The White Tiger novel by Aravind Adiga

How far do you agree with the India

represented in the novel The White Tiger?

The White Tiger is a Man Booker Prize winning text by Arvind Adiga. The novel is both- praised and criticized. Praised because of its literary quality and criticized for ruthless portrayal of India.

Now the question is that at what extent we can believe in whatever said in  the text?? So the answer is at large extent anybody will agree that whatever written is real, it has grains of truth.

One of the advantages of studying text like The White Tiger is that, it is set in Indian background. We all are born and brought up here. So, whatever incidents are narrated in the novel, some of them may be experienced by each and every individual in his/ her personal life. For example...

→ Corruption in politics, police & education, pollution, prostitution, Hit & run, failure of governmental institution, Rich V/s poor conflict, tragic life of workers like rickshaw pullers, drivers, sweepers etc, Globalization and changing morality, two sides of India-Darkness and Light  etc.

 There is not a single object left out by Adiga. Whatever has come to his way, he has bluntly criticized it. Balram's  story is  a tale of bribery, corruption, skulduggery, toxic traffic jams, theft and murder.

While studying The Waste Land, there was a line "The Waste Land is a collage of several Images"; so I must say "The White Tiger is a collage of several experiences".

From the beginning Balram satirizes various institutions of India. He says ....."And our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs."(P-4)

Here in school teachers are selling uniform of students given by government. Why teachers do this?? Because govt. don’t pay them their salary on time.

The similar thing happens with hospitals also that there is no doctor in hospital; he is in his own clinic. He can run clinic by bribing officers.

I may not believe the representation of India, unless if it is proved. The major incident in novel takes place in Delhi - capital of India. While working as a driver Balram many times refers to traffic jam and air pollution. Is it true? Do we have any scientific proof proving it as truth?

In last Nov-Dec (2015), there was a summit about climate change in France. According to agency's report, most 150 polluted cities were identified from all over the world. 15 cities of India were also mentioned there, and surprisingly Delhi was top in list. This report came in 2015, but this problem discussed much earlier novel in 2008.

Right now Odd & Even formula started by Delhi govt. to control traffic and pollution. This step also proves narrative as right.

Another significant point is India of light & India of Darkness. In rural area people had no work at all. People roam here & there for work. Whereas, as Balram mentions In Bangalore there are hoardings for job. Well qualified people are not available who can satisfy the need of market.

Let’s quote words of Adiga …….

"Well, this is the reality for a lot of Indian people and it's important that it gets written about, rather than just hearing about the 5% of people in my country who are doing well. In somewhere like Bihar there will be no doctors in the hospital. In northern India politics is so corrupt that it makes a mockery of democracy. This is a country where the poor fear tuberculosis, which kills 1,000 Indians a day, but people like me - middle-class people with access to health services that are probably better than England's - don't fear it at all. It's an unglamorous disease, like so much of the things that the poor of India endure.

"At a time when India is going through great changes and, with China, is likely to inherit the world from the west, it is important that writers like me try to highlight the brutal injustices of society. That's what writers like Flaubert, Balzac and Dickens did in the 19th century and, as a result, England and France are better societies. That's what I'm trying to do - it's not an attack on the country, it's about the greater process of self-examination."

so , my point is that this representation of India is real.

 though, this kind of condition may not be in all the states of India. India itself is very large and full of diversity. at many extent, to me, it looks like novel is tale of 1970s India. Because while living in Gujrat we dont have seen the poor condition narrated in novel. But this kind of scene is common in Bihar. so from where it is said is also very important.

its not about WHOLE india, but about few selected parts (states)of India 

★★

Do you believe that Balram's story is the archetype of all stories of 'rags to riches'?

It is a bit tricky question. I can’t say yes or no directly. But it can be read like that also. For success one has to slit another's throat. Metaphorically read as using other as a step or use their blood or money (or blood money!!!!) for personal success.  This is what Balram did. It can be called Microcosm narrative of how to become successful businessman in India?  Critics like Thomas Friedman were looking with hope towards India, but at that time this novel came as a shock to many people. Is this the business model of India ?? Is Balram stands for all the successful businessman of India? The canvas  of the novel is very important. Balram  says in the novel that he don’t want to make his  statues. Means  all the great ones , whose statues are made were murderers.

