Evaluate R.K. Narayan's art of characterization in 'The Guide'.

Evaluate R.K. Narayan’s art of characterization in ‘The Guide’.

Ans.

R.K. Narayan portrays his characters with great care. The fact may also be inferred from his remark, ‘My focus is all on characters’. They are realistic so much so that Narayan is considered as a writer of characters. Like Narayan’s other novels purpose of ‘The Guide’ is to bring the evils of the society into light. In this way he works as a social reformer.

So far as ‘The guide’ is concerned, the characters are simple in form. The character of Rosie has only been drawn with the inner life. Raju is a flat character. He changes in form and not is essence. R.K. Narayan draws his characters in a graphic manner. His objectivity made him capable of depicting the variety in the characters. Most of the characters are drawn from the life in common. Narayan’s character are of single dimension with the exception of Rosie, who is a two-dimensional character.

Generally the characters in ‘The Guide do not posses surprising traits, Rosie and Marco are the exceptions. Both of the two suffer from the lack of adjustment. Fall of Raju is caused by his commercialism and greed for money. His love for money exceeds beyond the limit, even at the cost of true love for Rosie.

Characters belong to Middle class

His characters belong to middle class family. Although his range of characterization is limited yet he achieves greatness in this field. Some of his memorable characters are Margayya, Dr. Pal, Mr. Sampath, Swami etc. In this connection William Walsh remarks. “His preoccupation is with the middle class, a relatively small part of an agricultural civilization and the most serious and anxious part of the population. Its members are neither too well off not to know the rub of financial worry not too indigent to be brutalized by want and hunger.”

Unheroic Heroes

Central character in the novels of R.K. Narayan are unheroic heroes. Like an ordinary person they have some weakness of character. Raju’s greed for money and to be of supreme values do not change with time. His interest remains the some though its form is changed. Lack of morality drives him back in the society. A person free from cupidity can be happier than the person who is greedy of money. Glamour and popularity are taken to be essential by the hero and the wrong estimate of social values are the cause of his ruin.

Three kinds of characters

There are simple, complex and minor characters in the novels of Narayan. In his simple character there are Swami, Chandran, Krishna etc. They are weak and lacking self-confidence. In the second group there are complex characters such as Mr. Sampath, Margayya, Ramani etc. They are mysterious and cannot be understood easily. They are intelligent and cunning enough to get their aims fulfilled. As far as “The Guide’ is concerned Rosie is not faithful to his husband, Marco. She lives with Raju as his wife. Money and sex are their main preoccupations. They are ready to sacrifice everything for these two. There Marco, Veera swami, Kailash and the lawyer etc, who are minor characters.

Female characters

We can divide Narayan’s female characters in two groups. In the first category there are traditional Indian housewives who are simple. gentle, obedient and religious. In this group Krishna’s wife and Savitri may be included. They are keen for the welfare of their children and husbands. In the second category there are unconventional and modern ladies. They are beautiful and having sex-appeal. In ‘The Guide’ Rosie’s character remains in this category and she fascinates Raju. During the love-making she could. all of a sudden, think of her husband and wished to go to the Mempi hills, Rosie would became thoughtful and would remark, ‘After all, he is my husband, I have to respect him. I cannot leave him there’. In this way she is too difficult to understand.