Behavioral Sciences

CASE ANALYSIS: BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Before dissecting the four main characters in the story, there is one unanimous fact that each of us have accepted. None of the characters involved in the story fit into the completely black or completely white mould of things. Each of them have multiple shades of grey in their personality that makes the reader’s job difficult, when it comes to giving the verdict.

Let us begin with the first character-Manohar.

There are several qualities that define his personality. He has a high sense of self-esteem, as he has repeatedly declined Sunil’s job offer in his(Sunil’s) father’s firm (as he felt that the offer was motivated more out of friendship than Manohar’s talent). His sense of self-worth drives him to search for a job based on his competency.

However, when it comes to his love for Rekha, Manohar seems like the quintessential commitment-phobic Indian boy, who is afraid to take a stand because he cares more about respecting his parents’ wishes than he does for Rekha or even his own wishes. Though, in the traditional Indian society, it is an admirable quality to put one’s parents’ wishes above anyone else’s, at the end of the day, it is more important and logical to think about one’s own happiness above everything else.

The second thing that further degrades him in the reader’s opinion is the fact that he listens to Rekha’s unfortunate plight, and still happens to judge her for leaving her parents without their approval, calling her “another man’s left-overs”. Had his love for her been unconditional, he would have accepted her with open arms, no matter what Lukka did to her. Instead, he rejects her without a second thought.

The next character that we will talk of, is Sunil.

We catch the goodness in Sunil’s character when he offers his friend, Manohar, a job in his father’s firm. He seemingly practices the ideology of “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” His unrequited love for Rekha is quite admirable as in the beginning he seems to love her even though she is in love with his friend, Manohar.

However, when the situation with Rekha and Lukka arises, and Rekha begs him to accept her despite everything, we see a different side of his character. Though not as harshly as Manohar, Sunil too declines her offer of marriage after considering her “spoiled goods”. He lets her down just as badly as Manohar. His hypocrisy regarding his ideology of being a friend in need is evident from the way he rejects Rekha when she desperately needs his help.

Both Manohar & Sunil prove that their love for Rekha comes with the price tag of her virtue. Even though she was exploited in the worst possible way by the atrocious Lukka, neither Manohar, not Sunil were ready to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Coming to Rekha, she seems to be the apple of everyone’s eye, but a victim of the butterfly effect. She repeatedly declines Sunil’s offer of marriage because of her love for Manohar, who was not capable of standing up for her. She not only comes across as a bad judge of character, but also exercises bad decision making in the face of life-changing moments. She decides to leave her parents’ house in the darkest hours of the night, without a chaperone and without a penny in her purse. The fact that she stands by her choice is seemingly admirable, but at the same time, she displays an immeasurable amount of immaturity by not informing anyone about her intentions before leaving home. She is warned by the boat-man who takes her across to the other side of the river, about Lukka and his notoriety. She goes in without heeding his warnings and puts herself in harm’s way. In a way, she is the one who brings about the complete mayhem, that ultimately leads to this catastrophe.