Summary of The English Teacher

Summary:-

"The English Teacher", is a fantastic novel written by R. K. Narayan in 1945.There  is a series of novels and collections of short stories set in "Malgudi",a crowded city of Southern India. The English Teacher was preceded by Swami and Friends (1935), The Bachelor of Arts (1937), Malgudi Days (1943) and followed by Mr. Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi. His novels touched the roots of Indian society and he exposed his dominating ideas upon Indian systems not only into one field but also into different fields. This novel"Swami and Friends",dedicated to Narayan's wife Rajam,it is not only autobiographical but also poignant in its intensity of emotions and thoughts.The story  of this novel is a series of life experiences of Krishna,who is an English teacher and his quest for inner peace and self-development. This novel contains many themes and many messages for us and also many directions of human thoughts and feelings. Krishna is a main character in this novel. He works as an English teacher and lecturer at Albert Mission College, he has led a monotonous lifestyle comparable to that of a cow. He plays an important role of protecting the roots of Indian culture. Then his life took a turn when his wife, Susila and their child, Leela, they come to live with him.He understands the responsibility how to maintain the relationship with family members. He himself felt that his life had comparatively improved, he understood that there's more meaning of life than to just teaching in the college. However, when they went in search of a new house in the city, Susila comes into contact typhoid after visiting a dirty lavatory, keeping herself in bed for weeks and hours. Throughout the entire course of her illness; Krishna constantly tries to keep an optimistic view about Susila's illness, keeping his hopes up by thinking that her illness would be cured. However,Susila eventually succumbs and passes away. Krishna's faith broke by her loss, has suicidal thoughts but gives them up for the sake of his daughter like Leela. He leads his life as a lost and miserable person after her death but after he receives a letter from a stranger who indicates that Susila has been in contact with him and that she wants to communicate with Krishna then he becomes more collected and cheerful. This brings to Krishna’s journey in search of enlightenment with the stranger acting as a medium to Susila in the spiritual world.

                   On the other hand,Leela goes to  pre-school where Krishna gets to meet the headmaster to convey a message, a profound man in his school and teaches them moral values through his own methods. The Headmaster puts his students as his top priority in the school but he doesn’t care for his own family and children, eventually leaving them predicted by an astrologer as to be when he was going to die which did not come true. Krishna gets to learn through the headmaster on the journey of enlightenment; eventually, communicate to Susila on his own, thus concluding the entire story itself with the quote that he felt 'a moment of rare immutable joy'. The Headmaster is a focal character in the novel. He introduces one of the key themes mainly education. He draws a contrasting picture of education with emphasis on creativity, imagination, playing and freedom in the society. He adopts a passive attitude towards education and it seems to work as Leela because she is eager to go to school even on Sunday.His conception of education can highly be contrasted to that of Krishna. The works mostly for his end of month salary. His lack of confidence  and zeal is shown mostly by his monotonous life and robot-like approach to his profession. 

               But like any other character in this novel, the Headmaster also seems to be bearing many weaknesses.  Being a headmaster, he stands for perfection but when it comes to his responsibilities for his family but he seems to be a failure. A shocking image of his family life is painted by R.K Narayan in the novel by his artistic art.His children are pictured as being left on their own, leading an unhygienic life, a complete contrast children in his school. This might explain the Headmaster’s devotion to his school.  It is a source of escape for him, an escape from his vociferous wife and his ill-mannered children and polluted and dusty living area in the society.Another theme of this novel is Love, a key theme in the novel,might be marital love,motherly love,parental love and Sexuality among others. Marital love and marital bliss encompass mostly the first three chapters.Narayan provides a rather detailed description of the short lived marital happiness of Susila and Krishna. It is a depth sight into their marital relationship which makes Susila’s death more poignant. While many claims that the text bears many autobiographical elements with Narayan’s own wife dying of a long disease, the novel moves at a higher dimension of life.Parental love is also treated as a key theme in not only here but also everywhere in Indian society.After the death of Susila,he plays both the mother and father roles. He feel  Leela’s life with love so that the latter he does not feel the emptiness left by her mother. He takes care of Leela, ensuring that she gets access to education and grows up into a disciplined girl. Susila also showers motherly love for Leela. She is seen to be constantly grooming Leela and combing her hair or even making up clothes for her. Narayan has invested a lot into drawing pictures,Krishna and Susila as devoted and caring parents. Education is also another important theme of this novel. The title of the novel itself announces one of the main concerns of Narayan, namely Eduaction and others. Different approaches of education and contrasting teaching styles are shown in this novel.Krishna adopts a more repetitive and robotic approach of education, Leela’s teacher focuses more on a creative approach. Krishna is portrayed more and more as the conventional teacher, relying on parrot learning and a course oriented education system.He does not seem to be too keen about his job.He teaches mostly for his monthly salary and making him more a benefit-oriented educator. He thinks on books as learning tools and limits learner’s knowledge to the content of the books.

              Leela’s teacher, is a dedicated who values the imagination of the students. He believes learning as being a fun activity. Playing is prioritized over dusty and huge textbooks. He believes learning beyond the classroom limits, his passion for his job is shown through his presence in his school even on Sundays. He has proudly exposed all the works of the students on the walls,showing that how he gives value to each and every effort of his students.The image reflection of his school reflects that of a space where students are free and learning at their own pace. He does not focus on materialistic attachments as he states that he does not need any furniture in his school for him or others. 

           Having struggled through the death of his own wife,Narayan has very brilliantly described the effects of death.The theme bears a very strong autobiographical element. The death of Susila is one of the most poignant moments of the novel as it brings major changes in the lives of Krishna and the other characters too. Other key themes are closely related to this theme, namely remarriage, supernatural faith, life after death among others.The scenes before the death of Susila are highly significant and sensitive. The house which was filled up with the scent of Jasmine flowers, is gradually filled with the strong-smelling lethal.Susila’s room is turned into a restricted area and she becomes the highly contagious patient.He is an unenthusiastic English teacher and his ill habits of going on walks by the river seem to be adding to his lack of courage.

Susila seems to be the one giving him reasons to actually exist. Susila introduces her passion and marital bliss to Krishna. She makes him life  of the present in a better way and she even builds future plans for them. With Susila, Krishna realises that he is more for her than just an English teacher.Susila provokes the soft sides of Krishna, making him step out of his lonely life at the hostel and showing to establish attachments with people and not with objects namely his old clock. Krishna is able to redefine his importance in life, being a typical husband and a caring father to Leela.The death of Susila, makes him raise the question of ‘Who am I?’ again and inspired to be a man of responsibility.At this moment in the novel that readers realise how dependent Krishna was on Susila. She is the one who has given him an identity and a purpose to live. Her death is so impactful that he forgets his more practical faith to indulge in a completely superstitious world of spirits and mortality.