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CHAPTER - IV

THEIR SKILL IN PLOT CONSTRUCTION AND CHARACTERISATION

Plot, the action element in fiction, is the arrangement of events that make up a

story. The plot ofta novel must include a sequence of incidents that bear a significant

casual relationship to each other. Causality is an important feature of realistic fictional

plots: it simply means that one thing happens because of - as a result of something else.

The following example from E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel clarifies this point.

Forster notes that “The king died and the queen died” promises a story but not a plot.

Why? There is no casual connection between the two deaths. But if the sentence reads

“The king died and then the queen died of grief’. We have such a connection and hence

plot. I^plot is the sequence of unfolding action, structure is the design or form of the

completed action. M.H. Abrams defines plot:

The plot in a dramatic or narrative work is the structure of its actions, as

these are ordered and rendered toward achieving particular emotional and

artistic effects. This definition is deceptively simple, because the actions

(including verbal as well as physical actions) are performed by particular

characters in a work, and are the means by which they exhibit their moral

and dispositional qualities. Plot and character are therefore interdependent

critical concepts (132).

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Plot and character are the two most important elements of the novel. Character

generates plot and plot results from and is dependent upon character. Many cities have

pointed out that character is more important than plot. Collins is concerned with the

creation of character. He says:

I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of a

work of fiction should be to tell a story; that I have never believed that the

novelist who properly performed this first condition of his art, was in

danger, on that account, of neglecting the delineation of character for this

plain reason, that the effect produced by any narrative of event is essentially

dependent, not on the events themselves, but on the human interest which is

directly connected with them. It may be possible, in novel-writing, to

present characters successfully without telling a story, but it is not possible

to tell a story successfully without presenting characters: their existence, as

recognizable realities, being the sole condition on which the story can be

effectively told. The only narrative which can hope to lay a strong hold on

the attention of reader is a narrative which interests them about men and

women - for the perfectly - obvious reason that they are men and women

themselves. (Introduction tothe Women in White, xiv)

Aristotle said that character is less important than plot in a tragedy. Modem critics

have rarely been willing to accept this dictum. The assumption is that character is source

and motive and cause of what happens. The New Encylopaedia Britanica observes: "The

inferior novelist tends to be preoccupied with plot; to the superior novelist the
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convulsions of the human personality under the stress of artfully selected experience, are

the chief fascination”(278).

The plot is made out of the raw material that is life. According to Hudson the plot

of the novel should possess “a substantial value and a genuine human meaning because

they are concerned, not with the mere trivialities which lie upon the surface of existence,

but with passions, conflicts and problems which, however, their forms may change,

belong to the essential texture of life.” (132).

Aristotle talked of the best plot as “it should have a beginning, a middle and an

end” (36), meaning thereby a plot should essentially characterized by an organic unity.

There should be built in - coherence in even the minute thread of the novel. Plot and

character, in fact, are inseparable.

Romances and adventures, joys and sufferings, successes and failures make the

subject matter of both Scott and Kalki in their historical novels. Plot construction is not

Scott’s forte whereas construction of plot in Kalki’s historical novels is more compact.

Kalki says that no rules and regulations have been established for writing novels esp.

Historical novels. (If at all they were established I did not read them). Each author has

chalked out his own method of writing novels. (P.C. P.V. Mutivurai: iv).

Scott saw plot as largely a skilful contrivance on the part of the novelist. He knew

that he was not an expert at this particular technique and he has expressed it in the

Introductory Epistle to The Fortunes of Nigel (1822). But Scott was a great story-teller.

His particular kind of story - telling did not depend on plot. He knew that coherent plot

would not give him full freedom to expand within it and would not give scope for his
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enormous variety. “His stories in general have a direction”, they set out from one point

to reach another; but they take a rambling course and there is nothing which they may not

gather in before they reach the end (Muir: 27-28) Speaking about his method of building

a story, Scott himself wrote in W.

I cannot boast of having sketched any district plan of the work. The whole

adventures of Waverley, in his movements up and down the country with

the Highland cateran Bean Lean, are managed without much skill. It suited

best, however, the road I wanted to travel, and permitted me to introduce

some descriptions of scenery and manners, to which the reality gave an

interest which the powers of the author might have otherwise failed to

attain for them (W. General Preface 354).

Scott builds loosely on a plot of the common place, external type. But his story

invariably breaks away very soon, and advances in the free and spirited manner of epic,

concentrating from time to time in the great crowded scenes. At the end, he usually

remembers the plot, and drags it on again, altered by this time, probably out of all

recognition, to be hurriedly wound up. This clumsy handling of contrivance which he

might have better dispensed with is the most glaring evidence of his lack of artistic

discretion or a proper mastery of his superb endowment.

In spite of the loose plots of his historical novels for which Scott was known, his

first novel W according to Robert Louis Stevenson is the best plotted of all Scott’s

novels, it is certainly one of his outstanding triumphs in plot construction. The structure

of W is superbly contrived. (Johnson, 526). W reflects the manners and the social
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history of Scotland. It shows the last confused and broken effort of the clan chiefs to

dominate Scotland.

W, in fact, for all its epic sweep, wild scenes, and clashing drama, is not a

romantic novel at all but an ironic novel of a young man’s education. Its hero,

as E.M.W. Tillyard notes, begins as an “innocent let loose upon the world”

and ultimately becomes “the young man who grows up. He is the young

romantic, slightly ridiculous as well as generous, who gradually sheds his

illusions through the discipline of crude and genuine experience” Far from being

the romantic hero of a romantic tale, Waverley is the realistic protagonist of a

realistic novel (Johnson.: 524)

The detail with which Waverley is portrayed makes it clear that

although he is indeed, as David Daiches has noted, a “symbolic

observer” of the historical events in which he participates, he is far from

being that alone. He is not merely an average young Englishman; he is

too sensitive and imaginative for that, and these deeper qualities give his

responses a profounder value. Though he is swayed by the conflicting

passions of the 45, and its violent struggles - to a degree that makes him

wince at a newspaper aspersion on “the Wavering - Honour of W-v-rl-y

H-n-r” - he is neither a detached onlooker nor a mere piece of flotsam on

the wild waves of events. (Johnson, 525).

His divided feelings in essence are exploratory of the issues. He feels committed

to the reign of law and justice and of stable government. He hesitates to desert a dynasty
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that has ruled Britain peacefully for forty years and take the sword for the descendants of

a king who forfeited the throne by his lawless tyrannies. His temporary defection is

brought about only by an overwhelming accumulation of pressures: his father’s disgrace

and dismissal from office, Sir Everard’s Jacobite sympathies, the injustice of the loss of

his own military commission (resulting from the trickery of Donald Bean Lean and

Fergus Mac Ivor’s ,machinations), the beauty of Flora, the glamour of Fergus’s

personality, and the adroit beguilements of that attractive Prince the young Chevalier.

On Waverley’s first excited trip into the Highlands his imagination

seethes with the romance of his situation: “Here he state on the banks

of an unknown lake, under the guidance of a wild native, whose

language was unknown to him, on a visit to the den of some renowned

outlaw, a second Robin Hood perhaps, or Adam o’ Gordon, and that a

deep midnight...” But Scott promptly reminds us of the prosaic

occasion of the bizarre adventure and Waverley’s endeavour to banish

the crude facts from his memory: “The Baron’s milch cows! This

degrading incident he kept in the background”. And when Sri Everard

and his sister rank Waverley’s inconclusive military exploits “with those

of Wilibert, Hildebrand, and Nigel, the vaunted heros of their line”, we

remember the reality and Flora’s less ecstatic insight that “he would never

have been his celebrated ancestor Sir Nigel, but only Sir Nigel’s eulogist

and poet”. As the novel is drawing to a close, Waverley himself sees all

his tumultuous adventures as a youthful fling: “the romance of his life was
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ended, and... its real history had now commenced” (Johnson:525)

The skilful building of the foundation has been already suggested, and the scenes

at Tully-Veolan, Waverley’s joint into the Highlands, first to the caterans cave, then the

meeting with Fergus, the visit to Glennaguoich, and the invitation to the “hunt” all follow

by masterful interlinkings. From there on, the story moves with steadily increasing

momentum. Waverley’s arrest, his recapture by the Highlanders, his journey as a

semiprisoner from Doune past Stirling and Linlithgow to Edinburgh, his meeting with

Charles Edward and seduction into rebellion, the battle of Prestonpans.

Throughout the last third of the novel the speed and dramatic intensity mount even

higher. There are Waverley’s angry conflicts with Fergus, in whose character he

discovers more and more flaws, his disillusion with the rebellion and its wrangling

leaders, the disintegration of the Highland forces. A significant touch, however, is

Waverley’s half-comic, but nevertheless perilous embarrassment on his journey to

London, with the prying Mrs. Nosebag, who almost pierces his incognito; so ludicrous a

danger would never disconcert a hero of romance. The trial of Fergus and Evan Dhu

rises to epic heights with Evan’s moving plea to the court that he and five of Fergus’s

followers be hanged and his chieftan spared. The extraordinary proposal evokes startled

laughter among the spectators.

-e
W is easily divisible into two plots on different seals. On the personel scale, it
A.

covers the events of Edward Waverley’s life, and the development of his character from

early youth to manhood. On the public scale, W depicts the failure of the Forty - five
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Jacobite rebellion to reinstate in Britain an older political order - the Stuart absolutist

monarchy, overthrown with James II in 1688 (David Brown:72).

Considering W as a whole, a common movement can be seen in both the private

and public histories which the novel narrates.

All the main characters are fictitious except Prince Charles Edward and Col.

Gardiner, the military commander, who make brief but significant appearances. “This is

a formula for characterisation which has proved favourable to the historical novel” (W.

Introduction: xii)

The marriage between Edward and Rose may, as in romantic comedy, be taken as

a symbol of concord and continuity. It may even, here, be taken as a symbol of the peace

and prosperity to come to Scotland through the defeat of Jacobitism.

