World Short Story Criticism

World Short Story Criticism

 

 

 By

 Menonim Menonimus

 

 

 

Internet Edition by

www.menonimus.org

 

World Short Story Criticism (a collection of critical essays on some short stories around the  world) by Menonim Menonimus, Published by www.menonimus.org

 

 

Internet Edition: 2019

 

 

Price: Rs. ……………… /-

 

 

D.T.P. by Rabbi Masrur

 

 

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Foreword 

I like reading books of whatever kind I find but during my student life, I read short stories written by writers around the world, and sometimes, along with reading, I used to write analyses on some of them, not as a critic but as a reader to quench my thirst in understanding a short story better.

This present work World Short Story Criticism is an outcome of such reading and writing. In doing the task of analyzing the short stories that I happened to peruse, I gave preference to analyzing the theme only though in some of them brief comments on the artistic elements have been cast.

These analytical studies have been compiled so that they may be instrumental for my dear readers to comprehend the short stories better.

Menonim  Menonimus

Santi Kanan 

 

Contents

1. The Use of Dialogue in Premchand’s Short Story ‘Deliverance’

2. The Characterisation in Premchand’s Story ‘Deliverance’ 

3. The Irony in Premchand’s Short Story ‘Deliverance’

4. Premchand’s short Story ‘Deliverance’: An Analytical Study

5. Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Story ‘The Exercise Book:  An Analytical Study

6. Ambais’ Short Story’Yellow Fish’: An Analytical Study

7. Yellow Fish as a Metaphorical Short Story

8. The Significance of Colour in the short Stroy ‘Yellow Fish’

9. The Use of First Person ‘I’ in the Short Story ‘Yellow Fish’

10. Roger Mais’ Short Story ‘Blackout’: An Analytical Study

11. Saadat Hasan Manto’s Short Story ‘The Dog of Tetwal’: An Analytical Study

12. Guy de Maupassant’s Short Story ‘The Jewel’ -An Analytical Study

13. Guy de Maupassant’s Short Story ‘The Necklace’ -An Analytical Study

14. Guy de Maupassant’s Short Story ‘A Piece of String’ -An Analytical Study

15. J. A . A. Joyce’s Short Story ‘Eveline’ -An Analytical Study

16. S. Maugham’s Short Story ‘The Verger’ -An Analytical Study

17. Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘God Sees the Truth But Waits’ -An Analytical Study

18. Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘Three Questions’ -An Analytical Study

19. Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘What Men Live By’ -An Analytical Study

20. Anton Chekhov’s Short Story ‘The Bet’ -An Analytical Study

21. Shaukat Osman’s Short Story ‘Prize’ -An Analytical Study

22. S. Souvany’s Short Story ‘A Silent Love’ -An Analytical Study

23. R. K. Narayan’s Short Story ‘Lawley Road’ -An Analytical Study

24. R. K. Narayan’s Short Story ‘The Martyr’s Corner’ -An Analytical Study

25. Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘The Imp and the Peasant’s Bread’ -An Analytical Study

26. R. K. Narayan’s Short Story ‘Leela’s Friend’ -An Analytical Study

27. R. K. Narayan’s Short Story ‘Father’s Help’ -An Analytical Study

28. Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Story ‘The Cabuliwallah’ -An Analytical Study

29. Atulananda Goswami’s Short Story ‘A Birthday Party’ -An Analytical Study

30. Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need’ -An Analytical Study

31. Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘A Prisoner in the Caucasus’ -An Analytical Study

32. Lord Halifax’s Short Story ‘The Invisible Passenger’ -An Analytical Study

33. Bimal Mitra’s Short Story ‘1990’ -An Analytical Study

34. Banaphool’s Short Story ‘The Girl’ -An Analytical Study

35. Natarajan’s Short Story ‘Co-death’ -An Analytical Study

36. Dr Pratibha Roy’s Short Story ‘The Certificate of Honour’ -An Analytical Study

37. Ruskin Bond’s Short Story ‘Once a Thief’ -An Analytical Study

39. O’Henry’s Short Story ‘The Romance of a Busy Broker’ -An Analytical Study

40. Alphonse Daudet’s Short Story ‘The Last Lesson’ -An Analytical Study

41. Nikolay Gogol’s Short Story ‘The Cloak’ -An Analytical Study

42. Lakhminath Bezbaruah’s Short Story ‘Patmugi’ -An Analytical Study

 

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WORLD SHORT STORY CRITICISM

(TEXT)

The Use of Dialogue in Premchand’s  Short Story ‘Deliverance’

‘Dialogue’ refers to the conversation between two or more people. The use of dialogue imparts dramatic quality to a story. Dialogue should be used sparingly and carefully with the intention that through dialogue the plot may get evolved and the characters may get revealed with their true passion, emotion, motive, feeling etc.  Dialogue should be in keeping with the personality of the speakers and suitable for the situation. For instance, a king should behave and talk like a king, a maidservant like a maidservant, a ruffian like a ruffian, a beggar like a beggar, a clergyman like a clergyman.  In brief, to say, dialogues should be realistic but in using dialogue, the storyteller should take care that the speech may not go, in any way, beyond the purpose of the author. For example, in a real-life situation, people happen to make quarrel where the people involved utter many unnecessary words or repetitions of the same words and phrases. The storyteller must eschew them all and employ only those speeches which serve the purpose of the evolution of the plot and the purpose of unfolding the inner motives, passion, feeling etc. of the characters.

Premchand is a master of creating dialogue. In the short story entitled ‘Deliverance’,  he has used dialogue to evolve the story along with divulging the inner passion, emotion, motive, feeling of his characters.  

In the first section of the story, ‘Deliverance’ the author introduces Dukhi the principal character of the story and his wife. The author employs lots of dialogues in their mouths through which their inner personalities and motives of them have been revealed thoroughly.

Dukhi and his wife are physically as well as mentally enslaved. They are as naive and simple as the other lower castes of people. They have great regard for the Brahmins and they become anxious about how they would receive the Pandit Ghasiram. They have good faith in the Pandit that the Pandit has the power to fix an auspicious day for their daughter’s betrothal. Dukhi is meticulous about the Pandit as he says, ”.. we have to think about what he’s going to sit on.”

Then his wife says, ”Can’t we find a cot somewhere? You could borrow one from the village headman’s wife.” 

As there is no hope of borrowing a cot, Dukhi suggests to his wife, ”You’d better wash your own cot and set it out — in this hot weather it ought to be dry by the time he comes.”

But Jhuriya, the wife of Dukhi is aware of how stickler the Pandit is. She replies, ”He won’t sit on our cot. You know what a stickler he is about religion and doing things according to the rule.” Thus through these dialogues, the simplicity, honesty and caring personality of Dukhi and his wife are revealed. 

Secondly, the Pandit Ghasiram and his wife’s dishonesty, hypocrisy, cruelty, sense of class distinction are revealed through their dialogues. 

The Pandit spends lots of time decorating himself.  But when he is asked to go to the house of Dukhi to fix an auspicious date for her daughter’s betrothal, he says instantly, ”I have no time today. But still, I’ll manage to come towards evening.”

The Pandit is selfish and devoid of common sense. It is revealed when he says to Dukhi seeing him not splitting the woods, ”… you have not even made a dent in it. So if you don’t find an auspicious day for your daughter’s marriage, don’t blame me.” Gashiram is an opportunist as he takes the avail of Dukhi and orders him, ”Get up just three more strokes. I want it in small bits.” As is the Pandit so is his wife Panditayin and even she is more inhuman and harsh to the lower classes of people. When Dukhi went inside the house of the Pandit, the Panditayin said, ”Tell that good for nothing fellow to get out or I’ll scorch his face with a firebrand.” Again when the Pandit asks her to give some food to Dukhi she says, ”Let’s forget the whole thing. I’m not going to kill myself cooking in weather like this.”

Another minor character of the story is Chukhuri. He is a friend of Dukhi. He is something critical and bold. He cares about the Brahmans less as is revealed when he says to Dukhi, ”Have you had anything to eat? Or are they just making you work without feeding you? Why don’t you ask them for something?” He even dares to criticise the Pandit by saying, ”Whack it  all you like but you won’t split it, You’re better killing yourself.”

Thus the author has employed dialogues in the mouths of his characters and succeeds in evolving the story and revealing his characters. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism 

The Characterisation in the Story ‘Deliverance’ 

Dukhi, Chikhuri, the Pandit Gashiram are some characters of the short story entitled ‘Deliverance’ by Premchand. Dukhi is the main character whereas Chikhuri is a minor character. Both belong to the poorer classes of society. But there is a difference between the two. Dukhi is naive, subservient, cowardly and bears a mentality of being enslaved. On the other hand, Chikhuri is something advanced and progressive-minded and critical to the power and position of the Brahmans. 

Dukhi holds very high regard for the Brahmans. We see that he is very careful and anxious to receive the visit of the Pandit Ghasiram to their house.  He is poor but he tries his best to please the pandit. Hence he suggests his wife wash their cot and set it out in the hot weather to get dry by the time the Pandit comes. Along with this, he advises his wife to go to the village merchant to bring all the things they need to receive the Pandit whom they are going to invite to their house in order to fix an auspicious date for his daughter’s betrothal. 

After this Dukhi goes to the house of the Pandit and requests him to come to his house but the Pandit declines his request and says that he has no time but would try to go towards the evening. He takes the avail of Dukhis’ appeal and set him to carry straws and split a hard piece of wood. Dukhi takes to do the work without the least objection. 

When Dukhi becomes exhausted and goes inside the house of the Pandit asking for a bit of light to smoke a pipe, the Paditayin rebukes him and hurls a piece of coal to his forehead.  Then Dukhi says, ”Mother, it was very wrong of me to come inside your house. Tanners don’t have much sense — if we weren’t fools why would we get kicked so much.” This dialogue shows that Dukhi is mentally enslaved.

Again When his friend Chikhuri advises Dukhi to ask for some food then Dukhi says, ”How can you expect me to digest a Brahman’s food, Chikhuri?” Besides this, we see that Dukhi works all day long to please the Pandit. He carries straw and splits woods and at last, he dies of exhaustion and hunger.

On the other hand Chikhuri, a minor character, who appears once only in the third scene of the story is bold and critical. He is conscious of his right and he is not ready to respect the Brahmins without rhyme and reason as he realizes how the Brahmans enjoy the comforts of life by suppressing the lower classes of people. Seeing Dukhi being exhausted from splitting a hard piece of wood,  Chikhuri advises Dukhi to ask for some food and says (criticizing the exploitation of the Brahmins), ”The government officials may force you to work for them but they pay you something for it, no matter how little. This fellow’s gone one better, calling himself a holy man.” 

All these show that  Dukhi and Chikhuri contrast each other. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism

The Irony in the Short Story ‘Deliverance’

The ‘irony’ is a literary device in which a view, event, action or situation is expressed or presented in such a way that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects. There are three main types of irony: verbal, situational and dramatic. Verbal Irony is expressed through words or sentences. It occurs when a speaker’s intention is the opposite of what he says. For example, a person, while drinking a bitter pill says, ‘How sweet the pill tastes!’ Verbal irony is often funny. Situational Irony occurs when the actual result of a situation or action seems totally different or opposite from what is expected. Situational irony tends to be either funny or tragic. Dramatic irony is created when the audience knows a piece of information that the character of the story does not. Dramatic irony is often tragic. A speaker or writer uses irony as a literary device to create suspension, tension or to sustain the listeners’ interest. In the story ‘Deliverance’, the author has employed irony very effectively. The first instance of irony (verbal) in the story is shown by Dukhi when he utters, being affected by the appearance of the Pandit: ‘How godly a sight!’ But later on, it proved to be contrary to what Dukhi said because the readers would see that Dukhi had to suffer a lot at the house of the Pandit.

The second instance of irony is employed in the story when Dukhi asked for a bit of fire to light his pipe to smoke. It seems that the Pandit is sympathetic to him and said,  addressing Panditayin, ”The fire is lit, so give him his light.” Then Dukhi went inside the house but the wife of the Brahman made an objection. Thereupon the Pandit said, ‘He has come inside — so what? Nothing that belongs to you has been stolen. The floor is clean, it hasn’t been desecrated. Why not just let him have his light — he’s doing our work, isn’t he?” Then the Panditayin had brought the coals in pair of tongs. From a few feet away, with her veil drawn over her face, she flung the coals towards Dukhi.

The third example of the discrepancy between our view of events and that of Dukhi appears when the Pandit asked his wife to give some bread to Duhki. But the Panditayin said, ”Let’s forget the whole thing. I’m not going to kill myself cooking in weather like this.” Thereupon Dukhi had to remain without food all day long. 

The fourth instance of irony used in the story is when the Pandit saw that Dukhi did not spill the wood then he said, ”You have not even made a dent of it. So if you don’t find an auspicious day for your daughter’s marriage, don’t blame me.” Here it proves that the finding of an auspicious day depends on how the Pandit is pleased by Dukhi.

The last instance of irony is portrayed in the ending section of the story. Dukhi was given the name by his parents to avert the misfortune of life. But it results in the opposite as Duhki lived in extreme hardship and died pathetically. Even he could not have funeral rituals.

Thus the author Premchand has used lots of irony in the story through which he reveals the hypocrisy of the Brahmins. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism 

Premchand’s short Story ‘Deliverance’: An Analytical Study 

The short story entitled ‘Deliverance’ by Premchand deals with the themes of untouchability and class discrimination. It consists of four sections. 

In the first scene, we meet with the family background, their economic condition and how they revere a Brahman. Dukhi lived with his wife and a daughter. His daughter is to be betrothed. So he needs the help of the Brahman  Pandit Ghasiram to fix an auspicious day for the betrothal of his daughter. But Dukhi and his wife are very anxious and meticulous about how they would receive the Pandit Ghasiram at their house. 

As they found some leisure time after their respective household chores, Jhuria, the wife of Dukhi, urges his husband to go to the Brahman Pandit Ghasiram to ask him to come. Dukhi said, ”Yes, I am going, but we have to think about what he’s going to sit on.” His wife said that they would borrow a cot from the village headman’s wife. But Duhki knew that none of his neighbours would lend them a cot. So he suggested his wife wash their own cot and set that out to get dry by the time the Pandit would come to their home.

Jhuria said, ”He would not sit on our cot.” It was because she knew that the Pandit was a stickler about religion as he obeyed the religious rituals very strictly.

Then Dukhi decided to break off some mohwa leaves and make a mat for him. They also decided to manage some food and some other thing to offer the Brahman. Dukhi asked his wife to take Gond’s daughter, a girl of their neighbour, to the village merchant and bring all the things that they needed to offer to the Pandit.  They decided to collect a full two pounds of flour, half of the rice, a quarter of gram, an eighth of ghee, salt, turmeric and four annas as offering to the Pandit. 

After these instructions, Dukhi picked up his stick, took a big bundle of grass and went to make his request to the Pandit. He couldn’t go empty-handed to ask a favour of the Pandit. He knew that if the Pandit saw him without an offering, he would shout abuse at him from far away.

Thus in the first scene, we see that Dukhi and his wife are very anxious and sincere about how they would receive the Pandit. Here we see more how the lower castes of people revere and respect the Brahmans too much.

But in the subsequent sections of the story, we see the hollowness of the so-called Brahmans. The more Duhki and his wife were concerned about the reception of the Pandit the more negligent and opportunist the Brahman appeared to be. Here lies the irony of caste discrimination in Indian society. 

After going there, Dukhi saw that Pandit Ghasiram was busy with his daily rituals.  After washing his hands and feet at eight o’clock, he would begin the real ceremony of worship, the first part of which consisted of the preparation of bhang. After that he would grind sandalwood paste for half an hour, then with a straw, he would apply it to his forehead before the mirror. Between the two lines of sandalwood, he drew a red dot. Then on his chest and arms, he drew designs of perfect circles. Then he took out the image of the Lord, bathed it and applied the sandalwood to it, decked it with flowers, performed the ceremony of lighting the lamp and rang a little bell. 

At that moment Dukhi bowed his head down and said, ”I’m arranging Bitiya’s betrothal. Will your worship help us to fix an auspicious date? When can you find the time?”

The Pandit said, ”I have no time today. But still, I’ll manage to come toward evening.”

Then Pandit took the avail of this situation and set Dukhi to work in his house. He had to carry straw and split a hard piece of wood. All day long he worked hard in hunger. The Pandit and his wife did not care to feed him. Even the Pandit uttered insulting words to him for not being able to split the piece of wood. Then Dukhi set to split the wood with his utmost strength and got exhausted. He fell down on the spot and died instantly. Even after his death, he did not get funeral rituals.

Thus the author Peremchand, in his story ‘Deliverance’ has portrayed the fatal effect of caste discrimination in Indian society with a vigorous force. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism 

Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Story ‘The Exercise Book:  An Analytical Study 

‘The Exercise Book’  by Rabindranath Tagore is a short story. It deals with the themes of contradiction between age-long prejudice against female education and new progressive thought of equality in educational opportunities for women. Along with this theme, the theme of child marriage is also juxtaposed in the story.

The protagonist of the short story is a little girl named Uma. As a child, she was an exception as she had a chance to attend school. But as soon as she learned to write, she became a nuisance in the eyes of others. She took to scribble on every wall of their house. She would draw unnecessary lines with a piece of coal and she wrote the rhyme: ‘Raindrops on treetops’. With huge scrawled letters, she obliterated most of the auspicious dates in the new almanac kept for household use.  Right in the middle of the credits column in her father’s account book, she wrote:

”He who writes and studies hard 

Will one day ride a horse and cart.”

Uma had a brother named Gobindalal who occasionally wrote essays on physiology. One day she took out her brother’s pen and ink and scribbled on an essay written by her brother. When her brother came to see her wickedness, he became angry and confiscated her store of writing implements — a stubby pencil, a blunt ink-pot and a stained pen. The humiliated little girl, unable to fully understand the reason for so severe a punishment, sat in a corner of the room and cried.

