The Natural World as a Reflection of Humanity
A major theme in Rabindranath Tagore’s writing is nature. It is no surprise, then, that nature functions as a kind of mirror in “The Postmaster,” one that is held up to reflect the characters’ inner lives.
There is beauty there, around the village of Ulapur, in “the movement of the leaves and the clouds of the sky,” but it is a wistful beauty, that of an absent good and the desire for something more. As much as the titular postmaster tries to reflect on nature’s joys in his writing, the natural beauty of his new setting does not dampen the pain of being removed from Calcutta and all its comfortable familiarity.
The postmaster looks out at the rain-washed leaves and retreating clouds, his attention catching on the “persistent bird [that] repeat[s] all the afternoon the burden of its one complaint in Nature’s audience chamber.” That lone bird gives voice to the postmaster’s sense of isolation within the village and his desire for a “kindred soul.” He imagines that the bird also cries out for companionship, thinking that even the murmuring leaves must try to express their yearning for company.
In the season leading up to the postmaster’s sickness, the rains are unending. They swell canals, ditches, and hollows; they fill day and night with the sounds of water and frogs. The tumult continues until the roads become unusable and all business must be done on punts. The earth takes on water until it is overwhelmed, just as the postmaster is, both by his loneliness and by the sickness that finally moves him to request a transfer.
When he finally leaves Ulapur, the postmaster sees his grief reflected in the world around him. The swollen river seems overburdened by the earth’s tears, and he sees Ratan’s sorrow as mirroring the sorrow of the earth itself. He considers going back to her, but the wind has taken his boat out into the current and nature is already carrying him away. It is a deliberate mirroring, one that unites the internal lives of men with the physical realities of their environment.
Connection Across Divides
A recurring theme in Rabindranath Tagore’s writing is that of connections as they form across the conventional divisions of class, caste, and country. In “The Postmaster,” that theme is explored through the connection between the postmaster and Ratan.
At first glance, it seems there is very little that the two could have in common. Ratan is an orphan girl who has lost her family and subsists on odd jobs in Ulapur. The Calcutta-born postmaster has been stationed for work in her village, a lonely posting that makes him think fondly of his own absent family.
Despite the substantial differences between their situations, they find some commonality in sharing memories of the families they miss, albeit for different reasons. They further bond as the postmaster, desperate for companionship, teaches Ratan the alphabet, and she looks after him while he is sick. Despite the divide between them, they form a kind of unlikely family.
As is often the case in Tagore’s writing, there is a sense of sadness in this connection that they have formed. Here, the sadness stems from the knowledge that the connection will not last. Eventually, it is broken by the postmaster’s decision to leave the village and go home, leaving Ratan behind. At first, the broken connection seems to impact her alone, causing her to be immediately upset while he wonders why. Only as his boat takes him away, does he reflect on the grief of that moment. Part of him wishes to rush back to her, but already, it is too late.
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