The eccentrics, the heroic, and the spiritually elevated among Scott’s

characters are made authoritatively convincing by being portrayed

against a broad background of the normal and average. Their success,

as Walter Bagehot notes, depends upon establishing an identity

between their extremes and “the ordinary principles of human

nature... exhibited in the midst of, or as it were by means of, the

superficial unlikeness. Such a skill, however, requires an easy,

eareless familiarity with normal human life and common human

conduct”. That familiarity Scott demonstrates not only in the creation

of “normal” people like Major Melville and Colonel Talbot, and

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Waverley himself but also in his full and revealing picture of the entire

social background of his story (Johnson 528).

Nowhere does Scott show his own balance and sanity more clearly than in his

rendering of Charles Edward’s desperate attempt to regain for his father. Despite Scott’s

supposed Stuart sympathies, he does not idealize either the Jacobite cause or its partisans.

Donald Bean Lean is a wily trickster, disloyal to both sides, who disobeys his Prince’s

orders for his own ends and is caught ultimately in his own treacheries. Evan Dhu and

Callem Beg are devoted only to Fergus, their feudal chief, and would follow any banner,

he dictated; Callum would shoot even the Prince if Fergus told him to. Fergus, though

brave, chivalrous, free-minded, and sincerely loyal to the Stuart dynasty, is dangerous,

dishonest, Machiavellian, callously disingenuous in his methods, ridden by personal

ambition, and avid to be created Earl of Glennaquoich. Most of Charles Edward’s other

supporters are portrayed as contentious, jealous, rent by faction, the clans restrained only

with difficulty from tearing each others throats. The Highland chiefs are self deceived

with the belief that in the event of failure they can safely retreat into their trackless glens.

Their Prince himself, despite his alluring qualities, is revealed as a dissembler in dealing

with his brawling followers.

Like Scott Kalki also establishes himself as a master craftsman in his masterpiece

C.C. which is certainly on of the outstanding triumphs in plot- construction. It is divided

into four parts having forty seven, fifty five, fifty seven and fifty chapters respectively.

According to M. Iramalingam “Kalki’s skill at construction displays itself at every point

of the novel” and that “he has finished the story with unity in structure”. (27) C.C. is an
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outstanding and successful historical romance of Kalki like Scott’s W. Eventhough it is a

novel in form, it is an epic in its quality, grandeur and stature. It is not the life-history of

a hero. Kalki chooses one particular action - Civakami’s vow, to be expanded

throughout as Milton takes the fall of Man for his Paradise Lost. Thus in starting his

story ‘in medias res’ Kalki fits into the western epic tradition.

C.C. deals with the life and suffering of Civakami, a dancer, Civakami is the

daughter to Ayanar a great sculptor and painter. He is an adept in music and dancing.

She loves Naracimmavarman, the son to Mahentiravarman, the King of Kanci.

Nakananti, a Buddha Bikshu loves Civakami for her divine art. The first part of the novel

shows how Civakami’s dancing at her debut before Mahentira Pallvan and his son

Naracimman is abruptly terminated in the middle by the news of the expedition of

Pulikeci II to Kanci. Parancoti who has come to Kanci to learn, throws his javelin at an

angry elephant to save Civakami and Ayanar from being killed by it. He is sent by

Ayanar to learn the secret of the picture of Ajanta. But he is saved from Pulikeci by

Mahentravarman and is made a cavalry leader in the war against Pulikeci. He becomes

the true friend of Naracimman. Mahentira Pallavan wants to prevent Civakami’s love

affair with Naracimman. He likes to nip it in the bud.

The second part shows how the anxiety of Mahentira Pallavan is increased the

moment he comes to know the meeting between his son Naracimman and Civakami at

Acokapuram and Mantapa - p - pattu. When he realizes that his power fails to prevent

their sincere love, he tries to use the art of persuasion. But Civakami dose not respond to

his art of persuasion. Kanci is besieged by Pulikeci II.

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Part III describes how Pulikeci II makes peace with Mahentiravarman. When

Naracimman is away on an expedition, Civakami is made to dance before Pulikeci at

Kanci. When Pulikeci is aware of his efforts end in vain, he leaves the fort of Kanci

abruptly in anger. He orders his army to destroy the villages around Kanci and kill all the

young men and capture all the women.

The moment Mahentiravarman comes to know that a part of Kanci was destroyed

and a number of women were captured and carried to Vatapi in addition to Civakami and

her father Ayanar, he feels like a fish out of water. In order to recover Civakami and also

to safeguard his honour and prestige he wages a war against Pulikeci at Manimankalam

and is mortally wounded. Civakami takes an oath of not leaving Vatapi until Pulikeci is

defeated in the war and Vatapi is burnt to ashes. Mahentira Pallavan feels sorry that he is

not in a position to carry out the task of declaring war against Vatapi immediately. So, he

arranges for the wedding of Naracimman with the Pantiya princess before his death. He

requests his ministers to assist Naracimman regarding the war against Pulikeci in order to

defeat him in the war and destroy Vatapi.

The fourth part narrates how Pulikeci is defeated and Vatapi is burnt after nine

long years. Civakami, the heroine, comes back to Kanci as a free bird. The moment she

comes to know that her lover Maamallan already got married to a princess and having

two children, she is shocked and with deep anguish sheds tears of agony ultimately she

takes refuge in divine art in order to compensate for losing Maamallan as her lover.

Her dream of marrying Naracimman is shattered into pieces and dedicates her art

as well as herself to Lord Siva. In the struggle between Civakami and Mahentira
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Pallavan, Mahentria Pallavan is successful. In this context Salini Ilanthiraiyan opines that

Civakami’s sudden decision of dedicating herself and her dance to Lord Siva is

improbable and unbelievable. Further, she says that Civakami’s ignorance of

Naracimman’s marriage even after coming to Kanci is unbelievable. But Kalki in the

novel makes many characters say that Civakami’s art is divine and that it should be

dedicated to God. So when she dedicates her art to Siva it is not totally unexpected. The

plot of the novel is well organized. The structure of C.C. is as good as that of Scott’s W.

Both Mahentravarman and Naracimmavarman are portrayed as heroes in C.C. So

it may be termed as a dual-hero epic. They are no less heroic than Achilles or Ulysses.

Both the heroes exhibit a very deep sense of patriotism and are ready to sacrifice

anything for the welfare of the nation and its people. Naracimman, in spite of being a

devoted lover of Civakami, when the need arises, suppresses his love and marries the

Pantiyan princess. Ayanar and Civakami are extraordinarily eulogised as the great assets

of the Pallava Empire. Naracimman is the true son of his father in patronizing arts.

The first war fought at Manimankalam is a turning point in the story in many

respects. It throws Mahentiravarman into death bed. It makes him regret his negligence

of any preparation for war at the right time. It ends in Civakami’s capture and upsets

Ayanar’s artistic creations. It instigates a very deep sense of revenge on the mind of

Naracimman on his rival. Above all, it closes the union of Civakami and Naracimman

once and for all.

The second war fought at Vatapi is actually an outcome of the first one. The

diligence and diplomany with which Naracimman and Parancoti fought against Pulikeci
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II at Vatapi is superb. Unlike the first one, this war is systematically planned and

executed. The success in the war rebuilds the shattered image of the Pallava Empire. It

results in the release of Civakami.

Epic heroism is manifested in both Mahentravarman and Naracimmavarman.

They are equally heroic in all respects valour, a diplomacy, love of art, benevolence,

patriotism and so forth. Eventhough Mahentiranvarman and Naracimmavarman are the

rare combinations of valour and diplomacy, the former excels the latter in his diplomacy

and the latter eclipses the former in his physical valour.

The episodes that are narrated in C.C. provided embellishment and variety to the

main story. Among them the most significant are the story of Parancoti who is a close

associate of Naracimman and the renowned commander of the Pallava army; the account

of Kannapiran and Kamali the intimate friend of Civakami; the past story of Nakananti

and Pulikeci II, the villains of the novel, and the story of Netumaran and Mankayarkaraci.

Parancoti comes to Kanci to have a good education. But quite ironically his

physical valour is recognized immediately by Naracimman and Mahentravarman and as a

result he is made the commander of the Pallava army. Eventhough he is a warrior and

close associate of Naracimmn, he offer thinks about his illiteracy and is ashamed of

himself. In this episode his warm association with Naracimman, his esteem for

Mahentiravarman and his reverence for Civakami are beautifully illustrated. Elowever, as

he grows older and wiser, the saint in him emerges. After attaining victory over

Chalukyas in the Vathapi war, he takes humble leave from Naracimman and becomes a
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saint known as ciru-t-tondar who has embraced Saivisim and becomes one of the most

devoted disciples of Lord Siva.

Kannapiran and Kamali, the couple, love each other with warmth and affection

and both of them remain sincere well wishers of Naracimman and Civakami respectively

till the end of the novel. But quite tragically Kannapiran loses his life in the Vatapi war.

The past story of Nakananti and Pulikeci II forces the readers to know much about

the villainous and venomous serpent under the guise of a Buddhist monk. It adds a new

dimension to his character. He is, in fact, the eldest son of his father, and has the right to

ascend the throne to become of Chalukya dynasty after his father. But he sacrifices it for

the sake of his brother Pulikeci II who seems to be desirous of becoming the Emperor.

Nakananti, brought up by the Buddhist monks in the monastry, leaves it for the sake of

his brother Pulikeci II and helps him immensely to ascend the throne to become King by

defeating his uncle Mankalesan. He states often in the story that he is concerned about

the welfare of Pulikeci II. But he show sign of adoration for Civakami as a result of his

admiration for her art of dance. His admiration of Civakami’s art of dance leads him to

lust so that he goes to the extent of purifying his poisonous blood with the help of herbal

antedote to get back his youthful vigour in order to lead a normal life with Civakami.

When Pulikeci asks Nakananti to forget Civakami he curses him vehemently and leaves

him for ever. When Pulikeci is killed in the Vatapi war he wants to avenge his brother’s

death in disguise of Pulikeci. This episode brings to light various traits of Nakananti’s

character.
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The episode of Netumaran and Mankayarkaraci is the last one in the novel.

Netumaran is an ailing Pantiya King and also the brother of Naracimman’s queen. He is

in the clutches of the Jain monks who are suspected to be the spies of Pulikeci. He is

discouraged to help Naracimman in his war against Pulikeci II. He falls in love with

Mankayarkaraci, a girl from the Cola royal family who rescues him from the Jain monks

and puts him in the path of Saivism. It is only a minor episode and it is related to the

main story since Netumaran is the brother of the Pallava Queen and its significance lies

in presenting the conflict between Saivism and Jainism prevalent in those days in Tamil

Nadu. Like Scott’s W, Kalki’s C.C. may be distinctly termed as a prose epic in Tamil.