★★★

"Language bears within itself the necessity of its

own critique, deconstructive criticism aims to

show that any text inevitably undermines its own

claims to have a determinate meaning, and

licenses the reader to produce his own meanings

out of it by an activity of semantic

'freeplay'.  Is it possible to do deconstructive reading

of The White Tiger? How?

First of all DECONSTRUCTION IS NOT A DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITY, BUT IT IS INQUIRY INTO FOUNDATION OF THAT THING.

According to Derrida, every text contains elements which deconstruct the text itself. What we've to do is "To find a loose stone". This loose stone is capable to blow up entire building (text). In Literary terms this is known as 'Aporia'. But the necessary thing is that this Aporia should be inside, within the text. So, where is it in the White Tiger?

Balram himself says, "It is an Autobiography of a Half- baked Indian". Now the question is that how far we can believe in the story, who himself is half - baked. His experiences and observations must be limited. We can’t rely on his narrative that whatever spoken by him is truth. This single line can falsify the entire narrative.

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

It is one of the most discussed and debated play by critics and scholars. The story is very simple- Vladimir and Estragon- two tramps are waiting for someone called Godot, but Godot never comes. Who or What is Godot? Why is he not coming? Why both tramps are waiting for Godot? What will happen if Godot comes?? Since how long time Estragon and Vladimir are waiting?? These and many other similar kinds of questions remain unanswered.

Samuel Beckett's language is very simple, but that simplicity is deceiving.

Waiting for Godot falls under the category of Theatre of Absurd. It has no plot, neither beginning nor end. it ends at a similar mode from where it begins. Existentialism is a prominent theme of this play.

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, often known simply as Tom Jones , is a comic novel by the English playwright and novelist Henry Fielding . The novel is both a Bildungsroman and a picaresque novel . First published on 28 February 1749 in London, Tom Jones is among the earliest English prose works describable as a novel.

In the begining of the novel description of Squire Allworthy is given. They are rich. while returning he founds a baby there. After search they conclude that it must be child of  Jenny Jones - a servant of a schoolmaster and his wife. child is named Tom Jones

.

Tom - protagonist and title character is a unheroic hero. The kind of background in which he brought up,,we cant expect good behaviour from him. He had affairs with so many girls, lives a wondering life. But the turns and twists in the novel are interesting

Tom grows into a vigorous and lusty, yet honest and kind-hearted, youth. His first love is Molly, gamekeeper Black George's second daughter and a local beauty. She throws herself at Tom; he gets her pregnant and then feels obliged to offer her his protection. After some time, however, Tom finds out that Molly is somewhat promiscuous. He then falls in love with a neighbouring squire's lovely daughter, Sophia Western. Tom's status as a bastard causes Sophia's father and Allworthy to oppose their love; this criticism of class friction in society acted as a biting social commentary. The inclusion of prostitution and sexual promiscuity in the plot was also original for its time. Sophia's father, Squire Western, is intent on making Sophia marry the hypocritical Master Blifil, but she refuses, and tries to escape from her father's influence. Tom, on the other hand, is expelled from Allworthy's estate for his many misdemeanours, and starts his adventures across Britain, eventually ending up in London. Amongst other things, he joins the army for a brief duration, finds a servant in a barber- surgeon named Partridge (who habitually spouts Latin non sequiturs), beds two older women (Mrs Waters and Lady Bellaston), and very nearly kills a man in a duel, for which he is arrested. Eventually the secret of Tom's birth is revealed, after a short scare that Mrs Waters (who is really Jenny Jones) is his birth mother, and that he has committed incest . Tom's real mother is Bridget, who conceived him after an affair with a schoolmaster — hence he is the true nephew of Squire Allworthy himself. After finding out about Tom's half-brother Master Blifil's intrigues, Allworthy decides to bestow the majority of his inheritance to Tom. Tom and Sophia Western marry, after this revelation of his true parentage, as Squire Western no longer harbours any misgivings over Tom marrying his daughter. Sophia bears Tom a son and a daughter, and the couple live on happily with the blessings of Squire Western and Squire Allworthy.

