I had to pare down the question a bit from its original
form. I think that Tagore does a very strong job of bringing out a balance of
vulnerability and strength in Ratan. Indeed, there is a quest for love and security
present in Ratan. The fact that the reader's introduction to Ratan is in the form of an
"orphaned village- girl" who does "housework... in return for little food" brings out
the fact that Ratan is alone and probably lonely. She does yearn for the belonging and
the hope of solidarity that is present with the Postmaster. This is evidenced in how
she appropriates his family into her own through the use of personalized
pronouns:
She
[Ratan] even formed affectionate imaginary pictures of them [the postmaster's family] in
her mind.
The greatest
evidence of her quest for belonging and her primary motivation to simply be included is
most present in the asking of the postmaster to take her with him when he leaves. It is
this moment that reflects both her greatest investment in her quest. Simultaneously, it
is at this point where her quest suffers the greatest damage when the postmaster laughs
with the dismissive, "How could I do that?" Her quest is left unfulfilled with this
statement. While she experiences a type of defeat, she does not become passive and
sacrifice her dignity. She draws a bath for the postmaster on his last day and then
denies his money when he offers it to her as a parting gift. While she does weep for
him and the loss of her quest, the embrace of her own lonely condition representative of
someone "the world had abandoned," Ratan's quest is still intact in how she refuses to
let him see her in an emotionally disheveled state. In the end, the reader can see that
the quest for security and love was one that is not dependent on another, in a strange
way. For Ratan, it was about what she loved and not necessarily what loved her back.
It is here where there is some redemption present in a story where there is little to be
found.
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