Scott’s another masterpiece B.L. is the most perfectly constructed of all Scott’s

novels like Kalki’s P.K. Edgar Johnson observes:

B.L. is the most perfectly constructed of all Scott’s novels... No element in

the story, in fact, is superfluous, its atmosphere is superbly unified... Scott

felt it to be monstrous and grotesque, the truth is that its brooding fatality is

fused with the reality it envelopes; its Gothicwamings are dark mists

swirling through a solid world... Scott’s own rationalism like

Ravenswood’s, recoiled from taking seriously the nightmares at which the

heart still shivers. But they are no more blemishes in the seventeenth

century world of The Bride ofLammermoor than are the blasted heath and

the witches in the eleventh-century world of Macbeth (670). David Brown

opines: “The B.L. exhibits Scott’s art at its most mature. In comparison

with the H.M Scotts broadest canvas, it may appear limited in scope, but
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the whole novel is characterised by a cohesion, a unity, and an intensity

within these limits nowhere equaled in the Waverly Novels.” (129).

Although Scott had told many stories of love before, in previous novels and

poems, The B.L. was Scott’s first romantic tragedy, It is a tale of love and

family feud set in a socially and politically unstable period of Scottish

history. The ‘dismal’ story on which Scott based his novel, told of the ill

fated marriage of Dalrymple (the daughter of a great Scottish lawyer James

Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair) to David Dunbar of Baldoon in 1669.

According to popular tradition, Janet Dalrymple had secretly become

engaged to a man of her own choice, Lord Rutherford, but under pressure

from her family, she renounced this engagement and married Baldoon,

who was Rather ford’s nephew. She died a month after her wedding. Scott

had heard the story of Janet Dalrymple many times, especially from his

mother, Anne Rutherford, and from his great-aunt Margaret Swinton,

whose tales of mystery and horror haunted his imagination long after her

death in 1780. (The B.L. Introduction: vii). It quickly acquired a

reputation as the most passionate and tragic of Waverley Novels.

The representation of the past given in the B.L. is, then, carefully framed and

consciously artistic. Pattieson sets the story of Lucy and Ravenswood not in the vaguely

evoked late seventeenth century of Tinto’s historical sketch, but in the social and political

upheavals of the period of the Act of Union (1707), which brought Scotland into formal

legislative and administrative Union with England. The novel contrasts two families, one
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ancient and declining, the other newly rich and thriving. Master of Ravenswood

represents the ancient and declining family and Ashton represents the newly rich and

thriving family.

Ravenswood’s son Edgar, however, is tom between an emotional tie to the old

system of feud and vengeance and an intellectual acceptance of the new, which suggests

reconciliation and progress as the proper responses to the loss of his ancestral in

heritance. Aware that there are no true representatives of old and new forces in society

Scott locates the conflicts of the times within the psychology of his hero. Edgar, the

hero, is educated, rational and open minded, not at all gloomy avenger he first wishes to

be. Emotionally, however, he is governed by aristocratic pride and consciousness of

rank, ‘that spirit of which he perhaps had too much,’ (244) and eventually he allies

himself to the political faction of the Marquis of Atholl entirely on grounds of kinship.

On its most obvious level the B.L. is a tragic love story. Edgar Ravenswood and

Lucy Ashton, the hero and the heroine, cannot marry because Lucy’s mother demands

that she selects Lucy’s suitor. Lady Ashton’s cruelty in achieving her wishes leads to the

novel’s tragic conclusion, in which Lucy, having stabbed the man who has been chosen

for her, dies in complete insanity, taking with her Edgar’s will to live. Scott’s use of such

powerful material is warning enough against any impulse to interpret the novel as a social

tract with suitable anecdotal evidence. Yet Scott will not let us ignore certain social and

historical circumstances that lie behind the uneasy situation of Edgar as he fights for

success in love.The second chapter contains a painstaking history of the Ravenswood

family and insists upon relating that history to condition in Scotland since the union of
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the crowns over a century ago. The Ravenswood have declined steadily in prestige and

authority. Doubtless their ‘pride and turbulence’ (p.22) had much to do with their

decline, but there were other causes as well. The father of Edgar Ravenswood had

become tragically involved in Scottish history. He had fought for the losing side in the

civil war of 1689 (P.22), and he had been victimized by the political influence of Lucy’s

father, Sir William Ashton, ‘a skilful fisher in the troubled waters of a state divided by

factions’ (P.22). Ashton had engaged the elder Ravenswood in a series of lawsuits over

the title to Ravenswood Castle. Scott implies that Ashtons membership and influence in

the dominant whig party had much to do with his ultimate goal victory - a victory that

resulted in the eviction of the Ravenswoods from their castle to a mouldering fortress

overlooking the North Sea (pp.22-3). But Ashton’s triumph is almost guaranteed by the

state of the realm.

Edgar’s position as a virtuous victim of social injustice is made clear in his

relations with three of the novel’s most important characters. Sir William Ashton Lady

Ashton, and the Marquis of Atholl. Sir William and the Marguis are both political

opportunities. Although the former is a Whig and the latter a Tory, they have in

common a cynical tendency to adjust ideological principles to the prevailing political

winds that documents, within the historical assumption of the novel, the assault on

factionalism in the second chapter. The Marquis has embraced Edgar’s quarrel with the

Ashtons over the Ravenswood estate in order to blackmail political support from Sir

William (203-7). Sir William on the other hand, desires friendship with Edgar as a

possible anchor windward should the Marquis and his fellow Tories win their struggle for
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power (pp. 209-10). Edgar, of course must be able to offer Lucy something better than a

life of poverty with an outcast lairal; therefore he enters into a political partnership with

the Marquis. His fortunes soon begin to follow a pattern established by the vicissitudes

of party warfare. The inactivity with which he has been cursed finally ends when the

Tories, guided by the Marquis, come to power (p.380). Although he does not become a

time - server or a party strategist like Ashton or the Marquis, Edgar nevertheless

becomes inextricably involved in their frequently sordid world of political intrigue.

But throughout the story of Edgar’s involvement in political factions Scott makes

it clear that he is incapable of taking an aggressive role in such conflicts. He exhibits an

old - fashioned loyalty to the land that has nothing to do with partisan warfare, and like

many a fictional victim of society he reluctantly falls into bad company because he

cannot help it. Scott shows us the world to which Edgar belongs by repeatedly

associating him with manners and rituals of the past: the Anglican funeral ceremony (29-

30), the Christian tradition of almsgiving (336), the secular ritual of the chase (135-6).

Edgar represents an ancient Scotland where men were given fewer incitements to

squander their energies in factional conflicts. No doubt Edgar’s expressed hatred of that

same factionalism to which he must turn for help (122) is a reflection of his link with the

past.

Edgar’s chief antagonist is Lady Ashton. She is described as the upper-class

villain whereas Edgar appears noble indeed. Like her husband she could be well

described as a skilful fisher in the troubled waters of a state divided by factions, for her

political ambitions are boundless and her skill in politics is undeniable. She resent
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Edgar’s efforts to regain Ravenswood Castle. She also hates Edgar because he is poor.

She has characterized Edgar as a beggarly Jacobite bankrupt (309) Caleb Balderstone is

Edgar’s servant who exhibits the virtue of loyalty, and this virtue shines all the more

bright when seen against the dark background of surly self seeking that makes the village

of Wolf s-hope a center of moral paralysis. In Wolf s-hope the new Scotland is arrogant

in its rejection of social traditions. Edgar in the B.L. is portrayed as a victim of history

who is contrasted with the heroes portrayed in Scott’s first three novels. W, Guy

Mannerning and The Antiquary which are predominantly sunny; in each, the hero, a man

of good will caught in a conflict between past and present, emerges unscathed to settle

down in a happy rustic existence that preserves the virtues of feudalism without its

violence and clannish fanaticism (Robert C. Gordon : 139).

According to Johnson the novel the B.L. is atonce a tragedy of character and a

tragedy of fate Edgar finds Ashton and his daughter Lucy in a grove of trees near

Ravenswood castle threatened by an enraged black bull. Not knowing their identity

seeing only two helpless fellow beings, he kills the charging animal with one shot of his

gun. Lucy Ashton swoons; her father leaves the stranger with her while he goes to call

the assistance of servants. Reviving, she strives to express her gratitude for the rescue.

The moment Edgar realizes who they are, he endeavors to escape. By the time Ashton

comes there and asks his identity. Edgar tells them that he is the Master of Ravenswood.

Sir William Ashton can see that even in this brief encounter his daughter and the

master have made an impression on each other. He begins to entertain the thought of

ensuring his own safety in the event of a political overturn by bringing about a marriage
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between the two and giving Lucy in dowry some of the property he had wrested from

Ravenswood’s father. It would not be an unfitting match; Sir William’s own wealth is

ample to provide for them, and Ravenswood’s birth is superior to his own. And Ashton

is really devoted to his daughter, whose gentle and affectionate nature he knows may

easily be brought to love her rescuer. Both his tenderness for Lucy and his prudential

concern for himself urge dissolving these old dissensions in marriage.

Sir William meets Ravenswood with Lucy at Wolfs Crag and courteously praises

the entertainment Caleb has managed to set before them and invites his host to ride back

with him and be his guest at Ravenswood Castle, where he may go over all the legal

records and be satisfied. And, watching keenly, he can observe that Edgar and Lucy are

being drawn into a mutual attraction.

Sir William himself is touched by the unreserved self-abandonment with which

the Master renounces his former enmity. The growing love between Ravenswood and

Lucy is rendered with sensitivity and power. Lucy’s gentleness and beauty had made

their impression on Ravenswood even at the time he had rescued her and her father from

the charging bull, but between the two meetings they have grown in Edgar’s memory.

During the visit to Ravenswood he recoils indignantly from Blind Alice’s suspicion that

he is there to revenge himself on Sir William’s daughter by dishonorable means. Alice

attempts to warn Ravenswood against the connection she forebodes.

