chapter – ii: r.k. narayan as a...

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Chapter – II: R.K. Narayan as A Novelist

Indian English fiction is established as a major form of

Indian English Literature. Fiction in India has been a graphic

chronicle of varied vicissitudes of the people as they passed from

economic, sociological, cultural and political subjugation of

different hues and shades. Finding the academic life was not for

him. Narayan turned to writing. He gave the manuscript of his first

novel, Swami and Friends (1935), to a friend who displayed it to

Graham Green. He was influenced and found a publisher for the

book. Thus, Narayan's writing career was born and the versatile

writer went on to publish novels.

Art and technique is the primary basis for assessment of a

novelist. R.K. Narayan possesses the skills of a great narrator and

his eminence as an artist lies in his sound management of the

narrative. He is a painstaking artist, though he may not be as great

as E.M. Forster. Socio-economic anxiety is his major concern as a

writer. Nevertheless, his novels are extremely interesting and

A Portrayal of Women Characters in R.K. Narayan’s Novels: A Critical Study

51

engaging till the end. Progression of novel is the strength of the

artist and strength of the artist lies in the triumph of technique.

This applies equally to R.K. Narayan. His present –past technique

is an excellent innovation which reveals his good craftsmanship.

As a novelist R.K. Narayan believes in objectivity which is

difficult to maintain. He has a good command over objectivity.

There is no denying the fact that there is no subjectivity in his art.

It does not get interfered in his choice of social preference. In his

portrayal of character we see him standing at a distance viewing

dispassionately. “In spite of his attraction for a typically Indian

tradition of story-telling, Narayan is able to maintain his

objectivity. He does not take sides and his novels have no

message to deliver. He does not preach, he does not try to

convict, he does not even try to point out the right from the

wrong. He leaves the reader to see that for himself. And this is

the greatest asset. It saves his art from pit falls of propaganda

or bias which we find in Mulk Raj Anand.”1

In spite of the novelist’s social preference, we find his

approach aesthetic which is visible in the conception of his theme

as well as in portrayal of a heroine like Rosie in The Guide. 1 Kumar S. : A Surey of Indian English Novels, (Prakash Book Depot, Bareilly, 2006),

p.137.


52

Delicacy of aestheticism runs simultaneously along with economic

conflict. In the Marco–Rosie–Raju triangle, there is an artistic

beauty of order. In other words, the novelist as an artist is very

particular about the aesthetic quality of his novel and he does not

allowe other social concerns to be dominated.

R.K. Narayan is a realist and he presents the contemporary

society realistically. In fact his strength lies in realism and not in

romance. He is aware of the great value of realism. The greater the

realism, the better the image. The credit goes to him for giving us

most realistic novel in Indian writing in English. He describes the

life around him not only in detail but also with great accuracy. He

describes the life of a tourist guide through Raju, the protagonist of

novel The Guide. In Mr. Sampath, he gives the complete details of

the film production. If he has to describe the life of a professor of

English, he does not depend on outside life of a class room but

goes beyond it to the discussion of subject in the class room.

Hence Narayan’s realism is not only accurate and vivid but also

very convincing. Many more examples of his realism can be given

from his novels. This is the way how his realistic narrative presents

various slices of life. He may not so faithful with regard to his


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realism; it may not be scientific in nature but it selective,

recognizable and convincing.

R.K. Narayan is not a didactic novelist; He has an extraordinary

power of evoking a sense of life. He is not a critic of society but certainly

a critic of conduct. He is also one of the very few professional Indian

writers as K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar tells us, “It is not easy to make a

living in India as a man of letters.”2 To become a successful novelist

Narayan tried to limit his fictional activity to the narrow boundaries of a

region. He chose little circumference of place to become his fictional

world. His novels offers presentation of the life of South Indian manners,

mental activities, social matters, customs and traditions and the

geographical features. Narayan’s success as a novelist chiefly consists in

his selectivity of a particular locale for the fictional activity.

As a result, the distinctive spirit generated by the place pervades

the pages, characterizes the people that reside the place and ultimately

symbolizes the place and the people. The greatness of Narayan’s novel

lies in the fact that they transcend weak and get identified with universe.

In other words, the microcosm becomes the macrocosm. His novels

primarily centres round a narrow demarcated place Malgudi, gradually

rising above the regional framework, and becomes novelist of greater 2 Iyengar K.R.S., Indian Writing in English (Sterling Publishers Private Limited New

Delhi, 1985), p.358.


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significance and broader vision. Narayan appears to be a regional novelist

whose plots have a fictional locale, a small township of Malgudi in South

India. Just as Thomas Hardy’s novels are called Wessex novel, in the

same way Narayan’s novels are called Malgudi novels. In this way,

Malgudi has the analogical relationship with Wessex. Prof. K.R.

Srinivasa Iyenger remarks, “Malgudi is Narayan’s casterbridge”3.

However, Narayan has not drawn any map of this place as William

Faulkner did, nor did he have clear cut map in his mind as Thomas Hardy

had of his Wessex.

Like Wordsworth's Lake District, Hardy's Wessex, and

Arnold Bennet's Pottery Towns, the locale of Naryan's Novels is

Malgudi and its surroundings figures in ten novels and hundreds of

short stories. The habits and manners, the daily routine and

business, activities and professions, and ways of living of the

people of Malgudi are portrayed by Narayan in his novels, The

novelist presents a picture of Malgudi that has gone on growing

and increasing from the early 'thirties to the seventies. The people

of this town grow out of it, live in it, and belong to it. If one wants

to understand the tender humanity of India, as the reviewer of the

English Teacher, Margaret Parton has said, one should read one of

3 Iyengar K.R.S., Indian Writing in English, (Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi,

1985), p.360.


