The short story "The Postmaster" by Rabindranath Tagore tells of a man from the city of Calcutta who takes an appointment as a postmaster in a small remote village. He assumes his duties faithfully but is lonely and ill at ease. An orphan girl named Ratan cooks and does odd jobs for him. To alleviate his boredom, the postmaster begins to teach her to read. She in turn nurses him back to health when he becomes very ill. When he recovers, he requests a transfer, and Ratan asks if she can go with him. He scoffs at the idea and in the end goes off alone. While the boat is pulling away, he has second thoughts and considers going back for Ratan, but he does not and instead consoles himself with philosophy. Ratan, though, has no philosophy to fall back on and is heartbroken.
"The Postmaster" is a sweet story of unrequited love, but it is much more than that. The reader realizes that both of the main characters in the story are deeply lonely and need each other, and wishes that they could resolve their differences and stay together. However, Tagore here is making a statement about class differences in India at the time the story was written. Tagore was from a high-class family, but when he was a young man, he went to a rural area to live among villagers while he managed his family's affairs. Shortly after this, he wrote "The Postmaster" drawing on his personal experience.
The postmaster, being from the city and from a higher class of people than the poor village orphan girl Ratan, scoffs at the idea of Ratan accompanying him back to Calcutta because of their differences in social status. He cannot conceive of them having a basis for equality. Tagore obviously considers this a tragedy. However, he also considers the false hopes of Ratan to be tragic, because it is inevitable that the societal mores that prevent her and the postmaster from getting together will prevail over any personal feelings. He writes: "Alas for our foolish human nature! Its fond mistakes are persistent." In the end:
False hope is clung to with all its might and main, till a day comes when it has sucked the heart dry and it forcibly breaks through its bonds and departs. After that comes the misery of awakening, and then once again the longing to get back into the maze of the same mistakes.
Tagore is saying that it is human nature to have such hopes, tragic though they are.
A simple web search will reveal much in way of analysis of Tagore's short story. One mode of analysis will be how Tagore treats both main characters' concept of strength. I think that this breaks down to the idea of which character, the Postmaster or Ratan, is actually stronger or demonstrates greater strength? The Postmaster demonstrates some level of strength in his enduring life in the village, but Ratan shows much more strength in her taking care of the Postmaster as well as being able to fully learn what is taught. The analysis present helps to display the role of women in this setting as well as how they are in connection to men. I think that you can also find more appreciation of how Ratan represents or symbolizes a great deal, in particular how individuals that might be perceived as lesser on a social scale could be able to rank much higher on a moral or ethical scale of conduct.
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