Their love has nevertheless unfolded from the first in an atmosphere of foreboding

that both Ravenswood’s enlightened rationalism and Ashton’s opportunism strive to

ignore. As Ravenswood enters his ancestral halls Lucy’s younger brother Henry is
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terrified by his resemblance to a portrait of Sir Malise Ravenswood, known as the

avenger. Blind Alice delivers the warnings that the Master dismisses as late-inspired

superstition. The Mermaiden’s Fountain is regarded as a place of evil omen to the

Ravenswoods. As Edgar and Lucy leave its brink, an arrow from her brothers bow brings

down a raven - traditionally sacred to the Ravenswoods-and her gown is stained with the

bird’s blood.

Johnson observes:

All this development is masterly in its emotional intensity and its logical

inevitability, swift, vivid, bathed in reality and haunted by muted rumblings

of disaster. The solid world of politics and the village greed of Woolf s -

hope are shown in a clear daylight. The crudeness of the gambling and

tippling Bucklaw, with his willingness to marry for money, highlights the

exalted character of Ravenswood. Those who say that Scott cannot portray

love should not only remember Diana Vernan and Frank Osbaldistone, but

the Master of Ravenswood and Lucy, with their doubts and hesitancies

swept away in the flood of passion.The threatened dangers are not long

delayed, Lady Ashton returns home; she has already formed her own plans

for Lucy’s marriage - to Bucklaw who has in herited a fortune. She

contemptuously overrides her weak husband. Ravenswood has been sent

abroad on a mission for the new government. Lady Ashton keeps Lucy

virtually a prisoner and intercepts all their letters. Rawenswood’s

seeming silence she represents as a repudiation of his engagement. Lucy

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displays unexpected powers of passive resistance, but relentlessly pursued,

she weakens and falls ill. The presser is at last greater than she can bear;

Ravenswood arrives too late to undo the tangled web of deception by which

she has been betrayed. Like Lady Macbeth, Lady Ashton has been willing

to sacrifice the child of her womb to her pride and her passions, and at the

wedding to Bucklaw the witches’ chorus swells again.(668-70)

Lucy kills Bucklaw and dies in convulsions a night later. Ravenswood,

responding to a challenge from her elder brother Colonal Ashton, rides in blind haste

over the quicksand of the Kelpie’s Flow and is instantly sucked down. On the rising tide,

fallen from his hat, floats only a sable plume, which old Caleb takes up and places in his

bosom.

Like Scott’s the B.L.. P.K. is the most perfectly constructed of all Kalki’s novels.

It consists of three unequal parts consisting of eleven, twenty seven and forty chapters

respectively. The story takes place in the reign of Naracimma Pallavan (630-668 A.D).

It deals with the dream of Parthipan, the Cola king, to establish his kingdom independetly

free from the suzerainty of the Pallavas. The narration of P.K., is an allegory, in which

Kalki’s yearning for the freedom of his motherland is revealed. Parthipan’s dream

became a full-fledged reality two centuries later when Vijaya Laya Colan with a grim

determination threw off the yoke of the Pallavas in the North and defeated the Pantiyas in

the South. The Cola kingdom reached its pinnacle of glory in the reign of Rajaraja

Colan, a century later.

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Reduced to the servile status of a minor king paying tribute to the ruling Pallava

Empire, Parthipan paints out in a picture gallery his dream of a regained Cola empire,

now extending to the Himalayas. But this picture gallery he keeps secret in a locked

chamber, However, before setting out to wage a war against the Pallavas, he opens the

gallery to the view of his son Vikraman and also reveals his dream. The amazed

Vikraman asks his father why he had kept these excellently drawn pictures a secret so far.

Parthipan tells him that the world pays glowing tribute^Naracimma because he possesses

a huge army and his empire is so vast. So Parthipan reveals his art, his past glony, and the

glory of his race to his son so that he might be roused to heroic action.

The first part ends with the death of Parthipan in the battle of Vennarrankarai.

Before his dealth he is met by a Civanatiyar, a devotee of Siva who promises to bring up

his son Vikkiraman as a brave young man and make him work for the independence and

the glory of the Cola kingdom. When Parthipan knows the true identity of the

Civanatiyar, he is astonished at the appearance of Civanatiyar and he is sure that his

desire will be fulfilled by him. An element of surprise is introduced here. The readers

wonder who this Civanatiyar might be. With the element of suspense the first part of

P.K. comes to and end.

The first part ofP.K. mainly deals with Naracimmavarman’s rule of law and glory

of his reign and Parttipan’s dream is in the limelight. Parttipan makes a plea to

Civanatiyar for inculcating bravery and dignity in the mind of his son Vikkiraman who is

a child so that he could grow as a wise and strong man with the spirit of independence

and resolution to govern his Cola kingdom well.

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The second part of P.K. begins after a period of six years. Instigated by his uncle

Marappa Pupati, the young prince Vikkiraman revolts against the Pallavas and is

banished from his country but he is unable to forget the beautiful lady whom he met in

Kanci. He becomes the ruler of an island namely Cenpaka -1 - tivu where he emerges as

a strong man with iron will. He tells the people that he is prepared to lay down his life

for a noble cause and he may go to any extent of sacrificing his life for safeguarding the

freedom of his country and appeals the people to prepare themselves to lay down their

lives to protect their rights as citizens of this Cola dynasty. (152-53). The people of

other islands come to know about Vikkiraman’s good governance and bravery and

accept him as their king (215). After three years of his rule in the island he comes to his

country in disguise as a diamond merchant.

The third part of P.K. deals with Vikkiraman’s love-affair with Kuntavi, the

daughter of Naracimma Pallavan. Aided by Ponnan, a loyal servant, Vikkiraman saves

Civanatiyar from Kapala Pairavan who is none other than Nilakeci, the brother of

Pulikeci II. Marappan kills Kapala Pairavan Immediately Marappen is killed by one of

the followeers of Kapala Pairavan. The Prince Vikkiraman is captured and is brought to

trail by the Pallavas. In the trial it is revealed that Civanatiyar is none other than

Naracimma who has been shaping and moulding Vikkiraman as a great

personality who may be in a position to govern his Cola kingdom independently as he

governed the island of Cenpakat-tivu well. Naracimma Pallavan fulfilled the wish of

Parttipan by acknowledging Vikkiraman as the king of Cola dynasty and gives him

freedom to govern his kingdom independently without being subservient to anybody.

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(454). So Vikkiraman becomes the ruler of Cola kingdom and marries his lady love

Kuntavi, the princess of Pallava dynasty. The Cola kingdom reaches the pinnacle of

glory in the reign of Rajaraja Colan and Rajentra Colan. The plot of this romance is

unified into a single unit by following the incidents one after another naturally and

logically. So P.K. is the most perfectly constructed of all Kalki’s novels.

Kalki’s P.C. is a historical romance divided into five parts, consisting of fifty

seven, forty three, forty six, forty six and ninety one chapters respectively. The last part

is the largest. The construction of the plot of P.C. is not as good as Kalki’s other two

historical novels namely P.K. and C.C. it lacks organic unity comparatively speaking.

Kalki, in conclusion i.e. in the Postscript, says that the sacrifice of the son of Ponni i.e.

Prince Arulmolivarman in favour of Uttama Colan is the most significant incident of the

story. So he has finished the novel at this juncture. (P.V. Mutivurai: iv). Kalki says that

it is not easy on the part of the novelist to end the historical novels as he deals with the

novels involving only fictitious characters. (P.V. Mutivurai, iv)

P.C. takes place in the period of Cuntara Colar (957-973 A.D.). The plot of this

novel moves around the two most important characters, Vantiya-t-tevan, the friend of

Atitta Karikalan, the prince and heir to the throne of the Cola kindgom and Alvar - k -

katiyan, a spy to Anpil Anirutta Brahmarayar, the Chief Minister of Cola kingdom.

Vantiya - t - tevan goes from Kanci to Tancai to deliver the missives of Attita Karikalan

to his father Cuntara Colar and his sister Kuntavai. On his way to Tancai, at Katampur

he finds out some of the chieftains of the Cola kingdom are conspiring against Atitta

Karikalan to put Maturantakan forward for kingship after the death of Cuntara Colar, who
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is ill. The leader of these conspirators is Periya Paluvittaraiyar, an important chieftain

and treasurer of the Cola kingdom. Both Vantiya -1 - tevan and Alvar - k - katiyan find

out that the loyalists to Vira Pantyan are planning to avenge the death of Vira Pantiyan.

The are aided by Nantini, the young beautiful wife of Periya Paluvittaraiyar.

Vantiya - t - tevan delivers the missives to Cuntara Colar and Kuntari. He is

deputed to Ila by Kuntavi to bring Arulmolivarman, her younger brother, back to the Cola

kingdom. Vantiya - t - tevan is accompanied on his journey by Poonkulali. The second

part shows how the loyalists to Vira Pantiyan, failed in their attempt to kill

Arulmolivarman at Ilam. Arulmolivarman rejects the throne of Ilam offered to him by

the Buddhist monks and returns to his country with Vantiya - t - tevan. On the way they

are separated and it is believed that Arulmolivarman is drowned in the sea. But

Arulmolivarman is safe at Naka - p -attinam. He is sick there but he is cured of his

illness in course of time. The third part deals with this episode. It shows how Atitta

Karikalan is invited to Katampur for a discussion regarding the division of the Cola

kingdom into two parts.

The Princess Kuntavai is afraid that Attita Karikalan may be killed by Nantini or

any one of the loyalists to Vira Pantiyan who has been murdered by Karikalan in the war.

So Kuntavai sends Vantiya - t - tevan to prevent Karikalan from going to Katampur.

Alwarkatiyan follows him.

The fourth part shows how the loyalists to Vira Pantiyan are planning to murder

Karikalan at Katampur. Vantiya - t - tevan accomparies Karikalan wherever he

goes to protect him from danger. Mantakini, a deaf and dumb woman who had been
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formerly loved by Cuntara Colar, finds out that a loyalist to Vira Pantiyan is lodged in the

secret underground passage in the palace at Tancavur in order to kill Cuntara CSlar. She

has also saved Arul on many occasions in Ilam as well as in Cola kingdom. She is

described as god mother to Arul.

