Write a critical appreciation of the story The Farewell Party.

Write a note on the irony and satire in the story.

Reproduce the affectation of the rich class as revealed in the farewell party by Raman family.

Ans.

The Farewell Party exposes the affection in the behaviour of higher middle class Indians who consider themselves superior to their surroundings but actually they are the unfortunate victim of false pride. Though, on the first reading, it seems to be the humourous portrayal of a Party by the Raman fam ily because they have been transferred to Bombay, but the hypocrisy on both the sides, the invitee and the invited are equally guilty and they have been perfectly exposed. The Raman invite a large number of people from the officer class to the neighbours and their own class to show that now they are going to the metropolitan city. During the course of development, we find some women envious of her good lot and making ironical remarks.

The atmosphere of hypocrisy and affectation is quite obvious from the very beginning. The name of the town where the Raman are living at present has not been disclosed which indicates that this pride is common in the Indian society. We find the touch of alienation revealed at every step and the writer has universalized because she has taken the characters from all the classes of society and surprisingly enough, all of them suffer from complex-some like the wives of big executives by superiority and others like the neighbours and school teachers by inferiority. There are a number of guests, mostly women and Bina, with a glass in one hand and tray in the other, moves in the garden, showing that she is paying personal attention to all of them. But internally, they do not like each other much and their respect for one another is not honest and sincere. Bina tells everybody that she has been looking for her and we feel a great intimacy but the fact is quite the otherwise. One of the ladies tells that she has been observing her. While the other wonders, “Is it true you are leaving us, Bina? How can you be so cruel?” But this sis a pure falsehood because they had never been close. In fact, Bina was always busy in her family affairs and had no time to attend their company or participate in their parties.

Of all the guests, the commissioner’s wife has become most ridiculous in our eyes because she was not properly aware even of the years of their familiarity. She says. “Oh, I wish you were staying, Mrs. Raman…..It’s been so to have a family like you’re here.” But in fact she was always annoyed when ever she invited Bina and she politely refused. Then appears the caricatural figure of Mr. Bose, an employee in the local museum where Bina visited only sometimes with her children. He called her his chief inspiration at the arrangements in the museum, while Bina never properly attended any of them. The company of the wives of the executives is the greatest object of ridicule and satire of the writer. She hatefully calls them ‘a ring of twittering company wives’. They always talked loudly. The remark on this group is extremely bitter, satire and biting ‘a ring as they formed now, the kind that garden babblers from under a hedge where they sit gabbling with social bitchiness, and she had always stood outside it.’ The word ‘bitchiness’ is enough to explain their nature, behaviour and mutual relationship. There was a great sense of the status of their husbands which could be well observed among them. They did not have any regard or recognition for Bina and she also did not like them much. Still seeing her, they cried like great intimates and asked various questions about her preparations and the problems she might be facing in packing. But they were quite useless even for their own families because they never did anything in their homes rather “They were women to whom the most awful thing that had ever happened was. a mother-in-laws’ visit or an ayah deserting just before the arrival of guests.

The condition of Mr. Raman is again a ridiculous satire. He was de void of all company, simply serving the guests the cocktail with the help of the waiters. Sometimes he himself secretly gulped one or two. He was pleased to see the children enjoying in the room. He belonged to one of the lower ranks in his company and was different from those who ‘invited at least one foreign couple to every party and called their decorative wives ‘darling’ when in public’. He went to this group and offered the cigarettes of his own local company. they congratulated him. Then one Miss Dutta, a notorious social lady, approached him and showed the same false intimacy ‘you and Bina have been so popular-what are we going to do without you? Raman was surprised at this remark because he now ‘tried to think what he or Bina had provided her with that she could possibly miss.” The appearance of the three couples from the neighbours, but they had no more contacts than looking and nodding each other over the hedge. Now they talked like very close friends. One of them said that their dog was very fond of them and the other declared that their little son liked Bina’s daughter Tara and would marry her when they grow up. This is extremely satirical and ridiculous presentation of the deep rooted affectation in these societies. With the departure of the commissioner and his wife, the other guests also started leaving. The last to appear were the doctors and their wives. They had never been the friends to the Raman family except professional visits but now they affected great closeness with them. “This was the first time they had come to the Raman’s house on any but professional visits, they were not merely friends.” They drank together and the wife of Dr. Banerjee, a Bengali, sang a sad song from Tagore. There were tears in their eyes and thus the party ended. The remarkable thing in the story is that even in the drunken state, they did not lose the sense of superiority and till last this affectation was quite obvious. Thy were simply acquaintances, not friends and all of them were aware of this fact They knew that this was merely unreal and affectation, still they persisted. The satire is that even the hosts, Raman and Bina were not unknown to this reality and so they are also no less guilty of this hypocrisy.