15

R.K. NARAYAN’S THE DARK ROOM

- The Claustrophobic Self --

The Dark Room (1938) is Narayan’s third novel in which woman is presented as a
victim and man her constant and relentless oppressor. In My Days Narayan writes:

I was somehow obsessed with a philosophy of Woman as opposed to Man, her

constant oppressor. This must have an early testament of the “Women’s Lib"
movement Man assigned her a secondary place and kept her there with such
subtlety and cunning that she herself began to loose all notion of her
independence, individuality, stature and strength. A wife in an orthodox milieu of
Indian society was an ideal victim of such circumstances. My novel dealt with this
philosophy broadly in the background.1

The novel belongs to the early phase of Narayan’s career. With the exception of
The Painter of Signs (1976), a novel written at a much later stage, The Dark Room
stands out from his other novels in the treatment of subject in the sense that Narayan
has portrayed in his novels two sets of female characters clearly distinct from each
other. On the one side we encounter those female characters who are not ambitious
and are wholeheartedly committed to domesticity. They strongly believe and follow the
traditions as a way of life. The ancient myths and folk tales constitute an intrinsic part of
their mental make-up and they are governed and guided in their day-to-day
observances by high ideals and the acquired lure of the yore. These women, whether
treated as grandmothers or mothers or wives (for there are a few aunts and no sisters
and nieces in his fiction) evince extreme patience, endurance and self-effacement even
in the face of excesses done to them by their erring male-counterparts. Their
commitment to faith and fidelity in the sphere of family relationships is their lone way to
fulfilment. Suffering is their badge. Only Savitri in The Dark Room practices open
defiance but she is too weak a soul to cherish such tantrum or rebellion for any length
of time. To this set belong Swami's grandmother in Swami and Friends (1935), Savitri
in The Dark Room (1938), Meenakshi, in The Financial Expert (1953), wives of
Sampath and Srinivas in Mr. Sampath (1955), Raju’s mother in The Guide (1958),
Natraj’s wife in The Maneater of Malgudi (1962), Jagan’s wife (surviving only in
Jagan’s reminiscence) in The Vendor of Sweets (1967) and Raman’s aunt in The
Painter of Signs (1976).
 16

To the other set, on the other side, belong Shanta Bai in The Dark Room,
Shanti in Mr. Sampath, Rosie in The Guide and Daisy in The Painter of Signs. All of
these are unconventional, enthusiastic and ambitious. They are set apart from the rest
by their career consciousness. They are more enterprising, less sacrificing.

The three novels undertaken for study here i.e. The Dark Room, The Guide and
The Painter of Signs are significant in the sense that they hold a mirror to the changing
facets of woman in changing times. They mark the journey of woman where R.K.
Narayan has presented three stages of development through Savitri, Rosie and Daisy -
the names being symbolic. The characters of these three female characters can be
taken as studies in different aspects of woman in a chain relation expressing through
their predicament and sufferings the reality of the societal attitude towards women at
different times i.e. in 1930s, 60s, and 70s. Asked during an interview by S. Krishnan
how he (Narayan) came to give such an unorthodox cast of mind to his new heroine
Daisy, so entirely different from Savitri, the heroine of The Dark Room, Narayan,
explained:

...In The Dark Room I was concerned with showing the utter dependence of
woman on man in our society. I suppose I have moved along with times. This girl
in my new novel is quite different. Not only is she not dependent on men, she
actually has no use for them as an integral part of her life... I took care not to give
her a name with any kind of emotional connotation... I call her simply Daisy. She
is a very strong character2.

Savitri, though largely submissive, proves through her rebellion that she has a
Rosie in her who can see the individual in herself and seek self-fulfillment. And Rosie
| has the Daisian ambitious force in herself. But in keeping with the social environment
and partly with the compulsions of their individual characters, both Savitri and Rosie
return back to the traditional ways of life whereas Daisy has that indomitable spirit and
free will that she refuses to be chained to conventional way of life. When it comes to
choose between marriage and mission she prefers to commit herself to the latter. She
stands at a diametrically opposite end from Savitri who ultimately accepts defeat by
comparing herself to a bamboo which cannot stand without a wall to support it.

The Dark Room as such being first of its kind in respect of theme is a shockingly
pathetic story of the plight of an uneducated, middle class housewife Savitri who,
though not discontent with her life in the manner or to the degree which Sita in Anita
Desai’s Where Shall We Go This Summer? (1975) experiences, is an object of her
 17

husband Ramani’s tyrannical and unsympathetic behaviour. Savitri is a simple, ordinary

middle class but not highly educated woman. According to William Walsh:

She [Savitri] is an ordinary, amiable housewife, not deeply dissatisfied with her
allotted part, given on occasion to boredom with its pointlessness, but
increasingly oppressed by the loud, assertive and exigent husband3.

Ramani, secretary in the Englandia Insurance Company lives in the fashionable

South Extension in Malgudi with his wife Savitri and three children, Sumati, Kamala and
Babu. Ramani is very domineering and cynical in his ways and hence governs his
house according to his own sweet will. The happiness or unhappiness, the quiet or
disquiet of the house depends purely on his mood. As he is always irritable, the
atmosphere of the house is generally tense and Savitri, children and servants always
remain in a state of terror. Savitri is truly a symbol of traditional Indian womanhood. She
is very beautiful and deeply devoted to her husband. The husband, however, does not
respond to her sentiments even with ordinary warmth. He is always at loggerheads with
her, blowing hot and cold in the same breath. Though they have been married for
fifteen years, his wife has received nothing from Ramani except his temper.

