"The English Teacher, written seven years after Narayan’s last novel, The Dark Groom, was dedicated to his late wife Rajan. It is an autobiographical novel that frequently ventilates his grief. Some readers have been put off by the parapsychology of the last half of the novel, and other readers deplore Narayan’s effort and suggest how he could have handled this matter more dexterously and adroitly. It is best that we approach the novel from the author’s point of view and suspend judgment until we have fully perceived its ramifications.
An aesthetic reading of the novel, whereby we examine the character behind the words, will satisfactorily, conclusively and perhaps admirably sum up the whole point of Narayan’s story. The concluding words of the novel, “The boundaries of our personalities suddenly dissolved. It was a moment of rare immutable joy – a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death”, is a telling statement of how the protagonist comes to terms with his dilemma.
Susila, the heroine, dies midway through the novel. Her husband, Krishnan, is heart-broken. But that is certainly not the end. There are intimations of immortality to a lesser degree from recollections of the past than through communications with another world. More than mere matters of detail, there is a sense of dissolving boundaries, where the line of demarcation between life and death dissipates; and this sense is conveyed not through argument or philosophizing but in terms of lived experience..."
"The English Teacher" by R.K. Narayan
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"The English Teacher, written seven years after Narayan’s last novel, The Dark Groom, was dedicated to his late wife Rajan. It is an autobiographical novel that frequently ventilates his grief. Some readers have been put off by the parapsychology of the last half of the novel, and other readers deplore Narayan’s effort and suggest how he could have handled this matter more dexterously and adroitly. It is best that we approach the novel from the author’s point of view and suspend judgment until we have fully perceived its ramifications.
An aesthetic reading of the novel, whereby we examine the character behind the words, will satisfactorily, conclusively and perhaps admirably sum up the whole point of Narayan’s story. The concluding words of the novel, “The boundaries of our personalities suddenly dissolved. It was a moment of rare immutable joy – a moment for which one feels grateful to Life and Death”, is a telling statement of how the protagonist comes to terms with his dilemma.
Susila, the heroine, dies midway through the novel. Her husband, Krishnan, is heart-broken. But that is certainly not the end. There are intimations of immortality to a lesser degree from recollections of the past than through communications with another world. More than mere matters of detail, there is a sense of dissolving boundaries, where the line of demarcation between life and death dissipates; and this sense is conveyed not through argument or philosophizing but in terms of lived experience..."