The Lunatic | Summary

Summary of "The Lunatic" ( पागल ) was written by Mahakavi Laxmi Prasad Devkota. Devkota was born on 12 November 1909 as the third son of Pandit Til Madhav Devkota and Amar Rajya Laxmi Devi. He was born in Dilli Bazar, Kathmandu on the day of Laxmi Puja, the Festival of Lights, which is celebration of Laxmi, the Goddess of Wealth. He died on 14 September 1959 in Kathmandu. Devkota contributed to Nepali literature by bringing the Sanskrit tradition to its end and by starting modern Romantic Movement in the country.

" The Lunatic " is a satirical ( व्यांगात्मक ) poem composed by Devkota. In this poem, the poet presents the supermacy of emotion. This poem is his auto-biography where he expresses his anger at the inhumanity of mankind by weraring the persona of a lunatic. This poem is also a modern expression of his deepest personal feelings and a surgical exposure of the emptiness of the so-called intellectual aspirants of the time. The poet also focuses on the social, cultural, and political scene of the Nepal.

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The second stanza exposes the abnormal behavior that the poet seems to think. He says that he works abnormally; he is different than other people. He can see words and hear the scene and taste the smell. He can comprehend the existence of many things which the common people cannot. He can see a beautiful flower in the stone. He comprehends the language of the birds and talks to them. They can communicate each other but they cannot speak like human beings. Other people cannot understand the language of birds only he can.

In the third stanza, the poet shows his sensitivity. He shows the differences between him and other people who call him lunatic. Other people use five senses but he uses his sixth sense that is his heart. His dreams and imaginations are meaningful to him. Due to his sixth sense, he is emotional and imaginative. To others, the world is only a concrete thing, but for the poet, the world is abstract too. He is ready to sacrifice like Jesus for humanity.

The fourth stanza deals with the misreading of the people to have a wrong impression on him. As he used to watch the mystery of the heaven in cold night and people called him mad. He feels happy hearing the cuckoo's song and feels uncomfortable by the extreme silence, but they think that he has gone mad. People see him mad in his every activity.

The fifth stanza deals with the revolt of the speaker. He does not like those things which the others like. He says that the aristocrats ( ध्वनी ) drink the blood of the poor. Even the king and the emperor are like the poor. Common people are far better than the highly scholarly people. He has no belief on all important and valuable things. That is why, the world calls him mentally disturbed.

In the sixth stanza, the speaker revolts against society and balances blind leaders are leading the world. The leaders of the world do not see the reality. He believes that spiritualists have disappeared from the society. This is not good for all. He loves the backward people.

The poet criticizes the cunning ( बाठा ) people because they have exploited people from getting their rights. The leaders and prostitutes are compared as they have similar character. They run after money. They snatch the rights of the common people. They never tell a lie to the intellectual people. The innocent people are cheated and looted. The poor people are innocent and fair. The poet attacks all the disorders and wants a revolution to bring a complete change in society and the world.

He says that he is different in many ways as he sees the sound, hears the visibility, tastes the perfume and touches the things whose existence the world denies. He sees flower, he talks with birds, animals and mountains. He works with the six senses. The wine of the king is the blood of people and prostitute are corpses for him. He sees Helen and Padmini in the beauty of the rose. In his mathematics, one minus one is always one. He dances with the song of the cuckoo. The heaven of the rich is hell for him. The gold is iron and the great religion of the rich is sin for him. Because of these perceptions of the poet, he is called the lunatic and sent to the Ranchi. But in real sense he is not a mad; the people and society who think him mad are mad or they lack the capacity to understand his view and talent. So, the poet satirically accepts himself mad; he is opposite to the other world and people.