R.K. Narayan's Humour: Immense Variety:
Introduction:
Narayan is considered to be the greatest of the humorist among the Indo - Anglian novelists. Humour is all - pervasive in the novels and stories of Narayan. In most of his novels some touch of humour, some sly remark, some bit of irony will be found to amuse the reader. We come across in his novels farcical humour, or humour of situation, humour of character or humour arising from the odd and the grotesque in character and person. We also find in him verbal humour emerging from jokes, jests, repartees, retorts and by the dexterous use of language in various ways. Often pathos and humour are found co-mingled and then we smile through our tears. He can be comic even in the midst of gravest situation.
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| R.K. Narayan’s Novels— Humour, Irony and Satire |
Satiric Humour:
Satiric humour is also found in Narayan's novels. He makes the target of his satire to greedy businessman and moneylenders, extorting house owners, black marketeers and profiteers or producers of films in which erotic scenes are shown, fake sadhus and credulous nincompoops but his satire is so mild and gentle that it is often difficult to decide whether Narayan is passing satire or is merely exposing and ridiculing the follies for the entertainment or recreation of his readers. His humour is genial and kind for he accepts life as it comes to us with all it foibles and follies and does not assume the role of the reformist. By nature, he is a humorist and not a satirist. He creates ordinary characters in his novels and tries to show the uncommon and extraordinary talent in them and he does so by highlighting the discrepancy between actuality and aspiration.
Comic Vision of Life:
Narayan's vision of life as is expressed in his novels is essentially comic and its salient features are struck in his first novel Swami and Friends. In the beginning of the novel Swami is shown in clash with his teacher. He examines the teachers face closely, criticises it and this deflation of the teacher is highly comic. Narayan amuses us by depicting the preparations of students for their examination. Instead of studying sincerely they want to be provided with many things that they think necessary to get through the examination. Another comic situation is created by their agitated talk of their elders about the political events of the day. Further, a cricket match is set between two groups of students. The manner in which they talk about the match and make preparations also amuse us.
Like Swami and Friends, we also find comic deflation of the professor in The Bachelor of Arts. Chandran cuts the professor to size a size with which the strivers feel at case. It is this through which Narayan's heroes assert themselves and make others feel their importance: the illusion of their exaltation coupled with a healthy disrespect for others, teachers not exempted. At first Chandran feels nervous when he goes to meet the professor. Then he suddenly gathers courage: " Why this cowardice? Why should I be afraid of Raghavachar or anybody else? Remove these spectacles, the turban and the long coat and let Raghavachar appear only in loin cloth and Mr. Raghavachar would lose three quarters of his appearance. Where was the sense of feeling nervous before a pair of spectacles, a turban and a black long coat?” The last sentence of the above quoted passage reveals Narayan's wit i.e., the clever use of language which amuses and delights us. Later, when Chandran fails to marry the girl he loves, he runs from the home and turns a sanyasi but is back soon and ironically enough agrees to marry the girl chosen by his parents, falls in love with her and forgets the fascination for the girl he loved earlier “no such thing as love, a foolish literary notion” and settles down to a comfortable routine life. We are reminded of Shakespeare Puck who remarks, “What fools these mortals be.” “Narayan’s concept of humour covers wide range from mere farce and simple witticism to incongruous words.”
Strange Whimsical Characters:
Some of Narayan's minor characters are equally comic. The ancient landlord in The English Teacher or the middle aged Madras rake in The Bachelor of Arts or the strange priest in The Financial Expert fall into this group. Sometimes such a character may be kindly, like a suitable amiable medium in The English Teacher or malevolent, like the sinister Marco in The Guide. In The Man Eater of Malgudi, the Man - Eater is not a tiger at all but H. Vasu who is an expert in the art of taxidermy. He kills wild beasts and stuffs their skins for display. Ironically enough this dreadful man, a Rakshasa who takes delight in destruction is killed by a blow of his own fist which he strikes at his bead to kill a mosquito.
Comedies of Sadness:
“Narayan’s novels”, says William Walsh. “are comedies of sadness." The sadness comes from his characters shaking off their old routine selves and reconstituting or being able to reconstitute new selves. The comedy arises from their bumbling, desperate and absurd search for new experience and new roles, roles which are sometimes thrust upon them and for which they are not suited. The complex theme of his serious comedies, in other words, is the re - birth of self, its regeneration through a process of education, a process which frees them from distracting illusions and hysterics. Narayan's fiction proceeds by revealing the manifold contradictory nature of personality and existence. We see the same people from different points of view and, therefore, see the differences in them, the contrary coexisting layers of being. No one of these identities is in any bleakly orthodox way the true one, since all are equally true and equally illusory.
“This comedy is seen at its fullest and its best in most varied form in the five novels representing the ripest in Narayan's mature art. Much of the comedy of The Financial Expert, which includes Margayya, probably Narayan's greatest single creation, comes from this friction of discrepancies. The clashing of contrasting orders or experiences, each probing and placing the other, generates a distinct and buoyant kind of comedy. The action of The Financial Expert moves from petty huckstering and village money - lending outside the doors of the local. Co - operative Land Mortgage Bank, with Margayya humiliated by the abuse not only of the manager but of the bank's peon for illegally extracting loans from the sophisticated world of capital movements, a contrast, however, which is in keeping with Narayan's view of the fundamental oneness of existence and also its continuity. The one substance of money appears in different guises. But The Financial Expert is no simple story of success, from door - keeper to director. Margayya will do anything for money, even being religious for it. He moves from rags to riches, from cotton to lace dhoti, not really by financial astuteness at all but by obeying the mystifying injunction of the priest in the local temple and by performing elaborate rituals, for forty days, to the Goddess Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth. "
Comedy of Shattered Vision:
Narayan is a writer of comedies but his are not merely humorous comedies. They are effective, piercing as well as amusing. Humour is a coherent part of a more inclusive vision which is ultimately sad. Narayan is a talented novelist and he is fully aware of the technique of treating human reality which produces humour. Some of his comedies as Mr. Sampath, The Financial Expert and The Sweet Vendor end in the ruin of the chief characters of the novels. Yet they are not devoid of humour. Even the end of The Guide is not what the end of a comedy ought to be but the behaviour of simple villagers who take Raju to be a Mahatma surely amuses us. Actually his comedies are typical comedies because their end is not happy. Krishna, Savitri, Mr. Sampath, Margayya and Jagan all are frustrated men who make their fortune by their hard labour but meet with despair at the end of the novel. Hence, in spite of comic element, his novels give the impression that life is not free from sadness, that there are tears behind laughter and fun.
Conclusion:
Narayan is thus the writer of serious comedy and he has attained rare success in it. By using the comic mode he has shown that tragedy is not essentially associated with great figures. Even the average and common place is capable of the highest tragedy. In his novels which we may call tragi - comic, it is shown that love, beauty, money, prestige all create illusion which misguide human beings and thus human relationships get complicated. Therefore, one must come out of such illusions, if right relationships are to be established. Normally, such serious problems are dealt within tragedy, but Narayan shows that a mature artist can tackle such serious problems even in comedy and can produce the same effect as is produced in tragedy.