Postmaster

❖ Summary
"The Postmaster" is a touching story about a young postmaster who is transferred from the city of
Calcutta to a small, remote village in rural India. The village is near an indigo factory run by an
Englishman, and the postmaster, feeling isolated and out of place, struggles to adapt to his new
surroundings. The post office, a modest structure with just two rooms, is his only refuge, and the rural
landscape offers little comfort to him. He yearns for the bustling city life he left behind.

In the village, the postmaster has few companions and little to occupy his time. He occasionally tries to
write poetry, inspired by the beauty of the countryside, but he finds no joy in it and longs for the
familiarity of urban life. His only company is Ratan, an orphaned village girl who helps him with
household chores. Over time, they develop a close bond, with Ratan eagerly learning to read and write
under the postmaster's guidance. Their relationship grows, filled with shared stories and moments of
companionship.

However, the postmaster's discontent with his life in the village remains. When he falls ill during the
rainy season, Ratan takes care of him with great devotion, staying by his side through the night until he
recovers. Despite her care and their growing connection, the postmaster decides to leave the village. He
applies for a transfer back to Calcutta, but when his request is denied, he resigns from his job, determined
to return to the city.

Ratan is devastated by the news of his departure. In a moment of desperation, she asks to go with him to
Calcutta, but he dismisses her request with a laugh, not realizing the depth of her feelings for him. As he
leaves, he offers her money as a gesture of kindness, but Ratan refuses it, running away in tears. Left
behind, she is heartbroken, wandering around the empty post office, unable to comprehend that the
postmaster has left her life forever.

❖ Characters :-
1. Postmaster
The postmaster is a young man from Calcutta who is sent to a small, remote village named Ulapur to
work. He feels out of place in this rural setting, longing for the city life he had left behind. The postmaster
is introspective, lonely, and somewhat melancholic. He finds little solace in his surroundings and
struggles to adjust to the simplicity and isolation of village life. He often attempt to write poetry that
reflects his yearning for something more meaningful, indicating a sense of unfulfillment.

Despite his loneliness, the postmaster forms a bond with Ratan, a young orphan girl who assists him with
household chores. He teaches her to read and engages in conversations with her, sharing memories of his
family, which fills the void in his life temporarily. However, his attachment to her is not deep; it is more
out of convenience than genuine affection which seen at the end of the story.

When he falls ill, he misses the comforts of home and decides to seek a transfer. His decision to leave is
practical, yet it highlights his emotional detachment and inability to connect deeply with the village or
with Ratan. His offer of money to Ratan before departing shows his attempt at kindness, but it also
reveals his misunderstanding of her emotional needs.

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2. Ratan:
Ratan is a young orphan girl who lives in the village. She has no family and works for the postmaster,
helping him with household chores in exchange for food and a place to stay. She is simple, innocent, and
deeply loyal. She is eager to learn and takes her lessons from the postmaster. She forms a strong
emotional attachment with postmaster, seeing him as her family member which is evident when she calls
him as ‘Dada’. She cherishes the time spent with him and is deeply affected by memories of his own
family. This attachment leads her to care for him tenderly when he falls ill, stepping into the role of a
motherly figure.

At the end of the story when the postmaster announces his departure, Ratan gets devastated. Her request
to accompany him reflects her deep emotional dependence upon him. The postmaster's casual dismissal of
her request and his offer of money shatter all her hopes. Ratan's heartbreak is profound, and unlike the
postmaster, she lacks the philosophical detachment to cope with the separation. Her lingering hope that he
might return highlights her innocence and the depth of her emotional attachment.

❖ Setting of the Story

→ The story is set in the small, remote village of Ulapur, which serves as both a physical and symbolic
setting for the narrative.
→ The village is characterized by its isolation, both geographically and socially, with the presence of an
indigo factory adding a colonial undertone to the setting.
→ The postmaster’s office and living quarters contribute to the overall sense of desolation and
discomfort experienced by the postmaster.
→ The rural backdrop is in stark contrast to the bustling urban environment of Calcutta, which the
postmaster longs for, thereby heightening the themes of alienation and longing that permeate the story.

❖ Themes
1. Loneliness and Isolation:
→ The postmaster feels alienated in the remote village of Ulapur.
→ His physical isolation is mirrored by his emotional distance from the village and its people
→ Postmaster is constantly longing for home and familiar surroundings.
→ He attempts to combat his loneliness through writing poetry and teaching Ratan to read, which
shows his yearning for companionship and human connection.
→ At the end it all proves to be insufficient to overcome the profound sense of solitude that he goes
through in this unfamiliar environment.
→ Even, Ratan experiences her own form of loneliness, though of a different kind. Being an orphan,
she clings to postmaster, finding in him a substitute for the family she had lost.
→ Their shared loneliness brings them together, yet it is ultimately not enough to keep them together,
as the postmaster's departure leaves Ratan more isolated than before.

2. Emotional Attachment and Detachment:

→ The postmaster’s growing attachment to Ratan is evident in the way he begins to treat her as a
confidante and companion but his attachment is shallow compared to Ratan's deep emotional bond
with him.

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 → Ratan, sees the postmaster as his substitute family member and invests all her affection and care
into their relationship
→ Her attachment towards postmaster is intense and sincere, rooted in her deep-seated need for love
and belonging. In contrast, the postmaster’s affection is more circumstantial and less enduring. He
views Ratan with a certain fondness but ultimately does not consider her a significant part of his
life. This difference in emotional investment leads to heartbreak for Ratan, who is left devastated
when the postmaster leaves, while he quickly rationalizes his departure and moves on. It indirectly
highlights the pain and imbalance that can occur in relationships when one person is more
emotionally invested than the other.

