Gokey 1

Beyond the Pale Research Essay

The main cultural standards in Beyond the Pale by Rudyard Kipling are that of white

supremacy and racial division. Undertones of white colonizers as superior flow throughout the

story and are highlighted in comparisons of English to the Natives. English culture is

continuously called “decent” and native culture is branded as “evil-smelling” or

“unreasonable” (Kipling). However, while the story seems like a colonial stereotype, steeped

in ideas of English imperial rights, it is actually a call for respect of Indian culture. To

understand Kipling’s message in Beyond the Pale it is vital to pay close attention to the text and

look for his sarcastic irony. A comparison of Beyond the Pale with the literary source

“Discourse and Ideology in Kipling's Beyond the Pale” by Robert H. Macdonald and

contrasting it with “Three ways of going wrong: Kipling, Conrad, Coetzee” by Douglas Kerr,

shows that Kipling uses satirical irony to contradict popular belief in colonial supremacy and to

illustrate why people must respect other cultures.

Kipling battles the idea of wanton colonial superiority through ironic characterizations

of a native woman and an Englishman. In Beyond the Pale, Kipling’s satire presents itself in

the form of Trejago, an Englishman, trying to explain to his native lover why he is attending

another woman. In response, Bisesa, the native woman, replies that she does not know his

culture and “[she] know[s] only this–it is not good that I should have made you dearer than my

own heart to me, Sahib. You are an Englishman. I am only a black girl” (Kipling). In the face

of Trejago’s cultural difference, Bisesa decides that because she is “only a black girl” she

made a mistake by loving a white man. Kipling follows this by writing that Bisesa “seemed

quite unreasonably disurbed” when she thinks Trejago is with another women (Kipling). In
 Gokey 2

other words she, as a native, is unreasonable for not understanding white colonizer culture.

This is ironic because Bisesa’s demanade that Trejago not attend other women while having a

relationship with her is quite reasonable. On the other hand, Trejago is ironically “reckoned a

very decent sort of man” even though he abandoned Bisesa and only ever treated her a lesser

being (Kipling). The unjust difference in portrayal between Bisesa and Trejago is designed to

make the reader question why English should preside over and disregard native culture. In

other words, the goal of this couple’s ironic depiction is to teach that native culture is not crazy

but is indeed rational and worth respecting.

Robert H. Macdonald’s study of short fiction “Discourse and Ideology in Kipling’s

Beyond the Pale” supports the ironic nature of Beyond the Pale, and reinforces the need for

cultural respect. Macdonald analyzes how the title of Beyond the Pale contrasted with the

epigraph below creates doubt in the reader's mind and alerts the reader to Kipling’s underlying

message that “suggests the contradiction of the dominant ideology” (Macdonald 1).

‘Contradicting the dominant ideology’ further appears in the form of the ironic announcement

that Beyond the Pale “is the story of a man who wilfully stepped beyond the safe limits of

decent every-day society, and paid for it heavily” (Kipling). This announcement leads the

reader to ask the question “how heavy is Trajago’s punishment” and by the end, answers it:

Trajago received nearly no penalty for his ‘step outside decent every-day society’ (Macdonald

3).

The dichotomy between Beyond the Pale’s so-called standards that the native people are not

part of ‘every-day decent society’ is therefore also “adjusted” by this irony (Macdonald 1).

Only by noticing these discrepancies between declared intention and the actual plot of Beyond
 Gokey 3

the Pale can a reader understand that Kipling is actually criticizing the notion of ‘every-day

decent society’ that he originally proclaims.

On the other hand, Douglas Kerr’s “Three Ways of Going Wrong: Kipling, Conrad,

Coetzee” labels Beyond the Pale as a representation of why races should not associate.

Kerr’s article denotes a prime example of how meaning is lost when read too literally. The

article presents an incomplete summary of Beyond the Pale as the fall of an Englishman into

oriental culture and his lesson in why “he will never again venture” away from “the

law-abiding colorless world of colonial respectability” (Kerr 1). This summary overlooks key

details in the relationship between Trejago and Bisesa and surmises that simply because

Trejago abandoned native culture all other colonizers should as well. On the contrary, the point

of Trejago abandoning Bisesa was to further establish that Trejago is not a morally respectable

person, contrary to how he is characterized as “a very decent sort of man” (Kipling). Kerr

misunderstands that Trejago’s characterization is designed to be ironic in order to clue the

reader in on the real meaning of Beyond the Pale. Furthermore, Kerr clearly does not know

Kipling’s Indian background, for while Kipling was an imperialist, he also found India “a

wondrous place” (“Rudyard Kipling Biography”). Therefore, between Kipling's love for India

and the numerous examples of irony, it would follow that Kipling’s perspective on India would

likely be much closer to cultural respect than it would total separation.

Kipling’s satirical irony appears throughout Beyond the Pale as a comparison between

native and colonizer. Such comparisons like the portrayal of Bisesa and Trejago are designed

to make the reader question why the colonizer should disregard native culture. By the end of

the story, this question is answered; Kipling desires not for the disdain of native culture, but

for the spread of cultural respect through his literature. Thus, the goal of Beyond the Pale is to
 Gokey 4

teach that one race dominates the other they will both suffer as a result. Kipling’s idea of

cultural respect is simplistic, yet even today racism is all too common. In order to improve our

society, we must set inclusion as a minimum standard and realize that without harmony there

can be no winner.

Works Cited

Kipling, Rudyard. Beyond the Pale. PLAIN TALES FROM THE HILLS, 1886-1887.
 Gokey 5

Macdonald, Robert H. “Discourse and Ideology in Kipling’s ‘Beyond the Pale.’” Studies in

Short Fiction; Newberry, vol. 23, no. 4, 1986, pp, 1-3.

Kerr, Douglas. “Three Ways of Going Wrong: Kipling, Conrad, Coetzee.” The Modern

Language Review, vol. 95, no. 1, Modern Humanities Research Association, 2000, pp.

18–27, https://doi.org/10.2307/3736367.

Biography.com Editors. “Rudyard Kipling Biography” The Biography.com website, 2 April

2014, https://www.biography.com/writer/rudyard-kipling. Accessed 29 January 2022.