Lispeth by Rudyard Kipling summary and analysis

 Lispeth by Rudyard Kipling.

SATAVAHANA/OU/KU/TU-Telangana State

MA ENGLISH -SEMESTER 2- PAPER III-FICTION-UNIT- V - Short stories

SRR Govt.Arts & Science College Karimnagar

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Rudyard Kipling, a poet, novelist, short story writer and journalist, was born on December 30, 1865 in Bombay of British India. His famous works are Kim(1901), Jungle Book,  poems -If , White man burden -the United States and the Philippine Islands,  To The City Of Bombay. Kipling was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in the year 1899.He closely observed Colonial rule and British military cantonments as a journalist.He depicted a young British soldier's life in the short story 'Thrown away'.

The present  story Lispeth is taken from his famous anthology of 40 short stories" Plain Tales from the Hills". Critics accuse Kipling as a supporter of British imperialism.

englishlanguage-lit.blogspot.com

Rajesh Kumar

Lispeth (1886) is the story of an Indian native girl,narrated in the third person and set in British India. She is the daughter of Sonoo and Jadeh,who belong to Kotagarh, a village in the Himalayan region. The narrator depicts the life journey of Lispeth from childhood to adulthood. The story is told from a third-person point of view. Her parents get lost in the maize crop, and their opium poppy field is damaged by two bears. So in the next season, they convert to Christianity, and her daughter is baptised.

The Kotgarh Chaplain christened her Elizabeth, and ‘Lispeth’ is the Hill or Pahari pronunciation.

The narrator gives a vivid description of Lispeth's beauty. She is tall, ivory-coloured, like Diana of the Romans, and has grown beautifully as a princess in fairytales. The chaplain's wife wants Lispeth to join a nursing course, but Lispeth doesn't show interest. Lispeth goes for a long walk and returns home in the evening, breathing heavily and carrying an unconscious Englishman on her shoulders.

Lispeth falls in love at first sight with the Englishman,who hurts himself, and declares that she will marry him after his recovery from illness. 

The narrator says falling in love at first sight is an uncivilised thing, and it takes a great deal of Christianity to wipe out eastern instincts.

." It takes a great deal of Christianity to wipe out uncivilised Eastern instincts, such as falling in love at first sight."

Lispeth nurses him till he recovers, and he thanks everyone, especially Lispeth, for her kindness.

The chaplain's wife speaks to the Englishman about Lispeth's love, but he makes it clear that he is already engaged to a girl at home. Lispeth has not hidden her feelings towards him and goes to Narkanda along with him to bid farewell. On the advice of the chaplain's wife, he promises Lispeth that he will come back to marry her. As the months pass, Lispeth feels miserable. The chaplain's wife tells her the truth: the English man would never come back, and he has made a promise to Lispeth on her request. 

Lispeth takes the chaplain's wife's lying too seriously and dresses in the clothes of hill women. She goes back to her own people, marries a woodcutter and a wife beater, and her beauty fades soon. She dies of old age. 

‘I am going back to my own people,’ said she. ‘You have killed Lispeth. There is only one left of old Jadéh's daughter—the daughter of a pabari and the servant of Tarka Devi. You are all liars, you English.’

Lispeth used to tell her about her first love affair when she was drunk. 

Lispeth could not tolerate the chaplain wife's falsehood, as the basic principles of Christianity are love and trust. Though the chaplain's wife lied in the interest of Lispeth, she felt deceived. She couldn't digest the duality of Christianity and its preachers.

Major themes are religious conflict,class conflict,love,religious conversions, the superiority of English, East and West relationships, and colonialism.