Tom was in love with Sophia Western. But her father dont like it because he is a bastard, and plans marriage with cunning Blifil. In between many incidents takes place. But both are united at hand.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is a novel set in Puritan Boston. Narrator of the novel is custom house surveyors who found this story. And then he narrates the story of a Adulteress Hester Prynne.

In the begining of the novel Hester was standing on scaffold because  of commiting Adultery. Dimmesdale and other priests ask her to reveal name of father of Pearl but Hester refuses to give name of her fellow sinner. So she has to wear Scarlet A on her bosom- symbol of Adulteress Hester. During this Roger chillingworth comes, who, we later come to know is the husband of Hester. But somehow not able to come to Boston. After punishment She lives with her daughter Pearl on the outskirt of the town. The novel is full of suffering of Hester.When she passes through market people follows her, beats drum that Hester has came and abuses her.And Dimmesdale who is the real father of Pearl watches all these from window.

Roger chillingworth - a newly arrived physician in Boston lives with Dimmesdale. Any how he came to know that actual reason behind illness is unconfessed sin, so Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl.

Later on, Dimmesdale meets Hester in forest and both plan to settle somewhere else. Dimmesdale confeses his sin publically and dies. Chillingworth also dies because now there is no object to take revenge. Pearl marries and went to Europe. Hester also dies and she was buried near grave of Dimmesdale.

And we can see the transformation of Hester from Adulteress to Able to Angle Hester.

Literature always stands for humans.

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is an 1850 work of fiction in a historical setting, written by

Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered to be his magnum opus.Set in 17th-century

Puritan Boston , Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester

Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity . Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism , sin , and guilt .

 Quotations

“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does

not love you. It runs away and hides itself,

because it is afraid of something on your bosom.

. . . It will not flee from me, for I wear

nothing on my bosom yet!”

“Nor ever will, my child, I hope,” said Hester.

“And why not, mother?” asked Pearl, stopping

short. . . . “Will it not come of its own accord,

when I am a woman grown?

“Mother,” said [Pearl], “was that the same

minister that kissed me by the brook?”

“Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!” whispered

her mother. “We must not always talk in the

market-place of what happens to us in the

forest.”

Her real importance lies in her ability to provoke the adult characters in the book. She asks them pointed questions and draws their attention, and the reader’s, to the denied or overlooked truths of the adult world. In general, children in The

Scarlet Letter are portrayed as more perceptive and more honest than adults, and Pearl is the most perceptive of them all.

• "Pearl makes us constantly aware of her mother’s scarlet letter and of the society that produced it. From an early age, she fixates on the emblem. Pearl’s innocent, or perhaps intuitive, comments about the letter raise crucial questionsabout its meaning. Similarly, she inquires about the relationships between those around her— most important, the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale—and offers perceptive critiques of them. Pearl provides the text’s harshest, and most penetrating, judgment of Dimmesdale's failure to admit to his adultery. Once her father’s identity is revealed, Pearl is no longer needed in this symbolic capacity; at Dimmesdales death she becomes fully “human,” leaving behind her other worldliness and herpreternatural vision."

The Purpose by T.P.Kailasm.

• "The Purpose"

By T. P. Kailasm

★Decentering the center :-

In Ramayan, Ram is at the center. But if we change the center and bring Sita into the center then it is problematic.

In "Hamlet" by Shakespeare, Hamlet is at the center. But if we change the center and bring Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into center or if we bring women characters like Ophelia or Gertrude at the center & read from their point of view then it is problematic.

What Tom Stoppard did by play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead", the similar kind of thing is done by T.P. Kailasm in The Purpose.

