Page 34 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Unit 3: Chitra by Rabindranath Tagore

Again, nothing can stand comparison with the picture of the first union of Arjuna with Chitra, Notes
wrought with such a fine brush. The very scene where they meet for conjugal bliss speaks of the
perfect harmony in nature which prepares us, as it does the lovers, to forget everything else in
the security of love. The gradual development towards the heightening of emotions, is brought
home to us no less vividly by the dramatic meeting of Arjuna and Chitra and their eagerness to
linger long in each other’s company, than by the description of the moon and the night which
are in symphony with their increasing passion. The poet paints the scene thus, “The moon had
moved to the West, peering through the leaves to espy the wonder of divine art wrought in a
fragile human frame. The air was heavy with perfume. The silence of the night was vocal with
the chirping of crickets. The reflection of the trees hung motionless in the lake.” Then occurs the
gentle, unconscious movement in nature itself for the mingling of body and soul, when the
moon has set behind the trees and “one curtain of darkness covered all”. What greater testimony
do we need to the wonderful power of the poet to fill us with supreme satisfaction unaided by
any lengthy argument or account, than what is contained in that single sentence, “Heaven and
earth, time and space, pleasure and pain, death and life merged together in an unbearable
ecstasy . . .”
This very short play of one Act containing none of the attractions of variation in scene, action,
and characters captivates us by its beauty even as the tiny bead of dew transformed into a
laughing orb by the all-pervading sun. There is no more complexity in the plot than there is in
the colour scheme of the clear sky. However, the blending of fine shades of thought in a single
theme is rendered with such rare intuition and skill that as we begin dissecting it, we experience
the same agreeable surprise at the emergence of fresh components, as at the rainbow colours
from a ray of pure legit.

There is in us no feeling of vagueness bordering on dissatisfaction as we finish the book. But a
strange discontent lurks within the heart as that of Arjuna when he fails to “feel Chitra on all
sides”. What sort of a woman is Chitra? She is neither so plain as her manly training might
indicate to us, nor too elusive as Arjuna considers her when his first madness of love begins to
die away. Anyhow she is not a Goddess hidden in a golden image. The noble ambition in her fed
with youthful fantasies, to meet the greatest hero of the five Pandava brothers and to “break a
lance with him, to challenge him in disguise to a single combat and prove her skill in arms
against him” is the true outcome of her early education. But the woman in her, irresistible at the
meeting of “the fervent gaze that almost grasps you like the clutching hands of the hungry spirit
within,” responds to the cuckoo call of love and the one strong desire that possesses her afterwards
is to murmur to him, “take me, take all I am”. There is a real conflict at first in her, whether to
accept Arjuna when she learns of his broken vow of celibacy. The warning note is sounded to her
by her conscience which say’s “This is not love, this is not man’s highest homage to woman”.
However, alas! Like many others, she slowly yields to the compromising attitude of allowing
herself to be courted. That feeling, ebbing away within her with the first excitement of pleasure,
the inner vision gradually strengthens her will until when finally she loathes her very body,
which has become the seducer of her hero’s heart. She then emerges a new being reconciled to
her lot and ready to make her last sacrifice at Arjuna’s feet. The final revelation of her true self,
so sudden and impressive, cannot but leave a lingering taste of the high and the noble in our
memory even long after the book is closed. Chitra certainly is greater than man and woman put
together, though by the strange irony of fate she happens to be both.
The herb of the play next claims our attention. Is he no better than a thoughtless dissolute man
seeking only physical perfection even at the risk of losing the fame of his heroic manhood? Poor
Arjuna! He desires much to know more of Chitra In order to “clasp something that can last
longer than pleasure that can endure even through suffering”. However, herein lies the sadness
of his failure to discover the secret of that enduring passion born of insatiate desire and unsullied
thought. He knows little that the eyes of woman, naturally quick in discerning man get quicker
still when they are love-opened. For Chitra painfully notes that the hours of thoughtless pleasure

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 29