But Savitri, though disturbed by Ramani’s sudden temperamental outbursts and

crude mannerisms has moulded herself to get attuned to the arrogant and
unaccommodative demeanours of Ramani, thoroughly devoted as she is to her
husband. Because of her submissiveness life has a set pattern and is routine bound
with everyone. Savitri, children, servants - fitted into their respective slots and
everyone accommodated to the whims, fancies and temperament of the head of the
house - Ramani. For Savitri, Ramani’s habit of finding faults with one thing or the other,
the hoarse hooting of the Chevrolet horn at 8.30 in the evening, his habit of bringing
guests without information, treating everyone aggressively have become a matter of
routine. Savitri, too, has regular routine chores to follow everyday. For example, she
offers prayers everyday after Ramani leaves for office, serves food to the children
when they come home from school in recess, takes a regular afternoon nap on the
same wooden bench everyday, visits her two close friends Janamma and Gangu in the
evening, constantly nags the servants etc. The children - Sumati, Kamala and Babu
display the natural and normal characteristics that the children of their age group
generally have. They argue and quarrel with each other and soon become friends
again. The three share a common world with one another of joy and zest, though all of
them get cowed down as soon as their father enters home in the evening. But Savitri is
 18

not an absolute mute. She has one way of showing her anger - sulking in a dark room.
The dark room is used to interpret metaphorically the only refuge where Savitri turns
when she is rendered utterly helpless by the circumstances created by Ramani which
she finds unbearable. Her first retreat to the dark room of their house is caused by
Ramani’s brutal beating of their son Babu on the Navaratri festival. She sits there
facing the wall of the room and turning her back to everyone. She refuses to take food
or to talk to anyone. The episode shows that she is susceptible to violence. However,
she is recalled to her duties by an older woman Janamma, who is also a chose friend of
Savitri. But it is Ramani’s involvement with a woman employee Shanta Bai who joined
Englandia Insurance Company as an insurance canvasser, which ruins the domestic
peace and shatters Savitri’s innermost psyche. It is this act of Ramani which compels
her to revolt and thus becomes instrumental in her leaving the house. In a state of utter
despair she attempts committing suicide by drowning herself in river Sarayu. This may
be interpreted to mean her second plunge into the dark room in a symbolic way. She is,
however, saved by the timely arrival of Mari, the blacksmith cum-burglar who was
crossing the river, on his way to village. Persuaded by Mari’s wife Ponni, she goes to
their village and embarks upon an independent living of her own by working in a temple
in Sukkur village. The priest of the temple gives her a dark room to sleep at night.
Unable to bear the dark room and tormented by the anxiety for her children, Savitri
returns home.

Though, in the modern context, a superficial reading of The Dark Room

establishes Narayan as a conventional writer as he makes Savitri return to her home at
the end of the narrative. As a result of this, the novel has met harsh criticism from some
critics. According to professor Narsimhaiah:

One may without loss skip the intervening The Dark Room which for all its pathos
develops melodramatically and has a didactic ending4

Further, Professor A.N. Kaul considers The Dark Room “ a weak and
insignificant novel5. But on deeper contemplation, it becomes obvious that none of the
above charges levelled against the novel is true. In fact, the first and the foremost
demand of the novel and the novelist is an honest outlook. One has to tone one self
down from the Utopian and over ambitious mental outlook to the existing unfortunate
reality of thousands of middle class households to reach at a balanced and true
appraisal of the novel. Moreover, the succession of events in the story becomes much
 19

more crystallised if the novel is read keeping in mind the period in which it was written --
the pre-independence era. William Walsh rightly observes:

“The Dark Room Is... written, it should be remembered, some thirty five to forty
years before the current talk of woman’s liberation6.

Our society is still undoubtedly a male-dominated society, and although the

metropolitan cities have experienced a wave of change, but the situation was much
worse in 1930s. It was a time when patriarchy had its strong hold on our society. Girls
were deprived of the privilege of education. And from the very childhood they were
made to believe that obeying their husbands, rearing up children and looking after the
household chores were their primary duties. This lack of education left them totally blind
to their predicament. The idea of ‘individuality’ or ‘identity’ was alien to women.
Moreover, the social value system, traditions and rituals also put a legitimate stamp on
female subjugation. Woman has always been measured by her devotion to duty -- duty
to hold firmly to her husband, to her son, her father or to her brother. She has no right
to crave for her own happiness. Her happiness is to be found in the happiness of her
husband.

It was during the independence struggle that women, to some extent were
awakened to the notion of their self-esteem. The independence movement is significant
in bringing forth to a great extent the activist facet of woman’s personality. It can
conveniently be seen as an onset of a transformational phase when women were
shaken from a long era of slumber which has prevailed in India for thousands of years.
The remarks of Seema Jena are worth quoting here:

After independence the status of woman in Indian society underwent perceptible

changes due to spread of literacy, legislation and the experience of freedom
movement. About a score of years appeared to have been enough to undo the
inhabiting orthodoxies and taboos of thousands of years7.

Though no robust or rigorous claims can be made about complete change of

the status of woman in the modern day society but taking into account the not-so-
distant historical facts when Sati system and child-marriages were commonly observed,
it seems that India has come a long way. Woman has long been exploited in the name
of religion which put her in peculiar paradoxes by a rather emphatic declaration that
prosperity and happiness prevails in a society where women are worshipped, thus
exacting her on the hand, and on the other hand exploiting her in the name of religion
 20

which was moulded and misinterpreted to put immense moral, familial, and social
pressure on her but which at the same time did not have the same implications for men.
Here can be seen an obvious and clear wide gap between theory and practice. The
theory might be right in itself but seldom translated into words. The Dark Room has to
be read keeping in mind such harrowing circumstances as well as such a faulty and
hypocrite social set up. Only then one can appreciate the depth of agony of the central
character Savitri. It will be a violation of the authenticity of the work if it is measured
from the yardstick of modern theories regarding Feminism. Narayan has simply put
down the actuality of the situation without any exaggeration or any didacticism. Neither
a revolutionary social realist as Mulk Raj Anand is called, or a reformist social realist as
Bhabani Bhattacharya is known, nor interested in exploiting the inner most psyche like
Anita Desai, Narayan is a master in dealing with life in all its simplicity and ordinariness.