The play is written by T.P.Kailasm. It is based on epic poem Mahabharat. It is revisiting or rewriting of history but from marginalized's point of view. Hero Arjun of original work is decentered and Eklavya marginalized figure comes here at the center. This play also leads to doubt the historical / Grand narrative's truths. It challenges the meta/ grand narratives of past.( History is written by winners)

• ★ Nietzsche's concept of Perspectivism:-

If we change our perspective, then we'll have totally different view than was earlier. There is no final truth but it all depends on how we look at this.

Kailasm has given more space to Eklavya. He was the better archer than Arjun. Arjun is not shown under bright light - he forces Drauna that you promised me to make me greatest archer in the world. In this play the cause of learning archery was noble, because Eklavya through his skills wanted to protect innocent animals from wolves. Rather than personal fame he was more interested saving other's life. Where as Arjun any how, just wanted to became the greatest archer in the world. ( This is totally opposite than what is written in Mahabharat)

Thus, by bringing Eklavya into center Kailasm from marvinalized's point of view challenges the meta narrative.

The Old man and the sea by Earnest Hemingway

• The Old man and the sea

It is too short to call a novel and too long to call a short story. its a novella by American writer Earnest Hemingway. The language is very simple, but that simplicity is full of deeper meanings.

it is a story of an old Cuban fisherman named Santiago goes for fishing into sea for eighty four days but returns empty handed. But then even he didn't lose the courage and catches a big fish Marlin. while returning other sharks and fish attacks Marlin and thus he returns empty handed with ruined Marlin.

But there is victory even in defeat.

Novella is full of beautiful quotes like "Man can be destroyed, but not defeated". 
and "Man is not made for defeat"

Another critical aspect for which text is critically praised is its sincerity. Santiago says to Marlin : "I love you, i respect you But i have to kill you". This is very important. Santiago is not hypocrite. This is the one reason that texts like this are given the awards. Literature stands for characteristics like this.

In real life people go on doing wrong things, but they never confess. They pretend to be good. But Hemingway's hero Santiago is not so.

I would like to use Hindi lines for the Spirit of the old man:- "Zindagi ki jung me, Me haar kaise maan lu. Tu Abhi jeeti nahi aur mein abhi haara nahi".

The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party

The Birthday Party is written by Harold Pinter- Nobel winner author. The play is severely criticized by critics but Pinter clearly says that we don't need critics to tell public what to read.

The play is heavily a political play. Then even nothing is said in crystal clear style. From other work, and his Nobel speech we come to know that Pinter was strongly Anti- American. This open the gates for reader to read the play as  a political play.

Stanley Webber is a protagonist, who seems to be an artist(pianist), lives in a boarding house owned by Meg and Petey Boles, near somewhere cost in England. There two stranger named Goldberg and McCann comes who threatens and takes Stanley away to some unknown place.

Who were strangers?? Why they take Stanley away? What is the relationship between Stanley and Strangers?? Is Stanley really artist?? What is his past?? Etc. questions nearly remains unanswered.

The play is very much open for interpretation

The Fakeer of Jungheera

The Fakeer of Jungheera

The Fakeer of Jungheera is written by Henry Louise vivien Derozio. It is a tragic love story of a Nuleeni- a young widow and Muslim Fakeer.

Husband of Nuleeni was died, so people were preparing for ritual of becoming Sati.In this , widow is burn alive on the funeral pyre with her husband. Other women were telling to Nuleeni that now you will get place into heaven with your husband.

This is a great satire on mentality of contemporary society. this concept of going in heaven sounds stupid and nonsense.

But Nuleeni was waiting for his lover- a Muslim Fakeer. He comes and both runs away. Nuleeni prefers to die with Fakeer than with her husband. But peole follows them& kills them. story of these two lover ends in the tragic way.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility is a novel by Jane Austen, and was her first published work when it appeared in 1811 under the pseudonym "A Lady". A work of romantic fiction, better known as a comedy of manners, Sense and Sensibility is set in southwest England, London and Kent. It  portrays the life and loves of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne. The novel follows the young ladies to their new home, a meagre cottage on a distant relative's property, where they experience love, romance and heartbreak.

