Max Havelaar by Multatuli

First published: 1860 (English translation, 1868)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Satire

Time of plot: 1857

Locale: Java, Dutch East Indies

Principal characters

• Max Havelaar, a conscientious Dutch colonial administrator
• Batavus Drystubble, a Dutch coffee broker of Amsterdam
• Mr. Verbrugge, an administrator subordinate to Max Havelaar
• The Adhipatti, the native regent of Lebak, Havelaar’s district
• Saidyah, the son of a Javanese rice farmer
• The Shawlman, a schoolmate of Batavus Drystubble and a writer
• Mr. Slimering, Havelaar’s superior officer

The Story:

Batavus Drystubble, a self-satisfied coffee broker in Amsterdam, is accosted one day on the street by a former schoolmate who has obviously fallen on bad times. The Shawlman, as Drystubble calls him, pressed his prosperous former schoolfellow to look over a bundle of manuscripts, in the hope that Drystubble might be willing to help him have some of them published. Drystubble, thinking he might have a book written about the coffee trade, turns over the manuscripts to a clerk in his firm to edit. The clerk agrees to make a book of the materials, after securing a promise from his employer not to censor the results before publication. Out of the bundle of manuscripts comes the story of Max Havelaar, a Dutch administrator in Java, in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

Havelaar is an idealist who believes in justice for everyone, even the poor Javanese who labor in the fields. When he arrives at Rangkas-Betoong to take over the post of assistant resident of Lebak, a section of the residency of Bantam, in Java, he finds the situation much worse than anticipated, for the Dutch administrators, despite their oath to protect the poor and lowly, have acquiesced in the robbery and mistreatment of the native Javanese by the Javanese nobility, through whom the Dutch ruled the island. The Adhipatti of Lebak is a relatively poor man because his region does not produce many of the exports wanted by the Dutch. To keep up appearances befitting his rank and to support a large and rapacious family, the Adhipatti extorts goods, materials, and services from the people, who feel helpless because of the treatment they will suffer from the native chief if they complain to Dutch officials.

Havelaar, a man who loves a good fight for justice’s sake, is glad he has been assigned to Lebak. In his opening speech to the Adhipatti and the lesser chiefs, he declares that justice must be done, and he begins trying to influence the Adhipatti by advancing him tax money in the hope that the chief will be less exacting on his people. Suggestions and help are of little use, however, for the same evil practices continue. The people, learning that Havelaar wishes to see justice done, steals to his home under cover of darkness to lodge their complaints and give the assistant resident information. Havelaar rides many miles to redress complaints. He also gives an example to the chiefs by refusing to use more native labor than the law allows, even to letting the grounds of the residency go largely untended and revert to jungle. He realizes what he is fighting against, for he is in his middle thirties and has spent seventeen years in the Dutch colonial service.

Havelaar’s faithful adherent in his battle against injustice is his wife, Tine, who is devoted to her husband and knows he is in the right. Of less help is Mr. Verbrugge, the controller serving under Havelaar. He knows the Javanese are being exploited, but he hates to risk his job and security by fighting against the tide of complacency of Dutch officialdom. Mr. Verbrugge realizes that Havelaar’s superiors are interested only in keeping peace, in submitting reports that bespeak prosperity, and in providing wealth for the homeland—regardless of what happens to the Javanese.

One example is the story of Saidyah, the son of a Javanese rice farmer. One by one Saidyah’s father’s possessions are taken from him by extortion, even the buffalo that had faced a tiger to save the boy’s life. Finally, Saidyah’s father runs away to escape punishment for failing to pay his taxes, and Saidyah himself leaves his home village to seek work in Batavia, vowing to his beloved that he will return in three years’ time to marry her. When he returns, however, he finds that she and her family had been forced to flee and have joined rebellious Javanese on another island. Saidyah finally finds his beloved, but only after she had been killed and mutilated by Dutch troops. Overcome with grief, Saidyah rushes upon the troops and is impaled on their bayonets.

As time passes, Havelaar realizes he can expect little help from Mr. Slimering, the resident of Bantam and his immediate superior. Yet Havelaar hopes optimistically that some support will be forthcoming from that quarter. Havelaar learns that his predecessor has probably been poisoned because he sought to stop the exploitation of the population by the native chiefs. Havelaar learns this from his predecessor’s native wife, who still lives at the official residence.