After the period of discipline was over, Gobindalal returned Uma’s looted property and tried to assuage her by presenting her with a bound-rolled stout exercise book. Uma was then seven years old. From that day on, that exercise book was with her almost all the time. At night she put that under her pillow and on the day she carried the book with her to the village girl’s school. The sight of it arouses wonder in some of the girls and greed and envy in others.

In the first year, she wrote carefully in her exercise book the rhyme, “The birds sing, the night is past”. She would sit on the floor of her bedroom clutching the exercise book and write, read and declaim loudly in a sing-song voice. In this way, she collected many lines of prose and poetry.

In the second year, a few independent compositions began to make their appearance in her exercise book. They were very brief but extremely pregnant, lacking both an introduction and a conclusion. On it, she had copied out of the tale of the tiger and heron from Kathamala. Between the lines, she sometimes wrote some independent sentences which had not been in any book. As for example: ‘I love Jashi very much.’

Thus the Exercise Book presented by her brother Gobindalal bears a great significance for little Uma. For Uma, it is not only a notebook but it was a medium to evolve and express her own emotion and feeling. It symbolizes her struggle to come out of the age-long prejudice against women education. In other words to say it is a token of revolt against inequality between boys and girls in enjoying opportunities to learn reading and writing.

Secondly, the author has depicted the theme of child marriage in the story and along with it, the author had given a peep towards the outlook of others on women education.  Uma, as a social custom,  became a victim of child marriage at the age of nine.  She was married to Pyarimohan, one of Gobindalal’s literary associates. Although he was not so old and had received some education, his mind had remained entirely closed to new ways of thought. For this reason, he was highly regarded by his neighbours and Gobindalal tried to follow his example without complete success.

When Uma set out for her husband’s house, her mother told her. ”Listen to your mother-in-law, darling, attend to the household, don’t spend all time reading and writing.” Her elder brother Gobindalal told her, ‘Remember not to scratch letters on the walls.” He also warned her not to scribble on any of Pyarimohan’s writings.

Jashi went with Uma to stay for a few days to settle Uma in the new house. Jashi took Uma’s exercise book along with her to the new home. The book was a part of Uma’s paternal house, a loving reminder of her brief stay in the house. It brought a savour of tender freedom to the little girl in the midst of her premature wifeliness.

During the first few days, Uma wrote nothing in her exercise book. She had no time. At length, some days later, Jashi returned to her former residence. That day Uma shut the door of her bedroom  in the afternoon, took the exercise book out of her tin box and wrote tearfully in it: ”Joshi had gone home, I want to go back to Mother too.”

Uma no longer had the leisure to copy anything out of Charupath or the Bodhodoy. After some days she wrote in her exercise book, ”If Dada comes to take me home just once, I’ll never spoil his writings again.” Uma’s father often wanted to bring Uma home, but Gobindalal teamed up with Pyarimohan to frustrate these plans. He said that it was time for Uma to learn devotion to her husband.  Having heard people say this, Uma wrote in her exercise book, ”Dad, I beg of you, take me home just once. I’ll never make you angry again.”

One day Uma shut the door and was writing some meaningless triviality in her exercise book. In the meantime, her sister-in-law Tilakmajari became exceedingly curious and took a peep through the crack of the door. Then her younger sister Kanamanjari and the still younger Anangamanjari came and had a peep through the crack. Suddenly they burst into laughter. As she was writing, Uma suddenly heard the laughter of three familiar voices outside the room. She realised what was happened. She hastily closed the exercise book and hid her face on the bed in shame.

When Uma’s husband Pyarimohan heard this, he got much disturbed. He thought if women began to read and write novels and plays, then it would be very hard to uphold the household virtues.

Therefore Uma’s husband Pyarimohan, by special reflection evolved an exceedingly subtle theory. He said that the power of the female and the power of the male together produced the sacred power of conjugal relationship, but if the power of the female was vanquished through education and study, the power of the male alone would be paramount. The male power would clash with male power to produce so terrible a destructive energy that the power of the conjugal bond would be completely destroyed.

For many days after that, Uma wrote nothing in her exercise book. But one day, on an autumn morning, a beggar woman was singing an Agamani (advent of Durga Devi) song outside. Uma sat listening to the song silently at the window resting her face on the bar.  Uma could not sing but since her learning to write, she has developed the habit of writing down any song she heard to lessen the pain of not being able to sing it. The beggar woman sang:

”The folk of the city say to Uma’s mother:

‘Your lost light has returned.’

At this, half-crazed, the queen rushes out 

Where are you, Uma, where are you!

……………….

Why did not you come to fetch your daughter?”

Hearing the song, Uma’s heart welled up, her eyes filled with tears. She called the singer secretly to her room,  shut the door and began to write down the song in her eccentric spelling. In the meantime, her sisters-in-laws observed everything through the crack of the door and suddenly burst out, clapping their hands and said, ‘Boudidi we’ve seen what you’re doing!

Uma quickly unfastened the door, came out and began to plead with them, ‘Darling sisters, please don’t tell anybody, I beg you, please don’t, I’ll never do it again. I’ll never write again –.” Tilakmanjari went to summon her brother, Pyarimohan. He came in and sat down grimly on the bed. He said in a voice like thunder, ‘Give me the exercise book.’ Seeing that his command was not obeyed, he lowered his voice a couple of notes and said, ‘give it to me.’

The little girl clapped the exercise book to her chest and directed a glance of utter supplication at her husband’s face. But when Pyarimohan was getting up to snatch the book from her, she flung it down, covered her face with her hands and collapsed on the floor. 

After that day, Uma never got back her exercise book.

Thus the author of the short story has made a vivid portrayal of child marriage. He shows Uma’s eagerness to reading and writing and thus the story bears the strong reformist plea for greater equality in educational opportunities for men and women. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism 

Ambais’ Short Story ‘Yellow Fish’: An Analytical Study

‘Yellow Fish’ is a metaphorical short story by Ambai (C.S. Lakshmi) written on the theme of woman’s craving for liberation from the male supremacy. 

For a better understanding of the story, it may be divided into three sections, though the authoress has presented her story without dividing it into sections. 

The first section bears a vivid and realistic description of the seashore along with the fishermen catchingt fishes. It was a Summer evening. The sand of the shore felt hot. Away to the left of the shrunken sea and spent waves, the sand spread like a desert. The fishermen were returning from their fishing hunt.  One among the fishing boats had arrived on the shore. Its colour was white and floated like a swan, swaying from side to side. The fisherwomen were ready to welcome the boats. They were wearing saris of various colours as blinding indigo, domestic red, profound green, assaulting blue. They stood vibrant against the white boat upon a faded blue and ash-grey sea.

One by one all the fishing boats had arrived at the shore. The boats were replete with fishes. The fishermen spread their nets and began sorting the fishes. The fishes seemed to splash into plastic troughs. Their round eyes looked to be wide open. The unwanted fishes were thrown away. Among the unwanted fishes, there was a yellow fish. It was also thrown away on the sand. It had some black spots. As the narrator stooped to watch the yellow fish, it began to shudder and leap. The mouth gaped and closed and tossed about on the hot sand.  Seeing the yellow fish, the memory of Jalaja, came to the narrator’s mind. 

With the mention of the name Jalaja, the second section of the story has begun. Here we come to know that the narrator of the story is a woman named Anu. She is present with her husband Arun on the seashore. Jalaja was their girl-child who died an infant. The opening and closing of the mouth of the yellow fish reminded Jalaja who also did the same to survive. Because of some physical defect, Jalaja was put in an incubator. Her mouth was red but pale to look at. Her eyes were round like that of the yellow fish. Sometimes she seemed to open and close her mouth as if it was sucking. But she did not survive. She died. Her ashes, after the cremation, were put into an urn. Its narrow mouth was tied with a piece of cloth.

Then Anu, the mother of Jalaja asked her husband  Arun to open the mouth of the urn as she wanted to see the ashes within. The conversation between the two reads like:

‘Why is the mouth closed?’

‘What mouth?’

‘The mouth of the urn. Open it.’ 

‘Anu, it contains only ashes.’

‘I want to see. Open it.’

‘Anu it contains only ashes.’

‘ I want to see. Open it.’

‘Open the mouth.’

Saying so Anu broke into sobbing. Eventually, the cloth of the urn was removed to reveal the urn’s tiny mouth.

After this, the third section of the story begins. In this section, we see that yellow fish is tossing about on the hot sand of the seashore. A fisherboy was on his way home back from splashing in the waves. When he came near Anu, she asked him, ”Will you throw this yellow fish back into the sea?”

With a quick snort of laughter, he grabbed the fish firmly by its tail and started running towards the sea. The narrator (Anu) ran after him. The boy placed the yellow fish on the crest of an incoming wave. For a moment it spluttered helpless, like a drunkard who could not find the way home. Again it opened its mouth to the water, taking it in. It swished its tail and swam forward and merged into the blue-grey-white of the sea. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism

‘Yellow Fish’ As  a Metaphorical Short Story

‘Yellow Fish’ is a metaphorical short story by Ambai (C.S. Lakshmi) written on the theme of a woman’s craving for liberation from male supremacy.

At first, the author Ambai gives a vivid and realistic description of the sea-shore, fishing boats and fisherwomen in the story. The authors show that all the fishing boats had arrived one by one at the shore. The boats were replete with fish. The fishermen spread their nets and began sorting the fishes. The fishes seemed to splash into plastic troughs. Their round eyes looked to be wide open. The unwanted fishes were thrown away. Among the unwanted fishes, there was a yellow fish. It was also thrown away on the sand. It had some black spots. As the narrator stooped to watch the yellow fish, it began to shudder and leap. The mouth gaped and closed and tossed about on the hot sand.  Seeing the yellow fish, the memory of Jalaja, came to the narrator’s mind.

With the mention of the name Jalaja, the second section of the story has begun. Here we come to know that the narrator of the story is a woman named Anu. She is present with her husband Arun on the seashore. Jalaja was their girl-child who died an infant. The opening and closing of the mouth of the yellow fish reminded Jalaja who also did the same to survive. After her birth, she was put in an incubator. Her mouth was red but pale to look at. Her eyes were round like that of the yellow fish. Sometimes she seemed to open and close her mouth as if it was sucking. But she did not survive. She died. Her ashes, after the cremation, were put into an urn. Its narrow mouth was tied with a piece of cloth.

Later on, we see that a fisherboy was on his way home back from splashing in the waves. When he came near Anu, she asked him, ”Will you throw this yellow fish back into the sea?”

With a quick snort of laughter, he grabbed the fish firmly by its tail and started running towards the sea. The narrator (Anu) ran after him. The boy placed the yellow fish on the crest of an incoming wave. For a moment it spluttered helpless, like a drunkard who could not find the way home. Again it opened its mouth to the water, taking it in. It swished its tail and swam forward and merged into the blue-grey-white of the sea.

Thus the image of the yellow fish connects (symbolizes)  Jalaja who died as an infant being treated as unnecessary as yellow fish in a male-dominated society.  0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism 

The Significance of Colour in the Short Stroy ‘Yellow Fish’

Yellow Fish’ is a metaphorical short story by Ambai (C.S. Lakshmi) written on the theme of a woman’s craving for liberation from male supremacy. The plot of the story sets on the seashore and the depiction of the sea and water have played a significant role in revealing the inner motives and purpose of the characters of the story.

The story begins with a vivid and realistic description of the seashore. The writer tells us that it was a Summer evening. The sand of the shore felt hot. Away to the left of the shrunken sea and spent waves, the sand spread like a desert. The fishermen were returning from their fishing hunt. One among the fishing boats had arrived on the shore. Its colour was white and floated like a swan, swaying from side to side. The fisherwomen were ready to welcome the boats. They were wearing saris of various colours as blinding indigo, domestic red, profound green, and assaulting blue. They stood vibrant against the white boat upon a faded blue and ash-grey sea.

One by one all the fishing boats had arrived at the shore. The boats were replete with fish. The fishermen spread their nets and began sorting the fishes. The fishes seemed to splash into plastic troughs. Their round eyes looked to be wide open. The unwanted fishes were thrown away. Among the unwanted fishes, there was a yellow fish. It was also thrown away on the sand. It had some black spots. As the narrator stooped to watch the yellow fish, it began to shudder and leap for survival. The mouth gaped and closed and tossed about on the hot sand to get into the water of the sea.  Seeing the yellow fish, the memory of Jalaja, came to the narrator’s mind.

Thus the sea and water stand for life and the revival of life. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism

The Use of First Person ‘I’ in the Short Story ‘Yellow Fish’

‘Yellow fish’ is a short story by Ambai, an Indian Tamil feminist writer. The story is narrated in the first person. But the story-teller introduced the first person ‘I’ not at the beginning of the story but in the middle with the use of which the theme of the story takes a turn. Before introducing the first person ‘I’ the author narrates the story objectively. She gives a vivid and realistic description of sea-shore along with fishermen returning from fishing hunts. It was a Summer evening. The sand of the shore felt hot. Away to the left of the shrunken sea and spent waves, the sand spread like a desert. One among the fishing boats had arrived on the shore. Its colour was white and floated like a swan, swaying from side to side. The fisherwomen seemed ready to welcome the boats.

The objective narration of the sea-shore before introducing the first person ‘I’ creates a realistic effect to the theme of the story. In the second portion, we met with a woman character named Anu. She is on the seashore along with her husband. She has lost her girl-child named Jalaja and her ashes are in an urn to be washed away in the sea. The description of the sea that the author has given before takes a symbolic and metaphorical meaning in the later portion of the story. The sea along with its waves and stretch of water symbolizes liberation which a woman craves for in a male-dominated society. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism

Roger Mais’ Short Story ‘Blackout’: An Analytical Study

‘Blackout’ by Roger Mais is a short story that deals with the theme of conflict between two contradictory ideals of life– the class (colour) discrimination and the classless liberal ideal.

The story sets in a city on a West Indian island during World War-II. At that time American society was segregated with separate schools, buses and restaurants for the blacks and the whites races of people. During such a time an unnamed American woman went to a West Indian island where one night she was on the way to a bus stand. In the meantime a young man approached her and asked for a light, to lit his cigarette. This request caused some tension in her mind. Because she was a typical American woman with a consciousness of racism.  She hesitated to give light to the black young man. Moreover, she had no matchbox with her. She was smoking but she had only lit one from the stub of the cigarette she had thrown away.

Eventually, she held out her cigarette towards him between two fingers. The young black man, bending his head, accepted the proffered light. He inhaled a deep lungful soothing smoke and exhaled again with satisfaction. He thanked her politely and when he was moving off he saw that instead of returning her the cigarette to her lips, she flicked it away. This behaviour of the young woman changed his polite gratitude to ‘cold speculation’. 

This reference to the cigarette shapes the whole story. The attitude of the young American woman towards the black young West Indian man reveals her inner character, motives and attitude towards people. 

The young man’s cold speculation and his contemptuous look toward the young American brought in some tension to the mind of the young woman. In a way, it unnerved her. Not that she was frightened. He seemed quite decent in his way and harmless, but he made her uncomfortable. Because his look was quite contemptuous. So she felt that if he said something rude she would have preferred it. It would have been no more than she would have expected of him.

Then he said to her that there was only men and women in the land. There was no class distinction. He remained standing there with the consciousness of male strength and pride that was justly his. There seemed something about him that was at once challenging and disturbing for the young woman standing at the same bus stand. His challenging attitude arose out of her sense of class equality which overcame the racist attitude of the young American woman and this gave him the power to shake the young woman’s feeling of class distinction.

Thus the reference to cigarette functions the structure of the whole story through which the story-teller brings about his theme into action successfully.

The theme of the story is no doubt single but very poignant and significant through which the story-teller presented two contradictory worlds.

Structurally the story is a successful one as the author has very artfully maintained the three unities as the unity of action, the unity of purpose and the unity of time.

In the use of dialogue in the story the author is very sparing and exact as the dialogues that he has employed in the mouth of his characters have revealed inner motives of the characters very successfully. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism

Saadat Hasan Manto’s Short Story ‘The Dog of Tetwal’ : An Analytical Study 

‘The Dog of Tetwal’ by Saadat Hasan Manto deals with the themes of conflict, connection, ignorance, pride, and senselessness. The story takes place just after the partition of India into two independent countries. What is interesting about the setting is that Manto gives each side a voice. The reader is given access to both the Indian and Pakistani camps that are fighting against one another.

Manto begins his story with an idyllic description of the natural beauty of the hilly borders of India and Pakistan. Manto brings about an almost poetic description of peace and harmony in nature. He shows Nature to be indifferent to the calamity created by men though it sometimes becomes the victim of the turmoil of human conflict. He notices that flowers continue to bloom, bees go about their business of sipping nectar, birds are singing, and fluffy clouds sail in the skies. The occasional shot of the soldiers strikes a discordant note in the peaceful scene.

By putting the battle against this clam natural scene Manto further heightens the fact that man and his struggle for power disrupt the natural order of things.

The difference between nature and humankind is underscored by the fact that the seasons are changing as the story takes place. The change is occurring gently. While some literary works depict the seasons in conflict, Manto’s story shows that in nature even opposites such as summer and winter flow peacefully into each other. Manto writes “It seemed as if summer and winter had made their peace,”. But the soldiers on the other hand, although they are very much alike, cannot tolerate each other.

The setting which begins with the picture of nature is pastoral in nature as Pastoral literature portrays nature as being idyllic, peaceful, and free of the constraints and struggles of humans. Pastoral settings often allow human characters to find solace and peace that are not possible in a human-made society.

The story is set in the mountains of Tetwal during temperate and pleasant days in late September. There is peace in the mountains, but, instead of escaping to the beauty and tranquillity of nature, the soldiers bring war with them. The men cannot enjoy pleasant surroundings because they are not there to enjoy life but to kill.