World of Jane Austen is very limited. But then even her novels remain favourite to many readers. One such novel is Sense and Sensibility- mainly story of a two sister named Elinor and Marriane and third one  is Margaret who along with mother loses their everything because of death her father, and becomes homeless overnight.

  Jane Austen gave it the title Elinor and Marianne. She later changed the form to a narrative and the title to Sense and Sensibility.

"Sense" in the book means good judgment or prudence, and "sensibility" means sensitivity or emotionality. "Sense" is identified with the character of Elinor, while "sensibility" is identified with the character of Marianne. By changing the title, Austen added "philosophical depth" to what began as a sketch of two characters.

Then the novel revolves around Elinor and Marianne's relationship with other man.

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Books like this gives vision to understand past in a better way.This can be said an attempt to read history through literature.

It is a novel by Daniel Defoe. Title character goes for sea voyages, even though his parents denied. Then there was a shipwreck & he reaches on an island. There he starts living all alone, with a bird & animals but without any human companion.

The novel can be read from angle of colonialism as Whiteman's discovery of new land and establishing colony there. Crusoe makes his own hut and starts plantation there.

After few time he saves a Negro boy from other canibals. And because he arrived on friday, Crusoe gives him name "Friday". Crusoe makes him his slave.

Crusoe teaches him English language, and tries to civilize him. We can apply here concept of "Whiteman's burden". All the whiteman were thinking that it is their duty to civilize the world. They are the choosen people by god. They are the only civilized & superior race, the rest are the barbarians.

Slave trading is also a major issue brought into light by the writer. Before shipwreck Crusoe had faithful servant, but he sold him. For few amount of money he sold Friday also. It can be also read as criticism on slave mentality. Friday willingly accepts Crusoe's superiority. It is unbelievable that Friday puts Crusoe's foot on his head, to accept him as slave.

While living there Crusoe falls ill, and remembers his father & his last word that if you go for sea voyages, then you would be the most miserable person.

This dream sequence is very interesting.

From Post Colonial angle concept of Western superiority can be Deconstructed. Crusoe doesnt even tried to know about native boy's original identity. He threatens the Other with the power of gun.

After living there for many years, with the help of a arrived ship he returns home.

Edgar Allan Poe's short story

Poe's short story

Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his horror story. He has written masterpiece stories like "The Black Cat", "The Purloined Letter", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The fall of house of Usher", "The Gold Bug" and many other.

The most interesting thing about these story is that not a single word is unnecessary. it helps in building environment of horror, terror and supernatural elements. Gothic elements are also important characteristics of his stories.

The Black Cat is a story in which Narrator kills an old man only because he dont like his vulture eye. He himself confesses that this old man has never done any wrong thing to him. For many days Narrator observes that man during night as a part of planing and later on executes the plan.

The Fall of house of Usher is mysterious story with heart beating horror.

The Purloined Letter is a bit different than other stories. it is about the stealing of important letter and detective Dupin's search for it.

The cask of Amontillado is a story in which one friend buries other alive behind the wall because other had done something to him earlier. This story is example of height of cruelty and revenge.

 Poe portrays the psychological complexity of these two supposedly opposite emotions, emphasizing the ways they enigmatically blend into each other. Poe’s psychological insight anticipates the theories of Sigmund Freud.Poe, like Freud, interpreted love and hate as universal emotions.

Self vs. Alter Ego

In many of Poe’s Gothic tales, characters wage internal conflicts by creating imaginary alter egos or assuming alternate and opposite personalities. In “William Wilson,” the divided self takes the form of the narrator’s imagined double, who tracks him throughout Europe. The rival threatens the narrator’s sense of a coherent identity because he demonstrates that it is impossible for him to escape his unwanted characteristics. The narrator uses the alter ego to separate himself from his insanity. He projects his inner turmoil onto his alter ego and is able to forget that the trouble resides within him. The alter ego becomes a rival of the self because its resemblance to the self is unmistakable. Suicide results from the delusion that the alter ego is something real that can be eliminated in order to leave the self in peace. In “The Black Cat” the narrator transforms from a gentle animal lover into an evil cat-killer. The horror of “The Black Cat” derives from this sudden transformation and the cruel act—the narrator’s killing of his cat Pluto—which accompanies it. Pluto’s reincarnation as the second cat haunts the narrator’s guilty conscience. Although the narrator wants to forget his murder of Pluto, gallows appear in the color of his fur. The fur symbolizes the suppressed guilt that drives him insane and causes him to murder his wife. (Sparknote)

Love and Hate, power of living over dead  is brilliantly captured in the story. Animals as a symbol also plays vital role in the stories.  