3. Eco- Criticism:
→ The Postmaster highlights the problem of the increasing gap between the village and the city
which Tagore saw as a major handicap for India’s success as a nation.
→ The story is set in rural village, Ulapur, Bengal and radiates lush, complex pictures of the natural
environment that provide much of the emotional depth, which serves as a source of both
melancholy and artistic inspiration.
→ The postmaster’s sense of imprisonment in the village appears to be symbolised by the terrain,
which is frequently wet with rain. Intense emotion and a sense of the sublime are also present in
the landscape. While the postmaster appears to be moved by nature, it is also nature that drives
him out: the ongoing floods in Ulapur cause him to become unwell, which leads to his departure
from the hamlet.
→ The post office that stands as a mode of communication and progress itself pins down the
expected well-set to low settings. No wonder the postmaster who belonged to Calcutta, couldn’t
identify with the settings. Land resembled desolation to the postmaster.
→ To avert himself from the denouncing space the postmaster attempts to find solace in writing
poems immersed in the eco-narrative surrounding of the rustic.
→ The natural elements in the story act as a medium to heal and guide to survive with the emotional
anguish. “Environmental values” can be seen “articulated in relation to visual modes of
consumption that enabled the visitor simultaneously to look at ‘the picture’ and plunge into
sensation
→ The rustic though on the verge to merge with urban lifestyle is shown stuck in the middle unable
to progress. This image coincides with Ratan who was shown the light and power of education
and then left in the middle stuck between progress and then withdrawal.
→ The swollen river, flickering lamp, rain and muddy water replicate the inner tension that both
characters feel. The flowing river, the last ecological element in the story, symbolically portrays
the fact that a person or thing comes and goes, but life must go on. Nature acts as a metaphor of
conflicting harmony and complexities of sentiments.

❖ Observations :-
→ shows the difficulties which a city person facdes when migrate to the remote place
→ The postmaster finds it easy to talk to Ratan about his family and memories of home
→ The postmaster feels lonely and wishes for a kindred soul to be near him
→ Ratan is a quick learner and soon masters the alphabet and double consonants

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 → Ratan steps into the role of caretaker, nursing the postmaster back to health
→ The postmaster becomes nostalgic and longs for home, applying for a transfer
→ The indication at the end says that money has no value to Ratan.
→ What she needs is the company of the postmaster in her companionless life.

❖ Comments :-
→ The postmaster is from Calcutta and is not used to the remote village of Ulapur.
→ The postmaster has little company and feels out of place among the men from the indigo factory
→ The postmaster's absence affects Ratan, who was fond of him and enjoyed their time together
→ The postmaster's departure marks the end of their relationship and a significant change in Ratan's
life
→ Ratan felt hurt by the postmaster's laughing reply and instead told her that he would ask his
successor to look after her
→ Ratan could not bear the thought of the postmaster leaving and wept inconsolably after he left
→ She held on to the hope that the postmaster would return, even after he had left
→ The village, with its primitive living conditions and lack of social interaction, represents a harsh,
unwelcoming environment for the postmaster, who is accustomed to the amenities and social
connections of urban life.
→ The story’s ending, with the postmaster leaving and Ratan clinging to false hope, underscores the
painful reality of unfulfilled desires and the emotional scars they leave behind.
→ The postmaster’s thoughts in the end on the endless cycle of meetings and partings, and on death
as the ultimate separation, suggest a detachment that contrasts sharply with Ratan’s raw, unfiltered
emotions. This detachment, while offering him some solace, also underscores his inability to fully
connect with Ratan’s pain.
→ Tagore subtly critiques traditional gender roles through Ratan’s character. Despite her youth,
Ratan assumes a nurturing, almost maternal role when the postmaster falls ill. Her unhesitating
care and the depth of her emotional investment challenge the conventional notion of women as
passive dependents, revealing instead a strength and resilience that the postmaster, in his male-
centric worldview, fails to fully appreciate.

→ Ratan belongs to those of purest heart who give without expecting and continue to give even after
hopeless returns, the story ends with marking such frailty in the mind of Ratan who brews over
with strength only to be broken again
→ Due to postmaster’s lack of understanding of her emotional turmoil, he does not feel the need to
explain any further and just gives it off.
→ His relation with her is professional, and he does not consider her as family. He has nothing
against the girl. She is just a house help for him and it just does not occur to him to look at the girl
in any other way. Thus, it does not make any sense to take her with him when she could help the
next postmaster and continue to live in her own village.
→ When he leaves, he has a sudden urge to go back and take the girl along with him. Again, she is
not important enough for him to ponder on that for long. He starts to get philosophical ideas of
how no one belongs to anyone.

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 → On the other hand, Ratan makes the postmaster her world. She, who lost her family at a young
age, gets attached to this man who treats her well, feeds her, and takes enough interest to teacher
how to read and write. Her world is simpler. She has no one but him, her dada.
→ The girl yearns for a much warmer relationship than mere charity and a suitable employment,
what exactly this warmer relationship may be, she did not clearly know; and when she is left
disconsolate her sorrowing face.
→ What Rabindranath reveals in this casual acquaintance of a village postmaster is the primeval
emotional yearning of human nature, which is too deep and too mysterious to fit into the coarser
arrangements of human society.

References :-
→ [Link]
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[Link]
→ [Link]
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4d22642523756393e2fb/Self-Esteem-and-Lack-of-Communication-in-Select-Short-Stories-of-
[Link]
→ [Link]

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