Love Love Love Alone 603f58

LOVE LOVE LOVE ALONE BY V.S. NAIPAUL CRITICAL APPRECIATION Published in 1959, nine years after Naipaul migrated to England, Miguel Street unfolds against the backdrop of World War II (1939-1945) and the American military occupation of Trinidad. This period also coincided with increased urban-rural migration of Indians in Trinidad and the heightened pace and visibility of the acculturation process. “Love Love Love Alone,” is one of the short stories in Miguel Street. It is named after Lord Caresser’s calypso about Edward VIII who forsook the British throne to marry a commoner and divorcee. This statement on the ennobling power of love to transcend class barriers is the counterpoint to the story of a woman who leaves a sanitized, professional husband and luxurious lifestyle for a Miguel Street slum dwelling and an unkempt, drunken, abusive lover. V.S. Naipaul spins his tale about human relationships against the familiar backdrop of Trinidad where he had lived; the events in the story take place in Miguel Street of Trinidad, West Indies. But what he masterfully depicts is the ironical love-hate relationship between an ill-matched couple. The story simply related is hard-hitting and shows how love disappears out of the window when the harsh realities of life stare a person in the face. Angela deserts her husband to seek adventure with Toni but then leaves him to return to her luxurious life. Love is squashed when selfishness comes to the fore. Naipaul here deals with the contradictions that are inherent in the theme of love. Angela Mary Christiani, the wife of a famous and rich doctor, Henry Hubert Christiani, sacrifices her name, fame, wealth and prestige for the sake of love. She leaves her husband simply because she can't stand the clean doctor's smell. She is now living with Toni who is almost always drunk and is badly dressed. He reeks and emits a foul smell. The way the two dress and behave offer a sharp contrast and people wonder how a woman like Mrs. Hereira/Mrs Christiani) got mixed up with Toni. It was hard enough to imagine Mrs. Hereira/Mrs. Christiani in love with him. But it was impossible to imagine him being in love with anybody. He was like his animal, like his dog. Mrs. Hereira did all the shopping for him. She paid for his rum and other requirements. She also bought the house. Initially Toni and Mrs. Hereira lived peacefully. Then the beatings began. She screamed and the man shouted and cursed using very vulgar language. She confided everything to the narrator's mother, who called it a ‘damn funny sort of love’. Mrs. Hereira loved Toni for his good qualities and felt that his heart was in right place. She tried to make it up with Toni. She decided to leave him only when he threatened to kill her with a knife. She could not bear Tony's insensitivity and decided to return to her husband. Naipaul has analysed the thoughts and feelings of the lady in detail. Love impels people to give up everything including money, power, position and family. Love demands reciprocity as well. Failure of the partner to reciprocate the feelings leads to the love affair coming to the naught. Naipaul sketches his characters with firm and bold strokes, making them more real and human and in this is apparent his genius. A white couple, probably Portuguese, and a group of local boys and men have been portrayed masterfully. The comments of the local boys and men provide insight into the hidden strands of the story. The local dialect's influence on the speakers' conversation is quite evident and establishes the fact that they are not native speaker of English. It contrasts sharply with Mrs. Hereira’s grammatically correct and refined speech. In this indirect way we get a glimpse of the lives and natures of the coloured people living on Miguel Street. Naipaul also gives the reader a peep into the opulent life style of the rich white people living in Mucurapa.