The fifty part of P.C. is longer than the other four parts. The story reaches, for the

climax in the fifty part. Arulmolivarman escapes from an angry elephant while he is

coming-feck to his kingdom. Mantakini saves Cuntara Colar from the murderers. Periya

Paluvettarayar finds out the treachery of Natini and comes to the rescue of Karikalan at

Katampuer. Both Vanthiya-t-tevan and Periya Paluvettaraiyar fail miserably in

safeguarding Karikalan from the murderers who are believed to be the loyalists of Vira

Pantiyan. Vantiya - t - tevan is accused of the murder of Karikalan and is put in prison.

He escapes from the jail and rescues Centan Amutan who is Uttama Colan brought up by

Maniammai at her home. After the murder of Karikalan Nantini leaves Periya

Paluvettarayar and goes on her own way. Where she has gone still remains a mystery.

Periya Paluvettararyar kills himself. Before his death he confesses to the king Cuntara

Colar that Vantiya -1 - tevan is not guilty of the murder of Karikalan. It is found out that

Maturantakan who is brought up by Cempiyanmatevi at the palace is not the real son to

Kantarattitar but Centan Amutan is the real Maturantaka Uttama Colan who is son to

Cempiyanmatevi and Kantarattitar brought up by Vaniammai, sister to Mantakini at her

home.

The moment Maturantakan comes to know that he is not the real son to

Kantarattitar and Cempianmatevi and he will not be crowned as the king of Cola
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kingdom, he runs away from the country. Centan Amutan who is a real Maturantaka

Uttama Colan brought to the palace and is crowned by Arulmolivarman as the king of

Cola kingdom. Arulmolivarman marries Vanati, the princess of Kotumpalur Velir clan.

Kuntavai, the Princess of Cola kingdom accepts the love of Vantiya-t-tevan.

Manimekalai, the daughter of Campuvaraiyar, who really loves Vantiya - t - tevan dies

on his lap at the end of the novel.

The murder of Attita Karikalan still remains to be a mystery even at the end of the

novel. Nobody knows exactly anything about the murderers of Karikalan except Nantini

who runs away after the murder of Karikalan along with the royalists to Virapantiyan

such as Ravitasan, Soman Sampavan, Paramecuvaran alias Devalan, Revadasa Kirame

Vittan. It is believed that the royalists to Virapantiyan are the real murderers of Attita

karikalan.

The past history of the Colas is narrated again and again in the novel. It obstructs

the constant flow of the story. The introduction of some religious revivalists like

Nayanmars and Alvars and their life histories in the novel also obstruct the smooth

movement of the plot. So P.C. is described as the novel of loose plot unlike his other two

masterpieces which are treated as the novels of organic plots.

The H.M is one of Scott’s most concentrated novels. It combines two narratives,

both of which concern the Edinburgh prison, the Tolbooth, ironically known as ‘the Heart

of Midlothian’. One is the story of Jeanie Deans, the girl who walked from Edinburgh to

London to obtain a pardon for her sister, the other is the story of the Porteous riot. It is

instructive to consider how Scott put these elements of his plot together. He had received
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the story of Helen Walker, the original of Jeanie Deans, in an anoymous letter in 1817.

He printed this communication as a preface to the revised edition of the novel which

appeared in 1830; by this time he had discovered the name of his correspondent, Mrs.

Helen Goldie. Mrs. Goldie had met Helen Walker, then ‘between seventy and eighty

years of age,’ near Dumfries in 1791. As a young woman Helen Walker had refused to

tell a lie in court to save her sister who was accused of childmurder. When her sister was

condemned to death, Helen walked to London to seek a pardon, and obtained it through

the good offices of ‘the late Duke of Argyle’ (1678-1743). It was this figure, John, 2nd

Duke of Argyle who linked the two main parts of the plot (Claire Lamont: viii)

The novel takes its name from the old Edinburgh Tolbooth, or prison, known as

the ‘Heart of Midlothian’, and opens with the Porteous riot of 1736, Captain John

Porteous, commander of the City Guard, had, without sufficient justification, caused the

death of a number of citizens by ordering his force to fire, and had himself fired, on the

crowd on the occasion of the hanging of a convicted robber, Wilson. He had been

sentenced to death but reprieved; whereupon a body of the incensed citizens, headed by

Robertson, the associate of Wilson, broke into the Tolbooth, carried Porteous out, and

hanged him. With these substantially historical events, Scott links the story of Jeanie

and Effie Deans, which also has some basis in fact. Robertson, whose real name is

George Staunton, a reckless young man of good family, is the lover of Effie Deans, who

is imprisoned in the Tolbooth on a charge of child-murder, and the attack on the Tolbooth

is partly designed by him to free Effie. But Effie refuces to escape. She is tried, and as

her devoted half-sister Jeanie, in a poignant scene, refuses to give the false evidence
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which would secure her acquittal, is sentenced to death. Jeanie sets out on foot for

London, through the influence of the duke of Argyle, obtains an interview with Queen

Caroline, and by her moving and dignified pleading obtains her sister’s pardon, by the

duke’s favour she is also enabled to marry her lover, the Presbyterian minister Reuben

Butler; and her stem cameronian father, ‘Douce Davie Deans’, is placed on a comfortable

farm on the duke’s estate, under the rule of the duke’s agent, the captain of Knockdunder

Effie marries her lover, and becomes Lady Staunton, and it comes to light that her child,

whom she was accused of having murdered, is in fact alive. He had been sold to a

vagrant woman by Meg Murdockson (Who had charge of Effie during her confinement)

presumably in revenge against Robertson (alias Staunton) for having seduced her

daughter ‘Madge Wildfire’. Staunton, in his efforts to recover his son, encounters a band

of ruffians and is killed by a boy who turns out to be his own son.

In recent decades this novel has been perhaps the most highly praised of Scott’s

novels; T. Crawford (Walter Scott, 1982) summarizes various critical accounts and

concludes that it is a domestic ballad-epic in prose that explores the heroism of everyday

life in relation to a series of concretely presented, historically conceived conflicts of

conscience.’

Meticulously though Scott chronicles the events of the riots, he fails to

‘explain’ them as he ‘explains’ the Jacobite rebellions in W and Rob Roy,

or the Covenanters’ rebeltion in Old Mortality. Scott’s historical realism

does not consist in merely treating ‘public’ historial events: in the Heart of
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Midlothian the public event remains unrelated to its social origins through

significant characters, and the result is that - as far as the Porteous riots are

concerned-the novel feels only superficiallyhistorical (David Brown: 127).

The H.M contains lively portraits of Queen Caroline and the Duke of

Argyle. But Scotts use of such material here has nothing in common with

his treatment of Queen Elizabeth and her court in K. Queen Caroline is not

introduced just because she is an interesting figure from the past, or simply

because she is necessary to the plot. She is there for the good reason that

she is bound up with the central issues of the book. The central issues of

this novel is Justice, Nationality, and Religion which are interdependent

according to Scott. (Robin Mayhead 5)

David Brown observes:

The strength of H.M is seen in Scott’s treatment of Jeanie and Davie Jeans. Scott

succeeds with Jeanie marvellously because he shows that his heroine, and her moral

principles, are historically relative - as in the court scene when she is only part of the

picture-but he manages to convey this relativity without devaluing the human importance

of Jeanie’s heroic struggle to carry out what she sees as her duty (127). “Like Rob Roy,

H.M contains in it the making of a great novel, but too much of the book is either

altogether inferior, or contains only minor rewards for the reader. On the other hand, it is

true to say that at their best these later works have a depth of characterisation and social

insight that W itself lacks”.(128)

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Queen Caroline and the Duke of Argyle are certainly not present merely for

historical colour but play an essential part in the imaginative debate on nationality. The

duke can be taken as representing a position very like the author’s. He too is loyal to the

Crown and government yet his plain-spoken Scottishness has made him less than popular

at Court. Nevertheless, the queen is too astute, too much of a ‘politician; to undervalue

him, and despite the bitter anger which the killing of Porteous has aroused in her, she will

hear, and indeed digest, what the duke has to say. The relationship between Caroline and

this powerful noble, the duke of Argyle, embodies England’s coming to terms with

Scotland as a vital part of the kingdom, not as a mere inferior province.

The Porteous affair makes it especially desirable that Caroline and her

government should have the support of so powerful a Scotsman, and

although she is genuinely moved emotionally by the force with which

Jeanie puts her plea, her undertaking to see that Effie’s reprieve is granted

enables her to please the duke without its being openly apparent that she is

granting him a personal favour. Calculating political reason, and

sympathetic human emotion, having thus acted, in this situation, to save an

innocent girl’s life, to produce what might be seen as true justice.

(Robin Mayhead:64).

Kenilworth was one of the most successful of them all (the Waverley Novels)

at the time of publication, Lockhart tells us, and it continues, and I doubt not,

will ever continue to be placed in the very highest rank of prose fiction. The

rich variety of character and scenery and incident in this novel has never
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indeed been surpassed; nor, with the one exception of the Bride of

Lammermoor, has Scott bequeathed us a deeper and more affecting tragedy

than that of Amy Robsart’ (Parker W.M. vii)

The story of Kenilworth is based on the tradition of the tragic fate, in Queen

Elizabeth’s reign of the beautiful Amy Robsart, the daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart of

Devon. Beguiled by her charms, the Earl of Leicester, the Queen’s favourite, has secretly

married her, and established her at Cumnor place, a lovely manor - house where she lives

with surly Tony Foster as guardian and his honest young daughter, Janet, as attendant.

Amy had formerly been engaged to the worthy Edmund Tressilian, a Cornish

gentleman and an adherent of Leicester’s rival for the Queen’s hand, the Earl of Sussex.

Tressilian discovers her hiding place, and not believing her married, vainly tries to induce

her to return home. He then appeals to the Queen before the whole court. A disclosure

of the truth means Leicester’s ruin, but seems inevitable, when, however, his confidential

follower, the unscrupulous Richard Vamey, saves the situation.

Varney affirms that Amy is his own wife, and is ordered to appear with her before

the Queen at Kenilworth Castle, whither Elizabeth is going as Leicester’s guest for the

revels. Amy scornfully refuses to appear as Varney’s wife, and Varney attempts to drug

her. In fear of her life, Amy goes secretly to Kenilworth, aided by Tressilian, determined

to demand recognition as Leicester’s countess.

