INTRODUCTION TO THE BACHELOR OF ARTS – III : R.K. NARAYAN

INTRODUCTION

In this unit we will acquaint you with its context, characters, importance of the title and Narayan’s use of language and style in the novel The Bachelor of Arts.

The novel The Bachelor of Arts presents before us a realistic and amusing picture of the college and home life of a middle class youth, Chandran, with tinges of pathos and irony. Narayan is remarkable for his simple, lucid and easy language and unaffected and elegant prose style. Precision, clarity and exactness are the basic qualities of his prose style. His characters are life- like and have been drawn from the middle or lower middle class of society.

CONTEXT OF THE NOVEL

The Bachelor of Arts was first published in 1937. The story of the novel revolves round an undergraduate, H.V.Chandran, who is studying in the final year of B.A. at Albert College. The novelist describes in the novel that crucial state in which this young man passes his final year at the college.

CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL

Narayan’s characterization is always lively and authentic. He understands the psyche of his characters and presents the inner happenings in the minds and in the hearts of his characters. Their happiness, unhappiness, triumphs, defeats, morality, immorality etc are not unreal but true to their nature. Narayan is extremely successful at character –drawing in his novels. He draws his characters through suitable descriptions and relevant and effective dialogues. His characters are life like and have been drawn from the middle or lower middle class of society.

The theme The Bachelor of Arts revolves round the life story of its protagonist, Chandran. Characters in The Bachelor of Arts can be classified as Chandran’s friends like Natesan, Mohan and Ramu; his teachers like Gajapathi, Principal Brown, Ragavachar and Dr. Menon and, his family members like his father, mother, brother and uncle. Besides, there are the flower thief, the match maker, the post master, the astrologer and Kailas. All his characters in this novel have been brilliantly drawn against the background of humour marked with tinges of pathos. It is due to this all pervading genial humour that The Bachelor of Arts has proved to be such a charming and amusing work of fiction.

Some important characters in the novel

CHANDRAN: Chandran, who is the hero of the novel, is an intelligent and ambitious youth. He is studying at Albert College in B.A. college Final class. He is a student of English Literature and History. He is an intelligent and laborious student. He is an excellent orator and gives interesting and impressive speeches in his college. He is adjudged the best speaker in the debate on the topic “Historians should be slaughtered first“. On account of his oratory power he is appointed the secretary of the Historical Association. Apart from being a diligent student, he is an easy going social young man who leads an easy going and carefree life. He enjoys the company of Mohan who is a poet and who later becomes a newspaper correspondent. Chnadran’s evening walks on the river bank bring a storm in his life when he sees the 15 year old beautiful Malathi. He is fascinated by her charm and this fascination (मोह) turns into infatuation (आसक्ति). He is impatient to marry the girl and insists on his parent’s arranging this marriage. His mother does not like the idea but he expresses his determination in marrying Malathi. But when this marriage did not materialize he feels dejected and disappointed. He leaves Malgudi and goes to Madras out of frustration. His extreme sentimentality and emotional nature leads him to become an ascetic (सन्यासी) when he fails to win his dream – girl Malathi. He suffers so much by wandering aimlessly and remaining on alms (भीख) and charity. But soon he realizes his mistake of becoming a Sanyasi and he finally reunites with his parents. The conversation below shows his changed attitude. After his realization he finally decides to settle with Susila. Chandran proved to be a loving husband to Susila and his conjugal life seemed to be peaceful and happy.

Throughout the novel it is seen that Chandran’s attitude to different social problems remains unorthodox (अपरंपरागत) and non conservative. Similarly, he believes that old customs and traditions should not stand in the way of happiness of people. The character of Chandran is developed dramatically through a series of adventures. He passes through three phases –as student in the last year of his college life, as a romantic lover, and as a, frustrated lover who turned Sanyasi. He returned to the realities of life after disillusionment (मोहभंग) about his romantic notion (धारणा) of love and life. R.K. Narayan has shown his progressive growth from immaturity to maturity.

