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... ot been made for each other. Rosie and Marco, the wife and the husband, are yoked together unnaturally, having nothing common in their tastes, attitudes and passions. Both are poles apart even in their nature. Rosie is bored by Marcos excessive interest in old stone walls, and consequently lives in a state of despair and feels lonely even in his company: When we are alone and start talking, we argue and quarrel over everything.
We dont agree on most matters. (p. 83) Marital incompatibility becomes the main cause of her subsequent suffering in the story. We observe that Marco is insensible and prosaic wherever his wife is concerned. He always neglects her and this is too much for Rosie. Her marriage with Marco, in fact, gives her nothing except conflict the conflict with her husband due to their temperamental incompatibilities. Her attempt to contain all her needs within marriage ends hopelessly. (Holmstorm) Unlike Ramani, Marco though does not regard his wife as his possession, yet he is totally unaware of her legitimate needs for some of the common pleasures of life. This makes Rosie suffer at mental level.
Her mental suffering is undoubtedly inexpressible and this unuttered mental suffering leads her to develop a love-affair with Raju and finally to the ruin of her married life. Thus, once again, marital disharmony becomes the cause of disintegration in family; however, the causes contribute differently in the cases of both Savitri and Rosie. Marco and Rosie though do not belong basically to Malgudi, yet their dissatisfied married life has a deep impact on another family of Malgudi, the family of Raju, the guide, and moreover, much of the conflict between them occurs in the locale of Malgudi. The same reason of suffering also occurs in The English Teacher.
In this novel, though the novelist mainly deals with an ideal marital relationship through the main characters, yet we find that the Headmaster of a school in Malgudi has not an ideal relationship with his wife and this makes him suffer mentally. The two are again not made for each other and the Headmaster spends much of his time in the school and goes home occasionally. His mind is always full of tensions and he prefers to live in the company of his little students and this comes as a relief to his torn soul. His wifes decision not to send her children to the school adds to his confusions and tensions. His disturbed mental state clearly comes out when he gives vent to his despair: I dont know. I cant say perhaps to the gutter, or to some low class den in the neighbourhood.
They are their mothers special care, you know. (p. 144) However, Narayan is not a writer who depicts only the suffering of married people due to the misunderstandings between the husband and the wife. In Malgudi, there also live ideal couples like Krishna and Susila, yet their life is not devoid of suffering. But the cause of suffering here is not the contradiction of ideas and personalities. The novel has an autobiographical touch, and the personal loss that Narayan suffered at his young age in the form of the death of his wife, perhaps resulted in the creation of The English Teacher. The novel "is believed to have been based (mostly the second half) on the writers personal experiences. (Dnyate) The death in a close relation always causes sorrow and suffering; in this novel, the death of wife Susila is the main cause of the agony Krishna suffers.
In the general course of his life, Krishna has nothing to complain. He is a sensitive and sincere teacher in a college in Malgudi. He is a devoted husband and thus, stands in sharp contrast to Ramani and Marco. But all happiness of the husband and wife comes to an unexpected abrupt end when Susila suffers from typhoid and finally dies.
Death of ones kin is a potent cause of suffering and when the dead is the wife in relation, it causes irrevocable sorrow. Because Narayan had personally felt it, thus he rendered the grief of Krishna with a remarkable restraint. The first person narrative of the novel gives a considerable account of suffering not only of Krishna but that also of Narayan himself. After Susila's death, Krishna is forced to face the harsh realities of life and is tortured by loneliness that he undergoes. His mental agony at the funeral is both poignant and touching: I cannot resist the impulse to turn and look back. Flames appear over the wall...
It leaves a curiously dull pain at heart. There are no more surprises and shocks in life, so that I watch the flame without agitation. For me the greatest reality is this and nothing else... nothing else will worry or interest me in life hereafter. (p. 96) Susila's tragic death makes Krishna stunned and benumbed. Krishna looses the essential moorings of his life. He has no interest in life and in his work.
He finds comfort and solace in his little daughter, Leela, who now takes up much of his time and attention. His emotional attachment to wife and her memories make him change his decision to leave his house. He faces the problem of adjustment, and lives in a state of apathy, restlessness and listlessness. A terrible fatigue and inertia makes him indifferent to his work at the college. He is apathetic to his professional job and is unmindful of its impact on his students.
R. K. Narayan's pictur ization of the middle class is an expression of his deep understanding of social psyche. His novels mostly deal with the ordinary strata of life. His characters represent middle class and through their suffering, he has attempted to show the problems that a common man faces and make him suffer in the course of his life.