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Mr. Narayan's novels. According to Prof. Iyengar, “it would be

interesting to advance the theory that Malgudi is the real hero

of the ten novels and many short stories of R.K.Narayan.”4

Narayan’s novels and short stories are set in Malgudi, an imaginary

place which stands for a small Indian town. We can say that the fictional

world of Narayan becomes the world of Malgudi. The name Malgudi

struck in his mind in sept. 1930, as he woke up on the day of

Vijaydasami. Once, his uncle asked him why he wrote about some vague

place, not found anywhere while there are millions of real places he could

have written about, he answered why he chose a fictional place like

Malgudi. He explains, “An imaginary town like that has great

possibilities. You can make anything out of it, whereas in your own

town or place you are bound by geography and its existing structure.

But in a place like Malgudi, though the heart of the city may be fixed

it can expend. ”5

R.K. Narayan is a novelist of common people and common

situation. His plots are built of material and incidents that are

neither extraordinary nor heroic. The tone of his novels is quiet

and subdued. He selects day-to-day incidents that happen to almost 4 Iyengar, K.R. Srinivas, Indian Writing in English, (Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New

Delhi, 1985), p.363. 5 Susan E.Croft, Interview with, R.K Narayan in R.K. Narayan : A Critical Spectrum,

(Shalabh, Meerut , 1893), p.30.


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every one of us. His heroes are average human beings and they do

not possess extraordinary capacities, but through some incidents

attain greatness very soon to return to their original state. If we

take the life of a school boy like Swami, we find nothing

extraordinary or strange in his life. Similarly Mr. Sampath,

Chandran, Raju, Savitri, Ramani and others live, love and suffer in

maze of incidents which are just commonplace.

R.K. Narayan’s plots do not follow any standardized

formula, because he starts with an idea of character and situation

and the plot progresses on the lines he conceives to be the logical

development of the idea. It may mean no marriage, no happy

ending and no hero of standardized stature. incidents, co-

incidences, and sudden reversal of fortune are used only to a very

limited scale. His action mainly develops logically from the acts

and actions of his characters. In this respect, Narayan is as much a

‘materialist’ as Henry James, H.G. Wells and Arnold Bennett.

Narayan’s craftsmanship in plot construction does not reveal a

consistent quality. He began it a tentative and episodic manner in

Swami and Friends but developed an architectonic sense in his

second novel, The Bachelor of Arts, and his third, The Dark Room,

reveals definite signs of technical maturity. His predilection for the


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fantastic, suggested in The Bachelor of Arts, becomes quite

prominent with The English Teacher. Generally, his plots split into

two parts- the realistic and the fantastic.

It is not always that Narayan succeeds in fusing the two into

an organic plot. He is eminently successful in The Financial

Expert, The Guide, The Man-Eater of Malgudi and The Painter of

Sings but not so in Mr. Sampath, Waiting for the Mahatma or The

Vendor of Sweets. However, these technical inadequacies cannot

detract him from his inventive ingenuity. Even the most loosely

constructed of his plots such as Waiting for the Mahatma and Mr.

Sampath are highly enjoyable in parts in the fashion of most of

Dickens’s novels.

The spirit of the novel also receives maturity in Narayan’s

novels. The earlier novels were designed to be entertainment for

the middle class and English serving-class public in India. Their

subject matter, therefore, was confined to only those phases of life,

which could be a part of such entertainment. Consequently,

impersonal and intellectual side of life was neglected. Intellectual

points, if at all they crept in those novels, were not germane to the

story of which they formed part. They gave setting to the drama of

life in those novels, but did not modify the characters. In Narayan


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contrary is the case. Characters and incidents act and react and the

plot moves as a logical consequence. Scholars and scamps jostle

with each other in Narayan’s novels and his wider intellectual

interests have led him to portray human life in deeper and more

general aspect of life.

In fact, Narayan has created the whole township of Malgudi. It is

purely a land of imagination. It appears vibrant with life. In fact, it

becomes a living presence in all his novels from Swami and Friends to

The World of Nagaraj. K.R. Shrinivas Iynger righty observes: “Where as

Anand finished his education in Cambridge and London, Narayn had

his education entirely in south India. He is of India, even of south

India: he uses the English language much as we used to wear dhoties

manufactured in Lancashire-but the thoughts and feelings, the

stirrings of the soul, the wayward movements of the consciousness,

are all of the soil of India, recognizably autochthonous. He is one of

the few writers in India who take their craft seriously, constantly

striving to improve the instrument, pursuing with a sense of

dedication.”6

Narayan considers south India as a fundamentally conservative

Hindu society. He realistically presents, the middle class people in most 6 Iyengar, K.R. Srinivas, Indian Writing in English, (Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. New

Delhi, 1985), p.359.


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of his novels and stories. His novels depict his world with a keenly

observant eye. “Its members are neither too well off not to know the

rub of financial worry, nor too indigent to be brutalized by want and

hunger,”7 His novels are a product of superstitions, traditions, customs

and rituals of Indian life. He admits to Ved Mantra his inability to write

novels without Krishna, Ganesha, Hanumana, Astrologers, Pundits and

Devadasis or temple prostitute, and explained his point of view by adding

in his characteristic humble why that in any case has turned out to be his

India.

