends as the ale is flowing, the talk is animated, the pub inviting—Tam delays, “a man so happy / Even drowned in ale” (Line 54). The landlady of the inn appears gracious and friendly towards Tam but it all appears a sham as the landlord notices all this happening. In Lines 59-60, the poet describes how human pleasure is fleeting “But pleasures are like poppies spread:/You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.” Tam finally decides to leave for home as he rides his horse, Meg. The storm is terrible but, once Meg the horse, is into her stride, she and Tam seem to outdo it. He knows he must pass Alloway’s Church, long abandoned and, according to town legend, haunted by spirits from Hell, a forbidding place where “ghosts and owls nightly cry” (Line 89). When he passes the church, he is surprised to see light flooding from inside; the church seems “a blaze” (Line 103). However, he is in the effect of alcohol and he feels no fear. He decides to check into the church. He tethers his horse and creeps to a church window and sees therein an “incredible sight” (Line 115). Witches and warlocks, dressed in black, dance in the church to the hornpipe being blown on bagpipes by none other than Satan himself in the shape of a “shaggy dog, black, grim, and large” (Line 122). Burns explored the Gothic folk-tale horror of the journey in this stanza. To the harsh squeal of the bagpipes, the demon spirits cavort. Scattered about the church, Tam notes, are grim memento mori objects of murder and mayhem, hacked bones, heavy chains, bloodied tomahawks, swords “with murder crusted” (Line 137), a “garter with which a baby strangled” and a “knife a father’s throat had mangled (Lines 138-139). Most terrifying of all, however, are three lawyers’ tongues, turned inside out, and three priests’ rotten, black hearts.

Tam is terrified now. He watches the crazy dervishes of the old witches and warlocks until they are thick with sweat. Caught up in the frenzied dancing, the witches begin to strip off their clothes. Tam is repulsed by the withered witches, “ugly enough to suckle a foal” (Line 165). It is, then that Tam’s eye is caught by a young, beautiful witch. As Tam watches in carnal delight, this young witch, named Nannie, strips down to her “short underskirt” (Line 178). Tam is beside himself, “bewitched” (Line 188), driven by the sudden itch of lust. He cannot help himself. He yells out loudly and carelessly, “Well done, short skirt!” (Line 194). Tam is already under the effect of alcohol but the dreadful witches are so fearsome and ugly that he gets repulsed when he sees them naked. However, when one of the young beautiful witches undresses, he feels a sudden urge of lust. The “hellish legions” (Line 198), suddenly aware they are being watched, turn their attention to Tam. “Catch the thief” (Line 203), Nannie yells. They all head outside to chase Tam down. Now panicked, certain they will drag him to hell as “roast [him] like a herring” (Line 207), Tam throws himself on Meg and tries to gallop away as fast as he, but his exit is hampered by the muddy roads. He heads to the bridge over the River Doon, the road out of town, knowing that demons cannot cross running water. He would be safe if he got to the bridge. But Nannie, flying furiously, is fast approaching Tam. The narrator is truly caught in the action as he offers a juxtaposition. He despairs over Tam’s fate ‘Ah, Tam! ah, Tam!’ and encourages Meg: ‘Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg’

Desperate to stop him, as Tam lurches onto the bridge, Nannie reaches out and snags Meg’s tail, pulling it out, which “left poor Maggie scarce a stump” (Line 223). Tam is safe. The Narrator then offers wisdom to the readers: whenever you are inclined to imbibe strong drink or are tempted by short skirts, the poet cautions the reader to “Remember Tam O’Shanter’s mare” (Line 228). The ludicrous rhyme of rump…stump and the fact that Tam remains unpunished while Maggie is the one to suffer help to undermine the moral that is to follow.

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!

Robert Burns | Biography and Important Works

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist born on 25 January 1759 and died on 21 July 1796 at 37. He is known for his works written in the Scottish language but he also wrote in the Scottish dialect of the English language.