After giving a vivid account of the calm and beautiful nature, the storyteller turns his look the main theme of the story which revolves rounding a stray dog called Jhun- Jhun. It was loved by both the parties: the Indian soldiers and the Pakistani soldiers but became the victim of the partition of India that gave birth to communalism to both the parties. The remarkable thing is that there is little difference between the two parties, particularly when it comes to their treatment of Jhun Jhun the stray dog. It is as though the dog is treated as a football by both sides until he no longer becomes useful and is shot by the Indian soldiers. Rather than viewing Jhun Jhun as a pet, both sides use him as a plaything to promote their own goals and ideals. The same goals and ideals that have caused the war in the first place. 

There is a farcical element to the battle between each side as they kill a dog but no human as humans are scared of soldiers and like not to face them. The only victim in the story is Jhun Jhun the dog. It is as though both sides view the conflict half-heartedly. As though they have been given orders to fight yet are not committed to fighting which may be the point that Manto is attempting to make. He may be suggesting that the war itself was futile when in reality everybody who participated in the war was, in fact, similar to one another. Each man had families at home that worried about them and the conflict could have easily been resolved by political means rather than by the use of arms. The only dividing factor between those who party in the war was their religion. Manto also appears to symbolise the blindness of both opposing sides. As expected one would find it difficult to see at night time. However, the killing of Jhun Jhun occurs in the day time. with each individual on both sides using Jhun Jhun as a symbolic tool to promote their nationality.

It is also possible that Jhun Jhun symbolises the ignorance of both sides. The compassion shown by Singh, an Indian soldier when he gave the crackers to Jhun Jhun is not mirrored the next day when he shoots Jhun Jhun as the dog encamps himself on the Pakistani side. In reality, Singh’s actions are cruel but that is the nature of war. It is not only humans who may be used as pawns to fight or die like animals. Such is the hatred that exists between both sides that each is willing to use a dog as an instrument of suppression to satisfy their own lust for victory. In many ways, Jhun Jhun could be a person, an innocent individual who happens to be caught between both sides.

Thus the logic of natural boundaries seems to extend to the animal kingdom in this story and by it, Manto has shown us the senselessness of violence and its effects on the victim. 0 0 0

 World Short Story Criticism 

Guy de Maupassant’s Short Story ‘The Jewel’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Jewel’ is a French short story by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), a reputed French storyteller. The main theme of the story is love. The storyteller shows through the story that money can change a man’s mentality but it cannot bring in happiness. 

It is a story of Mr and Mrs Lantin. He is an employee in the office of Minister of the Interior affairs earning only thirty-five francs a year. Once he met a young girl, daughter of a provincial tax collector and loved her and married her. She had a weakness in purchasing and wearing jewels. She could run home adroitly with his husband’s modest earning. She used to purchase ornaments without making her husband know about it. Her husband thought that the ornaments were imitation or faked, not genuine. After only six years of their happy conjugal life, she died from an inflammation of the lungs. Mr Lantin became almost mad with grief. After his wife’s death, he was unable to maintain home with his limited income and thought of her wife who could manage home with the modest resources. After her death, he contracted several debts but could not pay off all the debts. One morning he suddenly found his wife’s box of junk and decided to sell off the imitation jewels. Hence he took them with him and on the way to his office he went to a Jeweler and amazed to know that all the jewels were genuine. Then he suffered from a mental dilemma about how his wife could purchase all those costly ornaments. The next day he sold all the ornaments for four hundred thousand francs. He become suddenly rich, his mentality changed. He gave up his job. After six months he married again but he could not be happy with his second wife.

The story bears only two Characters Mr Lantin and his wife. Mr Lantin is the main character, the author portrays his mental states- his grief, his dilemma concerning how his wife could buy such valuable ornaments, his change of mentality for inheriting four hundred thousand francs after the death of her wife.

The other character is Mrs Lantin. She is beautiful, simple, charming with angelic modesty. Her only weakness is for ornaments and frequenting to the theatre. She was very economic as she could manage home well with her husband’s limited earning. 

In portraying the characters the storyteller has given the testimony of a skilled artist. Both the characters are dealt with individuality. But Mrs Lantin is portrayed as changing and Mrs Lantin as stable.

In narrating the story the author has employed Objective Method with skill. In this method, the author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is dramatic. The author begins his story directly. In the opening, the storyteller introduces his characters — Lantin and his wife Mrs Lantin. Lantin is the chief bookkeeper to the minister of the Interior. He falls in love with the daughter of a Provincial tax collector. He falls in love with her in first sight and then marries her. The complication begins just after they got married and the plot meets its crisis when Lantin’s wife died from an inflammation of the lungs. It reaches the climax when Lanton goes to the jeweller in order to sell his wife’s ornaments which he thought to be faked not genuine and comes to know that they are not faked but genuine. After this, the falling action begins and in this stage, Lantin sells off all the ornaments and receives about four hundred thousand francs, gives up his job and marries for the second time. The denouement meets when he realizes that he is not as happy with his second wife.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. But the author is very economic and logical in portraying the setting of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues take his story ahead and unfold the inner motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after reading it. The story suggests that money can change a man’s mentality but it cannot bring happiness in life.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity, and universality are present in this short story. The author keeps up the unity of his purpose showing that it is love that can make our life happy. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus Universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the denouement of his story through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor long.

The analysis of the story as done above shows that all the elements and qualities of a good short story are present in it so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

Guy de Maupassant’s Short Story ‘The Necklace’ -An Analytical Study

 ‘The Necklace’ is a French short story by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), a reputed French story-teller. The main theme of the story is the pride for physical beauty, desire for ornament and comforts in life. The storyteller shows, through the story that one who goes beyond his means suffers miseries. 

It is a story of Mrs Loissels, the wife of Mr Loissels. Mr Loissels was a clerk in the Public Education Department. He somehow managed his family with his scanty earnings. His wife Mrs Loissels came from a poor family. She was very beautiful and desirous of a comfortable way of life. She had a strong weakness for ornaments. She suffered from mental agony of being a wife of a poor clerk and often dreamt of a better household which his husband was unable to provide. One day his husband returned home from his office with an invitation letter. The Education Minister had invited the Loissels couple to a feast. Mr Loissels thought that his wife would be glad to be invited by such a man of position like Education Minister. But instead of being happy she tore off the invitation letter and threw it away and in exasperation, she said that by wearing what she would go there. Then her husband agreed to buy her a costly frock for four hundred Francs. Yet she was not happy. She desired to have an ornament. Then his husband suggested her to borrow some ornaments from her friend, Madam Farestia. Accordingly, she went to Farestia and borrowed a diamond necklace. Wearing the frock and the necklace she observed her beauty and comeliness in front of the mirror. She became jubilant and went to the feast. Of all the invitees she was the most beautiful and her charms bewitched all, even the Minister. Being proud of her beauty she began to dance. She danced till 4 O’clock at night. But when the dance came to an end then suddenly her beautiful and costly frock dropped off and then her cheap dress worn under the costly frock came to be visible. Then she ran off the stairs and in a car of olden model she reached home. Going home she discovered that the diamond necklace was missing. They searched it here and there shaking all the clothes but in vain.  The cost of the necklace was about forty thousand francs. Then Mr Loissels bought a new diamond necklace for the same price selling all his belongings and borrowing money from his relatives and gave it to Madam Farestia. They become poorer than before. Their standard of living fell down. It took ten years to pay off the debt. In hardship, Mrs Loissels became old before age. Her beauty and comeliness fell off. Then after ten years, one day she suddenly happened to meet her friend Madam Farestia and told her all of her sufferances. She also told about the necklace. Then Farestia said that the necklace that she lent her was not genuine but a duplicate one.

There story bears only three Characters Mr Loissels, Mrs Loissels and Madam Farestia. But Mrs Loissels is the main character. She is very beautiful and desirous of an aristocratic and comfortable way of life. But for going beyond their means, she along with her husband happens to suffer a lot in life. She is a type of all those women who are proud of their beauty and run after vain comforts. The author has unfolded woman’s psychology through her. Mr Loissels seems to be henpecked. He suffers a lot for his wife’s vain desire. Madam Farestia is a minor character. She has little role in the story. She only appears to lend her necklace to Mrs Loissels and sympathizes with her mate Mrs Loissels. 

In narrating the story the author has employed the Objective Method with skill. In this method, an author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces his main characters- Mrs Loissels and Mr Loissels. The climax of the story reaches when Mrs Loissels discovers that the diamond necklace which she borrowed from her friend Madam Farestia was missing.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. But the author is very economic and logical in portraying the setting of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken the role of leading his story ahead and likewise unfolded the inner motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after the reading of it. The story suggests that if one goes beyond his means it causes one to suffer in life.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the qualities of a good short story—unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The author keeps up the unity of his purpose showing that it is love that can make our life happy. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus Universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the denouement of his story through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor long.

The analysis of the story as done above shows that all the elements and qualities of a good short story are present in it so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

Guy de Maupassant’s Short Story ‘A Piece of String’ -An Analytical Study

‘A Piece of String’ is a French short story by Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893), a reputed French storyteller. It is tragic as well as a pathetic short story. The main theme of the story is enmity and envy. In this short story, the author has shown how an innocent man named Hauchecome became the victim of enmity and jealousy and how he happened to suffer mentally- which became the sole cause of his pathetic death. Besides this, the author has brought about a vivid social picture of the second half of the nineteenth century France.

It is especially a story of a poor peasant called Hauchecome. One day he went to the market of Goderville. When the market was in full swing he, being just arrived at the market, happened to notice a piece of string lying on the ground. Hauchecome, economical like a true Norman, thought that everything useful ought to be picked up and hence took up the piece of string from the ground and put it in his trouser’s pocket. The act of picking up the piece of string was seen by a man named Malandine. He was a harness-maker and both Hauchecome and Malandain had once quarreled over the matter of a halter and hence they were on bad terms and since then they became good haters. After picking up the piece of string, Hauchecome went to a tavern called Jourdain’s tavern and began to take refreshments. At the mean time, a public crier came in front of the tavern and announced:

“It is hereby made known to the inhabitant of Goderville and in general to all the persons present at the market, that there was lost this morning, on the road to Benzeville, between nine and ten o’clock, a black leather pocketbook containing five hundred francs and some business papers. The finder is requested to return with all the haste to the mayor’s office or to Monsieur Fortune Houlbreque of Mannerville. There will be a reward of twenty francs.”

A little later, a police officer appeared at the door and called Hauchecome to the mayor’s office. Hauchecome being astonished and puzzled went to the mayor’s office and found that the mayor was awaiting him. Then the mayor brought a charge against him that he was seen by Malandain, the harness-maker, to pick up the pocketbook this morning. Hauchecome was shocked and protested. He was confronted with Malandain. Hauchecome was searched but nothing was found on him. Finally, the mayor being perplexed discharged him with the warning that he would consult the public prosecutor and ask for further order. Hauchecome left the mayor’s office and he was surrounded by people and questioned him with a serious bantering curiosity. He began to tell the story of the string. Night fell on and he was returning home and on the street whomever he met he recounted the story of the piece of string. The thought of it made him ill at night. The next day about one o’clock a man named Marius Paumelle, a hired man in the employ of Mr Breton of Manville returned the pocketbook. Hauchecome was calm now but yet something disturbed him and began to tell the story of the string to the people to refute the false accusation brought against him. But nobody seemed to believe him. And when he began to tell his story a horse dealer of Monvillers mocked at him saying, “Shut up, papa. There is one that finds and there is one that reports. At any rate, you are mixed with it.” This comment made Hauchecome more suffered. Thus the more he told his story in his self-defence the more he faced disbelief. Towards the end of December, he took to his bed. He died in the first days of January and in the delirium of his death struggle he kept claiming his innocence, reiterating, “A Piece of string, a piece of string—look— here it is, M’sieu the Mayor.”

Thus the author has portrayed the mental sufferance of an innocent man who was falsely charged with finding a pocketbook. 

There are three Characters as—Hauchecome, Malandain, and the Mayor but Mr Hauchecome is the principal character of the story. He is a poor peasant suffering from rheumatism. He was as economical as a true Norman and hence he picked up a piece of string from the ground which became the cause of his sufferance. His enemy, Malandain took the chance of it and brought a charge against him of finding the pocketbook lost by Mr Fortune Houlbreque of Mannerville. He tried his best to prove his innocence but nobody seemed to believe him for which he began to suffer from acute mental agony that later on became the sole cause of his death. He is the most realistic pathetic character if compared with the other characters ever produced by Guy de Maupassant in his short stories. The second important character of the story is Malandain. He is quarrelsome and jealous to his enemy. For him, Hauchecome had to suffer a lot in life. The third character in the story is the Mayor. He was the notary of the vicinity. He was a stout and serious man with a pompous voice.  

In narrating the story the author has employed Objective Method with skill. In this method, an author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller gives a brief but vivid picture of the forlorn and pathetic condition of the France people, especially of the peasants. The main story begins as soon as the main character Hauchecome appears in the scene. It meets its climax, through logical complication, after the missing pocketbook was found and returned by Mr Breton of Ymanville and Hauchecome was still began to face disbelief from his hearers. The denouement meets with the death of Hauchecome.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. But the author is very economic but exact in portraying the setting of his event. The vivid account of the condition of the peasant in the exposition of the story is as:

”All along the road of Goderville the peasants and their wives were coming towards the town because it was market day. The men were proceeding with slow steps. The whole body bent forward at each movement of their long twisted legs, deformed by their hard work, by the weight on the plough, which at the same time raised their left shoulders and swerved the figure, by the reaping of the wheat which made the knees spread in order to hold the wheat firmly, by the slow and painful labour of the country.  Their blue blouses ornamented with a little design in white at the neck and the wrists, puffed about their bony bodies, seemed like balloons ready to carry them off. From each of them a head, two arms and two legs protruded.”

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken a decisive role in goading his story ahead and in unfolding the inner motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after the reading of it. The story suggests that jealousy of an enemy is always dangerous.

The Language of the story is not a simple one but full of complexity as the second sentence of the story bears as much as eight clauses which is not easy for the average readers to interpret precisely. But this complexity suits the entire theme of the story as it is a short story which is enough to give us a vivid and reliable pen picture of the pathetic social condition of the peasants of the second half of the nineteenth century France. 

All the qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the Universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the denouement of his story through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor long.

The analysis of the story as done above shows that all the elements and qualities of a good short story are present in it so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0 

World Short Story Criticism 

J. A . A. Joyce’s Short Story ‘Eveline’ -An Analytical Study

‘Eveline’ is an Irish short story by James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882-1941). It is a psychological short story dealing with the mental dilemma concerning the past and future of a young girl named Eveline. The main theme of the story is love and nostalgia.

The story revolves round Eveline. She is a young girl who leads a hard life at home with her two brothers and an old father. She had lost her mother. One day he meets with a sailor called Frank and falls in love with him. She wants to escape with him with the hope of marrying him. But at the same moment, she begins to suffer from a mental dilemma. She anticipates her future with Frank and becomes romantic. And then she thinks of her home and suffers from nostalgia. Her life at home is hard and thinks of leaving it for Frank. After all, she reviews her decision to opt for a new life. She holds in her lap two letters- one for her father and the other for her brother Harry. She leaves for the port to broad the ship with her lover Frank. The ship is about to set off, it whistles and Frank pulls her on her hand. Eveline does not respond. Her hands clutch the iron barrier. She set her white face to him, impassive like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave no sign of love or farewell or recognition. She prefers her domestic life rooted in the past to her uncertain future.

Eveline is the principal character in the story. The author portrays her mental conflict whether she would stay at home or she would leave it for Frank. Her nostalgia wins over her and she decides to part with her lover.

The other character in the story is Frank. But he has got no portraiture. He only enhances the romantic feeling in Eveline. 

The story is weak in Structure as there is a long opening. The complication occupies the most part of the story. In this stage, the author portrays the mental dilemma of the principal character, Eveline. There is neither falling action nor denouement. It seems to meet and end in climax. 

In delineating the Setting of the story the author has proved himself as a skilled artist. He has given a good description of Eveline’s household condition and of her environment.

The Method of Narration of the story is objective as the author portrays his character and expresses the mental condition of his character objectively.

The Dialogues in the story is very sparing and short and they express only the emotional aspects of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life which is also considered to be a component element of a good story is not apparent in the story. But it may be drawn out from the story that nostalgia sometime ruins the hope of the future.  

The Linguistic Style of the story is something simple but the author sometime fails to keep up the logic of arranging the sentences spontaneously after the mental state of her character.

In Length the story falls in the mediocre- neither very short nor long. In a word to say, it is a short story of ideal length.

In keeping up the qualities of a good short story the author meets a failure. There is the unity of action no doubt but the author has hardly succeeded in maintaining spontaneity.

The analysis of the various aspects of the story as done above shows us that as a short story it is weak in structure and quality and hence it fails to enter the list of the first grade short stories of the world. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

S. Maugham’s Short Story ‘The Verger’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Verger’ is an English short story by Somerset Maugham (1874- 1966), a storyteller, novelist, dramatist and essayist. This short story deals with the themes of sufferance of a subordinate official under a proud and arbitrary superior official.

It is a short story that seems to deal with two episodes of a person. It is a story of a verger (a church official whose duty is to take care of the interior of a church) named Albert Edward Foreman. He is a verger at St. Peter’s Neville Square Church. He had been serving there as a verger for sixteen years satisfactorily. He was illiterate but was dutiful and sincere. Once, a new vicar was appointed there. He was of a strange demeanour. The new vicar having come to know that the verger was an illiterate person called in him and said that it was a disgrace for such a reputed church to keep an illiterate person like the verger. So the vicar gave him three months within which the verger should learn how to write and read. Otherwise, he must go. The verger said, “I’m too old a dog to learn new tricks.” After a month he resigned his post. 