Having finally gained what he deemed sufficient information against the Adhipatti, Havelaar lodges an official protest with Mr. Slimering. He requests that the Adhipatti and his subordinate chiefs be taken into custody and removed from Rangkas-Betoong, lest their presence intimidate the people and prevent their giving testimony of the abuses. Instead of acceding to any part of the request, Mr. Slimering comes to Havelaar’s district, denounces Havelaar’s actions, and even gives money to the Adhipatti. Havelaar, hoping to find support higher up in the administration, appeals to the governor-general, saying that unless he receives some support to eradicate the injustices he will have to resign after seventeen years of faithful service to the colonial administration.

At this point in the manuscript a section is inserted, supposedly written by Batavus Drystubble, who expresses the views of a complacent Dutch businessman in the homeland. Drystubble says that he has been royally entertained by retired colonial officials who assured him that the charges made in Shawlman’s manuscripts are groundless. Drystubble adds that as a religious man, he feels that the heathen Javanese are being given their just deserts for not being Christians and that the Dutch are profiting at the expense of the Javanese because the former are decent, God-fearing, and obedient Christian people who deserve divine favor.

After waiting a month, Havelaar learns that he has been relieved of his post in Lebak; he is ordered to another part of Java. He cannot accept this official action, knowing that he will have the same fight all over again, a losing battle, in a new assignment. He leaves Lebak after his successor arrives and goes to Batavia to present his case personally before the governor-general. That worthy man, too busy to see him, puts off Havelaar with one pretext after another. On the eve of the governor-general’s departure for Holland, Havelaar writes an angry letter as a last hope. That stinging letter does no good; the governor-general sails for home, leaving Havelaar poor and forsaken.

At the end of the novel, Multatuli steps in to break off the story and speak in his own voice, dismissing Shawlman and the clerk from Drystubble’s office, who as fictional characters have been writing the novel. Multatuli, after expressing his loathing of the hypocritical, money-grabbing Drystubble, says that he wishes to leave an heirloom for Havelaar’s children and to bring his appeals to the public. The author says that he knows his book is not well written, but all that matters is that people learn how the Javanese are being mistreated, thirty million of them, in the name of King William of the Netherlands.

Bibliography

Beekman, E. M. “Dekker/Multatuli, 1820-1887: The Dialogic Truth from the Tropics.” In Troubled Pleasures: Dutch Colonial Literature from the East Indies, 1600-1950. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Describes Max Havelaar as the first modern Dutch novel, using Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories about dialogic discourse to analyze the book. Beekman maintains the novel moved Dutch literature “from the moribund orthodoxy of the nineteenth century to the ’expressive capacities’ of the modern prose text.”

Feenberg, Anne-Marie. “Max Havelaar: An Anti-Imperialist Novel.” Modern Language Notes 112, no. 5 (1997): 817-835. A detailed analysis of the novel, focusing on Multatuli’s message of anti-imperialism.

King, Peter. Multatuli. New York: Twayne, 1972. A comprehensive study of Multatuli. Gives an overview of Max Havelaar’s complexity, as well as its relation to its author’s life. An excellent starting place.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Multatuli: Some Reflections on Perk, Kloos, and Boon.” In European Context: Studies in the History and Literature of the Netherlands, edited by P. K. King and P. F. Vincent. Cambridge, England: Modern Humanities Research Association, 1971. Examines Multatuli’s relationship to the Dutch Romantic writers, known as Tachtigers, who wrote in his shadow.

Schreurs, Peter. “Multatuli, a Soul-Brother of Rizal.” Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 14, no. 3 (September, 1986): 189-195. Explores Multatuli’s similarities with nineteenth century Filipino poet José Rizal, examining the relevance of Max Havelaar to discussions of the colonial and the postcolonial condition in the Philippines and in Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies).

Van den Berg, H. “Multatuli and Romantic Indecision.” Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies 5, no. 2 (Fall, 1984): 36-47. Discusses the curious mixture of Romanticism and realism in Max Havelaar and explores the novel’s roots in Dutch literature.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Multatuli as a Writer of Letters.” Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies 13, no. 2 (Fall, 1992): 17-22. Examines how the “private man” of Multatuli’s letters reveals himself in the writer’s fiction.

Zook, Darren C. “Searching for Max Havelaar: Multatuli, Colonial History, and the Confusion of Empire.” MLN 121, no. 5 (December, 2006): 169-189. Examines Multatuli’s writings, discussing his significance in Dutch literary history and his influence on Dutch culture.