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost Book 10

paradise Lost is a epic poem by John Milton.  It is mainly about the fall of man from heaven.

In earlier book it happens that God has created the universe and Adam & Eve to live in.

But satan wanted to take revenge on God. Because he cant do anything to God, he decides to destroy creation of God.

so he enters into the garden of Eden into the form of serpant. Serpant waits for Eve to be alone. When Satan looks her for the first time, he for a while forgets his evil intentions. He was mesmorized by her beauty.

But then he gains his consciousness, and then Temptation scene begins. Any how he convinces Eve to taste the forbidden fruit of knowledge.

Eve then realises the mistake she had done. Adam comes to know about Eve's tasting of forbidden fruit of Knowledge. Adam willingly eats the fruit of knowledge, because he thinks that he cant live without Eve. Thus fall of man happens from Paradise. Both first time becomes conscious about their nakedness & goes into wild and enjoys the sex.

★ HUMANISM:-

Humanism is important characteristics of Renaissance. Adam willingly tastes  fruit & chooses Eve. This means that he neglects god for Eve. No writer can esacape the impact of the time, in which he is writting. Renaissance was a time when religion was replaced by science. This effect is seen in Paradise Lost.

Oliver Twist by Dickens

Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist is a brilliant critical study of a Victorian England by Charles Dickens. Dickens has presented the harsh reality of contemporary society that how there were schools of teaching how to theft?!!

This was the time when "Sun never sets on British Empire". They had established their colonies all over the world. They were considering themselves as superior race and highly civilized, developed society. But actually was it so???  Dickens raises this question. Britishers were thinking that it is "White men's Burden" to civilize the world.

But Dickens, being an Englishman breaks and challenges  the aura of this so called greatness.

See what is happening in London!!  it was a place full of criminals like Fagin. London is the capital of England. Metaphorically / symbolically capital represents entire Nation. It can be read as whatever was hapening in London that was also happening in entire country, or picture may be worse than this in other part of England.

"Please sir ! I want some more !!-Oliver's this line is ringing like bell in my mind. How pathetic it was that children were not given enough food to eat.it shows the failure of workhouses. I still visulise the scene when Oliver asks for more gruel, other's reaction were as if something rebelious thing he has done !!!

another scene is also interesting that all the Officers of workhouse had very large quantity of delicious food to eat. All were fat men with big bellies and chubby chicks and other orpahn children, complete opposite to them!!!!

Important characteristics of Dicken's writing is that even though he satirizes various institutions of society, SMILE NEVER LEAVES OUR LIPS WHILE READING.

But as a reader we have to keep in mind that writer's intention behind writing books like this is NOT to defame their country.Aravind Adiga- 2008 Man Booker Prize winner author for his debut novel The White Tiger, defensed himself by saying that writing of Balzac, Dickens and many other has Help THE NATTION TO GROW AS A BETTER SOCIETY. Dickens wants to remove evils from English society.

Middlemarch novel by George Eliot

Middlemarch

Middlemarch is a long novel by George Eliot -(Mary Anne Evans Eliot).

 The narrative is variably considered to consist of three or four plots of unequal emphasis:  the life of Dorothea Brooke; the career of Tertius Lydgate; the courtship of Mary Garth by Fred Vincy; and the disgrace of Bulstrode. The two main plots are those of Dorothea and Lydgate. Each plot happens concurrently, although Bulstrode's is centred in the later chapters.