Robert Burns is one of most celebrated and respected Scottish poets and author and he is also known as the ‘National Poet of Scotland.’ Burns is considered a proto-Romantic poet who greatly influenced William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Robert Burns was the eldest son of William Burns, a poor tenant farmer in Dunnottar, Scotland. His mother was Agnes Broun. His childhood was spent in a house built by his father that was later turned into the Burns Cottage Museum.

Robert Burns faced poverty, scarcity, and other problems of tenant farmers and was hugely influenced by it. At one time, he faced such dire poverty that he decided to move to Jamaica to work as a laborer. However, his friend Thomas Blacklock encouraged him not to go to Jamaica. It was the period of the French Revolution and Burns had a first-hand experience of the deteriorating situations of tenant farmers in Scotland and England that inspired him to write poetry and correspondences touching the subjects of Republicanism, Radicalism, Egalitarianism, Humanitarianism, gender equality, and so on. This is the reason why he is known as a proto-Romantic poet.

Burns often raised awareness about the dire situations of tenant farmers and other poor people in society in his works which is why he is also known as ‘Peasant’s Poet’ and a Ploughman Poet.

On 31 July 1786, Burns published his first major collection of poems that was titled ‘Poems, Chiefly in Scottish Dialect.’ Most of these poems were written during the period 1784-1785. Some of the very famous poems included in this book are Halloween, The Twa Dogs, The Cotter’s Saturday Night, and To a Mouse.

Halloween is a long poem containing 28 stanzas in which Burns describes the festivities and various tricks played by Scottish kids and farmers on Halloween. The Cotter’s Saturday Night was written in Spenserian Stanza form that invoked the pastoral scene in the poem. In this poem, Burns vividly describes the Scots peasant life. Another famous poem, To a Mouse, also describes the struggles faced by tenant farmers. In this poem, Burns also expressed one of the most attractive sides of his personality which was his tenderness towards the treatment of animals. In this poem, the poet also suggests that a tenant farmer’s life and those of other poor downtrodden people of the society is no better than that of a mouse whose home has been destroyed by the ploughman of the field. Such poems vividly describing the life of tenant farmers gained the title of Peasant’s Poet and Ploughman poet for Robert Burns. American author John Steinbeck chose the title for his novel Of Mice and Men from this poem.

In 1785, Burns wrote his poem ‘Holy Willie’s Prayer’ which was published in an anonymous eight-page pamphlet in 1789. This poem is often termed as one of the finest satires by any poet. The poem criticizes the members of the Kirk (or Scottish Church) while attacking the bigotry and religious hypocrisy. In his prayer, Holy Willie piously asks God's forgiveness for his own transgressions and moments later demands that God condemn his enemies who commit the same sins to eternal hellfire.

Robert Burns had many love affairs. One of his loveflinge was Agnes Maclehose whom he met in 1787. Agnes was already married but was separated from her husband who went to Jamaica. Though Burns tried a lot to seduce her, Agnes maintained that their relationship would remain platonic and unconsummated. In 1791, Agnes sailed to Jamaica to meet and live with her husband. Before she went, Robert sent her a letter which later became a farewell love song titled Ae Fond Kiss.

In 1790, Burns wrote a long narrative poem titled Tam O Shanter which became a huge success and is considered as his masterpiece. The poem is written in a mixture of Scots and English language and it contains 228 lines. Robert Burns wrote this entire poem within a day. Tam O Shanter is a mock-heroic epic that details the ghostly adventures of the loveable drunkard Tam and reflects on some of the folk beliefs current in Burns’ time.

In 1794, he wrote a love song titled A Red, Red Rose also known as "(Oh) My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose." In 1795, Burns wrote "A Man's a Man for A' That" a lyrical poem or a song that was based on the concept of Egalitarian society and republicanism. This poem was based on the writings in The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine. In addition, he also wrote "Parcel of Rogues to the Nation" and "Rights of Women". His other famous song is Auld Lang Syne which he wrote in 1788.

Robert Burns not only gained fame in Scotland and England, rather he became a popular poet worldwide and was commemorated in other nations after his death. He became the ‘People’s poet’ in Russia and his works were translated into the Russian language.

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!