As the novel opens, we see a tyrant, harsh, dominating, egoistic and to a large
extent inhuman husband in Ramani and a docile, compromising, patient and tormented
yet beautiful and devoted wife in Savitri. Their relationship has a streak of the
oppressor and the oppressed. Though Savitri has been married to Ramani for fifteen
years yet she exercises little power or claim in the house. It is the husband who decides
everything for everyone. Savitri’s role is restricted to accepting and even respecting
those decisions.

As hinted earlier, Ramani is habitual of criticising one thing or the other in the
house, abusing someone or finding fault sometimes with food, at other times with
clothes or with children. “Brinjals, cucumber, radish and greens, all the twelve months in
the year and all the thirty days in the month. I don’t know when I shall have a little
decent food to eat. I slave all day in the office for this mouthful”8 .He would unleash all
his anger on his wife and would remark sarcastically “Ah, ah! I suppose I’ll have to
apply to my office for leave and wait for this salted cucumber! A fine thing. Never knew
people could be so niggardly with cucumber, the cheapest trash in the market. Why not
have cut up a few more, instead of trying to feed the whole household on a quarter of
it? Fine economy. Wish you’d show the same economy in other matters” (p.3). Savitri
generally did not answered back and kept silent. This irked Ramani all the more:
“Saving up your energy by being silent!” (p.3). And sometimes, if she offered an
explanation, she would be told, " Shut up. Words won’t mend a piece of foul cooking”
(p.3). An egoistic person as he is, he wants everything in the house to be precisely as
per his wishes. After finishing breakfast it was the turn of Ranga who would be called to
 21

give an explanation for not polishing the shoes well, or for not folding the trousers
properly, or for leaving the coat on the frame with all the pockets bulging out. Ramani,
therefore would never let the others remain in peace as long as he is at home. This
ever-dissatisfied and ever-critical master disturbed the cook immensely who was very
sensitive to criticism. Ramani is best summed up in the cook’s comment about the
former: “I don’t know; master is never satisfied. I do my best and what more can a
human being do?” (p.5).

Along^with his fault finding demeanour, his mannerisms are also loud and
aggressive. He enters the house in a thunderous manner, announcing his arrival with
the hoarse hooting of the Chevrolet horn. When he is at home, the atmosphere is
surcharged with awe, dread and tension and not with intimacy, love, affection and
ease. The children dared not talk or move freely in the house when the father arrived:
“The children... were all at their desks in another room, waiting, keyed up” (p.14).
During his presence everybody is at the mercy of his moods. If he felt happy, everyone
in the home heaved a sigh of relief. And when he was not in a good mood, he treated
everyone bitterly. Narayan says at one place: “If he was happy, he treated everyone
tolerantly and even with a kind of aggressive kindness” (p.12).

The novel is not so much about a woman’s futile search for emancipation as
about her quest for identity which is seen in terms of deep-rooted tradition. Savitri
seeks self-realisation right from the beginning of the novel. But as far as her role of wife
and mother is concerned, she finds herself plagued with an inability to do anything
actively. The opening episode, though small proves this. The Dark Room in fact
highlights Narayan’s method of imparting implications of great significance through
small incidents. It so happens that Babu, the eldest son was slightly ill and a concerned
Savitri decided not to send him to school that day. But Ramani decided the other way
round and in any condition his decision was the ultimate and not to be dared
contradicted either by Savitri or by Babu, who, whether felt like going to school or not
had to go as per his father’s instructions. Savitri did feel hurt and a desire to asset her
will arose in her. She thought:

...how impotent she was, she thought; she had not the slightest power to do
anything at home, and that after fifteen yeas of married life. Babu did look very ill
and she was powerless to keep him in bed; she felt she ought to have asserted
herself a little more at the beginning of her married life and then all would have
been well (p.6).
 22

The gravity of the situation is undoubtedly touching where far from being an
equal, Savitri’s voice is not even heard. She is not allowed to have her say.

The relationship of Savitri and Ramani could drag for such a long time only
because of the sacrifices and compromises made by Savitri. No adjustment or flexibility
can be expected from Ramani. Ramani used to bring guests into the house without any
prior information and expected them to be fed with utmost diligence, to his utmost
satisfaction and in a way that the honour of the family is not hurt. He never bothered to
give a thought to the trouble that Savitri would have to undergo in transforming the
ordinary food in a splendid feast and that too in matter of minutes. This irked Savitri and
when she complained, Ramani’s answer is : “We are not so down and out yet as not to
afford some extra food without having to issue warning beforehand” (p.13). Though
Savitri had acquired “methods of dealing with sudden guests ... and making the
existing supply elastic” (p.13), yet no credit is given to her for the efforts. It is the
husband who cheerfully grabs all the credit and the over burdened housewife who
actually did all the work is not attributed a word of praise. Savitri’s problem is not
understood by anyone because it runs contrary to the Indian traditions which
propagates honouring a guest like a God and serve him with best efforts. It does not
permit a wife to grumble just for having to offer food to a sudden guest brought by her
husband. It is considered indecent. The demand on Savitri is undoubtedly heavy. It is
clear to see that serving a guest is not the real trouble, but serving him excellent and
special food in a matter of minutes that is not only edible but what will not let down the
family “honour” is something very troublesome. The balance of the relationship is tilted
when Savitri as a wife is expected to stoop lower and lower whereas Ramani as a
husband stands erect.