The second episode of the same verger begins as a businessman. Though he was disheartened he lent a stall beside a long street where there was not a shop of fags and tobaccos. He soon rose in the business. Then within some years he opened half a dozen shops and began to run by managers. Every week end he visited the shops collected the profits and deposited them in the bank. After ten years of his business, one day the manager of his bank called in him and asked him how he earned such an amount of huge money and suggested him to invest the money for better profit. But when he had to sign on the document then the bank manager amazed to know that the verger was illiterate. He had only learned to write his name after he opened his business. Before he came to business, he was the verger of St. Peter’s Neville Square Church. 

The main character of the story is Albert Edward Foreman. He is a good, dutiful sincere vicar. He worked sixteen years as a verger in the St. Peter Neville Square Church and with his duty, he satisfied all. But later on, he become the victim of the new vicar and had to resign his job.

The second character of the story is the vicar. He is a man of special demeanour. He is very attentive in maintaining his self status. He showed his displeasure with the illiterate verger and consequently the verger had to give up his job. 

The story is loose in Structure. The first episode bears too prolix exposition. It has neither complication nor falling action but the only climax. The climax reaches when the verger told him that he would have to leave his job unless he learns reading and writing within three months. In the second episode, there is only exposition and climax.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the situation and in delineating the setting the author has succeeded praiseworthily. The custom of the church and the manners of the church officials are vividly portrayed. 

The Method of Narration of the story is objective as the author portrays his characters and expresses the mental conditions of his characters objectively.

The Dialogues in the story are very sparing but prolific. Every dialogue pushes the story ahead and unfolds the inner motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life which is also considered to be a component element of a good story is not apparent in the story. But it may be drawn out from the story that the subordinate officials often become the victim of the haughty and arbitrary superiors. Besides this, the verger’s life as a businessman shows that illiteracy is not a barrier to those who are sincere and dutiful.  

The Linguistic Style of the story is something quaint and complex and far from being refined.

In Length the story falls in the mediocre- neither very short nor long. In a word to say, it is a short story of ideal length.

The analysis of the various aspects of the story as done above shows that it is a good story in theme but structurally and linguistically quaint. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘God Sees the Truth But Waits’ -An Analytical Study

‘God Sees the Truth but Waits’ is a Russian short story by Leo N. Tolstoy (1820-1910). It is tragic and pathetic and deals with the themes of crime, punishment and repentance.

The story is about a Russian merchant named I. D. Askyonof. One day he set out for business to a fair. His wife asked him not to leave home that day as she dreamed a bad dream. But he laughed off and drove away. On the way, he met one of his acquaintances and at night both stayed at an inn. Askyonof was an early riser. The next morning he got up very early and paying off his bill he restarted his journey. After passing twenty-five miles he stopped for lunch and to feed his horse. Suddenly a troyka drove up with tinkling bells and an official alighted followed by two soldiers. The officer began to cross-question him. Askyonof got bewildered. The officers accused him of murdering a merchant and stealing of twenty thousand roubles. Askyonof was afraid and stammered and he denied. Then the officers searched his luggage and surprisingly found a blood-stained knife. Askyonof swore that he had not done that and he had not seen that merchant after they had had tea together. The police officer ordered the soldiers to bind him and put him in the cart. He was sentenced to life long imprisonment. His wife visited him in the prison and she also suspected him. Later on, he was sent to Siberia. Thereafter spending twenty-six years, one day a fresh gang of convict came to the prison. Among them, there was a man named Makar Semyonitch who was from the same place where Askyonof came from. One night he came to the chamber of Askyonof and confessed that the man was he who murdered the merchant and hid the knife under the pillow of Askyonof. He also planned to murder him also. But he heard a noise outside and went off through the window. Then he begged of Askyonof’s forgiveness. He confessed his guilt to the concerned authorities and at last, Askyonof was ordered to be released. But before the order came Askyonof was dead. 

There are two main Characters. But Askyonof is the head character. The author has given a detailed account of his habit and manner. He was a handsome, fair-haired, curly-headed fellow, full of fun and very fond of singing. In prison, he received honour and respect from everybody because of his good manner. He is tragic as well as the pathetic character of the story. The readers’ attention and sympathy go to him while reading the story. 

The second character of the story is Makar Semyonitch. He is the villain of the story. He is cruel, inhumane and a fraud. For him Askyonof, an innocent person had to suffer long twenty-six years in the prison. Later on, he came to repent and ask of Askyonof’s forgiveness. 

In narrating the story the author has employed Objective Method with skill. In this method, an author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces his principal character, I. D. Askyonof. The bad dream dreamed by his wife is alluded here which brings in curiosity in the story. Then the story goes forward to the complication. The climax of the story meets when the wife of Askyonof visits him in the prison and she also suspects him to have committed the crime. The falling action begins when Makar Semyonitch introduces himself to Askyonof. With the death of Askyonof before the order of his release reached him the story meets its denouement meets.  

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues take his story ahead and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after the reading of it. The story suggests that sometimes innocent people happen to suffer a lot in life.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the denouement of his story through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor long.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order so it may be called that it is a short story of the First Grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘Three Questions’ -An Analytical Study

‘Three Questions’ is a Russian short story with some features of an ancient tale by Leo N. Tolstoy (1820-1910) that deals with the Theme of justice.

As seen in a parable, the author through this story enforces a moral lesson. The story is about a king who is anxious to know the answers to three particular questions. The questions are — first, how can he learn to do the right thing at the right times; second, who are the people he needs most and third, what affairs are the most important? To get the answers to these questions the king sent messengers throughout his kingdom, promising a large sum of money to him who would be able to give the right answers. Many wise men drew in and they offered many answers. Some told —the king needed a council of wise men who would help him to act at the proper time. Some said – for that power, the king should go to the magicians. Some argued that the king should have to go to the priests. Others said that soldiers were necessary above all the others. But the king was not satisfied with these answers. At last, he decided to go to the reputed hermit who lived in a forest. Along with his guards he set out to his destination. But the hermit did not meet anyone if he is not an ordinary man. So the king before reaching the hermit’s hut left his sentry away and went up to the hermit.  The hermit was digging the earth in front of his hut. He greeted the king and continued digging. The hermit was old and weak. The king going near asked him to answer his three questions.  The hermit listened to the king but gave no answer. The king seeing him tired took the spade from the hermit’s hand and began to work in his place. The hours passed and the sun went down behind the trees. And at last, the king stuck the spade into the ground and asked him again to answer his three questions.  “Here comes someone running,” the hermit said. The king turned round and saw that a bearded man running towards them. His hands were pressed against his stomach from which blood was flowing. When the man reached the king, he fell down. The king and the hermit unfastened the man’s clothing and found a large wound in his stomach. The king washed and dressed it well. The man began to feel better and asked to drink something. They gave him something to drink. Already it became night and they fell asleep. The next morning when the king awoke from his sleep he asked the man who he was. Then the man said that he was his enemy. He came to avenge the king as the king put the man’s brother into death and seized his property. But while following the king the guards of the king recognized him and attacked him and wounded him. However, he could escape them. He expressed his gratitude to the king for tending him. Otherwise, he would have died. Then the man asked the king for his forgiveness.  And the king not only forgave him but also returned his brother’s property and took him as his friend.  After that, the king was ready to return and for the last time, he asked the king to answer his questions. Then the hermit said that he had already been answered. The hermit said, “The most necessary man is the man you are with at any moment, for no man knows whether he will ever need anyone else, and the most important business is to do that man good because a man is sent into this life for that purpose alone.

There are three characters in the story. The king is the principal character. He is portrayed as a type as well as an individual. He is a type like most kings, commits injustice killing a man and seizing his property for which his brother took an oath to avenge the king by killing him. He is individualized as he is a knowledge seeker for which he goes to the hermit.

The second character is the Hermit. He is wise and teaches the king a good moral lesson by the parable of the wounded man.

The wounded man who was attended by the king and the hermit is the third character in the story. He was an enemy of the king because the king perpetrated injustice to his brother. But when he got justice then he became a faithful servant of the king.

In narrating the story the author has employed Objective Method with skill 

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces his principal character, the king who is a knowledge seeker. The story goes ahead to the complication when the king gathers many wise men to get the answers to his questions. The climax reaches when the wounded man reveals his intention that he came here to kill the king. The falling action comes when the Hermit explains the parables of the wounded man as to serve the answers to his three questions.  

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story a step forward and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life through the last speech of the Hermit that a man’s most important business is to do good to man.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal words and phrases and is free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the denouement of his story through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor long.

It has a feature of a tale of the ancient time. In an ancient tale, it is seen that a story is told to explain some moral or religious lesson. So is done in the story because the episode of the wounded man may be considered as a parable that explains the answers to the king’s questions. 

As all the component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the First Grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘What Men Live By’ -An Analytical Study

‘What Men Live By’ is a Russian short story of the parabolic kind written by Leo N. Tolstoy (1820-1910). Love of man is the main theme of the story. In the story, there are three episodes as the episode of Simon and Michael, the episode of a rich gentleman and the episode of a Lady with two girls, and narrating these three episodes the author has found out the answers to three questions — What dwells in a man? What is not given to man? What men live by? There is a touch of supernaturalism in the story.

The first episode begins with Simon, the shoemaker. He was poor and lived with his small family. He was too poor to own enough clothes for winter. What he earned, all went in buying food items. He had but one sheepskin coat which was won out and he desired to get a new one. Before winter, Simon saved up a little money, there were three rouble notes lay hidden in his wife’s box and five roubles and twenty kopeks were owed him by customers in the village. One day in winter he took three roubles note in his pocket, cut himself a stick to serve as a staff, wore his wife’s worn out nankeen jacket and started off to market in order to purchase a sheepskin coat. He first went to the village to collect the money that he had to be owed by his customers but they did not pay him. Then he thought that he would buy his coat in credit. But the dealer would not trust him. Simon felt downhearted. He spent twenty kopeks on vodka and started homewards without having bought the coat. As he drank some vodka he felt quite warm though he had no sheepskin. Then while he reached the village shrine he happened to see something like the head of a man. First, he hesitated but eventually, he went near him and found that it was none but a man who was naked and was trembling in the cold. Simon asked his name but he did not answer. He wrapped him up with his nankeen coat and gave his shoes to the stranger to put on his feet and then Simon took the man by his elbows and helped him to rise and walked on home. While Simon with the man arrived home, his wife began to be worried about her husband as he neither bought a sheepskin nor any food staff and instead he returned home with a naked man. Angry words rose to Matrena’s (Simon’s wife) lips. Simon said to his wife, “Have you no love of God?” Matrena heard these words and as she looked at the stranger her heart softened towards him. She came back from the door, and going to the stove she prepared some food for them. She served food to them. The stranger being showed pity at him smile at Matrena. They asked the stranger’s name and about his whereabouts but the stranger said, “I am not from these parts. When he was asked about his whereabouts he said that he did not know. The next morning they woke up from sleep. Simon said, “One has to work for a living. What work you know?” Simon asked his name again and then the stranger said that his name was Michael. Afterwards, Simon taught him how to mend and make shoes. Since then Michael began to work with Simon. He kept busy on his duty only and hardly had spoken to anyone. 

The second episode the author narrates that one day a rich gentleman came to Simon and ordered him to make a shoe for him with a piece of German leather. The man ordered that the boots must last for a year without getting worn out within this period. He would pay them ten roubles for it. Michael looked at the gentleman and smiled. Simon asked Michael to make the shoe. Michael began to make it. He cut the leather round and made soft slippers. Simon seeing it cut that way began to be worried as the shoes were not made as was directed. In the mean time, a servant of the rich gentleman came in and let Simon know that the master had died that very night while he was returning from Simon’s home. So the boots should not be made and instead, they should make a soft slipper for the dead. Simon gave him the slipper that was made by Michael.

The third episode is of a woman who one day came to the house of Simon with two girls to get two pairs of shoes for them who were twins. One of the two girls was lame. When Simon’s wife asked about the girls then the woman said that they were not her own but she had adopted them and had fed them at her own breast. Their parents were dead and their mother had died just after their birth. Then Michael looked at them and smiled.

Six years already had passed and then Michael made them know that he was not an ordinary man but an angel. He came to live there as a man because of his sins. As soon the three episodes narrated above happened, Michael had found the answers to three questions and with learning these three answers his sins had been forgiven by God. He explained that he sinned against God by disobeying God’s order. He explained that he was an angel and one day he was sent by God to take off the soul of the woman who just gave birth to twin girls who were adopted by the woman came to them for having made two pairs of shoes. On the day when the soul of the mother of the twin was to be taken off by him, then seeing the angel of death the woman prayed him to leave her as her children were just born. She said that she should be spared for some years so that she could nurse them till they learn to stand on their foot. The angel hearing this returned to God without causing her death and reported God about the woman’s wishes. Then God said, “Go, take the mother’s soul and learn three truths: What dwells in man, what is not given to man, and what men live by. Michael then explained that he had got the answers to these three questions by the three episodes as happened already. He said, “It is love alone by which they live. He who has love is in God, and God is in him, for God is love.” Saying Michael sang praise to God and sour up to heaven. 

Thus through the story (parables), the author comes to impart a moral lesson to his readers that it is love by which men live. 

There are three main Characters – the strangers (Michael), Simon and his wife. Michael is the main character. He is an angel came to live like a man because of his sins. Living like a man in human society, he came to learn that men live by love alone. Simon is a type of the poor but he has an exceptional quality that he is sympathetic to the poor and he loves a man for God’s sake. Simon’s wife Matrena is a type of poor woman but she also bears heart full of love for man. The other characters as- the rich gentleman, the woman with two girls are minor characters. The gentleman is very rich and arrogant. But the woman is very sympathetic and full of love for children.  

In narrating the story the author has employed Objective Method with skill. In this method, an author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces his principal character, Simon. The story begins to develop when Simon took up Michael on the way he was returning home without purchasing the sheepskin coat. The story gets its climax when Michael makes a soft slipper instead of making a pair of strong boots for the gentleman.   

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has come to mean through the story that love is the essence of life and men live by love alone.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the denouement of his story through proper stages.

 As a short story, it is of long Length as it is composed of about seven thousand words.

As the entire component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order so it may be called that it is a good short story but as a parable, it is a better one as it imparts a moral lesson and bears a supernatural character i.e. Michael who is actually an angel. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Anton Chekhov’s Short Story ‘The Bet’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Bet’ is a Russian short story written by Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) that deals with the theme of a challenge as the very title suggests. The main tone of the story is tragic and the author, from the very beginning to the very end of the story, keeps his readers hanging up in the midst of suffocated suspense. 

The story is about a young lawyer who one day attended a gossip party at the house of a young banker. There were tradesmen, scholars, journalists and lawyers. They talked on a variety of topics. By the by one of a guest turned their conversation to the subject of capital punishment. Most of the guests disapproved of capital punishment. Some said it to be against Christian creed and immoral. Some of them thought that capital punishment should be replaced by life imprisonment. But the host did not agree with them. He opined that capital punishment is more moral and humane than life imprisonment. Execution kills instantly, life-imprisonment kills by degrees. In the company, there was a lawyer aged twenty-five. He said, on being asked his opinion that if he were offered the choice between the two i.e. capital punishment and the life-imprisonment, he would certainly choose the second. In his view, it was better to live somehow than not to live at all. Then the young banker said that he bet that if the lawyer could do so then he would pay him two million. That was the agreement. The young lawyer signed the bond and from the next day, he began his voluntary imprisonment after the bet in a solitary spot in the garden of the banker arrange specially for the purpose. The condition of his imprisonment was that he would get food, wine, tobacco, musical instrument, books and also could write letters. During the first five years, the lawyer felt terrible loneliness and boredom, drank much wine and played on the piano. The rest years he spent reading books on various subjects. Thus almost all the years had passed but there was only one day to the fifteen years. Within those fifteen years, the banker had suffered a loss in his business. He began to regret that why he underwent such a bet. If he pays the said amount of money he would be ruined and turn into a beggar. Hence he wished had the lawyer died. But he did not. So he planned to kill him in order to avoid paying off him two millions of roubles. There were only a few hours to fifteen years. The next day morning he would be released. At the dead of night, the banker entered the prison cell stealthily and saw that the prisoner was sitting on his chair motionless. He made a crackling sound while opening the door yet the prisoner seemed not to wake up. At once his eyes fell on the table and found a letter where there was written that he had no desire for money. All the world and glory seemed nothing for him. So he would himself break the agreement leaving the prison cell five minutes before the stipulated term. The jailor came out. The next day the ward boy informed the host that the prisoner had disappeared.

There are two characters in the story. The young lawyer is the principal character. He is stubborn and bold enough to stake a challenge. The author has portrayed him with fidelity as a man of extraordinary quality. He is not only tragic but pathetic also. He himself proved through his life practically that what he said was true to him. Such a character in the world literature is rare and hard to find.

The second character is the banker. He was comparatively younger to the lawyer. But capricious and wasteful for which he lost his business. He seems selfish and miser as he planned to kill the lawyer to avoid paying off his due to the prisoner as per the agreement.

In narrating the story the author has taken to Objective Method with skill. 

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct but it opens with the reminiscence of the banker. He is seen in a state of downcast pacing from corner to corner of his study room recalling the party he arranged fifteen years ago. Here the suspense of the story begins. But in the opening, the author has introduced the main theme as well as the main character of the story. After this, the story goes on the complication and crisis with suffocated suspense. The story seems to end in a climax without any falling action. 

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of him main character along with the environment of his incident.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them economically but all the dialogues have taken his story a step forward and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life through the mouth of his main character as a priori in the opening and proves it through his life himself. The philosophy of life as expressed and shown that it is better to life somehow than not to live at all.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal words and phrases and free from coarse imagery. 