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CHARACTER SKETCHES Mrs. Hereira Mrs. Hereira comes to live, with Toni, on Miguel Street and makes efforts to settle in and blend in with the people of that area. However, no one in the neighbourhood takes her seriously; she is obviously not one of them. “This lady didn’t fit…..in the background.” (page 151). What they all wonder is how she got together with someone like Toni with his drunken, abnormal behaviour. He appears incapable of loving anyone except his dog. He is always drunk, cannot make normal conversation with the boys, is dirty and ugly and fights and yells at night. He is crude and abusive. Everyone wonders how a refined lady like Angela could love Toni. Even the reader wonders why the lady left her affluent background for an irresponsible drunkard like Toni. “I asked Hat, ‘How a pretty nice woman like that come to get mix up with a man like that?’ ” (p. 152). The narrator seems to be quite taken with her: “…and I felt sorry and afraid……for people to notice.” (p. 152) But once the man began beating her, Mrs Hereira lost all sense of shame in her fear, and would run out the house screaming, appealing to anyone on the street for help. One day she ran into the narrator’s house. “She didn’t make any apology…..frightened to cry.” (p. 153). Mrs Hereira tried to explain Toni’s behaviour – “I can’t understand what has come over Toni….he just goes mad.” (p.153). However, the narrator’s mother was only too ready to help her, by “speaking of mens and them, citing my dead father as a typical example.” (p.153) After this Mrs. Hereira used to go over quite regularly. When the narrator’s mother asked her why she didn’t leave “this good-for-nothing man”, she itted that she loved him, that she had nursed him when he had been injured as a sailor on a boat that had been torpedoed, and that he had many good qualities. When the other lady suggested that he needed chastisement, Mrs. Hereira defended him, and even quarrelled with the narrator’s mother, saying she did not need either her help or her advice. She appears to be immature and a poor judge of human beings because she cannot gauge Toni's character. She seems to have a romantic view of him, which has very little in common with the person that he actually is. It appears that the romantic circumstances of her meeting with him have overshadowed the realities of their present circumstances. Those earlier circumstances must also have seemed exciting in comparison to her smooth (dull?) life as a wealthy doctor’s wife. The narrator, who is a young boy, makes a telling observation. “But the strange thing I noticed…..Mrs. Hereira saw only his hands.” (p. 156). The boy seems to think that what Mrs. Hereira thought was love, was actually pity. Mrs. Hereira also seemed to have long-term plans for Toni. “She said, ‘Toni is thinking……he gets his strength back.’ ” (p. 157) Here again, her grandiose schemes and views about Toni’s character are terribly skewed and far from the reality. Then one day, Toni threatened to kill Mrs. Hereira with a knife, and that really frightened her. For the first time Mrs. Hereira says, ‘Toni has forgotten……is it right for him to treat me like this?’ (p. 159). However, she refuses to stay the night as invited to do so by the narrator’s mother, and says that she would be all right, she would talk to Toni; and that she must have done something to offend him. This seems to be the turning point, both for the story and for Mrs. Hereira, since it seems to be gradually dawning on her that she has no influence or control over Toni. “But day by day…..ugly to look at.” (p.160) In the meantime, the men and boys of Miguel Street, who were curious about her and had been trying to find out who she was, discover, through an ment in the newspaper, that she is Angela Mary PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-ISC/2008

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Christiani, the wife of the rich Dr. Henry Hubert Christiani of Mucurapo. When the narrator’s mother next meets Mrs. Hereira she advises her to call the police. Mrs. Hereira refuses, saying it would cause a scandal. This reveals her upper middle class mores, a contrast to the regular violence in the lives of the lower class people of Miguel Street. When the other lady points out that her whole life is in trouble and the man is a disgrace, and suggests that she should return to her husband, Mrs. Hereira replies, “I don’t feel anything about him. And I just can’t stand that clean doctor’s smell he has. It chokes me.” (p.162). Yet, when she at last resolves to leave Toni, she intends to go back to her husband who she is confident will take her back: “‘Henry is like a boy, you know, and he thinks he can frighten me. If I go back today, he will be glad to have me back.’ And saying that, she looked different, and hard.” (p.163) She apparently understands her husband very well, but doesn’t respect him for this: ‘I never met a man who liked doing good works so much as Henry. He was all for good works and sanitation.’ (p.163). Here, too, it seems her ideas are romantic, and immature, about what a husband should be like. Yet it seems she cannot live without the of a man. The narrator’s mother’s summing up is masterly: “You know……all that rubbish.” (p.163). Mrs. Hereira ought to have been ired for having the courage to leave Toni. Yet, the fact that she had left a virtuous husband and a luxurious lifestyle for someone like Toni and a life in Miguel Street makes her seem foolish, not a social crusader. Her decision to return to her husband is anti-climactic: the lady who had the courage to go against the norms of society for love did not have the stamina to stick to her plan of action. The narrator’s last glimpse of Mrs. Christiani tells us that she has succumbed to the security and comfort of a wealthy lifestyle – “Mrs. Christiani…….in the garage.” (p.166) In the end, romance in squalor and violence was too much for the lady. The Narrator's Mother The narrator’s analysis of his mother’s actions is realistic yet loving. We first meet her when Mrs. Hereira runs into their house after being beaten by Toni. It seems likely that the narrator and his family lived next door. The narrator’s mother was most anxious to help Mrs. Hereira, and she tried to do so by giving the example of her late husband who had been frightened of her. At first, she tried to use refined manners and speech in Mrs. Hereira’s company, but she soon reverted to her normal self and began to treat her like any other woman of Miguel Street. She is a widow who knows her own mind and does not hesitate to voice her opinions. She is very practical and sensible, calling a spade a spade. She despises Toni and cannot understand how Angela can love him. She declares that he deserves a clout on his backside to make him see sense. She is not one to lose her temper easily and remains calm even when Angela snubs her for giving advice. She does not hesitate to tell Angela that her fanciful ideas of love are misplaced; she reinforces her idea by quoting the lines from the calypso “Is Love Love Love Alone” and tells Mrs. Hereira that she was not King Edward VIII sacrificing her entire life for “the great man” as she refers to Toni. However, when Mrs. Hereira comes back to her for , she does not hold a grudge or hesitate to offer a sympathetic shoulder. She and Mrs. Hereira became good friends. She is very helpful and sympathetic towards Angela. She is a good listener and listens patiently to Angela's woes. She comforts her, advises her forcefully and even offers her a bed to sleep in when Toni threatens her with a knife. She is good-humoured, never becoming offended that Angela does not heed her advice. However, she is too realistic to believe the yarns Angela tells her about Toni being a good and disciplined man, having great will power and planning to start a hotel in Barbados. She considers this affair as totally nonsense and rubbish and has a wise head. We sympathise with her and respect her strength of character and pragmatism. Her life had been full of struggle – “You know……all that PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-ISC/2008

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rubbish.” (p.163) – and she is well aware of its harsh realities. She is by no means helpless. She has struggled in life to raise her son and therefore, she scoffs at the idiocy of infatuation that Angela has for Toni. She knows Toni is worthless and advises her friend to leave him. She is a forthright, genuine friend and worth cherishing. The attitude of the narrator's mother towards love - The narrator and his family belong t a class of society where people have too many worries, about finding food for the table rather than to think about love. As she tells Mrs Hereira, if she had been married at the age of fifteen she would not have her head full of such nonsense. Living demands a practical attitude so that the stomachs of the family are kept full. Who has the time or the emotional maturity to think about love; at fifteen, and once the marriage takes place, there are the children, and the worries of keeping body and soul together. When the narrator's mother hears Angela say that the reason she puts up with Toni is because she loves him, her reaction is, "is a damn funny sort of love" and in saying that she seems to echo the sentiments of the readers. She continues to say that she "wouldn't know about heart" and that she is just "talking my mind". When she quotes from the song about King Edward, she tells Angela that she is no King Edward and perhaps she means that unlike the king, she cannot afford this sort of ion. She points out to Angela that she is taking this love business "a little too far" and suggests calling the police when Toni hits her. Angela says she is afraid of the scandal that it would cause. At the word "scandal" she gets angry and asks what could be more scandalous than Toni disgracing her. The practical advice she has for Angela is to go back to her husband. Though she has sympathy for Angela because she is beaten up by Toni, she has no sympathy or patience for her grand ion for him. Love, according to her is for those who can afford it but for people like her, it is, ''making all this damn fuss about heart and love and all that rubbish" and she certainly has no time for it with husband gone and children to feed. Toni We see Toni from the eyes of young boys of the locality or from the way Angela talks of him and the two images seem to be in contradiction with each other. The narrator is talking on behalf of the other boys and the men of the locality when he says that it was difficult to see