Page 195 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Unit 22: Premchand: Godan—Plot Construction and Characterisation

disinterested in her as he finds fault with her traditional values. He takes interest in Miss Malati Notes
and flirts with her. Govindi is desperately dejected and decides to abandon him and his house. But
it is Mr. Mehta, who has always been appreciative of her ideals, who advises her to return back to
the children. She is a moral support to her husband when his sugar factory gets destroyed in fire.
It is she who encourages him to set it up again.

Self- Assessment
1. Fill in the blanks:
(i) In 1920 Premchand resigned from a government high school and became a staunch
supporter of ............... .
(ii) The main plot of Godan is gifting the ............... .
(iii) Hori a poor peasant of the village leads a quiet life with his wife Dhania, their son Gobar
and two daughters ............... .
(iv) The Plot set in ............... .

22.3 Summary

• Godan has been described as an epic novel on the peasant life. Almost all classes of people
and all aspects of peasant life have been vividly depicted in Godan. Contemporary urban life
also finds vivid and detailed delineation through a parallel plot based on urban milieu. Thus
Godan involves intertwining of two distinct threads into one whole. The plot based on rural
life is the more prominent of the two while that based on urban life is secondary.
• The main plot of Godan (gifting a cow) is centred in a village ‘Belari’ in Avadh. Hori, a poor
peasant of the village leads a quiet life with his wife Dhania, their son Gobar and their two
daughters Sona and Rupa.
• Godan (Hindi), is the most outstanding of Premchand’s pay his regards to Amarpal Singh,
the zamindar of his village.
• Once while coming back to the village, he happens to see the beautiful cow of Bhola. Seeing
the cow, his heart yearns to possess it. He contacts Bhola and through clever persuasion
manages to get the cow. While bringing the cow, his sone Gobar falls in live with Bhola’s
daughter Jhunia. The ownership of the cow sends Hori, Gobar and Dhania into ecstatic joy.
• In the plot set in the urban-life, Premchand has divided his characters into seven broad
categories. Repressed, exploited and aggrieved classes of the society for this purpose.
• Godan’s plot is a complex one and its characterisation is comprehensively vivid. The episodes
of the novel are close to reality. Premchand frankly exposes the human fraility of his characters.
He freely expounds the weakness of even his naive protagonist Hori. He makes no effort to
mute the love-affair between Gobar and Jhunia. In fact, he exposes it uninhibitedly, with a
sense of subdued admiration. He delineates the inner conflict of Dr. Malati and Professor
Mehta on a rather psychological plane.
• Hori is a peasant who is married to Dhaniya and has two daughters and a son. He is an
uprighteous man and struggles throughout his life to preserve his uprighteousness.
• Dhania is Hori’s wife, devoted to him and always supportive to him. She is bold and fiery
and cannot tolerate injustice.
• Gobar is the only son of Dhania and Hori. Born into a poor family, he aspires for a life of
comfort. Though initially a simpleton like his father, he gets exposure in the city, lucknow,
and learns to be practical and worldly wise. He impregnates Jhunia, Bhola’s daughter, and
lacking courage to face the wrath of the villagers, runs away to the city, leaving Jhunia at his
parents doorstep.
• Datadin is the village Brahmin Priest and a greedy moneylender.

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