The Lunatic: Laxmi Prasad Devkota
Poem: The Lunatic by Laxmi Prasad Devkota
About the Poet
Laxmi Prasad Devkota was a prominent Nepali poet, playwright, and writer. He was born on November 12, 1909, in Dillibazar, Kathmandu, Nepal, and is considered one of the greatest literary figures in Nepali literature. Devkota's works are known for their profound impact on Nepali society and culture.
He is best
known for his epic poem "Muna Madan," which tells the story of a man
named Madan and his wife Muna. Devkota's writing style was influenced by
classical Sanskrit and Maithili literature, as well as Western literary
traditions. His contributions to Nepali literature earned him the title of
"Mahakavi," or "Great Poet." Devkota passed away on
September 14, 1959, but his legacy continues to influence Nepali literature to
this day.
The comprehensiveness of the Poem
The Theme of the Poem
Comparison of Lover &
Lunatic
The
lunatic, the poet, and the lover all have intense
imaginations. The poet says that the lunatic in
his imagination sees so many devils that even hell cannot hold. The lover's
imagination is also very strong. With his power of imagination, a lover finds
Helen's beauty in every beautiful woman.
The Central Idea of the Poem
The central idea of the
poem "Lunatic" by Laxmi Prasad Devkota revolves around the theme of
madness and societal norms. The poem explores the concept of sanity and
insanity, suggesting that sometimes what society deems as madness might
actually be a form of higher understanding or enlightenment. It questions the
boundaries between sanity and madness and challenges the reader to reconsider
their perceptions of mental health and the human mind.
Summary of the Poem
A famous Nepali Literary figure, Laxmi Prasad
Devkota, composed this poem "The Lunatic" in 1939
after returning from a five-month stay in a mental asylum. It is the translation of his Nepal
poem "Pagal" in 1956. Devkota was born to Til Madhav
Devkota and Amar Rajya Laxmi in 1909. Though he was not an active politician, he was a freedom fighter and lover of democracy. It was because of this nature of
Devkota, the totalitarian (characterized by a government in which the political
authority exercises absolute and centralized control) Rana rulers were always
against him. He was even blamed for being, mad. Similarly, he was forced to go to
Banaras.
This poem is a response to those people who couldn't
understand the sentiment of the poet. But we must not miss the point that the
poet has presented lunacy as a kind of creativity, a capacity to see reality at
its deeper level. The poet has used the mask of an insane person to show a
contrast between the world people and his thinking. In this autobiographical
poem, Devkota brings out a different aspect of the speaker’s character,
confidence, abnormality, imagination, sensitivity, rebellion, aggression, anger,
and awful majesty.
In the first stanza, he says he is insane. This
poem is a very modern expression of the deepest personal feelings of the poet
and a surgical exposure to the hollowness of the so-called intellectual
aspirants (ambitious and aspiring young people) of the time.
The speaker talks about different contrasts in the second
stanza with unusual habits. The persona shows abnormal behavior. He does
what a normal person can’t do. He can see a sound, hear a picture, and smell a
smell. He touches such things that the people down do not even believe them. He
speaks such strange language, which is neither written nor spoken, and all his
words are never understood. He is so imaginative that he can see a flower in
the stone and the enchantress (a woman who is considered to be dangerously
seductive) of heaven smiling at him. He understands the language of the birds
and talks to them.
The third stanza shows how sensitive and
tender-hearted he is. He contrasts his situation with the addressee. The
addressee is the one who uses their brain and senses to find out the harsh
reality. But the speaker uses his sixth sense and finds out what the heart
thinks is correct. Dreams and imagination are meaningful to him. For him, one
minus one is equal to one and he works with the heart while others work
with the mind. He enjoys poetry while sane people do in prose. If they freeze,
he melts because he has a world of vapour. With all such contrasts, he says a
vein is loose in his brain, so he is insane.
The fourth stanza tells how the speaker’s
hypersensitivity led people to have a wrong impression of him. The poet says he
is called crazy when he talks about the wintry sun's heat after he watched the
mystery of heaven on a cold winter night. When he is sad at the death of people
and the old age of a fair lady, people call him mad. Seeing a dead body, he
realises Buddha's Philosophy,, still he is still called mad. In listening to the
melodious song of a cuckoo bird and feeling uncomfortable by the dead silence, he is
referred to a mental hospital and he is tested as if he is mad by pinching his skin. Even his friends would not regard him as a normal person. He still
accepts that he is insane.