Narayan’s fiction inhabits the world of everyday events and

common and simple people. He incorporates traditional Hindu

mythology and legends in stories of modern events. He tells stories

of ordinary people who rely on Hindu principles to guide them

through the ethical dilemmas and problems of modern life.

Narayan's fiction avoids being overtly political or ideological. His

early novels focus the conflict between Indian and western culture.

The Hindu Myths and ideals have gripped Narayan’s mind so

much that he naturally takes them up for themes in most of his novels.

Our society is a traditional society, which admits and absorbs all change.

The Myths and legends that we have accumulated through centuries have 7 Ramteke S.R. R.K. Narayan and His Social Perspective (Atlantic Publishers and

Distributors 2008), p.12.


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become the common phenomena of the people of the land. The Myths

and legends and our religious and cultural heritage have shaped our mind

and imagination. These have also shaped our behavioural pattern and

general attitude of life too. This influence is so deeply rooted that it finds

unconscious expression in the every aspect of his novels. William Walsh

is worth quoting in this connection: “The religious sense of Indian

Myth is a part of Narayan’s grip of reality, of his particular view of

human life and his individual way of placing and ordering human

feeling and experience.”8

Here attempt is made to study those aspects of R.K. Narayan’s

fiction which challenges the commonly held notions about his works. His

style is simple and unpretentious with a natural element of humour about

it. Unlike his national contemporaries, he is able to write about the

intricacies of Indian society without having to modify his characteristic

simplicity to conform to trends and fashion in fiction writing. Critics have

considered Narayan to be the Indian ‘Chekhov’, due to the similarities in

their writings, In Narayn , there is the same simplicity and gentle beauty

in tragic situation as it was in the Chekhov. Narayan’s writing tends to be

more descriptive and less analytical. He provides more authentic and

realistic narration. His attitude and perception of life displays a unique

8 Khatri C.L., R.K. Narayan: Reflection and Re-evaluation, (Sarup and Sons, New Delhi,

2006), p. 142.


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ability to fuse characters and actions. In fact he had the ability to use

ordinary events to create a connection in the mind of the reader.

Narayan’s writings style has often been compared to that of

William Faulkner. Since both their works brought out the humour and

energy of ordinary life while deploying compassionate humanism. The

similarities also extended to their juxtaposing in the demands of society

against the confusions of individuality. Although their approach to

subject was similar, their methods were different. Faulkner was rhetorical

and illustrate his points with immense prose while Narayanwas very

simple and realistic, capturing the elements all the same. In this regard

M.K. Naik sums up most significantly what R.K. Narayan has come to

mean for literature in English in the world : “R.K. Narayan’s chief

contribution to Indian English fiction is two-fold : first, he has

created a tiny but perfectly credible universe in Malgudi, which is in

the same class as Hardy’s Wessex and Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha ;

and he has filled it with men and women who are as real to us as the

people actually around us. Secondly, an eagle-eyed observer of life

and human nature, he has illuminated the basic ironies’ deep-seated

ambiguities and existential dilemmas of the human condition.”9

9 Naik M.K.and Shyamala A. Narayan. Indian English Literature, 1980-2000: A Critical

Survey (Delhi, Pencraft International, 2001), p. 22.


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The perspective of Indo-Anglian novelists represents different

levels of the Indian consciousness shaped by the tradition of Indian

humanism and Western enlightenment. The theme of emancipation of

women, a widespread and genuine concern for the amelioration of their

condition, for the first time became a social issue in the early twentieth

century. It shaped the creative consciousness of all the Indian English

writers, including R.K. Narayan. As rightly pointed out by George Lucas:

"Developments in India...shows that socialism may figure among the

forces working against medievalism. The unusual character of this

social evolution will, no doubt, give rise to equally unusual literary

developments, not to be filled into any of our abstract categories."10

Interestingly, the whole area of complex inter-personal and social

relationships which a married Indian woman invariably undergoes, is

analyzed in his novels through the medium of her own consciousness.

“My main concern", says Narayan, "is with human character a

central character from whose point of view the world is seen and who

tries to get over a difficult situation or succumbs to it or fights it in

his own setting.”11

10 Khatri C.L., R.K. Narayan: Reflection and Re-evaluation, (Sarup and Sons, New Delhi,

200)6, p. 66 11 Sen K., Critical Essay on R.K.Narayan’s The Guide: with an Introduction to Narayan,

(Orient Longman 2004), p.171.


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He further adds, "I value human relationships very much, very

intensely. It makes one's existence worthwhile human relationship in

any and every form,whether at home or outside."12 The character of

Savitri in the novel The Dark Room is conceived in the novel by the

'inner working novelist', whose business is to explore the soul. She begins

as a traditional figure, a dutiful and obedient wife, a devoted mother and

an efficient housekeeper. With the development of the narrative we find

her gradually developing too. Savitri becomes an effective instrument to

explore the darkness of her life symbolized by 'the dark room' of her

house to which she is used to retiring on gloomy occasions. By and by,

this dark room comes to assume a menacing proportion in her psyche,

causing emotional upheavals and finally culminating in the decision to

abandon her husband and children.

