INDIAN INK SUMMARIES / QUOTATIONS / NOTES
ACT 1
Pages 1-8
(PIKE) “So, this is where I come in, wearing my The bathos that marks the shift from the excessive
editor’s hat. To lighten the darkness.” grandiloquence and superfluousness of Pike’s aggrandised view
(MRS SWAN) “It’s a pub in the Fulham Road” of himself, to Mrs Swan’s near vulgar but definitely colloquial
retort – creates a comedic effect. This anti-climax mocks and
satirizes Pike’s role within the play, but also his role within the
very writing of ‘Flora Crewe’s collected letters”. In such a way,
this bathos permeates both the literal and metatextual aspects of
this drama, depreciating Pike’s role in both.
(FLORA) “I’m sure I…” Coomaraswami who greets Flora at the train and garlands her
(COOMARASWAMI) “Leave everything to me!” which provides a visual aid to his high regard of her, employs an
interesting narrative structure where the “interruptions” are
expressed through the ellipsis, and the punctuation- the
abundance of exclamation marks- encompasses the extremes of
Coomaraswami’s reverence. Undoubtably, the audience is made
uncomfortable by such an exuberant treatment.
(QUESTIONNER) “Miss Crewe, it is said you are These statements spoken by the Questioner are defining in terms
an intimate friend of H.G Wells-“ of how underappreciated and dismissed Flora was when living.
“Does H.G Wells write his famous books with Her value is treated as entirely dependent on her relationship
typewriter or with pen and ink?” with a man, and she is presented as lesser than him despite being
a creator and an artist herself. It is an objectifying treatment and
transports the audience into the gender relations of early 20 th
century.
(DAS) “My favourite part of London” The Self-Contradictory statements spoken by Das show how the
“I hope to visit London one of these days” opinions are imposed rather than formed, for he cannot know
what part of London he loves having not been there. This self-
contradictory speech makes the Audience uneasy as they are
made acutely aware of the degree to which Indians have been
‘hypnotised’ to blindly revere English life and Culture regardless
of what English life and Culture is.
H.G Wells H.G Wells: in his sci-fi writings blurred the rigid constraints of
Gertrude Stein what was deemed as possible
George Bernard Shaw Gertrude Stein: a feminist literary pioneer and literary anarchist
Virginia Wolf George Bernard Shaw: a revolutionary in the world of drama and
comedy
Virginia Wolf: ecriture feminine writer
Literary allusions that liken Flora to the previously
aforementioned place her in the same modernist context as
them, reminding the audience that she is a modern woman and a
libertine. (Implication that Wells was Flora’s lover made with the
use of ellipsis “You don’t mean he and Flora…?”)
This literary choice in part challenges the colonially enforced
constructs of de-sexed English women as embodied in E.M
Forster’s The Passage which enamoured submissive English
Women.
A challenge to this is that Flora still gains relative value merely by
power of association, she is not recognised herself as a woman
writer. In such a way she is more confined by colonial treatment
of women.
ACT 1
Pages 1-8
(PIKE) “So, this is where I come in, wearing my The bathos that marks the shift from the excessive
editor’s hat. To lighten the darkness.” grandiloquence and superfluousness of Pike’s aggrandised view
(MRS SWAN) “It’s a pub in the Fulham Road” of himself, to Mrs Swan’s near vulgar but definitely colloquial
retort – creates a comedic effect. This anti-climax mocks and
satirizes Pike’s role within the play, but also his role within the
very writing of ‘Flora Crewe’s collected letters”. In such a way,
this bathos permeates both the literal and metatextual aspects of
this drama, depreciating Pike’s role in both.
(FLORA) “I’m sure I…” Coomaraswami who greets Flora at the train and garlands her
(COOMARASWAMI) “Leave everything to me!” which provides a visual aid to his high regard of her, employs an
interesting narrative structure where the “interruptions” are
expressed through the ellipsis, and the punctuation- the
abundance of exclamation marks- encompasses the extremes of
Coomaraswami’s reverence. Undoubtably, the audience is made
uncomfortable by such an exuberant treatment.
(QUESTIONNER) “Miss Crewe, it is said you are These statements spoken by the Questioner are defining in terms
an intimate friend of H.G Wells-“ of how underappreciated and dismissed Flora was when living.
“Does H.G Wells write his famous books with Her value is treated as entirely dependent on her relationship
typewriter or with pen and ink?” with a man, and she is presented as lesser than him despite being
a creator and an artist herself. It is an objectifying treatment and
transports the audience into the gender relations of early 20 th
century.
(DAS) “My favourite part of London” The Self-Contradictory statements spoken by Das show how the
“I hope to visit London one of these days” opinions are imposed rather than formed, for he cannot know
what part of London he loves having not been there. This self-
contradictory speech makes the Audience uneasy as they are
made acutely aware of the degree to which Indians have been
‘hypnotised’ to blindly revere English life and Culture regardless
of what English life and Culture is.
H.G Wells H.G Wells: in his sci-fi writings blurred the rigid constraints of
Gertrude Stein what was deemed as possible
George Bernard Shaw Gertrude Stein: a feminist literary pioneer and literary anarchist
Virginia Wolf George Bernard Shaw: a revolutionary in the world of drama and
comedy
Virginia Wolf: ecriture feminine writer
Literary allusions that liken Flora to the previously
aforementioned place her in the same modernist context as
them, reminding the audience that she is a modern woman and a
libertine. (Implication that Wells was Flora’s lover made with the
use of ellipsis “You don’t mean he and Flora…?”)
This literary choice in part challenges the colonially enforced
constructs of de-sexed English women as embodied in E.M
Forster’s The Passage which enamoured submissive English
Women.
A challenge to this is that Flora still gains relative value merely by
power of association, she is not recognised herself as a woman
writer. In such a way she is more confined by colonial treatment
of women.