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor long.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order. So it may be called that it is one of the best short stories of the world. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

Shaukat Osman’s Short Story ‘The Prize’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Prize’ is a Bengali tragic short story written by Shaukat Osman, a Bangladeshi writer who writes in Bengali. Injustice is the main theme of the story.

It is a story of a small orphan named Izad who is the son of a beggar. Both his father and mother were dead. He lives under the temporary guardianship of a negligent woman whom he calls to be his mother. She is also a beggar. One day there was a “dress as you like” competition in the park of a city. Many boys and girls participated in it. Almost all the children participated in the competition are born of high family. Izad also goes there not as a participant but as a street boy. The beggar woman whom he calls to be his mother asked him to stay there till she goes to pick him up. In his wearing there are rags and he is shabbily dressed. He does not even know the meaning of Dress Competition. Going there in the park he slouched sleepily on the root of a big tree. When he woke up it was afternoon. Many distinguished women with their children have come to the spot of competition to enjoy it. Izad sees that all the boys and girls have dressed differently. One girl has on a Chinese dress, another is dressed as a tribal girl, one boy has put on the mask of a cat and another looks like a bandit, pistol hanging on his waist. Some other is dressed like a hunter with a gun in one hand and a bird on the other hand.  Suddenly the eyes of the gathering children and their guardians fall on Izad. A group of boys and girls swarm around him, saying, “Look how nicely he has dressed!” Everybody praises the boy and his dress because he is an exception in his dress and looks like a real beggar in their eyes. Some opine that he will win the prize though not the first prize he will surely win the second. A woman asks his name and he says to be Izad but when she asks his father’s name he remains silent. A woman thinks of him to be the son of Mrs Firoza Banoo Majumdar. She is late in attending the spot. Everybody looks eagerly for her arrival. At last, she comes and everybody greets her warmly and thanks and praises her to give her son so an extraordinary makeup that looks like a true beggar’s son. Mrs Banoo Majumdar when gets the opportunity to speak, she becomes agitated and angry to think of her for the beggar’s mother. She cries out and says, “This is not my son. Whose son is this?” In anger, she slapped the boy. A man by the name of Reba Sarkar slapped the boy repeatedly. Mrs Khondakar kicks the boy on his back. Izad falls on the ground with a groan.

Izad is the main character of the story. He is portrayed as a type. He lives a pathetic life as he is an orphan and has no home of his own. Pathos is the main tone of the story and the pathos revolves round this boy. He was the boy whom everybody praised and opined that he would get the first prize till they did not know his acquaintance. But when they came to know that he was really a son of a beggar then they began to despise him, slap him and kick him. The author, through the story, has displayed the hollow mentality of the so-called aristocratic society and shows how the poor become the victims of the violence and injustice of the rich.

All other characters are thus represented as a type of the aristocratic society. They live for themselves. They don’t hesitate to treat the poor with contempt.

The author has used Objective Method in narrating the story and in doing so he has succeeded praiseworthily.

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct. The complication of the story begins while Izad wakes up from sleep under the big tree in the park and it continues till the introduction of the boy as a beggar. The story seems to be ended in the climax.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of the manners and nature of his characters and a vivid description of the surroundings of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them economically but all the dialogues have taken his story a step forward and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life not directly but indirectly, through the story, suggests that the have-nots are despised by the have-lots.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal words and phrases. 

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with the possible economy. Thus the universality is achieved by means of the reliable representation of the event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor long.

As all the component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, so it may be called that it is one of the short stories of the world that deserves to be enlisted in the First Grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

S. Souvany’s Short Story ‘A Silent Love’ -An Analytical Study

‘A Silent Love’ is a short story written by S. Souvanny a writer who belongs to the nationality of Laos. Love is the main theme of the story. The story narrates how a schoolboy was ruined because of his silent love to a girl. 

It is the story of a schoolboy named Boonthong. He is the son of a poor peasant family. His parents sent him to Vientiane from a far off village in order to get a better education.  There he stayed at one of his relative’s home who lived around Vientiane. There he had to do some household works. Later on, he shifted to a rented apartment. There he got two friends named Khamtan and Phayvan. He was a good student and did well in the examinations. His parents hoped that after completing education their son Boonthong would take to a good job and then their condition would get better. In his junior high school, there was a girl by the name of Malivan coming of a rich family. In Junior high school, she had never shown any sign of being the daughter of a rich family.  She ate and studied like just other students and his attitude was much like Boonthong. The girl was pretty, kind and friendly with everybody regardless of their background. But while Boonthong went to senior high school they forgot each other as there was not much intimacy between them. She lived in a neighboring area. But Boonthong did not know her whereabouts. While he went to the senior high school then one day he happened to meet Malivan in a car going to the school. The father and mother of Malivan were in the car. It was a rainy day. Boonthong was going to school on foot and suddenly Malivan asked him and offered him to board their car. Her father Mr Phady said to Boonthong that if they were classmates then Malivan would take him along to the institute everyday in their car. Malivan really began to love him. Every time Malivan turned to the subject of love, but Boonthong would change the subject. In fact, he loved her more than anybody else but he could not help comparing their lives. He was poor nothing to offer her but himself. Time went on Malivan became somewhat disheartened. One day in a party in the house of Malivan she met a young boy called Khamphan. He offered his love to Malivan. Those were the words that she had so wanted to hear from Boonthong. That night she lay awake, her heart spilt in between the two boys — one she loved and the one who said he loved her. Later on, Malivan and Khamphan became intimate to each other and Boonthong also came to know their love affairs. He became worried and much depressed. He noticed that Khamphan is a good musician and thought that Khampahan’s music had bewitched her. So Boonthon turned his course and decided to become a musician. He began to learn guitar under a master named Siri. One day he found a chance to play for a band party where Malivan and others were present. Boonthong received praise from everybody. Gradually he became indifferent to his study and became addicted to wine. In the examination, he cut a sorry figure. Already he got a letter from his father that his younger sister had died of disease as medicine was scarce and food was short. Already the manager of the music party drove him away from the party as he was a bad guitarist. Mentally he broke down and thus his life became ruined.

Boonthong is the principal character of the story. He is portrayed as a type as well as an individual. His love affair, taking to learning guitar and negligence to his study made him miserable. 

The second important character is Malivan. She is the daughter of a well to do family. She is like an ordinary girl. She had a weakness for music. She loved Boonthong but getting no response she turned to Khamphan. But she is not cruel to Boonthong. It is not for Malivan but for Boonthong’s own wrong course that ruined Boonthong. 

The author has used Objective Method in narrating the story and in doing so he has succeeded praiseworthily.

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct. The complication of the story begins when Boonthong and Malivan met each other while the later was going to the institute with her parents. The climax reaches when Boonthong got his first debut as a guitarist. Then the falling action begins and meets the denouement while Boonthong is totally ruined.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of the manners and nature of his characters and a vivid description of the surroundings of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them economically but all the dialogues have taken his story a step ahead and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life not directly but indirectly through the story and suggests that a student should never deviate from his main duty otherwise he would suffer in life.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of simple concrete and formal words and phrases. 

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in it. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with the possible economy. Thus the universality is achieved by means of the reliable representation of the event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor too long.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the First Grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

R. K. Narayan’s Short Story ‘Lawley Road’ -An Analytical Study

‘Lawley Road’ is a satirical short story written by R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) an Indian English short story-teller and novelist. The main theme of the story is arbitrariness, corruption, and the showy nature of the Indian officials, especially of the Municipal Chairman of the town of Malgudi, a fictitious but typical Indian town.

The main theme revolves round the Municipal Chairman. He is good for nothing fellow. He is negligent to his duty. His only aim is to retain his office somehow. But on the occasion of the celebration of the Indian Independence, he woke up and thought to do something great and to mark off this great event he undertakes some measures of tasks to attract the attention of the nation which would prove whimsical and arbitrary. 

First, the Municipal Council swept away the streets, cleaned the drains and hoisted the flags all over the place. One day he called up an Extraordinary Meeting and decided to nationalize the names of all the streets in honour of the birth of independence. They made the start with the park at Market Square. It used to be called the Coronation Park and was declared to be ‘Hamara Hindustan Park’. All the roads were renamed and consequently, the town became unrecognizable

After this, the Chairman became restless again and looked for fresh fields of action. Then the Chairman suddenly made out a plan to shift the statue of Sir Frederic Lawley. The extension had been named after him. Now it was changed to Gandhi Nagar and the Council unanimously resolved to remove it. But it became a problem to uproot it as it was so vast and heavy some twenty feet high.  Later on, a news reporter who was in well acquainted with the Chairman got bought it and eventually, it was shifted with much difficulty to the house of the news reporter. But no longer it was shifted all the land became agitated and stood against this task. Eventually, after the suggestion of the news report, the Chairman compelled to purchase the household of the reporter and declared it as a National Trust and kept the statue in its new place and the Municipal council resolved that Kabir Lane would be changed to Lawley Road. 

Thus through the story, the author has brought into a vivid account of the follies and whimsical activities of the Municipal Council in a satiric vein giving rise to humour.

There are two main Characters. Both the characters are portrayed as type. The Municipal Chairman is selfish, corrupted and a worthless person. The deeds that he undertakes are all whimsical and arbitrary. The other important character of the story is the news reporter who is also of the same nature. He suggests the Chairman to follow some extraordinary works to attract the attention of the town but resultantly all prove to be foolish.

The author has employed the Subjective Method in narrating the story. In this method, the author becomes a character of his story and tells his story in the first person.

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct. The complication of the story begins with the changing of the names of some streets of the town and it reaches its climax when the statue of Sir Frederic Lawley is sold and shifted to the news reporter’s household. The denouement of the story meets when the same statue is taken back because of nation wise public agitation.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of the atmosphere and manners of his characters. 

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them economically but all the dialogues have taken his story a step ahead and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life not directly but indirectly through the story and suggests that the political leaders are full of corruption; the nation can hope for nothing good from them.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of simple, concrete and formal words and phrases, free from complicated sentence construction and harsh imagery.

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in it. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with the possible economy. Thus the universality is achieved by means of the reliable representation of the event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor too long.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

R. K. Narayan’s Short Story ‘The Martyr’s Corner’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Martyr’s Corner’ is a tragic short story written by R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) an Indian English short story-teller and novelist. The main theme of the story is the sufferance of the poor in the hand of the whimsical and selfish political brokers.

The main theme revolves round a shopkeeper called Rama. He set up his temporary shop between the Market Road and the lane leading to the chemist shop. At about 8.15 in the evening he came to his spot with a lot of assortments which included bondas, dosais, duck’s eggs, coffee etc. Within an hour he sold all his food staff and departed. He invested five rupees every day and earned another five as profit. Thus he ran on his business very well. One day when he came with his food staff in his usual place, he found some babbling crowd at the corner where he set up his shop. He said to them authoritatively, “Leave way, please.” But no one cared him. It was the young shop boy of a stationer’s that plucked his sleeves and said, “They have been fighting over something since the evening.” Ram asked, “Over what?” The boy said, “People say someone was stabbed near the Sales Tax Office when he was distributing notices about some votes of something. It may be a private quarrel. But who cares? Let them fight who want a fight.” Someone said, “How dare you speak like that about us? Everyone turned to look at this man sourly. Someone in that crowd remarked, “Can’t a man speak…?” His neighbour slapped him for this. Rama stood there with his load about him, looking on helplessly. This one slap was enough to set off a fuse. Another man hit another man and then another hit another. People shouted soda water bottles were used as missiles. Everyone hit everyone else. A set of persons entered all the shops and demanded that these be closed. The police came but the situation went worse.  The police used lathis and teargas and finally opened fire. Many people died. At midnight Rama emerged from his hiding place and went home. The next day he said to his wife, “I would not take out the usual quantity. I doubt if there will be anyone there.” The next day when Rama went to the market with his food staff and was about to set up his shop then a couple of young men wearing badges came to him and said, “You cannot have your shop here…. This is a holy spot where our leader fell that day. The police aimed his gun at his breast. We are erecting a monument here.” Soon the spot was cordoned off, with some congregation or the other always there. Money boxes jingled for collection and people dropped coins. Consequently, Rama had to move nearly two hundred yards away, far into the lane. It meant that he went out of the range of the vision of his customers. He fell on their blind spot. After this Rama prepared very much less stock each day, but even then he carried home a lot of remnants. One day he returned home with just two annas in his pocket and announced to his wife, “I believe our business is finished. Let us not think of it anymore.” He put away his pans and tray and prepared himself for a life of retirement. He saved some money but he exhausted them soon and then he went to one Restaurant Kohinoor and began to work as a waiter. For twenty rupees a month he waited eight hours a day at the tables. When some customers ordered him about too rudely, he said, “Gently, brother I was once a hotel owner myself.”And with that piece of reminiscence, he attained great satisfaction. 

Thus the author has shown how a poor man suffers for the whimsical political leaders.

Rama is the main Characters of the story. He happened to be the victim of the political brokers. As he was deprived of his usual spot of business, his business fell down and later on he took to the job of a waiter in a hotel where he faced rude behaviour from some customers and thus he had to suffer in life. The title of the story is given after him, not after the leader who was killed by the police in the fuse. It is because the real martyr was not the leader, in the eye of the author, but Rama himself, as his means of livelihood came to an end which led him to suffer in life.  

The author has employed Objective Method in narrating the story. In this method, the author narrates his story from outside.

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct. The complication of the story begins with the fight and it reaches the climax when Rama had to shift his shop to a blind spot.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of the atmosphere and manners of his characters. 

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them economically but all the dialogues have taken his story a step ahead and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life not directly but indirectly through the story and suggests that the poor often suffer the most because of the whimsical activities of the quarrelsome leaders.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of simple, concrete and formal words and phrases, free from complicated sentence construction and harsh imagery.

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in it. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed with the possible economy. Thus the universality is achieved by means of the reliable representation of the event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor long.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order so it may be called that it is a short story of the First Grade. 0 0  0

World Short Story Criticism

Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘The Imp and the Peasant’s Bread’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Imp and the Peasant’s Bread’ is a Russian short story with some features of an ancient tale written by Leo N. Tolstoy (1820-1910) that deals with the theme of sin of abundance.

The story is about a poor peasant. One morning he went off to plough his field taking with him a piece of bread. Before he got his plough ready he put his bread under his coat and hid it under a bush and started work. After some time he got tired and felt hunger. Then he stopped his work and went to get his bread. He searched minutely but did not find the bread. It was missing. In fact, the bread was taken away by an imp who was in hid in the bush. The imp thought that the peasant would call his names and became angry. But he did not. Instead, the peasant said, “Whoever took the bread needed it. May it do him good.” He went to a well, drank some water and resumed his work. The imp being disappointed went back the master Devil and told everything that had happened. The Devil was angry and sent him back to get the things right. Then the imp hurried back to earth and changing himself into a working man began to work with the peasant. The first year the imp advised the peasant to sow corn on the low-lying damp place. The year happened to be a very dry one, and the crops of the other peasants were all burned up by the sun. But the peasant harvested too much. The second year the imp advised him to sow on the hill and it happened to be wet summer. The peasant harvested more grain to spare than before. Then the peasant showed him how to made vodka from it. The peasant learned it and began to drink excessively and to give it to his friends.  

Then the imp went back to his master Devil and claimed proudly that he had succeeded in his mission. The Devil came to see for himself. Coming to the peasant the Devil saw that the peasant had lost all his humane qualities and had been behaving like wild animals- like fox, pigs and wolves. The Devil thanked the imp and gave him a position of high honour.

Seemingly there are three characters in the story- first the peasant, the imp and the Devil. But the peasant is the principal characters. He is a type of the well-to-do people because when one gets much than what is needed then he becomes inhumane and immoral so happens to the peasant. When he was poor he was good and moral but when he became rich enough then he lost all his humane qualities.

The other characters are the imp and the Devil but they remain in the background and operate their functions through the peasant.  

In narrating the story the author has employed the Objective Narrative  Method with skill 

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces his principal character, the peasant. Complication begins when the imp comes to work the peasant as his working man. It reaches its climax when the Devil visits the peasant and found him behaving like beasts in human form. The story seems to be ended in the climax.  

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues take his story a step forward and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life that the blood of the wild animal is always in men but as long as men have only what they need, it remains under control and when the become rich then the wild blood in them begins to operate their evil functions.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal words and phrases and free from emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are maintained in this short story with skill. 

 As a short story, it is written in ideal Length

It has some features of a tale of ancient times. In an ancient tale, it is seen that a story is told to explain some moral or religious lesson. So is done in the story.

As all the component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

R. K. Narayan’s Short Story ‘Leela’s Friend’ -An Analytical Study

‘Leela’s Friend’ is a short story written by R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) an Indian English short story-teller and novelist. The main theme of the story is affection and injustice. Through the story, the author has shown that the poor often become the victim of injustice at the hand of the rich.

It is the story of a servant named Sidda. He is the servant to the house of Mr Sivasankar. He does all the household works as- the washing of clothes, ran errands, chop woods, and look after Leela, a five years old daughter of Mr Sivasankar. From the first day, good intimacy develops between Leela and Sidda. Leela takes Sidda as her sole playmate, she keeps with him almost all the time- while working in the garden, while he chops woods and even at bedtime he would tell her stories. Sometime Leela takes a great joy to play master to Sidda and she makes him squat on the floor with a pencil between his fingers and a book. All the more whenever Sidda goes Leela follows him. One evening Sidda goes tot to buy some sugar and Leela follows her. When they return home Leela’s mother notices that the gold chain that she was wearing is missed. She asks Leela about it but says that she does not know. Then she calls in Sidda. He begins to shudder and sys that he unaware of it. Mr Sivasankar when returns home he grows excited. Sidda goes away at night. Mr Sivasankar goes to the police station and lodges with them a complaint. Leela is almost mad of him. Some days later the police catch Sidda and bring him to the house of Mr Sivasankar. Leela becomes overjoyed but they do not allow Leela to reach him. The police take him to the police station. Some days later Leela’s mother discovers the chain in a pot of tamarind. Leela admits that she kept it someday.  

