The Post

Office
a play by Rabindranath Tagore
Bengali poet, short-story
writer, song composer,
playwright, essayist, and
painter

Rabindranath
Tagore

He introduced new prose

and verse forms and the
use of colloquial language
into Bengali literature. May 7, 1861 - August 7, 1941
He was highly influential
in introducing Indian
culture to the West and
vice versa, and he is
generally regarded as the
outstanding creative
artist of early 20th-
century India.

Rabindranath
Tagore
In 1913 he became the
first non-European to
receive the Nobel Prize
for Literature.
Poems:
Manasi (1890) - The Ideal One
Sonar Tari (1894) - The Golden Boat
Gitanjali (1910) - Song Offerings
Gitimalya (1914) - Wreath of Songs
Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]

Plays:
Raja (1910) - The King of the Dark Chamber
Dakghar (1912) - The Post Office
Achalayatan (1912)- The Immovable]
Muktadhara (1922) - The Waterfall
Raktakaravi (1926)- Red Oleanders

Short Stories & Novels

Gora (1910)
Ghare-Baire (1916)-The Home and the World
Yogayog (1929) Crosscurrents

2,000 songs, which achieved considerable

popularity among all classes of Bengali society.
 The Post Office

Originally written in
Bengali in 1912, ‘Dak Ghar’
was translated into
English as The Post Office.

performed in 1913 by the

Abbey Theatre Company in
several countries in Europe
The Post
Office
A Summary
Formalistic Analysis

Characters:
Amal
Mahdav
Gaffer/Fakir
The Physician
Sudha
The Dairyman/curdseller
The Watchman The 3 boys
The Headman The King
The State Physician The King’s Herald
Formalistic Analysis

Setting:
India during the
British occupation
Madhav’s house,
specifically,
Amal’s window

Tone:
hopeful, melancholic
 Themes:

Loneliness and Isolation

The Power of Imagination
The Transience of Life
The Beauty of Life’s Small
Joys
Death as Release
 Imagery:

“Your village is under some very old big trees, just by

the side of the red road”
“Indeed, they live among the green hills; and in the time
of the sunset when there is a red glow on the hillside,
all the birds with their green wings flock back to their
nests.”
“I can’t say; but it’s quite clear to me. I fancy I’ve seen it often in days long
gone by. How long ago I can’t tell. Do you know when? I can see it all: there, the
King’s postman coming down the hillside alone, a lantern in his left hand and on
his back a bag of letters climbing down forever so long, for days and nights, and
where at the foot of the mountain the waterfall becomes a stream he takes to the
footpath on the bank and walks on through the rye; then comes the sugarcane field
and he disappears into the narrow lane cutting through the tall stems of
sugarcanes; then he reaches the open meadow where the cricket chirps and where
there is not a single man to be seen, only the snipe wagging their tails and
poking at the mud with their bills.”
 Symbolism:

The Post Office/ the letters: the post office represents a

metaphorical bridge between the confined world of the
protagonist, Amal, and the outside world that he longs to
explore.

Amal’s Window: represents his longing for freedom and his

desire to explore the world beyond the confines of his room

The Characters: Each character in the play represents

different aspects of Amal’s desires, fears, and
aspirations.
 Pyschoanalytic
Analysis

Amal insists on staying by his window to talk to

every people that come across him and ask them of
their life and what they do. As he listens to
these stories, he also desires and dreams to
experience everything he has heard from everyone
if he were healthy enough to go on these
adventures. Unfortunately, these desires only
remain as dreams because of his worsening health
condition and impending death.
 Questions:

1.) If Amal’s parents were still alive, would he have been in

much better health than in the care of Madhav? Why or Why not?

2.) What would Amal and The King talk about if The King
visited him before Amal went to sleep forever?

3.) If you were one of the people who passed by Amal’s window,
what would you have said to him?

4.) Why did Tagore end ‘The Post Office’ the way he did?
 References:

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1913/tagore/bi
ographical/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rabindranath-Tagore

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-
magazines/post-office

https://www.litinbox.com/the-post-office-by-rabindranath-
tagore-summary/
 Thank
you for
listening!