His habit of not informing in advance and making sudden announcements

asserts itself in yet another well placed incident of cinema show, bringing into sharp
relief the differences in Ramani’s and Savitri’s mental make up and attitudinal system.
Every smallest gesture throws light on Ramani’s character. One day Ramani comes
home earlier than usual with the objective of taking Savitri to a cinema show. He loses
his composure on not finding Savitri at home and says, “You have made me wait for
half an hour. A fellow comes home from office, dog-tired, and he has only doors and
windows to receive him” (p.24). When Savitri, surprised at Ramani’s early arrival from
office, returns from her friend Janamma’s house, she is ordered to get ready for going
 23

to the cinema show. Savitri who is not in a mood to go to cinema all of a sudden and
that too without children:

“Let's us go some other day,” she said.

“No. I want you to come now, children some other day. I have not come all the
way to be told, ‘Some other day’. I am not a vagabond to come in and go out
without a purpose. Go and dress quickly. It is already six-fifteen. We can’t fool
around the veranda all day" (p.26).

Savitri, however, could not disobey Ramani’s orders. She had to go with him,
though unwillingly. The point in focus is that nothing is done by the mutual consent of
both the husband and the wife. It’s rather the husband’s plans which have to be
activated at any cost. Savitri’s opinion need not be sought and her will did not matter.
Ramani took her for granted. His love for Savitri is possessive which offers her little
' scope to be human. Ramani’s love for Savitri is like one’s love for one’s possessions or
pets. His diplomatic temperament and chauvinistic attitude makes Ramani view Savitri
as a piece of property of which he is a proud possessor. And Savitri being beautiful, it
adds to his male-pride to possess such a beautiful ‘thing’ as his wife.

“Ramani sat in a first class seat with his wife by his side, very erect. He was very
proud of his wife. She had a fair complexion and well-proportioned features and
her sky blue saree gave her a distinguished appearance. He surveyed her slyly,
with a sense of satisfaction at possessing her. When people in the theatre threw
looks at her, it increased his satisfaction all the more, and he leant over and said,
“They are showing Kuchela”. (p.27).

Therefore, it becomes clear from this apparently small but actually significant
incident that Ramani’s purpose and intention behind taking Savitri out to cinema- show
is not his consideration for her. It is rather his vain male-ego which he wants to satisfy
for being a proud possessor of a beautiful wife. Lakshmi Holmstrom also rightly
observes:

The visit to cinema is clearly only a chance for Ramani to display his wife.
Whereas Savitri is naively engaged by the myth they see. She is moved by
Kuchela’s devotion to Krishna and accepts the traditional moral order to a degree
that makes her later decision to leave her husband a very complicated moral
choice9.

During the show, the reaction of Ramani and Savitri to the wife of the hero
Kuchela (which is also the name of the film) also show difference of outlook. While
Savitri sympathised intensely with the unfortunate woman, Ramani remarked, “Note
 24

how patient she is and how uncomplaining” (p.29). Thus, he suggests indirectly that he
expected the same kind of conduct from Savitri.

Ramani talks to Savitri in an insulting way. For example: “ Are you deaf ?” (p.1)
or “mind your own business, do your hear?” (p.1) or “Go and do any work you like in the
kitchen but leave the training of a grown up boy to me. It’s none of a woman’s
business" (p.1). There is only humiliation directed towards Savitri in his speech. But it is
not that Savitri is an absolute mute. She has one way of showing her anger - sulking in
a dark room. This is the only way of her rebellion. Her first recourse to the dark room in
the novel is caused when Ramani beats Babu severely on the Navaratri Festival. In
fact, the cinema episode prepares one for a more grave and crucial episode of doll
display at the Navaratri festival. It brings to the limelight the extreme cruelty and
inhumanity that Ramani is capable of. Navaratri is a festival of lights and doll display.
But this festival marked with enthusiastic fervour is converted into a festival of darkness
and depression. It is clearly indicated that this doll festival is a woman’s business and
her role is clearly distinguished here. It so happens that Babu who is equally
enthusiastic offers to help his sister and mother by taking the charge of arranging the
platform where the dolls were to be displayed. He prepared the stage meticulously and
in order to give it a more brilliant touch he decides to call his friend Chandru who had “
a genius for electricity” (p. 41). He asks Chandru to make a temporary lighting system
so that the dolls displayed on the stage may glitter. Chandru makes a temporary circuit
and warns Babu to switch on the lights in the evening carefully. After that he goes to
see a cinema-show. But in the evening when Babu switched the lights on, the pavilion
lights were not on. On the contrary, the usual light in the house was gone. The visitors
had to be received in the dim light of lanterns and oil lamps. When Ramani came
home, his rage touched the skies on finding the house dark. And he unleashes his
terrible temper on Babu. He twists his ears brutally and gives him slaps on his cheeks.
He makes him realise that he (Babu) is a man and he has no business interfering with
women’s world. He says : “Who asked you to go near the dolls’ business? Are you a
girl? Tell me, are you a girl?” (pp. 47-48). This insistent question was accompanied by
violent twists of the ear. Babu’s body shook under the grip of his father’s hot fingers.
“No , father, I am not a woman”. Then why did you go near the dolls?” He twisted the
other ear too. “Will you do a thing like this again? Tell me!” (pp.47-48).

Savitri, till now, watched the whole drama silently. But unable to bear more
violence on Babu, she intervenes and protects Babu. The whole episode shatters
 25

Savitri to the extent that she took recourse to the dark room of their house as it was the
only way to show her anger. This is the beginning of the process of disintegration for
Savitri and one by one all her illusions are shattered. Ramani views her sulking in the
dark room with abhorrence and is the least affected by what he calls a tantrum. No one
is affected by her sulking except the children or Savitri herself, who did not count.
William Walsh sees Savitri’s sulking to the dark room in a psychological light:

Her husband disdains to notice what he takes to be her sulky conventional

behaviour, in fact it is far more radical than this, a symptom of the imminent
collapse of the psychic system which has sustained Savitri in her life as wife and
mother10.