It's ironical the way Ramani, who himself ill-treats his wife, reacts

to the story of Shanta Bai's struggles. He said that men deserved to be

whipped when she hinted at a couple of attempts on her honour. He was

in complete agreement with her philosophy of life. "This exposes

Ramani's total infatuation for Shanta Bai and her pretensions as

well. On the brink of suicide after leaving her home, Savitri realizes

12 Ibid, p.173.


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bitterly: "No one who could not live by herself should be allowed to

exist".13

R.K. Narayan told stories of simple people trying to live their

simple life in the changing society. Narayan lived till ninety five,

writing for more than fifty years and publishing till he was eighty

seven. He wrote fifteen novels. Five volumes of short stories, a

number of travelogues and collection of non-fictions, English

translation of Indian epics and the memoirs "My Days". His

fictional characters are related to real life patterns. Swami,

Krishnan, Chandran, Sushila, Savitri, unassuming Shastri,

Margayya. The ambitious fantacises in The Financial Experts,

Raju ostentatious guide, Vasu a rogue taxidermist exemplify the

common people in the Indian society. The relevant use of tales

from Hindu mythology, the teaching of Bhagwat Gita, austere

religious practice and belief ordained to attain one's aim, add force

to fictional art. Novelist like Narayan continually adds to the

richness of the human experience. He brings before us the new

topics, new characters and new attitudes He took it for from the

immature, imitative, romantic and nationalistic narrative of early

phase and gave it a firm native footing and brought it close to

13 Kumar A.P., R.K. Narayans The Dark Room is A Novel of Domestic Disharmony

(RJELAL Vol.2 Issue2 2014).


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socio-cultural life of the people. In fact, Narayan is primarily

preoccupied with man's filling of the life-role entrusted to him by

tradition and environment. It is for these reasons that R.K. Narayan

is respected as one of the harbingers of a new age in Indian English

Fiction.

R.K. Narayan writes traditional novels which are apolitical,

universalist humanist, yet representatively Indian in their

spirituality. William Walsh contents that the Malgudi is a

Metaphor not only for India but for everywhere. Against the

background of a single place. “The single Individual engages

with the one, the universal problem, the efforts not just to be,

but to become, Human."14 Indian writing in English is so

inextricably linked with political growth that even R.K. Narayan,

who scrupulously avoids politics as a theme, “Could not

completely ignore what was happening around him. Malgudi,

as we have seen earlier, was affected by the changes brought

by all Pervading presence of the British and there is a clash

between tradition and modernity in all his novels.”15

14 Walsh W.: A Human Idium, (Prakash Book Depot, Bareilly, 1991), p.7. 15 Narayan R.K.: Next Sunday, (Orient Paper Back, New Delhi 1969), p.69.


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R.K. Narayan as a prominent figure in Indo-anglican fiction,

has written over a dozen novels and about hundred short stories.

For the sake of study his novels can be classified into six

categories: The novels of his earlier period are Swami and Friends,

The Bachelor of Arts, and The English Teacher. These novels are

based on novelist’s personal life experiences. To some extent these

novels have autobiographical touch. Narayan has written domestic

novels also. These novels deal with social and family life. The

Dark Room, The Vendor of Sweets and The Painter of Signs, come

under the domestic category. He has beautifully depicted the

money hunting man of Malgudi, with artistic expertise. The novels

which deal with money matters are The Financial Expert, Mr.

Sampath, The Guide and The Man-Eater of Malgudi.

R.K. Narayan has written one only political novel Waiting

for The Mahatma, though there is very little substance of political

affairs. It is merely a love story of Bharti and Sriram.

The World of Nagaraj and The Grandmother’s Tale falls

under the category of social novels. The last period of writers

creative activity produced A Tiger for Malgudi and Talkative man.

These novels can be included in miscellaneous novels.


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In these novels, novelist has given his childhood details.

These novels are also known as trilogy of autobiography because

in them author has described his domestic as well as school and

college life chronologically. These novels are based on his

personal experience and sufferings of life. Swami and Friends is

the story of a ten year old Swaminathan, a boy full of innocence,

wonder and mischief, and his experience growing up in the

fictional town of Malgudi. He is a student at the British established

Albert Mission School, which stresses Christianity, English

Literature and the value of education. Life changes suddenly and

dramatically for young Swami when Rajam a symbol of colonial

power, joins the school, and becomes his close friend.

The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher are also the

next in series. These novels are about a portrayal of a young man

inexperienced and then experienced one. Chandran a young man of

twenty one, is a well known college debater. After passing his

B.A., he falls in love with Malthi whom he cannot marry because

of opposition from his mother. He soon gets frustrated with the

world. The English teacher is the story of Krishna a teacher of

English in college. The main part of the novel centres round the

love between Krishna and his wife Sushila. They were living a


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very happy life when suddenly Sushila died of typhoid. After her

death Krishna concentrated himself on bringing up his daughter

Lila. This novel is dedicated to novelist’s wife Rajam. It is not

only autobiographical but also poignant in its intensity of feeling.

The story is a series of experiences in the life of Krishna, and his

quest towards achieving inner peace and self-development.

Narayan’s domestic novels are based on his personal

observation of society. The Dark Room, The Vendor of Sweets

and The Painter of Sign are the novels falling in this category.

Narayan very artistically drew the real picture of the society and

specially the woman’s condition in the orthodox middle class

South Indian Hindu family. He has tried to bring forth the

suffering of the woman and the struggle for emancipation.