There are four characters in the story. Sidda is the main character. He is honest, dutiful but he becomes the victim of the injustice of his master. He is portrayed as a type of the poor. Likewise, Mr Sivasankar and Mrs Sivasankar are the representatives of the rich. Well to do people like them they always treat the poor with negligence and they put disbelieve upon them in the least reason without rhyme and reason. The other character is Leela. She is innocent and full of childish affection. Her parents wound her feeling by doing injustice to Sidda.  

The author has employed objective Method and narrates his story faithfully from outside.

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct. The complication of the story begins late and it begins when Leela goes out with Sidda to by some sugar and it continues till climax when Sidda gets arrested. The denouement happens when Leela’s mother discovers the chain in a pot of tamarind.  

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of the atmosphere and manners of his characters. 

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them economically but all the dialogues have played the roles of developing the story and of unfolding the characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life not directly but indirectly through the story and suggests that the poor often become the victim of the rich.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of simple, concrete and formal words and phrases, free from complicated sentence construction.

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in it. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are used in the story. Thus the universality is achieved by means of the reliable representation of the event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

R. K. Narayan’s Short Story ‘Father’s Help’ -An Analytical Study

‘Father’s Help’ is a short story written by R. K. Narayan (1906-2001) an Indian English short story-teller and novelist. The main theme of the story is a pretext for not going to school. The story depicts the child psychology and shows how a child’s minds work to device out a trick for shirking his duty.

The story revolves round a school-boy named Swaminathan. He is a student of Albert Mission School. Like some boys he despises school going and finds a pretext for not going to school. One Monday morning he decided not to go to school and finds a pretext that he has a headache. His mother allows him to stay home but when his father comes to know about his headache then he becomes stubborn and says to him that he must go to school. Swaminathan replies that he is unwilling to go to school late as his teacher Samuel would beat him. Then Swami gives a brief but vivid imaginary account of Samuel’s violent character and says that he is so rude to the boys who go to school late. He canes the boys very vehemently and not stops till he sees blood on the boy’s hand which he makes the boy smear on his face. He also reports that once the teacher had skinned the knuckle of a boy. Hearing this Swami’s father becomes exasperated with the teacher and writes a rude letter to the Headmaster complaining against Samuel and gives it to Swami to deliver it to him. On the way while going to school Swami’s conscience bothered him for making a false statement about Samuel. However, he devises out a fault with the teacher’s treatment of his students. Going to school he finds the teacher more genial and kind than ever before. The teacher neither abuses him nor canes him. The boy, however, shows rudeness with the teacher in the class. While the school breaks then he rushes to the Headmaster’s chamber and seeing the room locked he asks the peon and comes to know that he is on a leave for a week. He does not deliver the letter and returns home straight. His father asks him about the letter and then snatching the letter from Swami’s hand tears off it and throws it into the wastepaper box and mutters that he deserves the punishment of Samuel.  

There are three main Characters- Swaminathan, Samuel and Swami’s father. All bears some individual as well as type traits of character. Swami is a type of boys who are unwilling to go to school and find an excuse for not going to school and what tactics he finds is a type of childish wickedness. Here the author has ably portrayed child psychology. The second important character is Samuel. He is a worthy teacher. No doubt that he sometimes punishes the student for their good but at times he is kind to them also. He often makes jokes rounding Swami’s inactivity which proves that he is a person of a genial kind. The third character is the Father of Swaminathan. He is a very conscious father. He loves his son but he is strict in the matter of his son’s schooling. 

The author has employed Objective Method in narrating the story. In this method, the author keeps himself outside his story and narrates the events objectively.

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct. The complication of the story begins with Swami’s going to school carrying about the letter written by his father to the Headmaster against Samuel. The story reaches its climax when Samuel behaves rudely in the last class taken by Samuel. The denouement happens when Samuel returns home without delivering the letter. The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of the atmosphere and manners of his characters. 

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them economically but all the dialogues have taken his story a step ahead and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life not directly but indirectly through the story and suggests that a child suffers for his own fault.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of simple, concrete and formal words and phrases, free from complicated sentence construction and harsh imagery. The following sentences may roughly be quoted as examples for the author’s simple and easy linguistic style as:

1. Loaf about less on Sundays and you will be without a headache on Monday.

2. The more he thought of Samuel the more he grieved for him.

3. He had never met a man so good as Samuel.

4. Don’t lie in addition to being a coward.

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in it. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with the possible economy. Thus the universality is achieved by means of the reliable representation of the event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor too long.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Story ‘The Cabuliwallah’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Cabuliwallah’ is a short story written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), a world-famous Indian Bengali litterateur. Filial love is the main theme of the story. The story is written in the first person.

Through this story, the author has explored the emotional relationship of a Cabuliwallah (an inhabitant of Kabul in Afghanistan) towards a little girl named Mini in Calcutta. Mini is the five-year-old daughter of the author. She is very talkative. She often bothers the author asking a variety of incongruous questions to the author. One morning when the author was busy in writing a novel, the girl stole into the author’s room and began to asks questions which the author tried to answer. At the meantime, a Cabuliwallah was passing by the road. She noticed him through the window and shrieked out, “A Cabuliwallah! A Cabuliwallah!” The author feared that the Cabuliwallah would come and waste his time. Then the Cabuliwallah came into and greeted the author with a smiling face. Mini was overcome by terror as she thought that Cabuliwallah had borne two or three little children like her in his long bag. So out of fear she fled to her mother’s lap. The author made some purchases and talked about the Russians, the English and the Frontier policy. While leaving the place the Cabuliwallah offered some nuts, raisins, almonds to the little girl, Mini. But the girl clung to the author as she feared the Cabuliwallah. That was their first meeting. The Cabuliwallah since then began to come to the house almost regularly either in the morning or in the evening. With the passing of time friendship developed between the Cabuliwallah and Mini. Little Mini used to prattle with him and the Cabuliwallah heard her and laughed with her. In those ways, the days passed. One day the author saw that the Cabuliwallah is being led away by two policemen. The author came to know partly from one and partly from another that the Cabuliwallah had a quarrelled with a customer who denied to pay off his debt to the Cabuliwallah and being exasperated he struck him and consequently he was arrested. The Cabuliwallah was sent to the prison. Eight years passed by. Everybody forgot the Cabuliwallah. Already Mini got matured to be married to. The author had arranged the marriage ceremony of her girl Mini. On that very morning, all of a sudden, the Cabuliwallah appeared at the author’s door. At first, the author could not recognize him but later on, he came to realize that the new-comer was none but the Cabuliwallah who was sentenced to prison for eight years. The Cabuliwallah said that he was released from jail last evening after a period of eight years imprisonment. The Cabuliwallah and the author had some talks. Then the Cabuliwallah wished to see the little girl. Then the author said that her marriage ceremony was going on so it was not possible to see her that day. He asked him to come another day. The Cabuliwallah then offered some presents to the author to give to Mini. The author accepted and was going to pay him for the things. Then the Cabuliwallah caught the author’s hand and said that he also had a child like her in his homeland and he offered the thing to Mini reminding his own daughter. Saying this the Cabuliwallah had brought out a  piece of paper bearing the impression of a little hand and said that he carried it about him as a token of his love and affection for his daughter. Then the author, realizing the mental condition of Cabuliwallah, sent for Mini. Mini could not but came in. The Cabuliwallah looked at her and said, “Little one, are you going to your father-in-law’s house?” Mini went back. The Cabuliwallah sat down on the floor with a deep sigh and reminded his own daughter in Kabul. Then the author took out a banknote and gave it to him saying, “Go back to your own daughter, Rahman, in your own country, and may the happiness of your meeting bring good fortune to my child.”

 There are three Characters- Mini, Cabuliwallah and the author. Mini is the daughter of the author. She is five years old. She, like other children, is talkative and flirting. The author has portrayed her as a type for children. Her friendship with the Cabuliwallah is child-like from her part and from the side of the Cabuliwallah this friendship is emotional.

The second character is Cabuliwallah. He is poor and living in Kabul. Afghanistan. He is a peddler who does his business in Calcutta. He has a child of Mini’s age. His affection for the little Mini is emotional. Mini reminds him of his own daughter in Kabul. The present that he offers to Mini is a token of filial love for children. He is a pathetic character. He struck a customer being exasperated with him for denying him to pay off his debt. The third character is the author himself. He is a writer. As the author says he was busy writing a novel when the Cabuliwallah came first to his house. The author is very generous and kind to the poor as he gave the Cabuliwallah a banknote for which he had to curtail some of the festivities.

The author has employed the Subjective Method in narrating the story. In this method, the author becomes a character of his story and narrates the story in the first person.

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct. The complication of the story begins with Mini’s meeting with the Cabuliwallah. The climax of the story reaches not while the Cabuliwallah is shown to be arrested by the police but during the marriage ceremony when the Cabuliwallah brings out a piece of paper bearing a hand impression of his little girl whom he left behind in Kabul.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of the atmosphere and manners of his characters. For example, the author gives a vivid imaginary picture of the mountains, peaks, and merchants carrying merchandise journeying downward towards the plain. He also gives a vivid description of the marriage festivities.

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them economically but all the dialogues have taken his story a step ahead and unfold the inner nature and motives of his characters. The dialogues of Mini may be called memorable as- she asked his father,

“What do you think, Father? Bhola says there is an elephant in the clouds, blowing the water out of his trunk, and that is why it rains!”

 Again she asked his father, “Father! What relation is mother to you?”

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life not directly but indirectly through the story and suggests that love and affection to children is natural to man.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of simple, concrete and formal words and phrases, free from complicated sentence construction and harsh imagery. 

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in it. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with the possible economy. Thus the universality is achieved by means of the reliable representation of the event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal as —neither very short nor too long.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

Atulananda Goswami’s Short Story ‘A Birthday Party’ -An Analytical Study

‘A Birthday Party’ is a short story written by Atulananda Goswami (1935- ). He is an Indian-Assamese novelist and story-teller. Filial love is the main theme of the story. 

The story is about an old woman called Kamala Devi, grandmother to Bon. She has two daughters and one son named Babu. Her two daughters are married off and they are happy with their husbands. His son Babu lives in America with his family. His family comprised of his wife and two little sons. The name of his son is Bon. They visit the old woman living in Assam once a year. Her son takes great concern for her. She lives amid affluence. Her two daughters also take great care for her. The grandmother of Bon is very affectionate to her children, especially she is very emotional towards her grandson Bon. One day on which falls the anniversary of Bon’s birthday, the grandmother becomes very anxious to celebrate a birthday party at her home she is far away from her grandson. She has prepared delicious items of food and invites some relatives namely- Runu, Amal, Anil, Sanjay, Reba, Balen, Pinku and some others. They have celebrated the birthday party of Bon who stays in America with his parents. He is four years old. On time, his son from America rings to her mother. Her mother receives the phone and greets happy birthday to Bon. After this, the guests get departed one by one. The grandmother remains alone and becomes emotional. She lives amid affluence but she is not happy being her children away from her. She prays to God, “I do not need all these things. O, God! Take away all these belongings, the house, household effects; all but bring me home my family, my sons, my daughters, my grand-children all near me. Let them all be at my hand’s reach. I do not need all these comforts coming from beyond the seas. I want my grand-child be with me. I will put him to sleep by my side. I will wash his feet, touch  the face, here, oh God within my reach….”

The grandmother of Bon named Kamala Devi is the major character in the story. The author very vividly portrays the mental state i.e. emotional feeling of emptiness in the grandmother’s heart. She is amid affluence. All his sons and daughters take care of her, yet she is not happy. She wishes that should her children and grandchildren live with her. All the other characters as- Runu, Raba, Anil, Amal, Pinku, Rajat are her relatives. They are kind to Kamala Devi and though they take care of hers, yet they cannot make up the feeling of emptiness of Kamala Devi.

The author has employed Objective Method in narrating the story. In this method, the author narrates his story from the outside.

The story, in Structure, is well one. The exposition is direct. The story seems to be ended in the climax.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of the atmosphere and manners of his characters. 

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical and sparing.

The author has expressed his Philosophy of Life not directly but indirectly through the story and suggests that material affluence cannot fill up the emotional gap in the heart.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of simple, concrete and formal words and phrases, free from complicated sentence construction and harsh imagery. 

All the Qualities of a good short story as — unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in it. The brevity is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with the possible economy. Thus the universality is achieved by means of the reliable representation of the event. The story begins and ends with spontaneous logical order through proper stages.

 As a short story, its Length is ideal —neither very short nor long.

As all the component elements along with the required qualities of a good short story are present in it in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need’ -An Analytical Study

 ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need’ is a Russian short story by Leo N. Tolstoy (1820-1910). Greed is the main theme of the short story. Through this story, the author has shown that too much of anything is bad.

The story is about a peasant named Pahom. He is a well off peasant and lives in a village. One day his sister-in-law (his wife’s sister) came to their house. They led a conversation on the topic of village life versus town life. They put forward their respective arguments in support of their respective lifestyle. Pahom was listening to them. Pahom, in final, commented that if he had plenty of lands he should not fear the devil himself. Then his desire for more land increased. One day he came to know that a lady closed to his village happened to sell her estate. Pahom bought some acres of land and sowed seeds on and in turn, he harvested plenty of crops. Some days later he happened to meet a stranger who was also a peasant. From him, he came to know that beyond the Volga there is plenty of lands to be bought at a cheap price. Then he sold his property and shifted there. After a year he again came to know from a tradesman that in the land of the Bashkirs land could be had almost for nothing. Hearing this Pahom became restless and being desirous of buying it, he set out for the land of the Bashkirs. He took a servant with him and some thousands of money. He went ahead to the north for about a week and after crossing more than three hundred miles he reached the place. There he met the Bashkir-head who said, “We sell it by the day. As much as you can go round on your feet in a day is yours, and the price is thousand roubles.” Pahom was overjoyed and spent the whole night in a vigil. The next morning the Bashkir- head and some others of the village took him to a far-off hillock and mounted there. He after the bargain that all the land he covers on foot within the day would go to him and if he fails to return to the same spot from where he started his walking before the sun sets then he would lose both the money and the land. He took out his money and put it on his cap and walked on foot to cover a vast land. As much as he went ahead he found more and more fascinating pieces of land and he began to go farther. He became tired but he did not like to take rest as he wanted to cover more and more land. After covering a vast land he became so exhausted that he felt as if he was dying, yet he walked on. He said to himself, “An hour to suffer, a life to live.” With all his remaining strength he rushed on, bending his body forward so that his legs could hardly follow fast enough to keep him from falling. Just as he reached the hillock it suddenly grew dark. He looked up and gave a loud cry, “All my labour had been in vain’’. He thought to stop but the Bashkir was shouting at him. He took a long breath and ran up the hillock. He reached the top and reached the cap with his hand. He uttered a cry; his legs gave away beneath him. Pahom’s servant came running up and tried to raise him. But he saw blood was flowing from his mouth. Pahom was dead.  His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave long enough for Pahom to lie in and buried him in. Six feet from him head to his heels was all he needed.

Thus the author has shown that too much greed ruins a man.

Pahom is the main character of the story. He is greedy of getting more and more. The more he had the more he wanted, but he did not reckon on the consequences of his greed. He is a type of them who is never contented with whatever they have.

In narrating the story the author has employed Objective Method with skill. In this method, an author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces Pahom, his principal character. It seems to be ended in the climax.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after the reading of it that too much of anything is bad or too much greed ruins a man.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and it is free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the end of his story through proper stages.

It is a short story of long Length as it comprises about eight thousand words.

As the entire component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Leo Tolstoy’s Short Story ‘A Prisoner in the Caucasus’ -An Analytical Study

‘A Prisoner in the Caucasus’ is a Russian short story by Leo N. Tolstoy (1820-1910). Injustice and terror, cruelty is the main theme of the story.