how the refined Angela could be in love with a drunken good-for-nothing like him but "it was impossible to imagine him being in love with anybody." And then we have Angela telling us “He has many good qualities you know. His heart is in the right place”. Toni is described as being tall and thin; his face is ugly, with pink blotches and he is terribly dirty with a patchy white skin which evokes repulsion. His hands, however, are so thin and wrinkled that the narrator feels sorry for him. He has a fresh wound mark above one eye, probably acquired when he was torpedoed. He had been a sailor in the war and when he was injured, his friend, Dr. Henry Christiani had brought him home, where his wife Angela had nursed him and had apparently fallen in love him. But Toni is an ungrateful man who then ran away with his friend's wife. Toni is a worthless, good-for-nothing fellow and is despised by everyone. He is a drunkard, totally irresponsible and violent. He seems to do nothing but drink most of the day and then get violent and beat up Angela. He is not even grateful towards her considering she had nursed him and left everything for him. He ill-treats and insults her. He threatens to kill her and even made his dog jump at her. He has no possessions other than a radio which in reality belongs to Angela. The readers never learn what the man has to say or what he feels about things because he is always too drunk to make any sense. Angela assures us that he has good qualities, that he is well meaning and that during the mornings he is fine. The fact that she eloped with him and continues to live with him even after being physically abused suggests that he must have some virtues. Thus, Toni sounds like an enigma, a riddle and a confusing character. PC/TSRS-DLF/ENG-ISC/2008

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Nevertheless, Toni is a character who evokes our anger and disgust. Despite Angela's good words about him, it is not easy to think of him in a positive light. He seems to drink all the time, goes to sleep anywhere in his drunken stupor and he is despised for not being able to carry his liquor. The neighbours are not only revolted by him but are surprised because they expect the whites to be better behaved than this. The men once beat him up in disgust but it seemed to have no effect on him. It was strange that a man who had been through the war and beat up his woman regularly and threatened to kill her, was so submissive when he was thrashed by the men of the locality. He took it all quietly without fighting back. Was he a coward, was it that he was too drunk to care or did he accept it as some kind of punishment? The answer is not clear. Toni does leave one wondering about what love means to him and if he is actually as black a character as he appears to be. His abuse of Angela becomes so bad that finally the situation becomes intolerable for her and she decides to leave him; in fact, she does so. Yet after Angela leaves him, he is like a mad man and he “bayed like a dog and bawled like a baby.” So perhaps he loves her in his own crooked way. Toni owns a big dog that looks as ferocious as he does and obeys only the master. He is possessive about his dog; yet when Angela leaves him vents his ire on the poor dog and starves him. Finally even the animal turns on him and then runs away. As the dog trots away Toni presents a pathetic picture, sitting on the road, whistling and calling his dog, trying to persuade it to come back. Strangely enough, Toni becomes more vocal after that. After selling the house he would trouble the new owner for money saying that they owed him rent for the radio. He would appeal to the neighbourhood for then. He soon goes away from Miguel Street, and the narrator re seeing him years later driving a truck: the lasting impression he has are of his thin arms. The relationship between Toni and Mrs. Hereira Love demands total devotion, sacrifice and understanding. Love is a matter of heart and mutual regard for the feelings of the other party. The Calypso song: "Is love, love, love, alone That cause King Edward to leave the throne" Aptly sums up the implicit loyalty and sacrifice invoked by the theme of love. Mrs. Hereira/Mrs. Christiani seems to be infatuated with Toni as he offers a stark contrast to her husband, the clean doctor. Love, as they say, is often blind and lovers usually view one another and the world through rosecoloured spectacles. Mrs. Hereira seems to be the active partner in love. She elopes with her husband's friend Toni, purchases the house in Miguel Street and they live as man and wife. She sacrifices her name, family and wealth for love. The besotted lover in Mrs. Hereira is willing to gloss over all of Toni’s excesses and shortcomings. In fact, she seems to have a completely unrealistic view about his character and abilities. She gradually finds herself disillusioned in love. The drunken man never shows her any love, and is always abusive. He behaves like a mad person. First he starts beating her. Then he threatens to kill her with a knife. He frightens her really badly when he lets his dog jump on her. Mrs. Hereira realises that life is more important than love. So she decides to leave Toni and return to her husband whom she had left for her romantic lover, Toni.

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