Narayan has also written the novel which deals with money

hunting. In The Financial Expert, the protagonist Margayya is

shown as a financial adviser. Through the profession of getting

money from the bank and in lending it on interest to other

costumers, he wants to make more money. In The Guide, Raju the

central character also runs after money. He becomes a manager of

a dancer called Rosie. All goes well till Raju forges Rosie’s

signatures to obtain valuable jewellery lying with her husband. The


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act lands him in jail. Rosie leaves Malgudi and goes away to

Madras, her home town. The Man Eater of Malgudi, also deals

with money matters.

R .K. Narayan has written only one political novel, though it

has nothing to do with politics. The novel is mere a love story of

Bharti, Gandhiji’s follower and Sriram. “Even when he writes a

novel dealing with politics, Waiting for the Mahatma, he uses it

only in so for as it yields no humour and irony. His main

interest is the love story of Sriram and Bharti.”16 The incidents

are interwoven with such historical incidents as Gandhi’s struggle

for India’s independence, the Quit India Movement and that fatal

evening of 30th January, 1948 when the great devotee of Ahimsa

fell a victim to the assassin’s bullets.

Literature is the mirror of society. It is very true in the case

of R.K. Narayan. In social novels, he has given authentic details of

the contemporary South Indian Hindu society. It is the duty of a

realist to expose the follies and foibles of the society, and it seems

that the novelist has done his duty well. Narayan has depicted the

scenes and situations of almost all walks of life. In his novels we

come across student, teacher, housewife, artist, businessman, sweet 16 Sanyal S.C. Indianness In Major Indo-English Novels (Prakash Book Depot Bareilly,

1984), p.139.


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vendor, talkative man and grandmother, etc. This is the socio-

economic description of Malgudi. Thus we can come to the

conclusion that Narayan has given the vivid picture of an imagined

semi-fictional town Malgudi.

R.K. Narayan's novels are manly the novels of Characters.

His characterization may not be as great as that of Shakespeare or

Charles Dickens, but it is merely next to the greatest artists. His

range of characters is limited like Jane Austen. He chooses his

people from the middle classes south India, with a convincing

psychological consistency. His characters are full of vigour and

vitality. They are thoroughly human in their likes and dislikes, and

are neither saints nor sinners, but ordinary real human beings like

most of us. Narayan is able to draw complex characters too.

Krishnan, Ramani, Savitri, Sampath, Raju, Rosie, Marlo, Gajpathi

Shanta bai, Margayya are some of his remarkable creations.

Narayan enjoys the popularity as an artful delineator of

character. He says, “my focus is all on Character. If his

personality comes alive, the rest is easy for me.”17 It is a richly

varied portrait gallery. He has created over the years students,

teachers, parents, grandparents half-hearted dreamers, journalists, 17 Agrwal B.R., Sinha M.P.: Major Trands in The post independence Indian English

Fiction:( Atlantic Publishers and Distributers, New Delhi, 2003) p.238.


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artists, financiers, speculators, film-makers, adventures, eccentrics,

cranks, movie stars, sanyasis, and women-Pious and suffering,

coquettish and seductive. It is a veritable world of men and

women, both real and exotic, brought to life with uncommon

dexterity. His eyes and ears are almost flawless, an eye for visual

detail and an ear for how they speak.

As a story writer, Narayan’s stories are incredibly easy to

read because of their simplicity. He usually puts cultural influences

about Indian life in his works. His writings have been extremely

popular amongst readers, and they adequately reflect the various

aspects of human relationships. His main characters in his novels

show everything that occurs in the growth of human relationships.

His heroes are aware of the social and political changes, but they

do not take sides nor do they commit themselves to any ideology.

Narayan has created all sorts of human relationships in which he

depicts his strong sense of tradition which he respects too much. It

is important to note that Narayan is a conservative Indian, both in

terms of thought and spirit, in the presentation of human

relationship.

Narayan is the novelist of middle class people and his

greatest charm lies in portraying Malgudi and its people and


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making them real to us. With the description of Malgudi, he

establishes an intimate sense of reality. He depicts places,

situations, but succeeds in making them uncommon by attributing

universality to them. There is nothing heroic about his heroes. His

novels are comedies of characters as well as of situations. The

characters drawn from middle class comedies are created by

imaginatively recreating their oddities and eccentricities. He may

rightly be described as a novelist of the middle class. He candidly

tackles the problems in family relationship and beautifully portrays

their emotional tangles.

In the words of Dr. Paul Varghese, "Though not vehicles of

mass propaganda, his novels also depict the breakdown of

feudal society and express the changed ideas concerning the

family as a unit and the conflict between old and new. But

Narayan is more concerned with the analysis of the character

of the individual in his course through life."18 Narayan's

characters belong to middle class, or say to the lower middle class

of south India. Chandran belongs to a middle Class family. Editor

Srinivas also is bothered with the idea of earning his bread and

butter. Mr. Sampath's whole life is centred round the problem of

18 Narayan R.K. London: The Daily Telegraph, 14 May, Retrieved 25 July 2009.


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making money and Raju, the guide, is not always beyond monetary

cares. These human beings are the usual sort of human beings,

prudish, cunning and prosaic, the kind of the people we come

across in our day- today life.

According to Shiv K. Gilra, Narayan’s most remarkable

character creations, are his great comic eccentrics:- Sampath, Raju,

Margayya and Jagan. They are ordinary men caught in a web of

illusions:- money, success, love and happiness. Each one of them

works out his personal salvation in his own characteristic way.