MOHAN : Mohan is Chandran’s friend who is also a poet who is quite unrecognized (अपरिचित). He has written poems on a wide variety of topics but is yet to get them published in magazines. He impresses Chandran with his poetical capacity and creative qualities. Mohan doesn’t seem to be a good student. He fails and so he becomes a correspondent of the ‘Daily Messenger’ and prospers in his job by his hard work. He lives in a hotel in Mill Street opposite the house of Malathi, Chandran’s dream girl for some time. It is Mohan’s practical outlook and matter of fact vision with which he convinces his friend Chandran to marry Susila. In fact Chandran feels happy after acting upon his advice.

His friendship with Chandran goes to the extent of close intimacy and all throughout his life he remains a faithful friend to Chandran. Again it is Mohan who advises Chandran to try for getting the agency of the ‘Daily Messenger’, a newspaper of Madras. He knows fully well what is in the interest of Chandran and that is the reason why he doesn’t deliver Chandran’s letter to Malathi in which Chandran wanted to know whether Malathi could wait for two years to marry him. He is a practical man possessing worldly wisdom and all other qualities which make him a successful man.

KAILAS : The character of Kailas has not been drawn in detail. Kailas is seen only on one occasion in the novel. He meets Chandran in a hotel of Madras. He is very hospitable, but on the other hand he is a reckless (लापरवाह) youth. He is prolifigate (पैसे उड़ाने वाला) who came to Madras with two hundred rupees to have a good time. He takes Chandran to different places in Madras and pays for everything. He squanders away what he has with him. He believes that, “A man must spend forty years in making money and forty years in spending it” and he acts on this principle. He is a drunkard and given to excessive spending. He keeps two wives and yet comes to Madras for visiting prostitutes. Thus, in Kailas ‘s character R.K. Narayan has presented another type which is opposite to Chandran. He perhaps wishes to prove that a saint and a sinner can live in the same society.

CHANDRAN ‘S MOTHER: Chandran’s mother is a typical Indian housewife. She is a God fearing and a saintly lady who keeps herself busy with prayers. At the same time she thinks of her husband, home, children and relatives. She also has respect for religious persons and devotees of God. Basically she is a highly religious minded lady . Let me tell you that she is also a lady of conservative ideas. She does not approve of Chandran’s marriage with Malathi. According to her, marriage of a boy and a girl should be settled only if horoscopes tally. The proposal for marriage should always come from the bride’s side and not from the bridegroom’s side, because the bridegroom’s party is always superior to the bride’s. Apart from being a conservative lady, she is also conscious of riches and status. It is not an exaggeration to say that she suffers from snobbery (दंभ) on account of her status and money. That is why she wants her son to get married to a rich girl who can afford to bring handsome dowry. We can judge her as a typical conservative mother of certain affluence in Indian society. But despite her orthodox nature and conservative thinking, she has got some qualities. She is a noble, kind, and gentle lady whose whole mission in life is to make her children, husband and the family happy.

               

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TITLE

The Bachelor of Arts” may be called a novel of youth. The title of the novel is an appropriate one. It is self explanatory and most suitable as it suggests to the reader a true and life like picture represented in bright and dark shades of activities. Chandran’s story is a mixture of life, his love and romantic notion of life, his ambition, his whims(सनकीपन) and finally his achievement as a Bachelor of Arts, a degree that puts a mark of distinction on him as a well educated young man of his proud parents. The story of the novel begins when Chandran is studying in the final year of B.A. at Albert College. The novelist describes in the novel that crucial state in which this young man passes his final year at the college and his first year in the world. The academic achivements as well as the extracurricular activities of a B.A. student have been given an authentic description in the first part of the book. The hero remains busy with these activities and plans to go to England after doing his B.A.. In the second part of the book the hero’s infatuation for a beautiful 15 year old girl Malathi has been described with a sure psychological touch –how the hero falls in love at first sight, how he shows his impatience to marry the girl though his love has not been reciprocated by the girl, and how his ambition and plans are finally shattered. All this creates a feeling of despair in the mind of the hero. He does not wish to live at home and desires a change, so he leaves for Madras which has been described in third part of the book. He wanders aimlessly in various parts of South India in order to forget Malathi and get mental peace which eludes him. In the end, he becomes a Sanyasi and travels long distances on foot and remains on alms. He grows very weak and looks haggard. He is unable to get any peace of mind. The life of Sanyasi doesn’t suit him and ultimately he returns home. In the fourth part of the novel the hero’s life as an agent of “the daily Messenger” has been depicted. To get the agency of this newspaper he has to face a tough competition but turns up victorious with the help of his uncle and finds himself settled down in his life . At last he marries Susila, the beautiful daughter of a Talapur advocate and thus leads his conjugal and domestic life happily. You can see that in this way, the whole story begins with his college days where he is a bright student of the B.A. Class and ends in his finally getting settled in life with a beautiful wife. The title of the novel touches one aspect of Chandran’s life - his college days.

