A thematic study of Rudyard Kipling's short stories

Abstract

The present study comprises of seven chapters. The chapters of this thesis are arranged thematically. The researcher has clubbed together the short stories having similar themes for the analysis. Each chapter covers the prominent parts of Kipling’s work. The researcher has taken into consideration around one hundred and fifty stories of Kipling for the present study. Chapter I : Introduction This chapter is divided into four sections. It gives an introduction to the life and works of Rudyard Kipling .the first section focuses on different stages of his life, the people and places which shaped his development as a writer. A survey of Kipling’s major works is done in the second section of the chapter. It traces his progress as a short story writer, a poet and a novelist. In spite of having a great literary output of quality Kipling was often ignored by the critics. The third section in this chapter reviews the criticism of Kipling’s works. In the last section the plan of research of this thesis is briefly discussed by the researcher. The themes of the short stories of Kipling are broadly divided in five categories and are analysed in the subsequent chapters. Chapter II : Tales of India The second chapter is Indian tales. Kipling spent a considerable span of his life in India as a child and later as a journalist. This chapter deals with his tales of India presented through his collections like Plain Tales from the Hills. This chapter is divided into three sections. I) The Simla Tales ii) Anglo-Indian Tales iii) Native Indian Tales. In the first section, Kipling presents a picture of the gay life of Anglo-India as it centered around Simla, the government’s summer capital. As the century advanced and methods of transport improved. Simla became increasingly crowded with summer visitors and with ambitious women wanting to be associated with influential men. Getting to Simla was therefore the be-all and end-all of Anglo-Indian existence the innumerable maneuveres, strategies, conflicts, and disappointments that followed in the wake of this struggle for survival in Simla.