These protagonists are individuals as well as universals in their

human ambitions, follies, foibles and ultimate resolution. It is in

such character studies that Narayan displays a penetrating human

insight. However, generally, his reticence comes in the way of the

plumbing of the depths. “Not only does Narayan enter his

characters, he is very reticent even in talking about them.”19 As

a result, most of his numeric heroes like Srinivas, Sriram, Natraj

and Raman live but do not grow. Narayan's minor characters who

people the world of Malgudi are almost as ageless as its familiar

landmarks. They are fine, flint and, together make a delightful

bunch. Mari and his wife Poni in The Dark Room play a

19 Narayan R.K. Grandmother’s Tale, (Indian Thought Publication Chennai 1992), p.7.


74

significant role not only in progression of the story but also on the

human points of view. Joseph, Jagdish, Ravi, Dr.Pal and many

more other minor characters are created by the novelist to fulfil the

demands of the story. They are mostly flat caricatures but very

human, amusing in their idiosyncrasies and oddities. They impart

colour and variety to the scene as well as suggest its continuity and

permanence.

The heroes of Narayan are never drawn on a heroic scale. In

fact, Narayan is the creator of unheroic heroes. They are average

human beings and they do not possess extraordinary capacities, but

through some incidents attain greatness very soon to return to their

original state. The way they achieve greatness and manage to reach

the top of the ladder is fantastic. They do not control the events,

but the events control them. They are helpless creatures torn by

their desire and tossed by their fortunes.

Narayan's women characters are either wedded partners or

seductive creatures: Ramani's and Shanta Bai in The Dark Room.

Sampath's Vision of beauty, Shanti in Mr. Sampath and Raju's

beloved Rosie in The Guide. All these women are married but

unhappy in their family life. Therefore they move out of their

family orbit and take help of those interested men who can help


75

them rise. Ramani helps Shanta Bai to get a good job and settle

down comfortably. Sampath makes Shanti heroine and Raju

promotes Rosie into the best dancer of the century. But in each

case, the woman is left to herself, her lover having proved either

selfish or unfit. The other variety of women like Ragni The Man-

Eater of Malgudi and Grace in The Vendor of Sweets receive

unsympathetic view for living life without marriage. The two other

women, Savitri and Sushila, are loyal, loving and simple, but their

experiences are different in life. Sushila is worshipped by

Krishnan,in The English Teacher whereas Savitri is tortured,

neglected and humiliated by her husband in The Dark Room.

The basic theme of his novels is the place of man and his

predicament in this universe. Narayan himself has remarked in an

article that “The mood of comedy, the sensitivity to atmosphere,

the sensitivity to atmosphere, the probing of Psychological

factors, are the necessary ingredients in fiction.”20 He wants to

suggest that life is illogical' and man is always trying to translate

his fantasies into reality. So, through the reversal of fortune,

Narayan completes the story of man's rise and fall and thus

presents a complete view of life, Narayan is realistic, but his

20 Alexander Mc Call Smith (18 March 2006). The God of Small Things. (The Guardian,

London Retrieved 10 July 2009).


76

realism is different from the surface realism of the French

Naturalists. He does not see the ugly side of reality. Extreme

crudities, names sex descriptions and cruelties are ignored by him.

He portrays the seamy side of reality. His situations and characters

are realistic, and so is his language and style. The life which he

describes is put before us with a wealth of detail and accuracy.

Although concerned about the place of man in this universe

and his predicament, Narayan is a comic writer. He is a comedian

of the sublime and the ridiculous. He is an observer of life and

records life as it appears to him. He is neither purely tragic nor

comic .His art is the mixture of the two. Raju has his best days, he

becomes a successful tourist guide ,he enjoys the best of another’s

wife, he becomes a very successful impression ,and above all, is

worshipped like a true Sadhu or saint and dies like a martyr. But at

the same time he has his moments of agony, guilt and sin. His way

of presenting the tragic and the comic view of life does not check

him from presenting his vision of life successfully. He employs not

only ironies of character, situation and condition but also presents

a total ironic view of life. The whole existence from birth to death

is a ridiculous phenomenon. The best and the worst, the sublime


77

and the grotesque are so mixed up that is difficult to choose one at

the cost of the other.

In Swami and Friend we are given an early sight of the

humour which runs through Narayan's Novels. One of the features

of British colonialism was the export of cricket, a game which

strikes north Americans as being opaque and slow moving. But at

the time that the novel was written, cricket more than just a sport is

stood, quite absurdly, for the whole ethos of an empire. Thus

although we see Swami raised to heights of indignation by a

political orator who laments the passivity of his countrymen which

has allowed them to be dominated by an alien power, yet when it

comes to cricket, the boy is sufficiently enthusiastic to spend some

time trying to explain what the game is all about to his aged grand

Mother. This comic scene, like so much of Narayans' humour, has

a strong poignancy to it. The grandmother represents the old

Indian, world in which cricket is not played.

R.K. Narayan's Humour is the direct outcome of his

intellectual analysis of the contradictions in human experience

tragically or comically. In his novels humour and irony co-exist.

Raju is fasting; he is starving; he is on the verge of death, yet the

novelist goes on sending crowds of people to visit him. This is a


78

fine example of irony co-existing with humour. An American takes

a movie of the scene. Press reporter goes on sending their stories.

