Introduction
The Postmaster is a story of human emotions, relationships and practicality in life. It is a modern story reflects boredom and loneliness and decreasing socialization among people. Rabindranath Tagore in this beautifully written story tried to present the psychology of people towards societal relationships and false hope people nurture despite knowing the reality.
Themes
- Loneliness – The story articulates theme of loneliness. The Postmaster is unable to have companions at the village ulapur. He belongs to Calcutta and in this remote village he is like a fish out of water. He got some company from an orphan girl Ratan. But his mind and heart are stuck in city life of Calcutta. His loneliness made him to ask for transfer in the pretext of bad health and on failing to get that he resigned. Ratan on the other hand is a also lonely. She is a orphan hence does not have anyone in the life. She also wants companionship which she seeks in Postmaster.
- Human connection – Human is psychologically get inclined towards someone provides him/her warmth, protection, love and respect. Ratan is a orphan hence wants protection and attachments. She has same feelings for the Postmaster. But for the Postmaster, Ratan was a helper and a time killing companion. His focus was on getting out of this village. Even when he left, it was Ratan who was affected and received the emotional shock. She kept hoping that the Postmaster would return to fetch her. But it is a human weakness that he nurtures such false hopes.
- Hope – It is a tendency of a person to be hopeful about those things and persons who have established a connection with him or her even though it is for a short period. Such hope often betrays them and they receive shock. But the person forgets the past and again gets hopeful sometime in future. Ratan after getting attached to the company of the Postmaster, wants him to take with him to his house when he decides to resign and leave ulapur. But when the Postmaster leaves him behind, she remains hopeful for sometime that he would come back to take her with him. But ultimately she comes to the reality.
Practical approach of Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore without any dramatic ending of the story sticks to realism. He presents the postmaster a person who understands well that it is not feasible to take Ratan with him in his house. The society would raise questions, his family may not accept her. It would lead to confrontation in his family. To avoid all this he does not take Ratan with him. This is a practical approach towards life.
Characterisation
The story basically has only two characters i.e. The postmaster and Ratan. Ratan is a orphan girl who wants someone in his life. She found that person as Postmaster and did everything he want. She looks after the postmaster during his illness as a mother, sister and nurse. She cooks food for him. She is emotionally attached to him. She wants to go with the postmaster at the end of the story but he left her behind. The postmaster is a person occupied by boredom and loneliness at Ulapur. His relationship with ratan is more of requirement than emotional attachment. He left her behind when he resigned of the service. He realised his mistake of leaving her behind when his boat had already reached in to the middle of the river. Hence, he consoled himself that it is the nature of life that people meet and leave us. Many of them leave us permanently on death. Hence he shouldn’t think much about Ratan. In this way, Ratan’s character is of a hopeful emotional person while the postmaster is a more practical person.
Language
The language of the story is not verbose and easy to understand. The dialogues of Ratan are as innocent as a girl of her age and background should be. Tagore presents their relationship as brother and sister as Ratan calls postmaster Dada that means big brother in Bengali. The language of their conversation reflects the simplicity of a brother-sister relationship.
Conclusion
The story is a marvellous piece of literature reflect human emotions, connection and hope. It also focuses on loneliness and boredom. Overall the story poignantly describes the separation of Ratan, the orphan girl and the postmaster.
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