But here I must mention that while drawing the picture of the activities and experiences, plans and ambitions of the graduate hero, the novelist has also touched upon the various social and religious customs and traditions of a typical South Indian family which is deeply rooted in old traditions, blind superstitions, class snobberies etc. The title is appropriate to the extent that it gives us an idea of the hero’s education. But the novel also deals with many other issues, giving a faithful picture of the colonial Indian society.

NARAYAN’S TECHNIQUE

Among his contemporaries R.K.Narayan is perhaps technically most perfect. He has an easy way of storytelling. He has the capacity to explore the psychology of human behaviour. His plots are simple and has characterization realistic. His technique is marked by his preference for a smooth –running story. In this respect we can compare him with the two other most prominent novelists of his times: Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. He is more precise in story telling while Anand uses elaborate method of description. Raja Rao appears to be more philosophical. Besides, Narayan relies more on keen observation and small details.

We can notice all these qualities in “The Bachelor of Arts”. The portrayal of the characters in the book follows his general practice not to present any great heroes or heroines but insignificant local people. But there is a variety of characters who are true to life. Besides Chandran who plays a variety of roles as an undergraduate student son, lover, sanyasi and finally settling happily as a family man, there are other characters like Chandran’s father, Malathi, his mother, friend Mohan and the profligate Kailas – Chandran is a typical lover who, with English education would not mind breaking away the tradition of marrying according to the old custom. He also goes through some conflict which is beautifully presented in the novel.

The plot construction of the novel is also not at all loose. All the actions in the story are arranged with a neat coherence. The plot in “The Bachelor of Arts” is episodic in nature. Its actions and events are arranged in three stages:

a) Chandra’s love for Malathi and his decision to marry her

b) His wanderings as a sanyasi

c) His return to parent’s home and his marriage with Sushila

All these make it truly cohesive with a beginning, a middle and an end. We do not find any loose end among the three parts which are coherently linked with one another.

LANGUAGE AND STYLE

Narayan is one of three pioneers of Indian writing in English. Many of Narayan’s works are rooted in everyday life. He is famous for his

·          outstanding and grand qualities of humour and characterization in presenting the Indian life in his fiction

·          simple, easy language and elegant prose style.

He has used the language of common man in his novel. He usually avoids compounded sentences. In this novel his writing style is simple, unpretentious and witty (सरल और मजाकिया), with a unique flavour. Precision, clarity and exactness are the basic qualities that are seen in this novel. Words and phrases that are used are clear and self explanatory. His vocabulary has a very modest range. He is also not shy of invoking Hindu tales or traditional Indian folklore to emphasize a point. The language of this novel syntax (वाक्य रचना) comes closer to the pattern of the normal conversation of an educated Indian. However his language also has his style of irony and satire (विडंबना और व्यंग्य). Though apparently transparent, there are levels of irony in his easy style. Irony is the difference between what is said and what is intended to be said. The irony in the novel is found in the presentation of the relationship between Chnadran and Malathi. Chandran falls in love with her after seeing her playing with her brother on the bank of the river. She is unaware of Chandran’s growing emotional involvement. Later his language is changed into that of a philosopher when he turns into a Sanyasi after failing to marry Malathi.

                 

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