Charulata, a film in Sonata Form

It is reported that Satyajit Ray, a connoisseur of Western Classical Music, was continuously thinking of Mozart, while making the film. It may be interesting to analyse the film's structure in Sonata Form.

As is well known, Sonata form consists of an exposition, stating the first & second subjects, development (of secondary material, connected with the subjects) & a recapitulation. Here, Charulata (in her loneliness) may be the first subject. Her husband, Bhupati, who walks past her, immersed in his book, is NOT the second subject. However, it is his cousin, Amal, who arriving symbolically during a storm, is the second subject. Charu's brother Umapada & his wife Manda make up the household (as development material.)

After Umapada & Manda decamp with the money, Amal realises that he himself may rob Bhupathi of Charu's affections & leaves abruptly.

In the recapitulation section, the indifference of Bhupathi towards Charu (shown in the  exposition section), now enhanced by suspicions of Charu's perfidy) is represented by the hands of the couple frozen apart.

Dark Night of the Soul

John Bunyan, in his "The Pilgrim's Progress", mentions the obstacles the Pilgrim has to face in his journey to "The Celestial City." These are appropriately called "The Slough of Despond", "Giant Despair" & "The Valley of Humiliation."

The Spanish Mystic St. John of the Cross also mentioned the "Dark Night of the Soul" when the illumination of God is experienced but His presence is not yet felt.

St. Therese of Lisieux also experienced this dark night when she wrote "God permitted this thickest darkness to invade my soul whence the thought of heaven, up to then a thought so sweet, suddenly became a struggle & torment."

During the last days of Sri Ramakrishna's fatal illness, Narendra (later known as Swami Vivekananda) told 'M', the author of "The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, that "There is no God. Even if Sri Ramakrishna tells me there is, it may be his hallucination." It should be remembered that by this time, Narendra was well ahead in the spiritual path & was also vouchsafed many spiritual experiences by his Guru.

Alice & The Graphic Novel

"What is the use of a book" thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?" 

In the 1865 book "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, this sentence appears in the very first paragraph. Alice would have been delighted to see the popularity of the graphic novels in the twenty-first century, which contain nothing else but pictures & (brief) conversations in bubbles!

These reader-friendly versions of even notoriously difficult "classic" literature like the books of Proust & Virgil, have brought them to a vast new readership. Some like "To Kill A Mockingbird" have added a new primarily visual dimension to the story. These may serve as introductions to the full original versions, if the readers have been gripped by the graphic version.

So instead of bemoaning them as aberrations of the original works, they can be welcomed as a new gateway to the enthralling works of great literature.

Vamanavatara, Dido & St. Brigid

The fifth of the ten avatars of Vishnu was the Vamana Avatara, a dwarf. When King Bali had become too powerful, Vamana visited him & asked him for land, which he could cover in 3 paces. King Bali, noting his small size, granted the request. Vamana grew to a giant size, placed the first two steps on the earth & heavens & asked for the third. Bali offered his head & Vamana pushed him into the netherworld.

In Virgil's "Aeneid", Dido, fleeing from tyranny, asked King Iarbas for land which could be encompassed by an oxhide. On being granted the request, she cut the oxhide into thin strips, which laid end to end, encircled a nearby hill. (This is called an isoperimetric problem of enclosing maximum area within fixed boundaries.) She & her followers settled there.

The only female patron saint of the Irish, St. Brigid, (6th Century), asked King of Leinster for land to her convent. On the king's refusal, she prayed to God & smilingly asked the king for land which her cloak could cover. The unsuspecting king agreed & four of her nuns each took a corner of her cloak & began running in four different directions, the cloak magically stretching to cover a large area. The now horrified king begged her to call back her running nuns & promised her adequate land for her convent!