Uma is another pillar of the novel. Uma is a particularly interesting character as she illuminates one of the ideas central to Ghosh’s novel. When we first encounter her, she is constantly worried about being the proper memsahib, following traditional domestic etiquette, and living up to the standards of her husband, the Collector. She soon …
Rajkumar‘s second son, Dinu, plays an important role in binding the plot and the Arjun subplot of The Glass Palace together. From the beginning, Rajkumar and his younger son, Dinu, are depicted as distant from each other. In his childhood, Dinu had developed a limp because of polio. Because of his disability, Dinu had grown …
Arjun, a middle-class Bengali is an officer in the British Indian Army. He has adopted western culture in his life. He learns to dance the tango and to eat roast beef with a knife and a fork. During World War II and his stay in Malaya he is asked by a much less Anglicized colleague, …
The central character in The Glass Palace novel is Dolly. She is the only one character whose entire generation is mentioned in the novel. She strives hard to live up to her family to maintain the good name the family has earned in the community. Dolly is one of the most compelling characters in The …
An Indian orphan boy, Rajkumar, is one of the many exploitative Indian businessmen in Burma, grown rich on the teak trade. During the discretion of the Glass Palace Rajkumar spies Dolly one of the queen’s attendants, falls in love with her and eventually marries her. Like an epic legends and contemporary Bollywood films, they are …
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Amitav Ghosh‘s The Glass Palace, published in 2000 is the latest expedition in understanding the havoc done by colonialism. The Glass Palace is a historical novel which mainly tells the history of the fall of Mandalay in 1885, the subjugation of Burma under British colonization, and the political developments up to the situation of the …
Though the film Pather Panchali had a budget of just Rs. 150,000 in which most of the actors were amateur, it was a critical and popular success. Influenced by Italian neorealism, Satyajit Ray developed his own style of lyrical realism in this film. The first film from independent India to attract major international critical attention, …
The character of Harihar is an important character in Pather Panchali. The novel is set in the Bengali village of Nishchindipur in 1920s. The village is the ancestral home of Harihar, the father of an impoverished family. Harihar leads a poor life by working as a village priest. But he is a dreamer who dreams …
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Sarbojaya is Harihar‘s wife. However, her attitude towards life is different from that of her husband‘s. Harihar is basically an artist, who prefers to live in his imagination than in reality. On the contrary, Sarbojaya‘s focus is far more practical. Sarbojaya worries as she struggles to make ends meet. She is understandably careworn because she …
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Aunt Indir Thakrun is downright ancient. She is bent over at almost a ninety degree angle when she walks. She is a toothless old hag and the kind of realistic depiction of the very elderly. Periodically, Indir takes refuge in the home of another relative when Sarbojaya forces her out or becomes overly abusive. On …
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