The Cast Away by Rabindranath Tagore (Summary & Analysis)

The Cast Away

by Rabindranath Tagore

(Summary & Analysis)

  

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) belonged to the rich and noble family of the Tagores in Bengal. His grandfather, Dwarka Nath Tagore, had been a co-worker of Raj Rammohan Roy.  Rabindranath Tagore’s mother expired when he was young boy. More than being taught by school and teachers, he was taught by nature and circumstances.

His poetry-collection, Gitanjali, won him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. He produced lyrics, poetic plays, plays of ideas, social plays, novels, short stories, essays in criticism, philosophical essays, autobiographical fragments, letters, addresses and education dissertations. He was an actor, a producer, a musician, a painter, and an orator of extraordinary power. His contribution to Bengali literature is greater than that to English literature, but still he holds a significant place in Indoanglican poetry. His important works are: The Gardener (1913), The Crescent Moon (1913), Fruit Gathering (1916), Stray Birds (1917), Lover’s Gift and Crossing (1918), Fireflies (1928), and The Child (1931). Tagore sought beauty and happiness everywhere. Love, Devotion, Friendship, Natural piety, and Childhood find place in his writings.

Summary

The story opens with the details of a cloudy atmosphere. In a closed room at Chandanagore are sitting Sharat, the husband; and Kiran, the wife. The husband urges the wife to stay a few days more so that she may recover completely.

What had happened a few days ago was that Kiran had fallen ill. This made her friends and relatives, very anxious, and decide to take Kiran to Chandanagore, so that she may recover completely. Kiran was fond of ‘society’ (company) and the loneliness of the riverside village did not suit her at all. She also hated to take medicine and dieting.

Suddenly, Sharat heard a loud shouting and on opening the door, learnt that a boat had been upturned in the storm and one of the occupants of the boat had succeeded in swimming ashore. He was a brahman boy, whose name was Nilkanta. He belonged to a theatrical troupe. Kiran took interest in him. Sharat thought that they boy’s appearance at this moment was a good thing as it would give his wife something to amuse herself. Nilkanta was also delighted at his escape-from his master. In a short while Sharat and his mother changed their opinion and longed for Nilkanta’s departure.

The boy was spoiled because of the generous attitude of Kiran towards him. She made the boy a dandy. Sharat often warned her but she would not listen to him. After her midday meal, Kiran would sit on the bedstead and ask Nilkanta to recite pieces from his repertory with appropriate gesture and song. Nilkanta often got beatings form Sharat, and Nilkanta, in return, had come to believe that as the earth consisted of land and water similarly the human life was made up of eatings and beatings.

After the advent of Nilkanta, Sharat’s younger brother, Satish had come to spend his vacation with them. Kiran found a huge pleasure at finding a fresh occupant. Satish and Kiran were of the same age, and the time passed pleasantly in games and quarrels, laughter and even tears. Meanwhile Nilkanta suddenly filled with a bitterness, which he must avenge on somebody or something. He kicked his pet mongrel and thrashed his devoted band of boy followers for no fault. Nilkanta had his meal in the presence of Kiran. After the arrival of Satish, she had much less spare time, and was seldom present when Nilkanta’s meals were served. In the absence of Kiran, nothing tasted right to him. He would get up without eating much and say in a choking voice “I am not hungry”. He would, then, put out the lamp in his room and throw himself on his bed in the darkness burying his head in the pillow until ‘the mother Sleep’ soothed his wounded heart with her soft caresses.

Nilkanta had the conviction that Satish was poisoning Kiran’s mind against him. He, therefore, longed to be Satish in the next rebirth. At last, the time came for their return to their native place. Everybody was busy packing up, but to Nilkanta nobody said a word. Kiran had proposed to take him along with them but Sharat and his mother had objected to it so strenuously that she let the matter drop. A couple of days before they were to start, he sent for the boy and advised him to go back to his home town. Both Kiran and Nilkanta became emotional and burst into tears. Sharat and Satish, however, said that the tears of the boy were “Crocodile tears” only.

Then the day before they were to start, the inkstand was missing. Satish and Sharat were of the view that Nilkanta had stolen it but Kiran strongly protested. She did not even accept the idea of Satish that his room and box must be searched.

Kiran got two new suits of clothes and a pair of shoes, and with these and a banknote, she quietly went into Nilkanta’s room in the evening. She opened the box, and to her surprise she found amongst other things the missing inkstand also. In the meantime, Nilkanta entered the room without Kiran being aware of it. He wanted to say to Kiran, that he had not committed the theft but everything was done out of malice. Kiran with a deep sigh replaced the inkstand in the box and also placed all her gifts at the top. Next day, the boy left them. Now Sharat wanted that his box must be searched but Kiran did not allow this. She took the box in her room, took out the inkstand and threw it into the river and the family went home. Only Nilkanta’s mongrel remained prowling along the river bank.

Analysis

In ‘The Castaway’ by Rabindranath Tagore we have the themes of mercy, kindness, jealousy, control, abandonment, honesty, shame and loyalty. The story is narrated in the first person by an unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realizes, that Tagore may be exploring the theme of mercy. Kiran, throughout the story, shows mercy and kindness to Nilkanta. He is allowed to live with both Kiran and Sharat after he has been washed ashore outside their home. What is interesting about how Nilkanta is treated, is the fact, that Sharat beats him and treats him unkindly for no particular reason. It is as though Nilkanta is in the house because of Kiran’s wishes. She likes to be entertained by Nilkanta, which may leave some readers suggesting, that Nilkanta is no more than a play-thing to Kiran. The bond that Nilkanta and Kiran form may also have some significant as they become very close and it is only when Satish arrives that the reader fully understands how important this bond is to Nilkanta.

As readers, we do not know Nilkanta’s exact age. He does act jealously, when Satish arrives. Nilkanta has come from nothing and Kiran has shown and given him everything. It is difficult for Nilkanta to let go of the things he has just obtained all because another man is vying for Kiran’s attentions. Nilkanta has adapted well to his circumstances. Yet he does have issues with anger particularly when it comes to Satish. He imagines being a knife that is used to kill Satish. It is as though jealousy over consumes Nilkanta and he longs for Kiran to see, that he is upset, so that she can spend more time with him.

The act of revenge of robbing Satish’s inkstand might also be important as it shows that Nilkanta wants to hurt Satish just as much as he feels Satish is hurting him. He blames Satish for taking Kiran’s affections away from him and for the hurt he feels inside. If anyone is to be blamed it is Kiran. She is the one who is limiting her time with Nilkanta. Sharat looks upon Nilkanta as being no more than a leech. Taking everything, he is been given and doing nothing in return apart from reciting some of his repertoires.

The end of the story is also interesting, as Tagore appears to be exploring a little further the depths of Nilkanta and Kiran’s relationship. When Kiran finds the inkstand in the box, she knows that Nilkanta has robbed it. However, she says and does nothing and even goes as far as putting the new clothes and money in Nilkanta’s box. This may be important, as at no stage does Kiran judge Nilkanta even though he is guilty of robbing the inkstand. It is also interesting that Nilkanta underestimates his relationship with Kiran and during the night flees the home, never to be seen again. It is as though shame has driven Nilkanta away. In an unusual act the next day Kiran throws the inkstand into the river in order that Nilkanta cannot be blamed. Right till the end of the story Kiran has been supportive to Nilkanta. Just because she could not be there for him all the time, did not mean, that she liked him any less. Something, that the reader knows, that Nilkanta didn’t understand. Probably because he never had anyone treat him nicely and it was this feeling that Nilkanta wanted to maintain. Unfortunately, jealousy intervened.