Far from coaxing her or showing any sign of sympathy for her, Ramani adopts
a sadistic attitude and takes delight in hurting her by saying: “Don’t imagine that the
festival can be spoilt by your sulking” (p.53). He showed a studied aloofness by
strategically humming some song or whistling loudly or talking affectionately to the
daughters and appreciating the food excessively - all meant to injure Savitri: “ 'Aren’t
the sauce and plantain chips excellent?’ This was meant to convey to whom so ever it
might concern that no one was indispensable”(p.54). As for the cook, he felt rather
happy as the absence of the mistress gave him an opportunity to use the rarities in the
house like ghee etc. in abundance with no one to keep a watchful eye on him. He
prepares excellent food taking it as an opportunity to show his worth. However, it is the
daughters, Sumati and Kamala who perceive their mother’s sulking as more than a
tantrum. They call her friend Janamma to intervene and set the matter right. In the
following dialogue, Janamma puts the classical Indian concept before Savitri:

“There is no quarrel. I never uttered a word”

“That makes it worse. You should either let your words out or feel that everything
your husband does is right. As for me, I have never opposed my husband or
argued with him at any time in my life. I might have occasionally suggested an
alternative, but nothing more. What he does is right. It is a wife’s duty to feel so.”
(p.59).

As for the cook, it is as though the attitude of society towards women speaks
through him. He comments on Savitri’s sulking saying: “Only once my wife tried to
interfere, and then I nearly broke her bones. She has learnt to leave me alone now.
Women must be taught their place” (p.51). The pathetic implications of the situation are
apparent where Savitri being uneducated can’t make Ramani read her mind; being
burdened with the weight of tradition, she can’t raise her voice before Ramani, as it is
 26

considered a sin to talk back to husband; being untactful she can’t handle the situation
deftly. She is rather all alone because the servant, the cook, her friend Janamma and
even Babu who is the cause of all this, are on Ramani’s side. All of them voice the
attitude of society. Savitri, though right, is proved wrong.

The novel which at least in the beginning is an experiment with the episodic
form shows with the succession of events Savitri torn between the conflict of preserving
traditional values by living up to them and listening to the voice of her self till ultimately
she refuses to accept everything - whether right or wrong - in the name of traditions
and morality. The dichotomy is obvious as on the one hand she has been educated to
obey her husband and not to go against him in any case. The picture of an ideal
wifehood has been etched on her psyche very early in her life. In her role of a wife she
always finds herself in a condescending position in comparison to her husband. This
self-image has become for her a way of life. On the other hand, this one-man-show
that reigns the house puts immense moral pressure and also psychic pressure not only
on Savitri but also on the children who become terror-stricken as soon as the father
returns home. The atmosphere is obviously unhealthy. It aims at the denial of freedom
by snatching away one’s individuality. The basic right of every person i.e. free
expression is not allowed in the house. And Savitri who carries an immense weight of
the Indian past, of her caste, religion and her role as a mother and wife is entangled in
the trap of paradoxes viz. the paradox of idealistic teachings and the implications of
these teachings which fail on their first contact with the practical, actual situation. The
weight of theory and its fiasco in practice leaves Savitri bewildered and confused.
Being uneducated she can’t analyse or interpret her situation or else, she can’t give
logical arguments to convince her arrogant husband. But the disintegration of
personality deepens with every major and minor incident.

But it is finally Ramani’s involvement with a woman employee in his office viz.
Shanta Bai which shocks her tremendously and which becomes instrumental in her
leaving the house. In the beginning her strong faith in Ramani does not let her believe
the rumours but when it is confirmed her entire being is shaken. Because the sole
factor on which she feels her marriage with Ramani rests is betrayed. On the one hand,
she feels cheated and on the other she naively attributes the cause of her husband’s
fondness for Shanta Bai to herself lacking in beauty as compared to the former.
 27

Shanta Bai is a butterfly type of woman. She is flirtatious by nature and gives
the impression of thorough-going coquette in the novel. She is free from all inhibitions
and chit-chats freely with menfolk. Here is her story in her own words: “I was born in
Mangalore. I was married when I was twelve to a cousin of mine, who was a gambler
and a drunkard. When I was eighteen, I found he wouldn’t change and so I left him"
(p.66).

One can hope little good sense from her as she has nourished her brain on
exotic education. Shanta Bai has graduated from the woman’s college in Madras and
an aroma of that cosmopolitan city hangs about her: “...I came to Madras and joined a
woman’s college. I passed my BA three years ago. Since then I have been drifting
about” (p.66). So Shanta Bai, a graduate and already married to a cousin, has to leave
her parents and her husband because the latter is a drunkard and wouldn’t change.
She drifts from one place to another in search of an independent life and career. She
comes to Malgudi to join the Englandia Insurance Company, an over bold step from the
orthodox view point. She has probably gathered a close knowledge of how a boss can
be agreeably won over.

During the interview, her graceful way of speaking and “manners” cast spell on
Ramani, the man in the chair. He, as desired by her, is beguiled into a romantic mood
and finds himself “at the mercy of this applicant" (p.66). He rambles on to know
something about the personal life which she tells him with pathetic nonchalance. She
stresses her helpless state of unemployment to enlist his instant sympathy: “It is all
nonsense to say that women’s salvation lies in education. It does not improve their lot a
bit. It leaves them as badly unemployed as the men” (p.67).

Thus an unworded, though quite conspicuous bond is secretly established

between the pretty probationer and the boss. And to such a bond, Shanta Bai is
physically and mentally prepared. Ramani’s enchantment on the very first day leads his
office assistants rightly, though remotely, to surmise “to fix up a nuptial chamber in the
office” (p.69) for him and the “Houri”. After appointment a period of delicious dalliance
starts between these two lovers. After office hours Ramani loiters into her room, which
is in the office itself, to avail himself of the company of his paramour Shanta Bai and to
assure her of his very best help when she told him what she hoped to achieve in the
services of the company. She remains Ramani’s mistress and he her kind benefactor.
 28

This relationship goes on without interruption. More or less, it is an act of volition on

Shanta Bai’s part to be thus coupled with Ramani.