Middlemarch is a provincial town. Mainly it is a story about Dorothea. She chooses to marry Casaubon - an elderly scholar, who was doing some research work. The reason behind marring him was that she wanted to help him in his research work. But this is not the thing for which one gets married.

After marriage Dorothea realises his vold behaviour towards him.Dorothea discovers his animosity towards her ambitions during an unhappy honeymoon in Rome. Realising his great project is doomed to failure, her feelings change to pity. Dorothea forms a warm friendship with a young cousin of Casaubon's, Will Ladislaw, but her husband's antipathy towards him is clear and he is forbidden to visit. In poor health, Casaubon attempts to extract from Dorothea a promise that, should he die, she will "avoid doing what I should deprecate and apply yourself to do what I desire". He dies before she is able to reply, and she later learns of a provision to his will that, if she marries Ladislaw, she will lose her inheritance.

But Dorothea chooses love over money.

The young doctor Tertius Lydgate arrives in Middlemarch. Through his voluntary hospital work he meets the town's financier, Mr. Bulstrode, and through him Bulstrode's niece, the mayor's beautiful daughter Rosamond Vincy; Rosamond is attracted to Lydgate, particularly by what she believes to be his aristocratic connections. They marry, and in Lydgate's efforts to please Rosamond is soon deeply in debt and forced to seek help from Bulstrode. He is partly sustained through this by his friendship with Camden Farebrother.

Then Fred and Mary Garth's love story is also interwoven very well.

At last Bulstrode's past is revealed. The peculiar nature of Casaubon's will leads to suspicion that Ladislaw and Dorothea are lovers, creating an awkwardness between the two. Ladislaw is secretly in love with Dorothea, but keeps that to himself, having no desire to involve her in scandal or to cause her disinheritance. He remains in Middlemarch, working as a newspaper editor for Mr Brooke; when Brooke's election campaign collapses, he decides to leave the town and visits Dorothea

to make his farewell. But Dorothea has also fallen in love with Ladislaw, whom she had previously seen only as her husband's unfortunate relative. However, the peculiar nature of Casaubon's will led her to begin to see him in a new light. Renouncing Casaubon's fortune, she shocks her family again by announcing that she will marry Ladislaw. At the same time, Fred, who has been successful

in his career, marries Mary. The "Finale" details the eventual fortunes of the main characters. Fred and Mary marry and live contently with their three sons.

Lydgate operates a practice outside of Middlemarch but never finds fulfilment and dies aged fifty; after he dies, Rosamond marries a wealthy physician. Ladislaw engages in public reform and Dorothea proves to be contented as a wife and mother; their son inherits Arthur Brooke's estate.

Kanthapura

Kanthapura

Kanthapura  is a novel by Raja Rao. It is considered as masterpiece in Indian Writing in English. It it microcosm of macrocosm. or we can say it a miniature of India.

Contemporary freedom fighting movement is interwoven with the religious stories in the novel. The novel is located in the southern India.

What interesting thing about this novel is that Raja Rao uses English language the way Indians used. Raja Rao is criticized for his use of English language, because it is full of mistakes. But he clarified in the preface that i have written the way Indans speak the English language.

Moorthy is the protagonist in the novel.

Achakka  tells the story to the grand children. the kind of background of freedom fighting movement given is vivid and real. Kanthapura at the end of the novel has turned into Kashipura.

The story is narrated in flashback by Achakka, a wise woman in the village. She, like her female audience (whom she addresses as “sisters”), has survived the turbulence of social and political change which was induced by Mohandas K. Gandhi’s passive resistance against the British government. Achakka provides a detailed picture of the rural setting, establishing both an ambiance and a rhythm for the novel. It is clear that her speech and idiomatic expression are meant to express a distinctively feminine viewpoint an extraordinary achievement for a male Indo-English novelist. Achakka quickly creates a faithful image of an Indian way of life, circumscribed by tradition and indebted to its deities, of whom Kenchamma, the great and bounteous goddess, is made the village protectress. She is invoked in every chapter, for the characters never forget that her power resides in her past action. It is she who humanizes the villagers, and their chants and prayers ring out from time to time.