In the fifth stanza, the speaker focuses on
stronger contrasts. He does not appreciate those things which the world praises
highly. What the aristocrats drink (wine) is the blood of the poor people. Due
to a lack of affection, prostitutes are no better than dead bodies. Because of
high ambition, the king and the emperor are no better than the poor. The highly
respected people are fools to him. Others' gold is his iron, and the clever
people are innocent to him. All the progress is his not progress, because all
are fools in his eyes. Such is his plight and such is his evaluation. What
people value, believe, and prove is meaningless to the speaker. The common men
are far better than the highly learned ones. The better place for the world is
the worse place for the speaker. So, the world calls him mentally unstable.
In the sixth stanza, the speaker has become
more aggressive. The speaker revolts against the society that is being led by
blind leaders, where truth is not valued. Foolish and cheaters have covered all.
Honest, true, and good people are always sidelined. He thinks that
penances (remorse for your past conduct) have run away from society, and they
hate humanity. He rather sympathizes with the weak people.
In the last stanza, the speaker is very
violent and challenging and behaves like a rebel towards the flatterers who
disturb people from getting true rights and freedom. He criticizes the
flatterers because they have deprived people of their rights and have
underlined false actions. The poor people accept their falsity as good action,
and then the speaker gets so angry because he thinks these man-haters must be
punished. Political leaders are like prostitutes because they can be sold for
money. With black money, common people are prevented from getting human
rights. False news is published in the media. When the speaker likes honest
people and reads their feelings come to challenge and fight against them. He is
much angrier when innocent people are forced to take poison and accept the
guilt of wrong deeds. When an innocent and honest person is cheated by a so-called clever and inhumane person, their anger grows. When he sees the tiger punching
the innocent deer, a big fish to a small one, a strong blow occurs inside of him.
There is no inhumanly. His brain burns like a forest fire, he becomes too cruel, and becomes a child of the tempest explosion of a volcano. His mind is
not proper; this is his condition. The persona in this poem attacks all the
ugliness and wants to bring a complete change in society.
Possible Questions
and Their Answers
1. The poet's method in "The
Lunatic" capitalizes on the contrasts between the world of lunatics and
sane people. What are some of these contrasts, and how do they bring out the
irony of the poem?
The poem
"Lunatic" is an ironic poem or a satirical poem by Laxmi Prasad
Devkota. In this poem, the poet has used a contrast between the world of the
sane man and that of the lunatic. There are vast differences between a lunatic
and a sane one. A lunatic does not behave like a sane. He/she shows many
different characters.
Here is a
comparison between a lunatic and the world of sane people. What a lunatic sees,
perceives, and hears that are not possible for a sane person. Like what the
sane world sees, perceives, and hears, and perceives a lunatic cannot understand
them well. So, in this poem, the poet has given a juxtaposition of the things
between a lunatic and the normal world of sane people. The lunatic perceives
what the sane man cannot. For example, the mad man visualizes sound, hears the
visible, and tastes fragrance, but the normal man hears a sound, visualizes the
visible, smells fragrance ( बासना ), and tastes the delicious food. The
lunatic can touch and feel the things that an ordinary person cannot. Likewise,
he can see a flower in the stone and can talk with the bird. He feels that a
heavenly beauty is smiling at him. Similarly, the madman uses his sixth sense
whereas the normal person uses only five senses. The people use brains, but he
uses his heart. By showing the contrast the poet brings out the irony of the
poem. The poet wants to say that their worldly people are cold and cruel, and they
look at the world from their materialistic perspective.
Although
insane, the speaker is sympathetic, and his heart melts when he sees pathetic
sights. He is very different than the sane world. This comparison by Devkota
seems true because we find many mad and lunatics talking to themselves, playing
with nonliving things, laughing, singing, etc. because they are talking,
watching whatever we cannot see.
2. In another poem, 'To a Beautiful
Prostitute', Devkota uses the phrase 'into a higher reason gone astray'. Does
this phrase describe the lunatic person in this poem?
There are
differences between a lunatic or a mad and a symbolic or ironical lunatic or
mad. A real lunatic cannot think of so much higher things as an ironical
lunatic can. Real abnormality and literary abnormality differ in many ways.
Generally, the abnormality is the state, which is different from what is
expected to be isusual or normal. The attitude of the lunatic persona in this poem is
different from the conventional attitude. He is an ironic lunatic, not a real one;
he/she is the higher reason gone astray because he/she can visualize sound,
hear the visible, and taste fragrance. He/she has all senses and extra senses, but a real lunatic may have any sense lost. An ironical lunatic can also
perceive the exploitation and torture imposed on the weak
and the poor. Sometimes he/she shows highly sensitive behavior, and sometimes
his/her behavior is beyond the understanding of the common people. That is why
he/she is considered a lunatic, but in reality, he/she is in the right condition
and a higher position of knowledge than the other.