Financial hardship, universal problem of the middle class families in India, is the cause of suffering of some characters of Malgudi novels. In Swami and Friends, the coachman easily cheats Swami of twelve paises which is a great sum of money for Swami. When Swami wants his money back, the coachman either ignores him or threatens to beat him. Swami and his friend Raju plan to get money back but they are beaten. They have to run for their lives. Swami realizes that he was a fool, first to have believed the coachman and, secondly, to have tried to recover his money from a rascal like him.
The whole episode results in his discomfiture and suffering. Narayan puts in: Swaminathan took care to walk a little in front of him (his father) and not behind, as he feared that he (coachman's son) might get a stab any minute in his back. (p. 91) In The Vendor of Sweets, financial hardship is the chief cause of Mali's tensions. Mali wants to go to America, but Jagan, his father, does not allow him. He is unwilling to bear the expanses of the tickets. Consequently, Mali is angry with his father and steals ten thousand rupees from his fathers concealed money. Thus, the financial problem leads Mali to commit a theft in his own house.
When Mali returns from America, he demands over two lakh rupees for the manufacturing of novel writing machine. He is quite enthusiastic about his plan. But all his hopes are dashed to the ground when Jagan flatly refuses to pay such a huge amount. This results in a lot of frustration and suffering to Mali. Jagan in The Vendor of Sweets, is a great sufferer in Malgudi.
His mental anguish is beyond words. He is a sufferer at the hands of his son, Mali. He is so emotionally attached to Mali that the very thought of his separation from his son depresses him. Mali's plan to go to America to learn the art of writing comes as a shock to him. As Mali returns from America, he brings with him a half-American, half-Korean girl from the United States.
This act of Mali adds to the mental stress and agony of his bewildered father. Mali's untoward behaviour kills the equanimity of the Gandhian father once for all. His deviation strikes at the root of Jagan's sanity of sublime tradition. It is clear that the orthodox Shastra abider Jagan must really have been shocked beyond words, but the Gandhian principle of tolerance seems to have made him accept Grace as his daughter-in law. (Dnyate) To worsen the matter and to add misery to the grieved Jagan, Grace reveals to him the darkest truth. She tells him that she and Mali are not yet married. For a religious reader of Puranas like Jagan, living together for a man and a woman without getting married is to live in a sin.
He is not able to swallow and digest the revealed fact. He feels that his son and Grace have tainted his ancient home. This news comes to him as a shock. He gets disillusioned by his sons ingratitude.
He tries to reconcile himself with the new situation, but the last blow of Mali's arrest is unbearable to him. He, for once, feels beyond all attachments and learns the fact of life. He apprehends that his suffering is the result of his lenient nature. Ultimately, he decides to run away from the situation and enters the Vanaprastha stage of life, as he says: I will go away somewhere else. Everything can go on with or without me. The world doesnt collapse even when a great figure is assassinated or dies of heart failure.
Think that my heart has failed, thats all. (p. 184) Thus, Narayan has shown that there live real human beings in Malgudi who are not spared by an inevitable aspect of life, that is, suffering. People of all classes and all ages suffer, and Narayan has been very much successful in presenting this in his fictitious locale, Malgudi. The characters of Narayan are, however, not made to suffer as they are in the novels of Mali Raj Anand, yet there is suffering which we see in our daily life and which is really as integral to life as death is. WORKS CITED: Primary Sources: Narayan, R. K. Swami and Friends.
Chennai: Indian Thought Publications, 2003. -- -. The Dark Room. Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 2000. -- -. The English Teacher.
Madras: Indian Thought Publications, 2004. -- -. The Guide. Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 2000. -- -. The Vendor of Sweets. Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 2002. Secondary Sources: Dnyate, Ramesh.
The Novels of R. K. Narayan: A Typological Study of Characters. New Delhi: Prestige, 2001. Hariprasanna, A. The World of Malgudi: A Study of R.
K. Narayan's Novels. New Delhi: Prestige, 1994. Harry, S. C.
The Fire and the Offering: The English Language Novels of India 1935 - 1970. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1978. Holmstorm, Lakshmi. Women Characters in R. K. Narayan's Novels.
Perspectives on R. K. Narayan. Ed. Atma Ram. Ghaziabad: Via, 1981.
Method, Veena Vandal. Social Realism in R. K. Narayan's Novels. Jaipur: Book Enclave, 1997. Narayan, R.
K. My Days. London: Chat & Windows, 1975.
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Research essay sample on Suffering And Agony In Malgudi Is There Any