It is the story of a Russian soldier who was taken off as a prisoner by the Tartars. The name of the soldier was Ivan Zhilin. He was far away from home in his service. He was of a poor family. He left his old mother at home. One day while he was on his duty he received a letter from his mother asking him to come home as his mother became old and was desirous of seeing his only son. She also informed him that she had seen a pretty girl for him to be married if he wished. On receiving the letter he applied to his superior authority for an absence of leave and being the application granted he left his regiment for home. At that time there was a war on in the Caucasus and the roads were too dangerous to travel either by day or by night. If any of the Russians left the fortress he was in peril of being killed or taken off into the mountains by the Tartars. For this reason, a body of foot soldiers escorted civilians in and out of the fortress twice a week. It was summer. Zhilin rode on horseback with his baggage. There were twenty-five people to go. He was one of them. The wagon made slow progress: either the soldiers would halt for a rest or somebody’s wagon would lose a wheel, or a horse would pull up and each time the whole convoy would have to stop or wait. So Zhilin and one of his comrades named Kostylin left the other fellow travellers and went ahead alone. They arrayed themselves with arms, sabers and guns and began to progress. But somehow Kostylin leg behind and Zhilin went on ahead alone. After going some time he faced some Tatars chasing him. He made ready but they were many for which he could not defend himself and eventually he was caught by the Tartars. They took him up and down the mountains and at last, they carried him to a house of a Tatar with a red beard who was with the raiding band. He was chained and kept in a house locked behind. He was hurt and the blood coagulated on his head and face. He felt much hungry. The next morning he was given something to eat.  Thus he began to spend some days there. One day he was carried to a nearby village in the house of a man called Abdul Murat. Murat said to him that he had bought him from Kazi Muhamed for two hundred rubles. His new master Abdul Murat ordered him to write a letter home telling his people to send a ransom of three thousand rubles for him. Zhilin said that he was not so wealthy and his people would unable to pay such huge money so he might write asking for only five hundred rubles for his ransom. But surprising this time he found there to come another captive who was none but his fellowman whose name was Kostylin who he legged behind. He was of a well off parentage. His master also ordered him to write a letter to be sent home asking for five thousand rubles for his ransom. He wrote a letter. Zhilin also wrote a letter asking for five hundred rubles for his ransom. But he wrote the wrong address on it so that it could not reach his home. He thought that it would be impossible for his family to collect such money and intended to flee away somehow. Time passed but the money for their ransom did not come. One day Zhilin saw a girl about thirteen years there who had been the daughter of his master. He came often to him with water or something. Zhilin made toys and something playthings and threw them to the girl. The girl picked up and ran away. Thus some friendship developed between them. She often used to come to him with bread, butter, or cheese. One night they- Zhilin and Kostylin- fled through the hole of the house and began to run on. But the mountains were so rugged that they could not go fast. The next day they were captured by their master and carried back again. This time they were kept in an unwholesome hole and even in a harsh condition. The chains were wrapped round their body and they were never removed. Till then no ransom for them arrived there. Thesame girl named Dina, one day came to Zhilin and gestured that their master had decided to kill them. Then Zhilin determined to flee from there that very night. At night the little girl Dina came. Zhilin told his comrade Kostylin to stand up and leave the place. But he said, “No. It looks that I am here for good. Where can I go, when I have not even the strength to turn?” Then Zhilin said, “In that case farewell. Don’t think badly of me.” Then the two men kissed each other. Dina the little child provided him with a pole and held it steady and Zhilin climbed up. Twice he fell back, hampered by his shackle. With Kostylin’s support, he managed to climb up and came out. At the foot of the slope, he found a sharp stone and tried to wrench open the padlock on his shackle. But the padlock was strong, and it was even made more difficult by the awkward position he had to sit on. Then he heard someone running lightly down the hill and assumed it must be Dina. She ran up, took the stone and said, “Let me try.” She knelt down and tried to wrench the lock open, but her hand was as slender as a little twig and did not have the strength for it. She threw away the stone and burst into tears. Then Zhilin stood up and flung the stone away and said, “Shackle or no shackle I must go.” He said to Dina, “Farewell Dina, I shall always remember you.” Dina grasped at him and searched him with her hands for somewhere to put her bread. He took them from her.

Dina started crying again, covered her face with her hands, and scurried off up the hill, leaping like a young goat. Only the coins in her hair could be heard jingling in the dark. Zhilin crossed himself held the padlock high so that it would not clank and set out along the road.  After going some ahead he saw three Tatars on a hillock, only a few-handed yards away. They had seen him and were racing towards him. Zhilin’s heart trembled. He waved his hands and shouted for help. The Cossack soldiers heard him and jumped to their horses. They came galloping towards him, hoping to intercept the Tatars. The Cassock soldiers rescued him and carried him to the fortress. Zhilin related everything that had happened to him. On the other hand, Kostylin’s ransom of five thousand rubles had been not paid for another month. However, the Cassock soldiers rescued him.

There are three main characters in the story- Zhilin, Kostylin, and Dina. Zhilin is the main Character. He is a Russian soldier. He became the victim of the Tatars and suffered a lot. He is a man of courage. Amid Adverse circumstances, he did not lose heart. Kostylin is his comrade. He may be called a coward as he did not dare to escape. He became too weak to walk and reconciled to his fate. Dina is a memorable character of Tolstoy. He is a child but she is full of kindness to the fellow being. He tried her best to help Zhilin to flee from the prison. Had Zhilin not gotten her help it may be he would have met his death there.

In narrating the story the author has employed Objective Method with skill. In this method, an author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces Zhilin, his principal character. The story gets its climax when Zhilin fled for the first time but recaptured by his master.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good deal of description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after the reading of it that sometimes the good people have to suffer for some wicked people.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and it is free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the end of his story through proper stages.

 It is a short story of long Length as it comprises of about eight thousand words.

As the entire component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

Lord Halifax’s Short Story ‘The Invisible Passenger’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Invisible Passenger’ is a short story by Lord Halifax. Crime for money is the main theme of the story.

The story is about a Technician in the Railway Department of a small city in England. One day, a passenger set out to go somewhere by train. He was a businessman. With him, there was a lump of documents. He wished to examine them in the train and hence, being asked for, he was provided for a lonely compartment by the Rail Manager. He boarded the train and began to study the papers. After some time an aged gentleman opening the door from outside got into the compartment. The first passenger felt a disturbance. The second passenger gazed at him and said that he was a technical officer of the Railway Department. He had been authorized to construct a new Rail Line and he was going there with the salaries of the labourers. There were about one hundred thousand pounds in the case. Then he asked the first passenger where he was going. He said about his destination. Then the second passenger said that where the first passenger was going to stay, the hostess of the household was his niece. He asked him to convey his greeting to them. The train was going in full swing. After running for some hours the train stopped at a station where the second passenger got down the train and began to walk on. After some time suddenly the first passenger happened to find a cigar box. Being sure that it belonged to the First Passenger, he got off the train and began to search him. Looking around, he found that the first passenger was standing away under a light post talking with a man. The man with whom he was talking bore golden hair around his head and the top of his head was bald. The first passenger, being seen him there, walked fast unto him. But suddenly he found that the man had left the place and became invisible. Already the train made its whistle and he ran into the train. At times the first passenger reached his destination. Going there he found that the house was full of some invitees. Then he conveyed his greeting to the hostess sent by her uncle (the first passenger). The hostess and her husband hesitated to hear the message. After sometime two of the invitees came near him and asked about the uncle (the second passenger) of the hostess of the household. From the two invitees, the first passenger came to know that the technician of the Railway Department whom he met on the train had been missing after taking off about one hundred thousand pounds. They also requested him to give an interview if needed to find out the clue of the missing officer. Subsequently, the first passenger was summoned to the department. Then he gave a detailed account of what he knew about the man whom he met in his compartment. Then all of a sudden his eyes fell on the cashier and pointed out that he saw the cashier that day with the technician under the light post. The Cashier denied it. But he observed him well and became sure that he was the very man with whom the technical officer had been talking under the light post. The doubt of the railway department rested on the cashier. After investigation, it came out that the cashier murdered him and had taken off the entire money.

There are three principal characters in the story as- the First passenger, the Second Passenger and the Cashier. The first passenger is a businessman. He is simple and candid. It is for him the mystery of the missing of Technical Officer came to light. The Second Passenger is in charge of constructing a new Railway Line. He is free-frank to all and had the ability to make intimacy with people easily. He became the victim of the greed of the Cashier for his frankness. The Cashier is the anti-hero (villain) in the story. He murdered the First Passenger for money only.

In narrating the story the author has employed Objective Method with skill. In this method, an author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces the main characters. The climax of the story seems to occur when the first passenger saw the second passenger to have vanished suddenly with the bald man under the light post.  

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. 

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after the reading of it that greed for money leads one to commit a crime.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and it is free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the end of his story through proper stages.

 It is a short story of ideal Length as it is neither so short nor so long.

As the entire component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade.

Note: The original English text of the short story ‘Invisible Passenger’, being unavailable, this analytical study has been written based on the Assamese translation of the story done by Zatin Barman. I am sorry for the digression if there is any as in the spelling of the author’s name, in using textual phrases and in entitling the story form Assamese Translation. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Bimal Mitra’s Short Story ‘1990’ -An Analytical Study

‘1990’ is a Bengali short story of shorter length written by Bimal Mitra. The unemployment problem is the main theme of the story. The author, in this short story, has foreseen through a dream, the unemployment problem in the coming up future.

In the story, the author is seen in the meat market. He knows that meat provides protein to our bodies. Hence he is eager to eat meat at least once a week and goes to the meat market. Going there he finds that a man wearing tariline shirt, a tie on the throat, and a watch on the wrist of his hand is sitting inside the shop. His hair is brushed with black dye. He asks him where the shopkeeper has gone. He answers with a smile that he is the shopkeeper. He says that he is a Ph. D. holder from London University. But for not having any employment he has opened that meat shop. Saying this, the shopkeeper pointed out to a man smoking a cigar and said that he was once the Vice-chancellor of Jalpaiguri University. But in a bomb bursting he lost his feet and now being jobless he has set up that cigar shop. Then he begins to weigh a half kilo of meat for the author. In the meantime, the author notices that there is a mini-calendar hung on the wall. The calendar bore the name of the year along with the names of the months. But that the year was written wrongly to be 1990 instead of 1970. He enquires of the shopkeeper that there is an error. Then the man, being somewhat annoyed, replies that it is correct because it is 1990, not 1970. Replying so, he gave out a loud laugh. Hearing the loud laugh the author suddenly wakes up and finds that he is in his bed and was dreaming.

Thus, through the dream, the author has envisaged the educated unemployment problem in India. 

There are two principal characters in the story. The first is the author himself. He is very conscious of the future problem of India. The meat-selling man is a type of educated unemployed youth of future India. The story was written in the seventh decade of the twentieth century and the dream of the author has been coming to be true now as many university degree holders are found jobless here and there in India.

In narrating the story the author has employed the Subjective Method. In this method, an author becomes a character of his story and writes his story in the first person.

The story, in Structure, may be called a good one though the proper stages of its structure are not apparently visible. 

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. 

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after the reading of it that higher education does not mean a higher job.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and it is free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this mini-short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event.

In Length, it is a mini-short story as the story is composed of less than five hundred words.

As a mini short story, it is a good one though the exposition and denouement of the story seem too hasty. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Banaphool’s Short Story ‘The Girl’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Girl’ is a Bengali short story written by Banaphool. Love is the main theme of the story. The author, in this short story, has shown that our wills are ours but their ends are not our own. 

The story is about a girl whom the author had met accidentally. One day the author, when got down from the tram car, happened to see a girl who was leaning against a post beside the road. Seeing the author, the girl greeted him with a smile. But the author could not recognize her and thought that she might be one of his students. She was attractively beautiful. The author walked on. After walking ahead for some time, the author looked back and saw that the girl was following him. The author halted and the girl coming near the author asked him whether he lived in the alley. The author replied in the positive. The girl wished to go to the author’s flat. The author though a little embarrassed, allowed her to come to his flat. She followed the author to his flat. Going there the girl sat on a chair. Already the author changed his dress and found that the girl was observing the belongings of the room and praised his sense of aesthetics.  Then the girl said to the author that one day his father sent him a letter and a photocopy of the girl proposing her marriage to the author. The author, being some embarrassed, said that he was then in a hurry to leave home for England for which he could not mind that letter. Then the girl requested the author to burn up the photo. The author wished her to eat something and went to bring some biscuits for her. But after returning with biscuits, he found that the girl had left already. He looked outside but she could not be seen. After some days the author found the letter and a copy of her photo among the olden papers. The envelope was not opened till then. He observed the photo but the girl in the photo could not attract the author. The author thought that the girl might come one day to take back her photo. Hence he bound up the photo in a frame and kept it hanging on the wall. After some days the author returning from college found the frame of the photo in a broken state and the photo was not there.  Then he wrote a letter to the father of that girl expressing his choice of the girl and requested him to visit his house. But after some days the author received a letter from the girl’s father which read as-

“Thank you for your letter. I inform you with sorrow that the girl had died in a bus accident. She was devoted to you. If she got you as her husband her life would have been thankful. But God did not wish so. All are the frolic of luck.”

There are two principal characters in the story. The first is the author himself. And the second is the girl. The girl bears some individual traits which may be called to be peculiar to her only. She loved the author very deeply, but the author did neither know her nor respond to her. But later on, when the author became interested in her she was dead already.

In narrating the story the author has employed Subjective Method. In this method, the author becomes a character of his story and writes his story in the first person. 

The story, in Structure, may be called a good one though the proper stages of its structure are not apparently visible. The climax of the story reaches when the girl revealed that her father wrote a letter to him proposing her marriage to him. 

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. 

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has expressed thorough the story that human life on earth depends on the frolics of God.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and it is free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story.

 The story is ideal in Length, neither very short nor long. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

Natarajan’s Short Story ‘The Co-death’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Co-death’ (Shah-maran) is a Bengali short story written by Natarajan. The sufferance of the mother-in-law in the hand of the daughters-in-law is the main theme of the story.

The story is about an old woman named Charushila Devi, the wife of Zamini Goshal. She lost her husband about sixteen years ago. One day she was gazing at the photo of her dead husband, which was kept hanging on the wall, and was thinking about him. It seemed that he had died some days ago. Beside the photo of her husband, there was a photo of Raja Rammohan Roy. She had heard of Raja Rammohan Roy from her grandmother while she was a child. Her grandmother told her that Raja Rammohan Roy was a great personality of India who tried to remove the Satidah Pratha from society. She, in such a tender age, realized that it was blind faith and very inhuman. But what she thought to be cruel and inhuman in her childhood, now in her old age happened to realize that it was an act of virtue and Raja Rammohan Roy did injustice to the widows by removing the Sati-dah Pratha. It was because she faced cruel and ill-treatment of her daughter-in-law, Amrita (the wife of her second son, Bishnu Kanta). Her daughter-in-law and the grandchild Shutki often chided her and insulted her. She thought that had she been sent to the pyre of her dead husband and died with him it would have been a relief for her from such insulting treatment. Then she began to honour the Sati-dah Pratha in her heart and one day she died by pouring kerosene in her body.

The story is a tragic one as the Charushila Devi suffers a lot at the hands of her daughter-in-law and grandchild Shutki. The readers’ sympathy goes with Charushila Devi.

There are three characters in the story. The first is Charushila Devi. She is the main character of the story. She is portrayed as a type of Bengali widow. In the Indian Hindu society, the widows have to suffer a lot at the hands of their family members and even from society. The widow old women often become the victim of the ill-treatment of their daughters-in-law. They have to observe many rituals which prevent them from enjoying the general comforts of life.  Charushila Devi in the story represents them all. She, being unable to bear such inhuman insults, died by pouring kerosene oil on her body.  Likewise, Amrita is the representative of the modern daughters-in-law in Indian society. She also leaves no stone unturned to find fault with her mother-in-law. Shutki is also a type of modern girl who finds a clue to insult and harass her old grandmother.

In narrating the story the author has employed the Objective Method. In this method, the author becomes a character of his story and writes his story in the first person.

The story, in Structure, may be called a good one though the proper stages of its structure are not apparently visible. The climax of the story reaches when Charushila Devi heard about the Sati-dah Pratha of Hindu society in the mouth of her grandmother in her childhood and opined that the custom was a vice.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. 

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and revealed the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has expressed through the story that human mentality changes with the change of circumstances.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and it is free from poetic imagery and emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity, and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with the possible economy.

 The story is ideal in Length— neither very short nor long.

As all the component elements and the qualities of a good short story are present in the story so it may be called that it belongs to the story of first Grade. 

Note: ‘Sati-dah Pratha’ refers to a custom in Hindu society in which a woman, after her husband’s death, had to die by burning alive in the same pyre as her dead husband. During the second half of the nineteenth century Raja Rammohan Roy, a Bengali scholar and social reformer stood against this inhuman custom and with the help of Sir William Bentinck, the then Viceroy of British India banned it forever. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Dr Pratibha Roy’s Short Story ‘The Certificate of Honour’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Certificate of Honour’ (Manpatra) is an Indian Oriya short story written by Dr Pratibha Roy. It is an ironic story. Unappreciated honour is the main theme of the story. In the story, the author has portrayed the state of a sweeper who was given a certificate of honour in recognition of his service.

The main character of the story is Pitei Nayak. He is a sweeper. One day he got a letter and being illiterate he took it to a babu (a literate businessman) and asked him to read the letter for him. He read the letter and made him know that Pitei was selected as one of the best sweepers of the town and hence he would be given a Certificate of Honour next Saturday. He fell in a puzzle regarding the honour that they would bestow on him. On the appointed day, he went there in a tidy dress. He sat on one of the chairs and was waiting for the function. The meeting ran on in English. He did not know English and thought that if his name was called out in English then he would not be able to receive the prize as he did not know English. But in time when his turn came they called out his name in Oriya and he was given a garland of flowers and a piece of paper. He did not know what the piece of paper meant. He thought that a piece of paper might be a cheque. He, coming back home and thought that he would be able to repair the wall of his house with the money he would get by means of the cheque. He took it to some educated men and came to know that it was not a cheque but a certificate of honour. He should bind it in a frame and should keep it hanging in the drawing-room. But as he had not a drawing-room he took it to some offices to keep it there in safety. But none kept it. Then he went to another office, seeing the photo of Mahatma Gandhi and some others on the wall, he requested the officers to keep his Certificate of honour there as he had no room to put it. But they also turned him out. Being disappointed he came back home. Next day he went to a hotel and gave the certificate of honour to the hand of the ward boy and requested him to keep it hanging on the wall of the hotel and without delay, he turned back thinking that the boy might return it. 

P. Nayak is the main character of the story. He is illiterate and ignorant of what is called honour. The certificate of honour given to him is an irony as the certificate came into no value for him. Instead, it seemed to be a burden on the head of the sweeper.  

In narrating the story the author has employed the Objective Method with skill. In this method, an author keeps himself away from his story and delineates his story objectively.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The opening is direct. In the opening, the storyteller introduces Pitei Nayak, his principal character. 

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers after the reading of it that the poor are always neglected by the rich. The certificate of honour cannot bring in honour to them.

The Language of the story is very simple as it is characterized by the use of concrete and formal (not unfamiliar) words and phrases and it is free from poetic imagery and much emotional expression.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. The brevity which is taken of as the soul of a short story is also maintained throughout the story as all the component elements of a good short story are employed in the story with possible economy without causing any harm to the perfectness of the story. Thus the universality is gained by means of the reliable representation of the theme and event. The story begins and ends with a spontaneous logical order and the author seems not to use any force in bringing about the end of his story through proper stages.

