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3 Indian novels

This study will examine three Indian novels in order to understand them as tragedies or comedies. The three novels are Jasmine, by Bharati Mukherjee, and The Guide and The Financial Expert, by R.K. Narayan. The study will argue that Mukherjee's novel is far more the tragedy than either of Narayan's books, the latter qualifying as far more comic. This argument does not mean there are not comic elements in Mukherjee or tragic elements in Narayan, for there certainly are.

For the purposes of this study, tragedy will be understood as a serious story focusing on an individual who faces internal and/or external forces which work to defeat or destroy him or her. The tragic hero is not necessarily actually defeated or destroyed, but the suffering of his or her experience brings him or her to some significant awakening about himself or herself, or the world. This definition applies to Mukherjee's protagonist.

Comedy, on the other hand, deals with the same basic materials of life as tragedy, but the protagonist's attitudes toward and responses to those materials are entirely different, as is the impact on the reader. In comedy there is the sense that life is the way it is and there is not much one can do about it, after all, and not that much to learn, but at least one can relax now and again and have a good laugh at the absurdity of life. The only real tragedy in the comic realm is when the individual takes himself or life too seriously and expects life to be different than it is. This definition applies to Narayan's novels and protagonists.

Narayan and Mukherjee express their respective comic and tragic visions on every page of their books. In story, characterization and style, the tragic or comic intent of each author is clear. The struggle of Jasmine in Mukherjee's novel is solemn for the bulk of the novel, with minimal comic relief. She resists the fate that awaits her from the very beginning of the book, setting up the circu...

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3 Indian novels. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 20:23, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701133.html