3. Please try to explain why the poet
takes the persona of a lunatic. Does a mad person see sounds and hear sights?
What are the differences between a conventional lunatic and the lunatic in the
poem?
We know that the
language of simple conversation and literature turns into each other. The language
of simple conversation and poetic or literary characters also differs in many
ways. A persona means a created character or an invented person for a part in
any story, fiction, drama, etc. He or she may not be the author himself or
herself. To express the inner feelings or emotions of the persona, Devkota has
taken the persona of a lunatic in this poem. This poem has an autobiographical
element, or the expressions are the feelings of Devkota himself. Observing the
unusual behaviour of the poet, many people in the society called him a madman or a lunatic. This poem is a satirical response to the people's comments.
In a normal
condition, a man's sense of perception does not change. He/she hears sounds,
sees sights, smells the fragrance, and tastes food. But when he/she is in an abnormal
condition, he/she distorts language and uses it the way he likes. This improper
use of language is also one of the characteristics of a madman or a lunatic. A
conventional lunatic does not use the language properly, he/she often repeats
what has shocked him/her and made him/her mad; he/she does not care what
society talks about him/her, he/she is not controlled, he/she is lost in it's
world. However, the lunatic persona in the poem is fully aware of his/her
situation and is in control. His/her abnormality is an assumed one. He/she is
confident, imaginative, sensitive, revolutionary, aggressive, angry, and
majestic. He/she expresses the deepest personal feelings of the poet and
exposes the hollowness of the so-called intellectual aspirants of the time.
He/she speaks a more systematic and high-level language that is not easy to
understand for a general person. These are some of the differences between a real
or conventional lunatic or mad person.
4. Lunacy exists at the personal, social,
and cosmic levels. Do you agree? Why?
Good, bad,
lunatic, mad, normal, abnormal, etc. are the qualities that are given by
society or people in a society. A person himself or herself cannot say a
lunatic or a mad. It is the evolution of a person by society and people, and the
title given to his/her mental condition. To some extent, I agree with the
statement that lunacy exists at the personal, social, and cosmic levels. At the
personal level, a person's thoughts, feelings, or behavior can be affected. Most
normal people have periods of sadness, anger, and fear. But these periods do
not last long. Lunatic persons suffer from extreme moods and feelings that may
last for years. These disturbances often cause unhappiness and lead to socially
unacceptable behavior. Lunacy can make it difficult for an individual to carry
out everyday tasks or to get along with other people. That is a personal
lunatic that exists on personal levels and is limited to the person
only.
Sometimes,
when a society behaves like a lunatic, that is the social level, we get lunacy in the crowd behavior. Sometimes the whole society behaves abnormally. If they are
excited and hypnotized by a powerful leader, they are ready to do anything they
are ordered. The disorderly crowd breaks down the doors and windows, loots the
shops, throws fire on the house, etc. Cosmic lunacy means here universal
lunacy. Such a type of lunacy exists in the whole universe. For, example, all
people today have been showing a type of lunacy by destroying their world. They
are damaging the Earth and its environment through various bad activities like
war, explosions, etc. It is the creation or destruction of vast structures by
some mysterious order or disorder. Therefore, we can agree that lunacy exists
at the personal, social, and cosmic levels.
5. Discuss "The Lunatic" as a
political protest poem.
Literature or
literary persons can also play an important role in changing a political
system. We have many examples of literary persons who fought for democracy and
human rights, or political change. Like in France and England or the American
freedom movements, many such persons have played their roles in political
change. In our country, Nepal also Subba Krishna Lal Adhikari, Balkrishna Sama,
Devkota, etc., played key roles in democracy. "The Lunatic" is a
political protest poem. It shows the existing social contradictions of the
time. The poet juxtaposed the lunatic weapon with normal social realities in a
way that expresses rebelliousness against the ruling class
for their ugly exploitation of the common people.
Lunatic
energy is an emotion that is capable of transformation into higher energy of a
very powerful human expression. Primarily, "The Lunatic" is a revolt
against the Rana Regime. At that time, the uneasy transition was going on, the
mockery of democracy, the extent of human degeneration in the name of upholding
new values and righteousness, ruthless exploitation of people's rights and
economic plunder, and corruption in Nepal. Therefore, the poet was very furious
with the political system. To express his dissatisfaction, he composed this
poem named "Lunatic". He said himself a Lunatic to make him secure
from the rulers. Thus, it is a political protest poem.
***
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