 It is a short story of ideal Length.

As the entire component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Ruskin Bond’s Short Story ‘Once a Thief’ -An Analytical Study

‘Once a Thief’ is an English short story written by Ruskin Bond. Crime and repentance is the main theme of the story. It is written in an autobiographical style.

The story is about a thief named Hari Singh. He was a habitual thief and robbed many of his employers. One day he met a young man called Anil. When he met Anil, he was watching a wrestling match. Hari Singh approached him to get into his confidence and rob him also. After some introduction, he wanted to work for Anil and assured that he could cook. For that Anil took him to his abode over the Jamna Sweet Shop. But the food he cooked that night had been so terrible that Anil gave them to the stray dog and told him to be off. Later Anil patted his head and said that he would teach Hari Singh to cook. He also would teach him to write and read. Anil was a writer and he wrote for magazines. He was very easy to spend his earnings. Hari Singh made tea in the morning, did the everyday market, and learned reading at night. One evening Hari Singh saw him coming home with a small bundle of notes. This very night Hari Singh robbed him of the money and ran off the train station. While he reached the station he saw that the 10.30 train was leaving the station and he could easily board the train. But for some unknown reason, he hesitated and lost the chance to get away. Then it was raining heavily. When the rain stopped he ran back to Anil and reaching home he put the notes from where he stole them. The next morning he was late to get up from his sleep. When he woke up he found that Anil had already made tea. Anil stretched out his hand towards him and gave him a note of fifty rupees and said that since then Hari Singh would be paid regularly. Anil seemed to know about the theft but he told Hari nothing. Thus the author has shown that under an honest man a thief may turn into a good man.

There are two main characters in the story. Hari Singh is the prominent one. He is a clever boy with an experienced hand in robbing his employers. He also planned to rob his latest master Anil. But the honest and simple nature of Anil had eventually transformed him into a good boy. The other character is Anil. He is a writer. He writes for a magazine and earns money occasionally. He is a simple and easy-going and kind-hearted young man. It is for his good behaviour that Hari Singh who was a thief became a god boy.

In narrating the story the author has employed the Subjective Method with skill. In this method, the author becomes a character of his story and relates the events in the first person.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The exposition of the story is direct and exemplary as:

”I was still a thief when I met Anil. And though only 15, I was an experienced and fairly successful hand.

Anil was watching a wrestling match when I approached him. He was about 25—a tall lean fellow—and he looked easy-going, kind and simple enough for my purpose. I hadn’t had much luck of late and thought I might be able to get into the young man’s confidence.”

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers that under an honest man a thief may turn into a good man.

The Language of the story is exemplary very simple and it is the simplicity of the author’s language and manner of expression that has made the story as one of the finest short stories ever written in the English language.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. 

 It is a short story of ideal Length.

As the entire component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the first grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism

O’Henry’s Short Story ‘The Romance of a Busy Broker’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Romance of a Busy Broker’ is an American English short story written by O’Henry (William Sidney Porter/ 1862-1910). Business is the main theme of the story. The author has shown, through the story, how humdrum business makes one absent-mindedness. 

The story is about a busy New York broker, Harvey Maxwell. One day he came to his office with his personal secretary Miss Leslie. Coming straight he said, “Good Morning” to his personal clerk, Pitcher and sat on his seat almost jumping and began to open the mails in heaps on his crowded desk. His personal clerk noticed a difference in the attitude of Miss Leslie as she went to the outer room where she seemed to observe the things anew. After sometime the clerk came in with a beautiful lady to the room of Harvey. He turned half round and asked Pitcher, his clerk about his coming. The clerk said that the lady had come for the job of a secretary as you told him yesterday.  Maxwell said, “You are losing your mind, Pitcher. Why should I have given you such order? Miss Leslie has given perfect satisfaction. The place is hers as long as she likes.” The young lady left the office little angrily. Pitcher said to the bookkeeper, “the old man seemed to get more absentminded and forgetful with every day that passed.” The rush and speed of business grew fiercer and faster. Orders to buy and sell were coming and going as rapidly as the flight of birds. The man was working like some high-powered, delicate strong machine. When the lunch hour drew near Maxwell stood by his desk with his hands full of telegrams and letters, with a fountain pen over his right ear and his hair hanging over his forehead. He suddenly felt a delicate smell of lilac. He thought it might come from Leslie. It was her only. He approached to Leslie. He leaned one elbow on her desk and said to Leslie, “I have only a moment to spare. I want to say something in a moment. Will you be my wife? I have not had time to show my love to you in an ordinary way. Talk please. I am very busy.” Leslie being perplexed said, “Oh what are you talking? ……Don’t you remember Harvey? We were married last evening at eight o’clock in the Little Church around the Corner.”

Thus the author has portrayed, very reliably, the mind of a busy man. 

There are three Characters – Harvey Maxwell, Leslie, and Pitcher in the story. Harvey is a type of busy man. Likewise, the other two characters are also typed but they are not as busy as Harvey is. So no peculiarity is seen in them. They are as they were.

In narrating the story the author has employed the Objective Method with skill.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The exposition of the story is direct. In the exposition, the author has introduced his main character, Harvey Maxwell. The presence of Leslie creates curiosity in the mind of the readers from the very beginning of the story. The story ends in the climax.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good description of his main character along with the environment of his event.

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has not expressed it directly but leaves it to be drawn out by his readers that the pressure of business sometime makes one absent-minded.

The Language of the story is exemplary very simple and it is the simplicity of the author’s language and manner of expression that has made the story a fine short story.

All the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality are present in this short story. 

 It is a short story of ideal Length.

As the entire component elements along with required qualities of a good short story are present in it, in a logical order, so it may be called that it is a short story of the First Grade. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Alphonse Daudet’s Short Story ‘The Last Lesson’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Last Lesson’ is a French short story written by Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897). Patriotism is the main theme of the story. The plot of the story is based on the conquest of two provinces: Alsace and Lorraine of France by the Germans in 1870. After taking over the controlling power of the two provinces, the shrewd German plotted to ruin the age-long France culture of the two provinces and they imputed new laws to be enforced in these two provinces. One day, an order was sent to the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from Berlin, the capital of Germany that only German, not French, would be taught in the schools of their conquered provinces. After getting the order what the teacher of a village school of Alsace, his pupils and the villagers had thought and reacted is portrayed in this short story. It is a very pathetic short story ever written by Alphonse Daudet. The story is written in the first person.

The story begins with a little schoolboy called Franz. He was the type of students of his time. He, like other boys of his age, was generally unwilling to go to school. One day he started for school because he was in dread of getting scolded by the teacher because he did not prepare his lesson and for a moment he thought of running away from home and spending the day out of doors without going to school.  The day was very warm. But eventually, he hurried off to school. He had to cross a town to get his school and when he passed the town hall he saw a crowd of people in front of the bulletin board who seemed to be reading something in the board. He thought about what could be the matter that day. But without making any halt he ran to school. Usually, when school began there was a great bustle that could be heard from out in the street. But that day he noticed from the street that all were as quiet as Sunday morning. Arriving at school he wondered seeing that the teacher had worn his particular dress which he usually wore on school inspection days and on school function days. He become more astonished to see that some village headmen had come to the school and were sitting like the students at the back benches of the school.  While Franz was wondering about that all, suddenly the teacher said to the students,

“My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you. The order has come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The new master comes tomorrow. This is your last French lesson. I want you to be very attentive.” 

The words were like a thunderclap for Franz. He began to repent that they would be deprived of learning their mother tongue. While the boy was thinking all about this, his turn came to recite his lesson. But he could not as he did not prepare his lesson. Though he could not utter his lesson yet the teacher did not scold him. Instead, he said that it was their own fault for not being able to read and write their language well. The teacher said that the parents of the students, the pupils and the teacher himself were responsible for their inability to learn their mother tongue well. Then the teacher taught them grammar, history, and handwriting. And at last, he taught the children the French alphabet. The villagers who had attended the class also uttered the alphabet with the students. An old man by the name of Hauser put on his spectacles and holding his primer in both hands spelled the letters with the students. When it was twelve o’clock the teacher stood up very pale, took chalk in his hand, went to the blackboard and wrote as large as he could: VIVE LA FRANCE!” and then gestured to the students with his hands and meant that the school was finished.

Franz and Master Hamel are the main characters – of the story. Franz is a student who is represented as a type of student. Mr Hamel is also a type but with some individual traits in his personality.

The main tone of the story is pathos. The teacher, Franz, and the village people who attended the school that day were very sorry because they had lost their freedom in the hand of the Germans. The activities of the teacher, the villagers and Franz were so pathetic that draw the attention of the readers’ minds.  

In narrating the story the author has employed the Subjective Method. The author makes his character Franz to be his spokesman and narrates his story in the first person.

The story, in Structure, is a perfect one. It bears visibly all the stages of a good short story. The exposition of the story is as direct as:

“I started for school very late that morning and was in great dread of a scolding, especially because M. Hamel had said that he would question us on participles, and I did not know the first word about them. For a moment I thought of running away and spending the day out of doors. It was so warm, so bright! The birds were chirping at the edge of the woods, and in the open field back of the sawmill, the Prussian soldiers were drilling. It was so much more tempting than the rule for participles, but I had the strength to resist and hurried off to school.”

The exposition creates curiosity in the story as:

”When I passed the town hall there was a crowd in front of the bulletin board. For the last two years, all our bad news has come from there- the lost battle, the draft, the orders of the commanding officer- and I thought to myself without stopping, “What can be the matter now?” 

The complication begins when Franz reached the school and notices the unusual atmosphere in the school. The story gets its climax when the teacher said addressing to the students, “My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you.”

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good description of his main character along with the environment of his event. The very opening stanza of the story serves as the consistent setting of the story.

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has expressed his philosophy of life indirectly that when a nation is enslaved they suffer a lot but as long as they hold fast to their mother tongues it is as if they have the key to their prison. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Nikolay Gogol’s Short Story ‘The Cloak’ -An Analytical Study

‘The Cloak’ is a Russian short story written by Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852). It is a long humorous short story. The main theme of the story is poverty and mockery of the superior officers to the sub-ordinate officer.

The story is all about a poor Russian clerk who works in a government office. His name was Akaky Akakiyevich. He is gentle and dutiful whom everybody in his office mocks at and derives the joy of fun with him. He lived in St. Petersburg. When the winter was falling, he thought of his cloak to be repaired which was almost worn out. Hence one day he went to a tailor called Petrovich. The tailor spread the coat on his table and noticed that it was quite impossible to be repaired and suggested him to take a new one. But Akakiyevich insisted on repairing his old cloak. Then Petrovich said, “There is nothing to be done with it. It is a thoroughly bad job. You’d better when the cold winter weather comes on; make yourself some gaiter out of it. Eventually, he had a new cloak made by the tailor half in credit and wearing it he went to his office. For that, he became the target of fun for his colleagues. They insisted on giving them a party in honour of the cloak. He hesitated to reply. Then one of his well-off comrade working in the same office agreed to give a party at his home in favour of Akaky Akakiyevich. Accordingly, the party was arranged that very night. All the officials went in time but Akaky did a little late in attending the party. He, wearing his new coat went to his comrade’s feast and reaching the place, he kept the coat hanging on the wall of the outer room and attended the party. Seeing him, all the invitees rose up and surrounded Akaky and asked for his coat, and rushed to the outer room to have a glance at the coat. Such the coat of Akaky became the object of fun that night also. After this, they took their meal. Already it was twelve o’clock at night. Akaky Akakiyevich took his return journey to his home leaving his comrades there. It was very cold at night. But on the way home, he felt that someone had snatched away his cloak out of his shoulders.  He went home and told to his landlady about what had happened. His landlady advised him to go to the police so as to investigate the case to find out the thief. Accordingly, he went but he had to suffer a lot in maintaining the formality. Superior officers called Prominent Officer treated him arrogantly and thus getting no justice he lost his hope of getting the lost cloak back. He fell ill and within some days he died. After his death, some people reported that they had seen the ghost of Akaky Akakiyevich in the night street of St. Petersburg.  

Akaky Akakiyevich is the principal Character of the story. He is portrayed as a type as well as an individual. He is a type of clerk but an individual in his dealings. Petrovich is also characterized here in the story as a type of tailor but he is honest and sympathetic to his customers as he made a beautiful coat for Akaky Akakiyevich at a low price. The prominent Personage is a type of haughty government official.

Humour and pathos is the main tone of the story. Life of Akaky Akakiyevich is pathetic but the incidents which he faces are touched with humour.    

In narrating the story the author has employed the Objective Method and narrates his story objectively keeping himself outside his story.

The story, in Structure, is a good one but not a better one because the author has gone a far off in detailing his events and has given his story the shape of a mini-novel. The main event of the story revolves round the cloak of Akaky Akakiyevich but the author has made an over-elaboration of his official activities and towards the end of the story the author has taken shelter in the supernatural which lessens the realistic appeal of the story.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good description of his main character along with the environment of his event. 

The Dialogues employed in the story is very logical as he uses them sparingly but all the dialogues have taken his story ahead and unfolded the inner nature and motives of his characters.

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has expressed his philosophy of life indirectly that the poor often become the object of sufferance in life in the hand of men of higher positions.

The Language of the story cannot be called simple as he often employs complex and long sentences and elaborates his events too much.

In maintaining the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity and universality the author has failed lamentably and it is because of the aver elaboration of his events.

 In Length, it is a long short story and can be called a novella.

In grade, the story fails to be a story of first grade because it bears too much elaboration, supernatural elements and the author’s failure in keeping up the quality of brevity. 0 0 0

World Short Story Criticism 

Lakhminath Bezbaruah’s Short Story ‘Patmugi’ -An Analytical Study

‘Patmugi’ is an Assamese short story written by an Indian Assamese versatile writer called Lakhminath Bezbaruah (1868-19 ). Unequal marriage and sufferance is the main theme of the story. The story is written in the first person. The story portrays how a woman suffers in a male-dominated society.

Patmugi was a girl of a lower class of society. Ceramic was their traditional occupation. She was the only child of her parents. She fell in love with a youth of the higher class of society. She lived in Dabaka Mauza and the boy with whom she was in love lived in Bakata Mauza. She was admonished by many of her society not to be married to a boy who belonged to the higher caste. But she was obstinate in her love affairs. On the other hand, the boy was also adamant to marry her. Subsequently, they were married and began to live peacefully as husband and wife in the house of Patmugi. A year passed by, and one day it was found that he had fled somewhere. Patmugi began to wail for her husband. Her mother took to bed for three days with the thought of her son-in-law. One day her cousin went to Bakata Mauza, the village to which the husband of Patmugi belonged. Going there he came to know that Patmugi’s husband, after being expiated, had married a beautiful girl of his caste. Knowing this Patmugi bewailed much and after the suggestion of some villagers, Patmugi decided to go to the law court to have justice. She set out for the capital with the company of her mother and her cousin. It was an April day. The sun was so hot. On the way to Rangpur, the capital city, they halted with a view to taking rest for some time as they were so tired and exhausted. On the roadside, there was an auo tree. Patmugi asked her cousin to climb up the tree in order to pluck some aou Tenga (a kind of fruit) so as to quench their thirst. Accordingly, her cousin climbed up the tree and plucked three aou. In the meantime, when her cousin was getting down from the tree his eyes fell on Patmugi and he became enamoured of her beauty as if he had discovered her anew. Her eyes also fell on his eyes. Both were attracted to each other. Since then, Patmugi seemed to be light-hearted and cheerful. Her mother also noticed that the mood of her girl had suddenly changed. Then they went to the court and met a lawyer. They discuss the matter and told the lawyer what had happened to her and sued to get justice. They exhausted half the money they took with them. Suddenly Patmugi told the lawyer that she would not run the case against her husband. The lawyer asked her then why she had come to the court. She replied that she came to the court to know something which had already been known. Eventually, they returned home. After coming home her cousin being attracted to Patmugi felt ashamed of it and the sense of sin came to his mind hence he went to the Namghar and prayed to God to forgive him. After some day Patmugi came to her cousin and told that she had hardened her heart and decided to devote her life to the service of her motherland.

Patmugi is the main character of the story. She is portrayed as both type and an individual. She is type in her love with a youth superior to her caste. She shows that love is blind. Her cousin is a true Vaishnav as he repents as soon as he felt his weakness towards Patmugi and expiates himself.

The main tone of the story is tragic. Patmugi suffers a tragic life because of her unequal marriage with a boy of a higher caste.

In narrating the story the author has employed the Subjective Method. He makes his character, the cousin of Patmugi, his spokesman and narrates his story.

The Structure of the story may be called to be coherent as there are certain stages as- exposition, complication, climax and denouement. In the exposition, the anther has introduced his main character Patmugi and her cousin. In the complication, we see that she is married to the boy with whom she was in love. The climax reaches when Patmugi tells the lawyer that she is not willing to sue her husband. The denouement meets with the expiation of the cousin of Patmugi.

The Setting of the story is consistent with the events and situation. The author gives a good description of his main characters along with the environment of his event. The very opening stanza of the story serves as the consistent setting of the story.

The Dialogues employed in the story are very logical as he uses them sparingly. 

The Philosophy of Life is also found in the story. The author has expressed his philosophy of life indirectly that in a male-dominated society a woman often becomes the victim of a man’s desire.

The Language of the story is simple and easy to comprehend.

In maintaining the Qualities of a good short story as —unity of purpose, brevity, spontaneity, and universality the author has failed lamentably.

 In Length, it is a longer short story and can be called a novella. Related Searches:

The story fails to be a story of any grade because of the author’s senselessness of the fundamental elements of a short story as a genre of independent prose literature.  0 0 0

 

The End

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