People eat at stalls, drink, laugh and see publicity cinema shows

while Raju is dying by inches. Here this incongruous mixture of

tragedy and irony creates bitter humour. Mr. Sampath's ventures

are humorous because they are so full of irony. Waiting for the

Mahatma has an ironic tone because Sriram, the hero is plunged

into the national movement not because he is a great patriot and

lover of Gandhi, but because he loves Bharti. In fect R.K. Narayan

is a dedicated and painstaking artist with regard to his art and

technique. According to Iyengar: “He is one of the few writers in

India who take their craft seriously, constantly striving to

improve the instrument, pursuing with a sense to improve the

instrument, pursuing with a sense of dedication what may

often seem to be the mirage of technical perfection. There is a

harm of excellence below which Narayan cannot possibly lower

himself.”21

Thus R.K. Narayan’s novels are characterized by simplicity

and gentle humour. He tells of simple folks trying to live their

simple lives in a changing world. However, he has been blamed for

21 Singh P.K., Indian Fiction in English: (Atlantic Publishers and Distributers New Delhi

2001), p.72.


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his simple and direct English. In spite of being teacher of English

and a journalist, he never used sophisticated or highly complicated

language. No doubt, many a time his language dwindles into

literary concern. It never fails to convey the feelings and thoughts

of the writer. He is neither pompous nor vain. In the most ordinary

situations and familiar language, he can depict the ironies of life.

In an astonishing alliance of the comic and familiar language. he

can depict the ironies of life. There is again beautiful blend of the

comic and the tragic elements in his fiction. He uses so typical and

'alien' a language like English with masterful ease, and conveys the

subtlest shade of emotion and thought. He is a master of comedy

who is not unaware of the tragedy of human condition. He is

neither an intolerant critic of the Indian ways and modern nor their

fanatic defender. He is, on the whole, content to structure Malgudi

life's little ironies, knots of satiric circumstances, and tragi-

comedies of mischance and misdirection at his best. He can present

smiles and tears together. He is smiling through the tears and

glimpsing the rainbow magnificence of life.

Narayan's place among the novelists of India is supreme.

Among the European writers, only the great ones have enjoyed his

reputation as though their mother tongue was English. His works


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have been translated into several European and Indian languages,

and he has won a considerable audience in Britain and in America.

Narayan's art, in its various aspects, has won universal acclaim,

and recognition. He has been recognised as a born story-teller. He

writes in English of an extreme purity and simplicity. His handling

of the English language is characterised by a rare felicity of

expression and a smooth unhurried pace. Narayan’s writing is free

from the usual lapses of gimmickry and tinsel frippery which beset

the style of a writer handling a foreign medium. His narrative style

usually follows the traditional pattern but his capacity for

innovation is evident from The Guide and parts of other novels. He

handles with skill the modern fictional techniques such as

flashback, interior monologue and stream of consciousness. There

is a quality of naturalness about it with a penchant. Generally it is

direct and unadorned. As Narayan is essentially objective and

detached in his story telling, his style and language are for most

part functional. He can command a rich vocabulary and

emotionally evocative style is proved beyond doubt by the

description of Krishnan's short- lived conjugal bliss and the

subsequent tragedy, “One of the most moving and flawless

piecess of writing in modern English fiction.”22

22 Barbuddhe S. Indian Literature in English Critical Views: (Sarup and Sons New Delhi


81

Narayan can be suspenseful and brisk, but never jerky. He

builds atmosphere and paints characters almost always in half

tones, but a few lines here and there reveal the true nature of things

and characters. He does not use deep colours but he always

manages his concern to create the desired impact. His experience

of life, his environment and his gods, his widening and deepening

sense of comedy, are new dimensions to his art as a novelist.

Speakingof his weakness and strengths, says prof. Srinivas

Iyengar, “Inspite of all that, here is a writer who is well aware of his

potentialities and limitations. He is clear headed about his range of

literary landscape that he can effectively to portray. He is happy and

enthusiastic with his range like Jane Austen who working on two

inches if ivory with her limited range.”23 Srinivas Iyengar is worth

quoting in this connection:

“Narayan's is the art of resolved limitation and

conscientious exploration; he is content, like Jane Austen, with

his little bit of ivory Just so many inches wide; he would like to

be a beached observer, to concentrate on a narrow scene, to

sense the atmosphere of the place, to snap a small group of

2007), p.128.

23 Khatri C.L. R.K. Narayan Reflections and Re-evaluation: (Sarup and Sons, New Delhi, 2006), p.133.


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characters in their oddities and angularities: he would, if he

could, explore the inner countries of the mind heart and soul,

catch the uniqueness in the ordinary, the tragic and the

prosaic. Malgudi is Narayn's Casterbridge, but the inhabitants

of Malgudi- although they may have their recognizable local

trappings are essentially human, and where hence, have their

kinship with all humanity. In this sense, Malgudi is

everywhere.”24

R.K. Narayan is not only a novelist whose novels span the

last fifty years of India's history, but also a humanist who draws

the best possible picture of contemporary Indian middle class

families. Humanism is basically a philosophical outlook centred on

the authority of human being as a dignified, rational being.

Humanism’s final court of appeal is human reason rather than any

external authority. Its spirit is secular, liberal and tolerant.

