The Golden Oriole

Summary & Analysis

The Golden Oriole Short Story by Suwimali Karunaratne

SUBJECT-MATTER: The tragic end of a marriage proposal brought to an unmarried over aged lady

MAIN THEME: Misery caused by frustration

OTHER THEMES: The fate of an unmarried over aged woman in Sri Lanka
The feminine way of response; double behavior
The hypocritical nature of men
Class division( Rupa belongs to the lowest class of society so she has no dowry. The very
fact causes the failure of her marriage dream.)
INCIDENTS: The story comprises several incidents at school and at home.
ANTI-CLIMAX: the instance when Aunt Beatrice informs Rupa Vitharana the refusal by the
proposed bridegroom.
LANGUAGE: simple and conversational

CHARACTERS

The main character: Rupa Vitharana is a language teacher at a girls’ high school in Colombo. Explicitly she seems to be a lady belonging to the high society but of course, she lives in a line house in the outskirts of Colombo. She does not have the telephone facility either. So her only chance to talk to Aunt Beatrice is the instance the latter gives her a call
to her school.

The other characters: Aunt Beatrice is a professional match maker who brings a proposal to Rupa. She is a business type lady and she has the hypocritical nature that a match maker possesses. Rupa’s mother is a minor character in the story. Her character helps bring out the dual qualities of Rupa; her behavior and her real mentality.

CHARACTERIZATION

The main character of the story is an unmarried woman called Rupa Vitharana who is a language teacher at a girls’ high school in Colombo. Explicitly she seems to be a lady belonging to the high society but of course, she lives in a line house in the outskirts of Colombo. She does not have the telephone facility either. So her only chance to talk to
Aunt Beatrice is the instance the latter gives her call to her school. Aunt Beatrice is a match-maker by profession. She brings a proposal to Rupa who is passing her marriageable age. She is a business type lady and she has the hypocritical nature that a match maker possesses. Rupa’s mother is a minor character in the story. Her character helps bring out the dual qualities of Rupa; her behavior and her real mentality.

When Beatrice brings the proposal Rupa outwardly shows no interest but inwardly she keeps much hope. Rupa’s behavior gradually sees a great change. She became more active
and happy and she tried to be fashionable. Nevertheless the story has an unfortunate end when Beatrice brought the bad news that the proposed bridegroom refused Rupa.