Introduction – The Post Office is among popular works of Rabindranath Tagore. It was published in 1912. It was among those works which had their appeal in west too. Germany (concentration camps) and France were the countries where it became source of motivation during World War II.

Main Themes

Deliverance – It was certainly the main theme and W.B. Yeats also thought deliverance is the central theme of the play. Deliverance is the liberation of Amal from the house arrest. His house is symbol for the world and Amal’s soul got relieved from restrictions of this world after death at the end of the play.

Time – Play has an important theme of time. This life has limited time and Amal has lots of aspirations to be fulfilled. Watchman who is a symbol of time rightly tells that everything happens on time and once time goes we can’t do anything. When time is over we meet our death and no doctor could stop that.

Death – The Play ends at the death of the main character of the play ‘Amal’. From the onset of the play death was revolving around Amal when local doctor said Amal’s life is in danger. The Gong of the watchman again brought theme of death to the surface as he talked about end of the time and right time.

Behaviour – Amal has very amicable and sociable behaviour. He easily wins even his adversaries. People like Dairyman and flower girl Sudha who were not inclined to talk with him and give him free curd and flowers respectively got ready to do so. It was due to empathic behavior of the Amal. Village headman Panchanan who is arrogant and foul mouthed was won over by Amal at the end of the play when Amal called him as his friend (despite headman’s continuous mockery of Amal) in front of Herald of the King.

Symbolism – The Post Office has lot of symbols and its relevance is at the understanding of those symbols.

1. The Post Office – Post office is the symbol of heaven from where messengers of God reach to general public.
2. Postmen- They are the messengers of God. Amal also wants to become one of those. His behaviour and nature certainly suit to that job. As he spreads love, sympathy, empathy, friendship etc. in human society.
3. King – The king is the god of death who is going to come to Amal to take him with himself.
4. Death of Amal – It is the symbol of liberation from human world.
5. Watchman – He is symbol of time who constantly gongs at appropriate time.

Characterisation – Tagore has done marvelous work at characterisation. His characters from Amal to Herald all have their undisputed significance in the play. They all take the play smoothly towards its culmination. All the characters are spokes of the wheel who are linked to the axle and making the wheel (play) move efficiently.

Amal’s character evokes sympathy and love towards humankind, Gaffer is the motivation towards dreams, Madhav is our near and dear ones who could go to any extent for our well-being and headman is the obstacles of the world. Similarly other characters have their own significance. Most of the characters while unknown to each other but are well linked to Amal which makes them attached to the central theme of the play i.e. deliverance.

Title – It is a very apt and suggestive title given by Rabindranath Tagore. The symbolic significance of the post office is that it makes the main character of the play i.e. Amal meets his deliverance. So Post Office is the heaven here from where messengers of the God reach to the humankind. His passion about work of postman and aspiration of receiving letter from the King makes the king come at his home or we may say God has relieved his soul from restrictions of the body and he deserves a better role of angel or messenger of the God due to his pure soul as a human being.

Spiritual Journey – The Play indicate towards end of life of Amal and starting of spiritual journey. As the God of death is coming to fetch him and Amal will be relieved from human limitations such as his body, society and world, he would go on journey of spirituality development of soul

Structure of the Play – Play was initially divided into three acts but now it is often presented as two act play. Act one establishes base for liberation of Amal’s soul from human world while Act second makes the liberation complete. Structure of the play keeps the pace of the play unhindered and one act leads to the next act naturally. Whole play goes on in present tense and time and there is no complexity regarding that.

Critical Comments – In an introduction to the play in Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthology, Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson write that W. B. Yeats called the The Post Office a “masterpiece,” and that Mahatma Gandhi wrote that he was “enraptured” by a 1917 performance of the play. Dutta and Robinson also note that “Tagore’s insight into death is perhaps at its deepest” in the The Post Office. (Encyclopedia)

Conclusion – The Post Office is a gem of Indian and world literature. It delivered its message of liberation in effective manner and hence became a source of motivation to thousands of people.

References

“The Post Office .” Drama for Students. . Encyclopedia.com. 15 Nov. 2023 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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