In an interview with Leicester in the castle she persuades him to acknowledge her

openly. He does so, thereby calling down on himself the furious anger of the Queen.

Varney convinces Leicester that Amy is guilty of infidelity and loves Tressilian. In a
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passion Leicester orders Varney to remove Amy to Cumnor place and to kill her. The

true facts are revealed too late and Tressilian arrives at Cumnor place only to find that

Amy, by Varney’s machinations, has stepped on a trap-door and plunged to death.

Tressilian and Sir Walter Raleigh had been sent by the Queen, to whom Leicester, on

discovering the injustice of his suspicion, confessed all. He falls into the deepest

disgrace, and Elizabeth, feeling herself insulted both as queen and as woman, treats him

with scorn and contempt.

The real might of the crown is as central to Kenilworth as the ideal concept of

chivalry and its corruptions are to Ivanhoe. The Queen, her jealousy and her power, of

course, are crucial. There are two factions portrayed in this novel. The Sussex consists

of noble Raleigh, the straight forward soldier Blount, the honourable cornish gentleman

Tressilian, and Tressilian’s servant Way land Smith, this last striving to fight fire with

fire. Leicester’s camp consists of Michael lamboume, the miserly Tony Foster, Alasco

and Richard Varney.

Edgar Johnson Observes :

It would be hard to conceive a fusion of subject and setting that more

superbly imaged the meaning it reveals, The events of those few days

of pageantry are the core and climax of Kenilworth and in the same

measure their overwhelming and empty decor is the visible symbol of

its theme. Just as Scott looks beneath the pretensions of the Age of

Chivalry and sees in sixteenth century Scotland the worldly passions

beneath the masks of faith and patriotism, so he pierces through the

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Renaissance grandeur of Elizabeth’s court. He does not cynically deny the

existence of truth and nobility. But he sees how heavily they are alloyed

with the venal and the false, both in the istitutions of the age and in the

people who embody them.

Amy Robsart is portrayed as a tragic victim like Lucy Ashton. She beats her

bright plumage passionately against the bars of her gorgeous prison at Cummor place and

rsists with beak and claw. Amy tells Varney that Queen Elizabeth does not have more

pride than her. Though she loves and has some fear of her exalted husband, she never

ceases importuning him to lift her publicly to his side as his Countess.

At every step she fierily rebels against Varney’s tortuous schemes. She ragingly

refuses to believe that her noble husband could stoop to so dastardly and dishonourable a

plan as asking her to pretend to be Varney’s wife. Though Leicester strains in the toils of

his servant’s deceptions with something of the anguish of othello, Amy has none of the

sad resignation of Desdemona. She resists to the last, but all her courage, her proud will,

her desperate struggtles, only sink her deeper and more irretrievably in disaster.

This romance is treated as a novel of loose plot rather than a novel of organic plot.

Edgar Johnson says:

Though Scott’s Ivanhoe lacks the psychological depth of Scott’s

greatest work, for narrative excitement it is unsurpassed. If its people do

not always speak with the living voice that Scott gives his eighteenth

century Scottish characters, their words and their actions nevertheless

tellingly reflect the hearts and the minds of human beings. The critical

«»/!■» :J
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insight into the virtues and the short comings of the feudal system and the

code of chivalry is acute and in the main just. Both as a work of literary

imagination and as a fact of historical reconstruction, the novel is an

impressive achievement. Ivanhoe is concerned with the worldly

manifestations of feudalism, not its religious faith(746). It deals with the

wild lawlessness and the political conspiracy that dominate its turbulent

events.

Ivanhoe was the first of the author’s novels in which he adopted a purely English

subject. Freeman (History of the Norman Conquest, vol. v criticized, as unsupported by

the evidence of contemporary records, the enmity of Saxon and Norman, represented as

persisting in the days of Richard I, which forms the basis of the story.

Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of Cedric, of noble Saxon birth, loves his father’s ward,

the lady Rowena, who traces her descent to King Alfred, and who returns his love.

Cedric, who is passionately devoted to the restoration of the Saxon line to the throne of

England and sees the best chance of effecting this in the marriage of Rowena to

Athelstane of Conningsburgh, also of the Saxon blood royal, has in anger banished his

son. Ivanhoe has joined Richard Coeur de Lion at the crusade and there won the king’s

affection. In Richard’s absence, his brother John has found support among the lawless

and dissolute Norman nobles for his plan to depose Richard, a design favoured by

Richard’s imprisonment in Austria on his return from Palestine.

The story centres in two chief events : a great tournament at Ashby de la Zouch,

where Ivanhoe aided by Richard, who unknown to all has returned to England with
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Ivanhoe, defeats all the knights of John’s party, including the fierce Templar Sir Brain de

Bois - Guilbert and Sir Reginald Front - de - Boeuf; and the siege of Front - de -

Boeuf s Castle of Torquilstone, whither Cedric and Rowena, with the wounded Ivanhoe,

Athelstane, the Jew Isaac, and his beautiful and courageous daughter Rebecca, have been

carried captives by the Norman nobles. After an exciting fight, the castle is carried by a

force of outlaws and Saxons, led by Locksley (otherwise Robin Hood) and King Richard

himself. The prisoners are rescued, with the exception of Rebecca, of whom the Templar

has become passionately enamoured, and whom he carries off to the Preceptory of

Templestowe. Here the unexpected arrival of the Grand Master of the order, while

relieving Rebecca from the dishonorable advances of Bios-Guilbert, exposes her to the

charge of witchcraft, and she escapes sentence of death only by demanding trial by

combat. Ivanhoe, whose gratitude she has earned by nursing him when wounded at the

tournament of Ashby, appears as her champion, and in the encounter between him and

Bois-Guilbert (on whom has been thrust the unwelcome duty of appearing as the

accuser), the latter falls dead, untouched by his opponent’s lance, the victim of his own

contending passions. Ivanhoe and Rowena, by the intervention of Richard, are united,

the more interesting Rebecca, suppressing her love for Ivanhoe, leaves England with her

father.

Among the many characters in the story, besides Robin Hood and Friar Tuck, are

the poor fool Wamba, who imperils his life to save that of his master Cedric; Gurth, the

swineherd; and Isaac the Jew, divided between love of his shekels and love of his

daughter.
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The first chapter of Ivanhoe gives an elaborate description of the reign of King

Richard I of England. It talks a great deal of the struggle between the Normans and the

Saxons. On the other hand, such elaborate descriptions of the political and social

conditions of the period are not given at the beginning of the novels of Kalki.

In the novels of Kalki description of the river or pond or lake takes place at the

beginning of the novel. In Scott too, we can find the introduction of river such as ‘river

Don that too in the first sentence of his novel Ivanhoe. The first sentence reads: In that

pleasant district of merry England which is watered by the river Don, there extended in

ancient times a large forest, covering the greater part of the beautiful hills and valleys

which lie between Sheffield and the pleasant town of Doncaster”(25). In Kalki’s P.K. the

first sentence reads:

“The Kaveri region is calm and peaceful. The saffron tinged fresh waters of the

river has acquired a golden spangle from the rays of the rising sun.”(l)

Unlike Scott, Kalki could not afford to use many pages to describe the social and

political conditions of the age at the beginning of the novel because he was writing the

novel in the serial form. He introduces characters and deals with their action and passion

so that he can capture the attention of the readers. Further, Kalki did not waste much

time on the description of the dress of the characters for they were illustrated by artists

like Manian, Chandra, and Raghavan. Scott begins with history rather than with plot

whereas Kalki begins with plot rather than with history.

“It can be said that Scott is describing historical events and personalities in a

fictional setting, or that he is placing a fictional plot in an environment of historical

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reality” (Calder:96). History provided him with incidents and characters. The historical

figures play an important role but they are not portrayed as the heroes and heroines in the

novels of Scott whereas in the novels of Kalki the historical figures are portrayed as the

heroes and heroines eventhough the plot is mainly fictional in their historical novels.

The mingling of fact and fiction is so perfectly done in the novels of Kalki so that

the readers are made to think that the battle of Vatapi, a real historical event, took place

in order to fulfil the vow of Civakami, a fictitious character.

Both Scott and Kalki use the device of disguise in both of their novels like

Shakespeare. Ivanhoe is first introduced in the guise of a palmer. King Richard comes in

the guise of Black Knight. Wamba, the jestor of Cedric enters the castle of Torquilstone

in the guise of a monk. Amy Robsart enters Kenilworth Castle in the guise of a peasant

girl along with a troop of actors. Naracimmavarman disguises himself as Civanatiyar and

helps Vikkiraman when he is in trouble. Mahentira Pallavan disguises himself as

Vajrapaku and enters the enemy camp to find out the military secrets and also to deliver

the false information about the fort of Kanci. Nakananti in the disguise of Pulikeci saves

Ayanar and Civakami from the Calukkiyas. Vanthiya-t-tevan enters Palayarai in the

dress of Kamsan along with a group of actors. When Vantiya-t-tevan first meets

Arulmolivarman, he is in the guise of a mahout. So, the device of disguise is introduced

by both Scott and Kalki in their historical novels.

Scott’s flexibility in his handling of plot allows him room for comedy like Kalki.

Kalki was a natural humorist who introduced comic element in his novels. There is

humour in the portrayal of Isaac, the Jew Dick Sludge reminds one of Puck.
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The figure of Alwarkatiyan is funny in appearance. Vantiya-t-tevan and

Alwarkatiyan talk in a very humorous sense. An excellent example for humour in

dialogue is the dialogue between Kuntoratan, a spy from Kanci and Pulikeci II, the

Emperor of Vatapi. Pulikeci is in his camp outside the fort of Kanci and Kuntoratan is

brought before him. Pulikeci asks him who he was and what brought him there.

Kuntoratan says that he is the son of his parents and that he was on his way to

Tiruvenkatu to get medicine from a physician there for his ailing mother. He says that

his mother happened to swallow the mortar while pounding rice. Pulikeci is unable to

believe it and Kuntoratan asserts that his mother had swallowed the mortar. Then he says

that the mortar swallowed his mother. Then he confesses that in the presence of Pulikeci,

his tongue utters something other than what was in his mind. Finally he says that his

mother had injured her hand while pounding rice. He says that he is stating nothing but

the truth and again blabbers that the pestle was injured while his mother was pounding

rice. Pulikeci thinks that he is a fool and laughts and laughs and the readers also laugh

with him (C.C. 510-511).