Not a single thought of her family or husband disturbs Shanta Bai’s conscience
all these days. Her break with them is final. She has no connecting link with her
erstwhile past as daughter or wife. She remains lost for ever, unmindful of female
propriety. For such a profane soul, no home-coming is possible as it is for Savitri,
turned out of doors by roughshod and bemused Ramani, her husband. Savitri
renounces the house but she has a link left -- her three children. They are her
redeeming factors. But Shanta Bai is very truly “As wind along the waste” (p.151). It is
immaterial for her what she has to undergo or how others may picture her if only her
career is safe. It is certainly not her love for Ramani which drives her blind fold into
such orgies. It is her career consciousness.

Ramani’s excessive involvement with Shanta Bai makes him notice every subtle
and varying pose of her. We are shown how she compresses her lips, tosses her head
in a perfect Garbo manner, or hums a little tune to herself. We are told of her artful
melancholy fits and breakdowns, her epicurean musings and her great liking of
Fitzgerald and Omar Khayyam. Her fits of breakdown are described thus:

She was steadily, definitely, methodically working herself up to a breakdown.

Ramani knew it. He had already experienced it twice.... In a moment she would
rise, draw herself up, jerk her head and laugh at herself and at her moods. Such
moments were very painful to Ramani. More than the breakdown, the subsequent
heroic effort to master it stirred him deeply. He had never seen such a thing
before (p. 88).

Rid of established norms, she may continue without compunction with the
coquettish signs of ohs and ahs and poetic wistfulness -- “Into this universe and why
not knowing” (p.151) -- to extricate an extra promise of sympathy from her “soothing
lover” (p.88) who is fascinated by every gesture of Shanta Bai. The more he is attracted
towards her, the more inadequate he finds his wife Savitri: “She knew only one thing, a
crude sulking in the dark room. She never made an effort to conquer her moods”
(p.88). Shanta Bai has a strange philosophy of life which she explains in the following
lines: “As for me life is... some simple affair like Living Today and Letting Tomorrow
Take Care of Itself or Honour being the One Important Possession and so forth” (p.81)
or she would tell Ramani: “I will laugh and dance. That’s my philosophy of life. Laugh ,
clown, laugh - it was a film I saw years ago. Laugh, clown, laugh, though your heart be
 29

torn...” (p89). Referring to her great admiration for Omar Khayyam, and Fitzgerald, she
says to Ramani: “I can’t exist without a copy of The Rubaiyat, you will always find it
under my pillow or in my bag. His philosophy appeals to me. ‘Dead yesterday and
unborn tomorrow. What, without asking whether hurried hence’ and so on ... In this
world Khayyam is the only person who would have understood the secret of my soul.
No one tries to understand me. That is the tragedy of my life” (p.151).

Shanta Bai is a wayward woman and after one month in the office, she showed
no calibre for work. Seeing her careless attitude towards work, the head-office sent a
notice to Shanta Bai to complete the work in a month’s time, otherwise she will be
dismissed. More than Shanta Bai, it is Ramani who is worried about the notice. In the
evening Shanta Bai asks Ramani to take her to some picture which only would relieve
her of the burden caused by notice. The film with mythological contents bored her.
“What rubbish the whole thing is!” she said. “Our people can’t produce a decent film.
Bad photography , awful acting, ugly faces. Till our producers give up mythological
nonsense there is no salvation for our films... Let us get out. I can’t stand this anymore”
(p.91).

The difference of outlook of Savitri and Shanta Bai is obvious here. For Savitri
the mythological story of Kuchela overwhelmed her and proved to have a moral imprint
on her mind which later on makes her decision to leave Ramani even more difficult.
Mythology and religion are a part of Savitri’s being. Shanta Bai, on the other, detests
mythology and is the least affected by the genuine truths involved in it. Values in life,
long cherished traditions are insignificant things for her and Ramani totally besotted by
her charms is totally blind to all the dark aspects of her personality. On the contrary, her
deficiencies appear to him her strength. The double standards and dual existence of
Ramani become evident as he behaves sheepishly when he is with Shanta Bai and
adopts an authoritative, dominating posture when he is at home with Savitri.

Savitri is not oblivious of the rumours spreading around her husband’s

objectionable relationship with another woman. But her firm faith in him, the only
sustaining factor of their marriage, doesn’t let her believe a word of it and she
dismisses it as a mere gossip. But when the news is confirmed, it gives her a big jolt.
Poor Savitri reacts by asking what is wrong with herself. She tries to make up for the
ravages of daily drudgery by extra care to her personal appearance. She dresses
herself up and waits patiently for the erring husband. Overcome with fatigue she keeps
 30

her head lighting on the pillow lest she should crush the flowers or rumple her hair. She
falls asleep and “dreams that her husband came home, held her in his arms and swore
that he had been carrying about only a coloured parasol and silly people said he had
been going about with a woman” (p.91).

Ramani, however, did not come home that night. Next day was a Sunday but
Ramani was nowhere to be found. He came home at night. Savitri had decided to
remain silent but her sense of being betrayed being so strong and acute, she could not
control herself. After he had his dinner, she told him in no uncertain terms that “this
sort of thing has to stop” (p.109). Ramani, quite terrified with the manner she executed
herself, tried to coax her but Savitri was hysterical. The human being in her was
aroused. She says: “I am a human being", she said, through her heavy breathing. “You
men will never grant that. For you we are playthings when you feel like hugging, and
slaves at other times. Don’t think that you can fondle us when you like and kick us
when you choose” (p.110).

