Esmond in India: Analysis of Major Characters
"Esmond in India: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricate dynamics between key figures entwined in a narrative that reflects the cultural and personal tensions of post-colonial India. Central to the story is Shakuntala, a young woman of privilege who navigates her identity amid the contrasts of traditional Indian values and her own bohemian inclinations. Her relationships with Esmond Stillwood, an English lecturer, and his wife Gulab reveal the struggles of cross-cultural connections and personal dissatisfaction. Esmond, caught in an unhappy marriage, embodies the complexities of understanding Indian culture while grappling with his own British traditions.
Gulab, representing the traditional Indian woman, experiences both sensuality and fatalism, contributing to the novel's exploration of gender roles. Other pivotal characters include Har Dayal, a government official who values personal relationships over revolutionary ideals, and Ram Nath, a disillusioned independence hero whose family struggles with societal changes. The narrative also introduces supportive characters like Uma, Gulab's mother, and Betty, Esmond's mistress, adding layers to the exploration of love, infidelity, and societal expectations. Overall, the story delves into the challenges faced by individuals caught between contrasting worlds, highlighting their emotional and cultural struggles.
Esmond in India: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
First published: 1958
Genre: Novel
Locale: New Delhi, India
Plot: Social realism
Time: The 1950's
Shakuntala (shah-kewn-TAH-lah), a nineteen-year-old, upper-class, recent college graduate, the daughter of Har Dayal and Madhuri. Shakuntala enjoys the luxuries of home and of being out of school with an as-yet-undefined future. Attractive, yet careless about her dress and appearance, romantic, headstrong, and slightly bohemian, Shakuntala rejects her mother's conventional values and shares her father's vaguely artistic inclinations. By the end of the novel, she has become Esmond Stillwood's mistress, having cast herself at him because of his romantic good looks and his seemingly vast knowledge of and interest in Indian culture.
Esmond Stillwood, a thirtyish English lecturer on Indian art and culture. The husband of Gulab and father of Ravi, Esmond also is the lover of Betty and later of Shakuntala. Unhappily married, Esmond finds himself turning from mental to physical cruelty toward his wife, who cannot master his British traditions and way of life any more than he can truly understand her deeply Indian culture. By the end of the novel, it is clear that Stillwood will desert India, Gulab, Shakuntala, andevenRavitoreturntoEnglandonBetty'smoney.
Gulab (GEW-lahb), Esmond Stillwood's wife, Uma's daughter, and Ravi's mother. Beautiful, idle, fatalistic, and deeply sensual, Gulab embodies an ancient Indian tradition and way of life. Once engaged to Amrit, Gulab jilted him and stubbornly married Stillwood. Although she tries to conform to Esmond's household rules and is never overtly critical of them, she reverts to her way of doing things the moment he is out of sight, both in the food she eats and in her affectionate and deeply physical way of nurturing their child. Although her mother, Uma, has attempted to persuade her to leave Esmond, Gulab does not do so, despite his cruelty and infidelity, until, overcome by Gulab's beauty, their servant makes advances toward her. Only then does she feel justified in leaving, because of her husband's failure in his primary duty: to protect her.
Har Dayal (hahr DAY-ahl), a wealthy and successful government official. He is the husband of Madhuri; father of Shakuntala, Amrit, and Raj; and lifelong friend and admirer of Ram Nath. Willingly dominated by his wife's hard-nosed values, Har Dayal stayed out of the main revolutionary movement in which his friend Ram Nath had been jailed and had become a hero. Har Dayal thrived after Indian independence because of his personal warmth, his unwillingness to offend, and his ability to popularize culture. He is close to his daughter, Shakuntala, who idealizes him, but feels his friend Ram Nath to be the greater man, even though Ram Nath is poor and Har Dayal is, by worldly standards, a success.
Madhuri (mah-DEW-ree), Har Dayal's wife and the mother of Shakuntala, Amrit, and Raj. The center of her wealthy, comfortable, and luxurious household, Madhuri is its dominant and very conservative, traditional force. Deeply concerned that her children marry properly, she holds a grudge against Ram Nath's family for Gulab's jilting of Amrit, though Amrit is happily and suitably married to Indira. Madhuri is worried that Shakuntala's bohemian tendencies may lead her to marry Narayan, Ram Nath's son. The match would be unsuitable because of his poverty and his family. She does not yet know, at the novel's close, of Shakuntala's relationship with Esmond.
Ram Nath, a hero of the independence movement. He is the father of Narayan, the brother of Uma, and an old friend of Har Dayal. An intellectual and once an activist, Ram Nath feels extraneous in and remote from the new India, in which his more adaptable and worldly friend, Har Dayal, is such a success. His family's wealth spent on the revolution, Ram Nath lives in comparative poverty, regretting only that his wife, Lakshmi, must suffer with him without understanding his principles. When Narayan requests that his father find him a suitable wife, Ram Nath focuses on Shakuntala, who has charmed him by enthusiastically espousing idealism. Ram Nath's request, however, is rejected as unsuitable by his old friend, Har Dayal, a rejection that pains Har Dayal more than it does Ram Nath.
Lakshmi (lahk-SHMEE), Ram Nath's wife. Thoroughly conventional in her views, Lakshmi does not share her husband's, her son's, or even her sister-in-law Uma's idealism. Although bothered by the loss of status induced by her poverty, Lakshmi in her way makes the best of her lot by feeling superior to her neighbors while fully participating in their lives.
Uma (EW-mah), Ram Nath's sister, Gulab's mother, and Ravi's grandmother. Uma is the widow of a revolutionary hero. Energetic, superstitious, religious, and, like her brother, idealistically dedicated to the principles of the revolution, Uma runs a rather open household, with all kinds of people temporarily or permanently living there. Uma deeply loves her family and is distressed by Gulab's unhappy marriage and Ravi's unsuitable upbringing.
Ravi (RAH-vee), Gulab and Esmond Stillwood's young son. Ravi loves his mother and grandmother but fears his father.
Amrit, the older son of Har Dayal and Madhuri, brother of Shakuntala and Raj, husband of Indira, and jilted fiancé of Gulab. Amrit is, like his father, Cambridge educated, but he has no interest in the arts. A businessman, Amrit is dedicated to his work; to orderly, material comfort (in this attribute, he resembles his mother); and to his wife. He was not made unhappy by Gulab's defection and is completely satisfied by his marriage and his life. Essentially kind like his father, Amrit has no higher strivings and therefore tends toward smugness.
Indira (ihn-DIHR-ah), Amrit's thoroughly conventional and suitable new wife. Madhuri is increasingly pleased with her and compares Shakuntala unfavorably to Indira. If not as beautiful as Gulab, Indira is healthy, dresses neatly, and adores her husband and her mother-in-law. Shakuntala finds her dull company.
Betty, a well-off, good-looking, agreeable Englishwoman who is Esmond's mistress but is liberated enough sexually not to mind his affair with Shakuntala, whom she views as naïve but agreeable company. A hedonist, Betty seems to have no particular occupation, nor any desire for one, and no particular reason for being in India except that, for a time, it has amused her to be there.
Bachani (bah-CHAH-nee), Uma's lifelong servant, devoted to Uma and also to Gulab and Ravi.
Narayan (nah-RAH-yahn), Ram Nath's son. By choice and conviction a village doctor, the intellectual Narayan never appears in person in the novel, although his request that his father find him a wife and his values are central to the plot.
Raj, Har Dayal and Madhuri's son. Like Narayan, Raj, who is studying in Cambridge, never appears in the novel in person, but his lack of communication followed by his engagement to a suitable English girl form a subplot.