In the novels of both Scott and Kalki there is a suggestion of the supernatural,

some ghost or hallucination, legend, omen or vision prophesying disaster. When Front-

de-Boeuf, a Norman baron is dying, the Saxon Ultrica appears and stands behind his bed

and threatens him. Front-de-Boeuf thinks that it is the voice of the demon that has come

to threaten him. (I; 309-310). Rebecca is considered as a witch by the Christians and she

is brought to trial before the Grand Master of the Templars. Richard Varney often

consults Alansco, an alchemist and gets some drugs from him. Like Scott, Kalki’s novels
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abound in magical signs, wonders, omens, dreams, presages and obscure allusions to

future events. Cuntara Colar is twice frightened by the appearance of a woman’s figure

near his bed in the night. (P.C. 11:117). In both the cases it is not any spirit but living

beings. Further, the whole story of P.C. is based on the superstitious belief that the

appearance of a comet foretells a death in the royal family. “When beggars die there are

no comets seen: the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes”. (Julius Caesar

ii, ii: 30-31). The comet disappears and Prince Atitta Karikalan dies an unnatural death.

All the members of the royal family consult the astrologer at Kutantai. Kalki points out

how people are generally interested in knowing beforehand the events of the future (P-C.I

:96).

Scott uses the flashback method in his novels. For example, in I after describing

how Rebecca, Isaac and Ivanhoe are abducted by de Bracy along with Rowena, Cedric

and their party, he takes the readers back to the tournament at Ashby and says how the

wounded Ivanhoe was taken by Rebecca and was looked after by her. He also says how

Isaac and Rebecca along with Ivanhoe in the litter join the company of Cedric and

Rowena and are abducted by De Bracy (283 - 94). This flashback in I is hardly

necessary for the progress of the action. But this shows the development of Rebecca s

relationship with Ivanhoe.

Scott gives lengthy descriptions of people and places. He gives a detailed

description of Cedric’s Hall and its tenants (K.72-74). He gives a detailed background

for even minor characters such as Dickie Sludge and Wayland Smith (K: 102-111). The

legend of Wayland smith has been very successfully and artistically exploited by Scott
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for his own purpose. Thus he weaves a string of stories that are united together. This

reminds us of the Arabian Nights stories. This kind of description and lengthy

background for even minor characters, costs him a fast-moving, uninterrupted plot.

Further, each character in his novel gives a lengthy speech. The Grand Master of the

Templars before the trial of Rebecca delivers a long speech (378-380). Such padding is

used in his novels to spin out the story and fill the pages of the novel. Such padding may

be irrelevant to the story and obstruct the development of the plot. But an artist has a

purpose in using ballast. In the novels of Scott such ballasts provide with the social,

political and economic background of the story. It is the realistic ballast that balances the

unrealism of romance.

Like Scott, Kalki has also introduced a number of episodes and incidents such as

the episode of Mantakini, Nantini and Centan Amutan respectively in P.C. Such kinds of

episodes add mystery to the novel. The Kapala Pairavan episode in P.K. connects the

story of C.C. Nakananti of C.C. appears as Nilakeci alias Kapala Pairvan in P.K. Thus

the episode of Nilakeci is brought to P.K. long before C.C. was written.

Kalki is fond of describing rivers, storms and floods in his novels. The flood

provides an opportunity for the lovers to meet in the novels of Kalki. Kalki also gives a

detailed account of characters in his novels such as the life of Appar in C.C. (27). Some

of the songs of Alvars and Nayanmars are sung by appar, Tirunaraiyur Nampi and Centan

Amutan in P.C. A detailed account of the composition of the songs and their content are

given (P.C.l;23-24; 150-51; v: 649-51). Though such descriptions seem to obstruct the
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development of the plot, they act as a kind of ballast to explain the religious tolerance of

the Pallavas and the Colas.

Scott hastily disposes of characters as if he did not know what to do with them in

some of his novels. The last chapter of K tells us about the death of many people. Amy

Robsart falls through the trap door and dies. Anthony Foster’s skeleton is later found

stretched on an iron chest containing a large quantity of gold. Sir Hugh Robsart dies

having settled his estates on Tressilian. Tressilian goes to a foreign country with Walter

Raleigh and dies there. The Earl of Leicester who is forgiven by the Queen, later on died

swallowing the poison which was designed for another person. The end of I seems

conventional. Ivanhoe marries Rowena. Rebecca leaves for foreign land to devote her

life to Heaven, and do deeds of kindness like tending the sick, feeding the hungry, and

relieving the distressed. Many readers censured Scott for not having assigned the hand of

Wilfred to Rebecca.

Kalki says that Partipan’s dream is materialised after three hundred years in the

reign of Rajaraja Colan and Rajaendran Colan. He has written about the early life of

Rajaraja Colan in P.C. Thus there is a link between the historical novels of Kalki. In C.C.

Civakami emerges and remains in the minds of readers as if she were a real character

eventhough she is a fictitious character. On knowing that Naracimman has already

married to the Pantiya princess and has got two children, Civakami devotes her entire life

to Lord Siva and attains the pinnacle of glory by her spirit of sacrifice like Rebecca in I.

Kalki does not make Naracimman marry Civakami for such a union would have been
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impossible in those days. The decision taken by Civakami resembles the decision taken

by Rebecca.

Both Scott and Kalki reflect and speculate on the characters in their novels. They

explain the characters to the readers to form their opinion of them. In the trial scene of

Rebecca, Scott tells us how each character appeared and felt and how the Grand Master

of the Templars and the audience were impressed by the behaviour and appearance of

Rebecca. (I: 377-388). Kalki wants his readers to inculcate certain values in their minds

from his characters. He describes how by a slip of the tongue, Mahentira Pallavan lets

out the secret to Pulikeci and brings disaster to his kingdom. So Kalki seems to advise

the readers to have self control in speech as well as in action (C.C. 564).

Both Scott and Kalki explain their aims and source of inspiration. Both of them

used the construction devices of introduction and footnotes. Some of the construction

devices used by Scott are the letters, the first person narratives, the authors notes and the

mottoes given at the beginning of each chapter which is found suitable to the events

described in the subsequent chapters respectively. The serial technique used by Kalki is

the major device. Both of them used the device of disguise like Shakespeare. Kalki

narrates the story in a simple style that is intelligible to the ordinary persons. Regarding

Kalki’s style S. Vaiyapuri Pillai writes in the Preface to P.K.

It will be very clear to the readers of this novel that a writer of multifarious

abilities has emerged. Particularly remarkable is this author’s Tamil style;

he deploys only those words which are in living use; he doesn’t burrow into

the language for pure Tamil words; he doesn’t fight shy of using certain
 words because they are Sanskrit; it is a clear style; an animated style; a

style that takes the readers with it; a style appropriate to situations and

characters: this author indeed stands in the forefront of contemporary prose

-writers. (Preface to P.K.: viii).

Scott’s narrative is gentle and easy flowing. His style is good and racy but it lacks

suppleness. In using the Scottish vernacular he is exceedingly natural and vivacious. He

is at his best in the use of his native idiom. In W, Evan Dhu’s great speech in the court

room at Carlisle is one of the most powerful senses in all of Scott’s fiction. Condemned

to death along with his leader Evan sees the execution of Vich Ian Vohr as a literally

unimaginable catastraphe, tantamount to the death of the clan itself, and he accordingly

proposes and alternative:

‘... that if your excellent honour, and the honourable court, would let Vich Ian

Vohr go free just this once, and let him gae back to France, and no to trouble King

George’s government again, that only six o’ the very best of his clan will be willing to be

justified in his stead; and if you’ll just let me gae down to Glennaquoich, I’ll fetch them

up to ye myself, to head or hang, and you may begin wi’ me the very first man”. (320).

It is, of course, at one level an outrageous proposal, as indeed is reflected by the

reaction in court: embarrassed, disbelieving laughter. Yet Evan’s apparent solecism, in

presenting the court with what is effectively a negotiating proposition, does more than

simply dramatize the gap between the two worlds, whose collision Scott portrays: it also

serves to unmask what the ostensible objectivity of the law is designed to conceal - the

extent to which it is in fact a political instrument, employed by the British State both to
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validate and enforce its authority. Dialogue is an important aspect of the novel which is

quite significant in both Scott and Kalki.

The striking difference between Scott and Kalki is that Scott wrote complete

novels and published two or three novels every year. But Kalki took a long period for

writing his novels because they are lengthy masterpieces written in the form of serials.

Unlike Kalki, Scott wrote hurriedly and carelessly. He could not give that polish

and craftsmanship, skill and structure which Kalki gave to his novels. But, of course,

Scott’s two of his novels are outstanding in plot construction i.e. W and B.L.

Both Scott and Kalki are masters of characterisation. Both of them portray royal

characters. Both of them depict a number of historical as well as fictitious characters but

there is a great difference in the treatment of their historical characters. Scott gives minor

roles to historical characters whereas Kalki gives major roles to historical characters.

Scott gives primary importance to fictitious characters in his historical novels whereas

Kalki gives primary importance to real characters in his historical novel. Scott deals with

the lives of the people of England and Scotland better than Kalki because the fictitious

characters of Scott are allowed to mingle themselves with the society. So, there is more

scope for Scott to portray the lives of the people.

The heroes in the historical novels of Scott are in crisis because they are placed

between two different political or social streams and they are expected to choose on e

between those two streams. This does not happen in Kalki. His heroes are firm in their

principles and policies.

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All the heroines of Scott are fictitious except Amy Robsart. Likewise all the

heroines of Kalki are also fictitious except Kuntavai. Kalki’s heroines play a dominant

role in his historical novels than Scott. Both Scott and Kalki portray villains like Richard

Varney, the Knights Templars such as Albert Malvoisin and Bois Guilbert, Staunton,

Lady Ashton, Nakananti and Nandini. Scott and Kalki skilfully portrayed their characters

by using various techniques such as the device of disguise, device of twins and

Shakesperian techniques of revealing character and motive through soliloquy. They use

dialogue as a supreme means for the revelation of character. They reveal their character

dramatically in action and also through conversation. Kalki’s art includes the

presentation of not only the inward life but also the external life of his historical

characters. Through his dominant narrative device like ‘reflection’ and ‘dream’ Kalki

probes into the workings of human heart, though psychological analysis of character is

not his objective like Scott.