Humanist through their scholarship and learning register their

protest against socio-political and religious establishment. In

Narayan’s, novels we frequently come across his humanism. His

unique use of English and his treatment of the novel as a form of

art are analysed, along with the author's evolution as he describes

24 I bid. P.135.


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the problems of Indian Individuals faced with an uncertain future

in a fast changing society. His aspirations, though, are likely to be

dashed; his yearning unfulfilled. Although he may not realise it,

the metropolitan culture is largely individual to him and his world.

The literary circles after which he yearns are distant, impossibly

out of reach. Narayan remained in India as Indian writer who was

happy to be read by those outside India but at the same time

remained firmly within the world into which he had been born.

The novelist as a technician has the attributes of a

conscientious craftsman. He has very ably handled the two

different episodes of the life of the hero. The excellent

management of the narrative is due to his craftsmanship. It is, no

doubt, plain in its forward movement, but the double method of

present-past technique shows the adroitness of a highly skilled

novelist. The technique evolves with the passage of time. For

instance, in the novel The Guide, the past has been pasted on the

board of the present, and behind the current events the hectic life

of the hero has undergone a tremendously dramatic experience

with Rosie. There is a clear undergone chasm in almost the middle

of the plot, but it is more of a division than a crack. The skill in the

telling of the tale bridges the two different episodes. It could only


84

have been done by an expert craftsman, and by no one else. The

pace of his writing is unburied. He takes reasonable time for the

development of matter at hand. The narrative moves on gently

without a nervous flurry on his part. The characters get evolved

fully with the passage of time. The events have been set, though

contrived, properly in the scale of time.

We see the author working through a number of concerns

which, as a young man, he had very much in his mind. His novels

present problems and conflict of day-today-life of contemporary

society. It is not the struggle in the experience of protagonist life. It

is day-to-day experience of all suffering humanity. We feel too

close to men and women facing life and challenges in his novels

that it creates a feeling of identification the modern world. It is this

quality that lends universality to his theme. He is a much beloved

novelist and although volume of his novels were all written more

than half a century ago, they are the freshest, and the most

sparkling of gems. The struggle of the protagonist against social

restrictions, The struggle to be something other than that which

social destiny appears to be forcing them to be, are struggles with

which we can all identify to a greater or lesser extent. In his novels


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many people waste part of their lives trying to be something else

what they are not.

Narayan weaves his themes around Hindu myths and legends

and vivifies Indian social reality. He has an extraordinary power of

presenting the multiple facets of life. Though not a critic of

society, he is certainly a keen observer of life and manners. The

novelist creates comedy by employing all the effective devices of

the humorist both traditional and innovative. He has made his

language highly comprehensible with the touch of Indianness. In

the simplicity of the dialogues and first person narration, he sets an

adequate mirror of reality. It can be said that in his use of language

Narayan is simple, readable and without any purple patches. He

has a kind of humour, strange in English writing.

Critics often classify Narayan as arising out of the tradition

of oral story-telling. Reviewers note his gift for wry, subtle

humour, which he uses to expose the foibles of beings human.

Shashi Tharoor Asserts that “Narayan at his best is a

consummate teller of timeless tales, a meticulous recorder of

the ironies of human life, an acute observer of the possibilities


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`of the ordinary; India's answer to Jane Austin.”25 Narayan's

Comedy is focus of many reviews. It is commonly noticed that his

is a gentle humour. He respects his characters, and their nature.

This is why he can make jokes about them and stay friends with

them. Critics also point out his ability to give individual stories

arising out of a unique cultural experience and universal

significance. Reviewers assert that the creation of the fictional

Malgudi helps Narayan portray the flavour of a real city. Much of

the popularity of Narayan's work attributes to his ability to

successfully use the English novel form to portray Indian life and

Hindu culture.

R.K. Narayan is one of those great writers, few in numbers,

who have achieved recognition and acceptance. He believes in ‘art

for art’s sake’, but it does not mean that he is a writer without any

vision of life. It simply means that there is no intrusive message,

philosophy or morality in his novels. His novels are entirely free

from all didacticism. He is a penetrating analyist of human passion

and human motives. He is a great regional novelist and his novels

are tragi-comedies of mischance and misdirection. He is the

creator of a picture-gallery of the immortals of literature. A

25 Goorge R.M. Indian English and The Fictipn of National Literature, (Cambridge

University Press 2013), p.64 .


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number of life-like memorable figures move in and out of his

novels, and once we have been acquainted with them, we can

never forget them. He writes about the middle class, his own class,

the member of which are neither too well off not to be worried

about money and position, nor dehumanized by absolute need. His

hero is usually modest, sensitive, and ardent character.

In a nutshell, R.K. Narayan was a man with sharp and minute

observation. His description of character and keen observation has

been reflected in his writings and environments. He thinks that any

work of art should speak for itself. He was pious and religious by

nature. He played a very significant role in enriching the Indo-

English fiction. In his writing he has encompassed different

themes. His powerful imagination was always visible in his

writings. He depicts Malgudi in such a way that readers are able to

visualise the whole scene. The proverb, Brevity is the soul of wit is

rightly said. It is very true in case of R.K. Narayan. He believed in

brevity and so his stories are short and effective. He treated his

subject humorously. In his fiction, we find the description of

human world and Indian sensibility. He also manages to notice

cultural points with his gentle irony in simple language. He has left

a great impact on readers mind. He has made a tremendous


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contribution to literature and given a new dimension .It is for his

outstanding debut to literature that today R.K. Narayan is regarded

as one of the most celebrated writers in the field of Indian English

writing.

***

chapter – ii: r.k. narayan as a...

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