One by one her mind is awakened to all the realisations. She saw clearly that
women are themselves responsible for their condition. As they are financially
dependent on their husbands, who is their provider also, they exploit women as they
like. She says: “We are responsible for our position. We accept food, shelter and
comforts that you give and are what we are... No, I’ll starve and die in the open, under
the sky, a roof for which we need be obliged to no man” (p.113).

Here the use of words ‘We’ and ‘Us’ rather than T and ‘My’ by Narayan is worth
paying attention to. This is a wail not of a wife Savitri against her husband Ramani. It is
rather schemed by Narayan to make Savitri a mouthpiece to announce the predicament
of the whole regiment of the likes of Savitri against the tyrant husbands represented by
Ramani.

Experience teaches Savitri that she owns nothing except her own body: “What
possession can a woman call her own except her body? Everything else that she has is
her father’s, her husband’s or her sons”. (p113). She throws all her jewellery at Ramani
including a diamond ring, a necklace, and a stud given to her by her father. She
castigates them by saying: Take them away. They are also a man’s gift" (p.114). When
Ramani does not let her take children with her, she realises that even her children are
not her own. They are her husband’s. She expresses her grief by saying “Yes, you are
 31

right. They are yours absolutely. You paid for the midwife and the nurse. You paid for
their clothes and teachers. You are right. ‘Didn’t I say that a woman owns nothing”
(P-113).

It is a refusal on the part of Savitri to be taken for granted which stimulates her
to take such a massive step to leave the house. She refuses to be considered as a
discarded and unimportant person in the house to be exploited every now and then for
only one reason - her economic dependence. It is for the first time during fifteen years
that she has raised her voice against Ramani. Though he is taken aback by her
unusual manner and behaviour, he firmly bolts the door behind her so that he may
sleep in peace. This part of the novel arouses maximum amount of pathos. After
stepping out of her home in the midnight, Savitri feels that there is nothing in a
woman’s life except Fear. Fear from the cradle to the funeral pyre, and even beyond
that.

Narayan has here made use of the stream of consciousness technique to

render effectively the disturbed and agonised state of mind of Savitri. She travels in
the territory of her mind shifting abruptly from present to past and then to future and
then from future to the present. She is in a state of shock, bewilderment, utter
depression and a total breakdown of her neurotic system. She is left with no choice but
to commit suicide. As she stands knee-deep into the waters of Sarayu river her mind is
transported to her childhood and she feels an intense longing to see her brother and
parents. For a moment she postpones the idea of committing suicide. “Wouldn’t it be
better to go around once, see everybody and then die?” (p.117). Her sense of
disillusionment with all human relationship is so stark at this moment that she is forced
to think that only parent’s affection for their children is true and pure. Love of a
husband or even one’s children is not pure. She then is transferred into future,
visualises Sumati and Kamala being married away and engrossed in the problems of
their respective families and “give their mother a thought once in a way when there was
nothing else to think about ..." (p.117). And Babu, she thinks, like his father may
become extremely busy with his office work and not coming home at all. She feels
utterly lonely and discarded at this time having no one to care for her. Being gifted with
no educational qualification, to earn herself a living, she finds herself in a position
where suicide seemed to her the easiest alternative to end her miseries. Among these
haphazard thoughts, she is reminded of her sister living in Rangoon and who has good
and balancing relationship with her husband. She wishfully yearns for the same relation
 32

with Ramani. The thought of Ramani brings to her mind the picture of Shanta Bai and
she nostalgically remembers the days when Ramani used to write letters to her
admiring her fair skin, her eyes, hair and cheeks. She ruminates: “The woman in office
might be really good-looking. I am not the Savitri I was when be wrote those letters.
Give the other one, too, three children and two miscarriages and see what she will
come to (p. 118) she is shaken out of this state of trance when the Taluk Office gong
strikes 3’0 clock in the morning.

There is nothing melodramatic in the story. The circumstances in which Savitri

finds herself leave her with only one option open - to commit suicide. She drowns
herself in Sarayu river. The succession of events is also credible. She is afterwards
saved by a locksmith-cum-burglar Mari, given shelter in their house by Poni, Mari’s wife.
They also helped her find employment in a temple where the priest makes her do a lot
of work. In the temple, she misses her children badly and can’t bear separation from
them. And this makes her return home. For a person like Savitri all this is natural and
no melodrama is to be found.

There is neither any didacticism in the novel. Narayan is not holding up Savitri
as an awful warning to women who threaten to run away from their husbands There is
no preaching that a husband is a god or that we must accept what fate has ordained. It
is not either suggested that every Indian husband is a tyrant and every Indian wife is
obliged to put up with tyranny. As if by way of contrast, we have in this very book Mari
and Ponni, the couple who take pity on Savitri and give her shelter. Narayan has also
shown this contrast through Ganga, a friend of Savitri. She seems to be introduced to
indicate a change that has started taking place in the society. She presents a totally
different picture of womanhood. She is ambitious and aspires to be a film star or a
professional musician or to become a politician by joining Congress party. She has
engaged a tutor who taught her English and gave her training of handling conversation
in English effectively. She sees two Tamil films a week to prepare herself for film
career, wears colorful sarees and goes unescorted everywhere. She stares back at
people and talked loudly. In short everything about her is unconventional and radical.
She exercises enough authority on her husband who is a simple school-teacher. She
sets a straight contrast to Savitri and is, probably, introduced by the author to
emphasize the predicament of Savitri by putting white on black to make the black look
move prominent. Moreover, Narayan may be saving himself from generalization. Ganga
resembles many of the typical ‘type’ characters of the Dickinsian novel whose features
 33

are described in terms of a limited number of mannerisms. And Ganga’s indecision

regarding the choice of profession she wants to join indicates the rise of a woman who
is in search of giving an expression to her creativity but not sure enough as to what
Kind of outlet she needs. Though quite unsure, yet keenly desirous for a change -
perhaps this state is indicated through Ganga.