Scott portrays even ordinary people such as Waverley, Edgar Ravenswood,

Wilfred of Ivanhoe, Tressilian as heroes and Rose Bradwardine, Flora Maclvor, Lucy

Ashton, Rowena, Rebecca, Jeanie Deans and Amy Robsart as heroines unlike Kalki.

Scott gives verbal portraits of his characters but Kalki introduces his characters

first and gives a description of them later on. Both Scott and Kalki introduce some of

their characters in disguise such as Disinherited Knight, the Black Knight and Civana-t-

tiyar and later on reveal their true identity. Scott’s heroes such as Wilfred of Ivanhoe,

Edgar Ravenswood, Edward Waverley fall in love with their sweet hearts namely

Rowena, Lucy Ashton and Rose Bradwardine respectively. But we know nothing of their
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inner life. They do not express their passions openly to the ladies whom they love. But

in Kalki’s C.C. Prince Naracimman openly declares his passions. Scott portrays bold and

resolute women such as Jeanie Deans, Rose Bradwardine, Rebecca, Rowena, Flora

Maclvor Amy Robsart who could act boldly in critical situation.

His heroines are very beautiful but they are not portrayed lifelike women. Their

role is limited to some extent. But Kalki is good at portraying lifelike women such as

Kuntavai, Civakami with feelings and emotions.

Scott’s portrayal of middle class and working class are innumerable like Kalki.

Their common people are never coarse and vulgar, they are good in conduct, steadfast in

their achievements and brave and dignified in behaviour. According to Virginia Woolf

their characters like Shakespeare’s and Jane Austen’s, have the seeds of life in them’

(Johnson : 541)

Both of them portray religious men and women such as Davie Deans, Reuben

Butler, Jeanie Deans, Kantarattitar, Cempiyanmatevi, Alwarkatiyan, Centan Amutan,

Tirunavukcarracu and Parancoti alias Ciru-t-tontan. But Kalki’s religious men did not

care for worldly life like the Templars.

Scott has named his historical novels after his characters or places whereas Kalki

has named his historical novels only after important major characters either the hero or

the heroine such as Civakami, Partipan and Arulmolivarman who is known as Ponniyin

Celvan. The themes of their historical novels are symbolised by the title of their novels.

Wilfred of Ivanhoe is portrayed as a great warrior like Naracimmavarman who is

known as ‘Mamallan’. King Mahentra Pallavan is portrayed as a great Emperor as well

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as a great warrior as Richard I, King of England. Richard I ‘desires no more fame than

his good lance and sword may acquire him - and Richard Plantagenet is prouder of

achieving an adventure, with only his good sword, and his good arm to speed, than if he

led to battle an host of an hundred thousand armed men’ (1:457). He was a mediator and

redeemer. Edgar Johnson says: Richard I banishes the corrupt and subversive Order of

the Temple from the land. The king is a providential force before whom oppressive

violence collapses”. (742).

As King Richard I who /^jf^the way for the integration of the Saxons and

Normans in England, Naracimma Pallavan pays the way for the integration of the

Pallavas and Colas in Tamil Nadu. Though Mahentira Pallavan is a saivite, he is tolerant

towards the Buddhists, the Jains, the Saktas and the Vaishnavites. This catholicity of

outlook has earned him the title ‘Gunabara’ (C.C.:87) C. Minakshi the historian, makes a

pointed reference to his religious tolerance in her book Administration and Social Life

under the Pallavas (18).

Amy Robsart is compared with Civakami regarding their love. They never intend

to give up their love at any cost but in the end of the novel Civakami devotes her entire

life to Lord Siva whereas Amy becomes highly frustrated and dies miserably. Kalki

depicts Civakami as a woman who has got absolute faith in God and surrenders herself to

God with optimism whereas Scott’s Amy is portrayed as bold and confident in facing the

trails and tribulations. But unfortunately her life ends in tragedy. Amy and Jeanie Deans

are known for their “firmness of conscious truth and rectitude of principle” (K:394-5)

Amy becomes a prey to Leicester’s ambition, lust for power, deceitful policy and his
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dishonesty whereas Civakami becomes a prey to Mahentiran’s political diplomacy and

necessity.

Queen Elizabeth and Flora Maclvor are virgins. Edgar Johnson says, “Flora can be

the bride only of her own idealism; she is one of history’s vestal virgins” (535). The

Virgin Queen of England who is known for her dedication of life to England, says; “Were

it possible- Were it but possible! but no-no - Elizabeth must be the wife and mother of

England alone”. (K: 378). Queen Elizabeth is compared with Kuntavai regarding her

patriotism, nobility and administrative ability.

Rebecca’s loyalty to her father, like his devotion to her, enhances the moral stature

of both as Civakami and her father Ayanar.

Wilfred of Ivanhoe’s love for Rowena may be compared with Kuntavai’s love for

Vantiya -1 - tevan. Lucy Ashton, the tragic heroine is compared with Manimekalai who

loves Vantiya-t-tevan but unfortunately her love ends in vain and becomes a tragic

character.

Waverley is compared with Vikkiraman. Both of them are heroes. Waverley falls

in love with Rose Bradwardine and is married to her. Vikkiraman falls in love with

Kuntavi, the Princess of Pallava kingdom, and is married to her.

Caleb exhibits the virtue of loyalty as Alwar-k-katiyan to Aniruta Bramarayar, the

Prime Minister of Cola kingdom.“The portrayal of Caleb Balderstone is on^remaining

faithful servant to Master Ravenswood”

(Johnson 665-6).

RegardingJhe character of Alwarkatiyan T. Sriraman observes:

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The most delightful in all Kalki we might say, is Alwarkadiyan (“the servant of

Azhwars”), by no means phoney in his devotion to those saints and to Lord Vishnu, but

equally - even more - committed to the service of the state and its Prime Minister. Short

and stout, he is the perfect foil in stature to Vantiya - t -tovan in whose company-

sometimes without his knowledge-he roams the chozha country and Sri Lanka. But he is

more than a match to Vantiya - t - tevan in bravery, resourcefulness, wit and humour.

He rescues Vantiya -1 - tevan for many a disaster by his timely intervention... There is a

trace of Falstaff in Alwarkatiyan in wit and size, and like Falstaff he is in no small degree

contributes to the education of the young prince in his company, but unlike Falstaff he is

truly courageous and heroic. It is a measure of Kalki’s success that in presenting this

character with comic and satirical intent he did not hurt the sentiments of his Vaishnavite

readers. He was, and is, loved by every reader of Ponniyan Selvan.

Jeanie Deans is portrayed as a religious woman having absolute faith in

Providence like Cempiyanmadevi. Both are noble and dignified.

The villains portrayed in Scott’s novels such as Richard Varney, George Staunton,

the Knights Templars namely Brian - de - Bois Guilbert and De Bracy, Lady Ashton John

Porteous and Rateliffe are compared with Kalk’s villans such as Nakananti, Nantini and

Marappa Bhupati.

Nantini is portrayed as the very embodiment of the burning spirit of vengeance in

human form, She intends to take vengeance on Atitta Karikalan [ 402 - 404;pt.l] and the

whole of Cola royal family . The name Nantini is formed out of the second part of the

name Nakananti. She is a female counterpart of Nakananti . Nantini is portrayed as

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‘mayamokini’ [57;pt.3] an evil spirit like the beautiful lady without mercy [ Keats’ La

Belle Dame Sans Merci] . The victims of her beauty are the most powerful persons of

Cola kingdom such as Periya Paluvettaraiyar , Attita Karikalan, Partipentiran and

Kantamaran. She set them against Vantiya-t-tevan. She is compared with Richard Varnv

who is an Iago-like figure in the depth and blackness of his villainy . He tries to seduce

Amy Robsart and reveals his hatred for Tressilian:

“ I hate him like strange poison - his presence is hemlock to me w. [K: 47]

Varney is also compared with Nakananti.

Scott associates Varney with the snake, thereby implying his evil nature,Likewise

Kalki associates Nakananti in terms of snake imagery in C.C. His very name [Naka =

snake] is suggestive of the serpent [457;pt.2]. He is a snake in human form. They are

interrelated. The ‘poisonous’ smell of his body is worse thafc the serpents

[408;pt.2;881;pt.4] or if they bite him , they will die [881 ; pt.4]. In this context

Nakananti is compared with Satan who is turned into snake. In this connection

K.V.Rangaswami observes:'

Nakananti’s later life of a degraded Kalpalika, as described in P.K, should be

taken as Kalki’s endorsement of the Virgilian dictum - facilis decensus avemi - ‘the road

to Hell is easy!’ A life, torn from enjoyment, dedicated to service to a brother and his

state for over thirty-years, is shattered by infatuation for a young woman-hardly half his

age! [C.C: xxxviii]

Wilfred of Ivanhoe is also compared with Vantiya-t tevan whom Kalki refers to,

every now and then, as “our hero”. T.Sriraman observes:

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If Arulmoli is conceived and presented as larger-than-life, Vantiya-t-tevan is

depicted as a more real , more life - like human being than Arulmoli and we and the

author emotionally warm to him...Kuntavai suggests , not quite fancifully or

mischievously, that Vantiya-t-tevan was the only person for whom even Nantini had

softer feelings. [V.90]

He is the picaresque hero who literally and metaphorically rides through the

novel, seeking his fortune, courting adventure, often acting on impulse, walking, running,

riding or swimming into trouble and talking and fighting (sometimes both

simultaneously) his way out of it, breaking resolutions as fast as he makes them ,

blushing at his own folly [III. 12] admonishing himself [1.34]. Laughing at himself [III.

12]. Vantiya-t-tevan is the one character who really changes and grows through the novel

and as the novel ends with his tears falling on Manimekalai’s face, the author salutes and

blesses him and bids him farewell sayings, “May your auspicious name ever live in the

valorous tradition of Tamils’ •[4i].