The English Teacher by R.K Narayan
I give this book five for all the wrong reasons. This is one of the books that can be studied for its caste and sexuality-related erasures.
Krishna, a young English teacher, is portrayed as an ideal brahmin man who loves his wife deeply. This love really emerges after she dies. As long as she lives, he only fights with her and shows condescending attitude toward her on several occasions. The novel is primary a story of a Brahmin man and his world.
However, the text reveals what the author seeks to hide. Krishna, the English teacher, has never really loved his wife. We never see him once talking to her in a loving, passionate way one associates with young man. Throughout the text, he gives her only negative compliments. This happens in such mild ways that a reader, who is a cultural outsider, may not even notice it. For instance, at the railway platform, when Krishna meets his wife Susila (it is the first time, we sees them meeting in the text), he has nothing to say to her. He ignores her father and later comments on the same old sari she is wearing.
The socio-cultural landscape of the novel is Brahminical and upper caste. For instance, Dalits appear nowhere in the text. But the main tragedy that occurs in the text is due to their presence. Susila gets bitten by a fly, becomes ill and eventually dies. This happens because of some unclean, anonymous people. In addition, Krishna always talks harshly towards workers and lower-caste people.
As I mentioned earlier that as long as Susila lives, Krishna never comes across as a lover/husband. It is only after her death, he becomes a lover. This is an interesting twist. He speaks to her spirit and she says things to him he wants to hear. Her words reveal more about him and his guilt. What goes unremarked before in the text, now emerges with full-force.
In fact, while reading the text, I feel that her death is not properly explored. The author clearly sympathizes with the pain of Krishna, but as a reader, I am amazed that the text shows the opposite. For instance, just before she dies, she has almost been locked in a room. Not even once does he talk to her normally. He acts like a great nurse. In one scene, she starts singing and flinging her legs, and Krishna asks her to behave and not to exert herself. He does not try soothe her in any way. Such moments in the novel raises questions about the very nature of his relationship with her. One wonders about the cause of her untimely death. In fact, this whole episode of her illness reminds me of Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' a story in which everyone remembers the illness, but completely forget the person.
I am surprised that most critiques on Narayan show him as an ideal, authentic Indian novelist. If one looks at the socio-cultural landscape of his novel from Dalit as well as the perspective of sexual minorities, a completely different Narayan emerges.
Krishna, a young English teacher, is portrayed as an ideal brahmin man who loves his wife deeply. This love really emerges after she dies. As long as she lives, he only fights with her and shows condescending attitude toward her on several occasions. The novel is primary a story of a Brahmin man and his world.
However, the text reveals what the author seeks to hide. Krishna, the English teacher, has never really loved his wife. We never see him once talking to her in a loving, passionate way one associates with young man. Throughout the text, he gives her only negative compliments. This happens in such mild ways that a reader, who is a cultural outsider, may not even notice it. For instance, at the railway platform, when Krishna meets his wife Susila (it is the first time, we sees them meeting in the text), he has nothing to say to her. He ignores her father and later comments on the same old sari she is wearing.
The socio-cultural landscape of the novel is Brahminical and upper caste. For instance, Dalits appear nowhere in the text. But the main tragedy that occurs in the text is due to their presence. Susila gets bitten by a fly, becomes ill and eventually dies. This happens because of some unclean, anonymous people. In addition, Krishna always talks harshly towards workers and lower-caste people.
As I mentioned earlier that as long as Susila lives, Krishna never comes across as a lover/husband. It is only after her death, he becomes a lover. This is an interesting twist. He speaks to her spirit and she says things to him he wants to hear. Her words reveal more about him and his guilt. What goes unremarked before in the text, now emerges with full-force.
In fact, while reading the text, I feel that her death is not properly explored. The author clearly sympathizes with the pain of Krishna, but as a reader, I am amazed that the text shows the opposite. For instance, just before she dies, she has almost been locked in a room. Not even once does he talk to her normally. He acts like a great nurse. In one scene, she starts singing and flinging her legs, and Krishna asks her to behave and not to exert herself. He does not try soothe her in any way. Such moments in the novel raises questions about the very nature of his relationship with her. One wonders about the cause of her untimely death. In fact, this whole episode of her illness reminds me of Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper' a story in which everyone remembers the illness, but completely forget the person.
I am surprised that most critiques on Narayan show him as an ideal, authentic Indian novelist. If one looks at the socio-cultural landscape of his novel from Dalit as well as the perspective of sexual minorities, a completely different Narayan emerges.
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