Days after her return, one afternoon Savitri hears Mari shouting in the street
“Locks repaired”. She is on the verge of getting him into the house, giving him food and
water and a magnificent gift. She asks Ranga to call him, then countermands the
orders. “Why should I call him here? What have I?” (p.208). She knows that she is not
the same Savitri now. She is aware that “a part of me is dead” (p.208). Sushila George
and V. Nithyanantha Bhat are right when they say:

Revolt is not always a movement of growth and progress, it is also visualised as

withdrawal, regression and compromise. Savitri’s rebellion awakens her from her
soporific state. But it narrows her mentally and emotionally. She becomes an
emotional cripple, tired, a part of her dead. But that which is alive will not be
bullied or browbeaten. Nevertheless, the luxury of revolt is achieved at a great
cost, individual and personal11.

Revolt of Savitri reminds us of the revolt of Sita in Anita Desai’s Where Shall We
Go This Summer?. Revolt may not ‘always’ be conducive towards growth and progress
but it may ‘sometimes’ and in ‘some cases’ may prove constructive. In the case of Sita,
her revolt i.e. escaping to the island of Manori when she found herself in the danger of
'a part of her heading towards death’, revolt helps her in saving and securing that part
of her from dying. Though in the case of Savitri, it is not so. Sita who realises that she
is caught between the great ‘Yes’ and the ‘great ‘No’, is reminded of a poem by Cavafy:

To certain people there comes a day

When they must say the great Yes or the great No
He who has the Yes ready within him
Reveals himself at once, and saying it crosses over
To the path of honour and his own conviction.
He who refuses does not repent. Should he be asked again,
He would say No again. And yet that No -
The right No - crushes him for the rest of his life12

The similarity between -- Sita’s leaving her Bombay flat, her husband, her
children and that of Savitri either receding into the dark room in the beginning and
finally leaving her house -- is that the action in both cases is motivated by a rejection of
the violence which Sita had sustained for thirteen years of her married life and Savitri
 34

for fifteen years. The difference in their respective predicament being that in the case
of Sita, the whole process results in rediscovering herself as well as Raman, her
husband. It helps her grow in mind and removes communication gap between the two.
This saves her from a psychic disaster and also prepares her to face life all anew. In
the case of Savitri, however, her rebellion breaks her most cherished illusions and
notions about Ramani, her husband, increases and widens communication gap
between the spouses, and also makes her sadly aware of her position as a woman who
is utterly helpless. It also works in making a part of her dead. In the case of Sita, the
about to be dead part is revived by the earnest efforts made by her husband Raman.
He shows a sympathetic, accommodative attitude and seems to believe in the cliche -
it is better to bend than to break as is evident in his words that he says to Sita for
comforting her: “Perhaps one should be grateful if life is only a matter of
disappointment, not disaster”13. In this way he is successful in winning his wife back
and at the same time fulfils his duty as a husband. Ramani, on the contrary, shows
utter inhumanity and unconcern for Savitri. He is the type who would rather break than
bend. He never tries to search for his wife. Little did he realise that he will be a loser
ultimately in his pursuit of showing down Savitri at any cost. And he does loses
ultimately as it is not the wife Savitri who has returned to husband Ramani. It is firstly
an affectionate mother who has returned to her children and secondly a helpless
woman who returns to Ramani’s home for shelter. The relationship between them as
husband and wife has already lost its meaning. Ramani may feel triumphant at Savitri’s
return but he loses her love and conviction as a wife towards him. As a part of her
being dead indicates this clearly.

The Dark Room presents what happens in so many societies. Hundreds of

Savitris can be found in hundreds of houses who are the living epitomes of sacrifice
and endurance, submitting their wills to the wills of their husbands, supporting them
whether they are right or wrong, accepting their fates and limping what they do not like.
One or two out of hundreds dare become Gauri, the heroine of Mulk Raj. Anand’s novel
of the same name, acquiring enough confidence to assert her (their) will, refusing to be
taken for granted, paving for themselves a way towards self-dependence and
awareness, shedding the fear of worn-out and meaningless traditions, the fear of social
taboos which mar one’s freedom and individuality by being misinterpreted, rather than
making it.
 35

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. R.K. Narayan, My. Days (Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1975), p. 119.

2. Quoted in Atma Ram, ed. Perspectives on R.K. Narayan (Ghaziabad: Vimal

Prakashan, 1981), p. 171.

3. William Walsh, R.K. Narayan: A Critical Appreciation (London: Heinemann,

1982), p. 43.

4. C.D. Narsimhaiah: The Swan and the Eagle (Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced
Study), p. 143.

5. P.S. Sundaram, R.K. Narayan (New Delhi: Arnold - Heinemann India, 1973), p.
42.

6. William Walsh, p. 43.

7. Seema Jena, Voice and Vision of Anita Desai (New Delhi: Ashish Publishing
House, 1989), p. 2.

8. R.K. Narayan, The Dark Room (Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1992),
p.2. All the subsequent references are from the same edition hence forth cited
with page number in parentheses.

9. Lakshmi Holmstrom, The Novels of R.K. Narayan (Calcutta: A Writer’s

Workshop Publication, 1973), p. 43.

10. William Walsh, p. 45.

11. Sushila George and V. Nithyanantha Bhat, "Gynic Quest for$elf-ldentity in R.K.
Narayan Novels,” Feminism and Literature, ed. Veena Noble Dass (New Delhi:
Prestige Books, 1995), p. 205.

12. Anita Desai, Where Shall We Go This Summer? (New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks,
1982), p. 37.

13. Ibid., p.143.