35 pages • 1 hour read
Rabindranath TagoreThe Home and the World
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1916A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Nikhil
Nikhil is a good man who prides himself on being generous and thoughtful. He is unusual in that, given the tradition and wealth of his family, he could have married a woman with both beauty and social status. However, he marries Bimala, who is not a beauty. Nikhil’s love for Bimala and marriage to her, show that he is no lover of vanity. His needs are simple.
Nikhil’s insight is not a product of his education. He embraces a contemplative life and lives according to the dictates of his own conscience. However, Nikhil’s insistence on putting thoughtfulness and kindness over rushing into brash action puts him at odds with naïve idealists who fall under the sway of Sandip’s rhetoric. Though his moral code puts him at odds with rioters and results in tragic consequences, there is reason to suspect he is at peace with the outcome.
Bimala
Bimala progresses through the novel from a humble maiden who enjoys being devoted to her husband, to a capricious, unhappy woman who allows an infatuation with Sandip to bring disaster into her life. Her humble beginnings account for her relative lack of education. However, during the happy times when she wants nothing but Nikhil, she is not presented as being ignorant. In fact, it is Nikhil’s insistence that she live in the “real” world outside the palace that exposes her to the ideas that lead to her undoing. Bimala shows the dangers of unchecked lust and a penchant to believe flattering words about oneself.
Sandip
Sandip is a golden-tongued orator of base appetites and incredible selfishness. His philosophy of life—in order to take, one must snatch—is the opposite of Nikhil’s. Sandip is of the view that might makes right. If one enjoys success, whether the success be financial, physical, sexual, etc., then Sandip assumes that the actions leading to the successes were the right ones. This is his malleable, mercenary view of truth. His seduction of Bimala’s mind does not have her well being as its goal. Rather, it allows him to indulge in the pleasant fantasies of physical passion, while using her station in Nikhil’s house to his own ends. There is no one in the novel drawn to Sandip who benefits from the relationship. His escape from the riot that kills Amulya and wounds Nikhil illuminates his grotesque character.
Amulya
Amulya represents the tragic possibilities of group-think, or mob mentality. When Bimala meets him, he is an example of the raw passion of youth. Amulya has experienced his first great political awakening and is desperate to contribute to the Cause. Unfortunately, it is Sandip who captures his mind. Amulya is under his spell for most of the novel. Ultimately, it is his devotion to Bimala that allows him to see Sandip for what he is. His death is especially tragic given that he has freed himself from Sandip, and that Bimala considers him her adopted son.
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By Rabindranath Tagore
