Narayan’s use of humour and irony in The Guide
Humour and irony, the essential
frivolitiesthat enrich and sustain interest in a literary work, pervade the
tragi-comic texture of Narayan’s novel The Guide. Unlike the comedy arising
from a premeditated situation or an irksome characteras in Jerome. K. Jerome’s Three
Men in a Boat, Narayan’s comedy arises from a close and realistic
observation of the serious business of life. Further, Narayan’s comedy is an
unveiling of the petty follies and foibles of ordinary life and not intended to
hurt or harm, nor to mock and satirize. The vein of sympathetic humour runs
through his presentation of the life and character of Raju, which is also
generally present in the nature of the villagers of Mangal as well as the inhabitants
of Malgudi town.
The childhood of Raju and his education
is presented with hilarious effect. The first person narrative persona
describes how as a child he would often swallow the extra peppermint in order
to minimize complications. The idea of arithmetic that the young boy develops
out of frustration is comic indeed: “Two and two four; four and three something
else.” The father’s principle of a child’s psychology is ironically primitive:
“The unbeaten brat will remain unlearned.”
Raju’s career as a guide is almost
certain to evoke laughter. The age he ascribed to any particular architecture
depended upon ‘his mood’ and ‘the type of person’ he was escorting. He often
concocted ‘statistics’ out of his ‘head’. The description of the tourists is
equally hilarious. Some of them were ‘passionate photographers’, who would
never looked at any object except through their ‘view-finders’; some were
hysterically historical and grew ‘ecstatic when they see cracked plaster,
broken idols and crumbling bricks.’ There are poets who want to merely watch
nature, there are some who want get to get ‘drunk’ in natureand others for whom
nature serves asan ‘aphrodisiac’.
Ironic treatment is also meted out to
the theme of sainthood, yet the situational irony is revealed by pure humour.
Although at first Raju enjoys Velan’s conferring of sainthood upon him, soon he
realizes that: “he had no alternative; he must play the role that Velan had
given him.” It is in order to impress the villagers that Raju had told Velan’s
moronic brother that he would not eat unless the villagers refrained from
quarrelling. But by a strange irony of fate the speech is distorted to imply
that he would not eat at all until rains arrived in the parched land. The irony
is further emphasized by the fact that Raju had himself earlier given the
villagers the idea that saints might bring rain by fasting and praying in
knee-deep water. The irony develops to its most intense form when he is
informed about the villagers’ new belief just when he is dreaming of his
favourite dish ‘bonda’.
The fact that Raju remains a ‘lovable
rogue’, and never forfeits the readers’ sympathy, in spite of his unreliability
to the tourists, defrauding of the trusting Marco, his seducing of another
man’s wife and his exploitation of the innocent villagers, is chiefly because
of Raju’s sense of humour. One example of Raju’s humorous take on the incidents
of life is when he describes his deliberate pretention of a dance master in
front of his maternal uncle: “I observed my uncle peep out of the kitchen, and
so I made myself more deliberately teacher like. I issued commands and directions
to Rosie. My uncle watched my antiques from the kitchen.” Another instance of
Raju’s humour is the manner in which he answers his mother’s queries about
Rosie.
Humorous and ironic presentation is an
essential tool for characterization. A sense of humour is something denied
entirely to Marco, for Marco is presented as a comic character who does not
have the inner humour to realize that he is the source of comedy. His dressing
in the European manner, his excessive concern for billsand his love for the
‘cold, old walls’, as described by Rosie renders him comic. On the other hand
one notices that Rosie is never made to appear comic, so that she retains a
great degree of respect till the very end.
Thus, the humour
and irony in “The Guide’ not only serve as entertainment ‘per-se’, but also as
a potent tool for the revaluation of character, and in particular for the purpose
of presenting Raju as tragi-comic figure who retains the audience’s sympathy in
spite of his roguishness.
No comments:
Post a Comment