Miss Sahib by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Free Essay Example, 1750 words

Yet her personal contact with her was mostly a unidirectional exchange from Sharmila’s side and none from her. Infact throughout the story, only the omniscient narrator seems to know the subjective position of Miss Tuhy and she never communicates with Sharmila (maybe she considers herself inexplicable to the Indian’s). She loves her role as the teacher and that of the one who instructs. This idea of Miss Tuhy about her capability of transference of knowledge from her to that of Sharmila was one of the â€Å"happiest times† for she not only taught, but most importantly, she liked the engrossed â€Å"eagerness† of Sharmila trying to learn, â€Å"sitting there with her all day long†. Whatever she had to offer filled her with a sense of importance and filled her solitary and friendless life with an engagement that was both intellectually as well as ideologically conducive to her idea of the colonizer. She thus enjoyed enlightening the people of India a nd enjoyed their simple lives from the point of view of a White English woman. She thought she knew what is good for her is good enough for Sharmila. We will write a custom essay sample on Miss Sahib by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Therefore, when she found her â€Å"passionate reading of the romantic poets† were quite dissatisfying to Sharmila (who yawned unabashedly), she did not figure out why that was so. Instead of understanding that a native girl of her age would not actually understand something or care, to like something that held a great historical and creative importance for her. Her disillusionment followed when again she failed to understand Sharmila’s point of view when pined for home from Shimla. Miss Tuhy had described it with paradisiacal exuberance saying Sharmila’s children would get English rosy cheeks by going there and she thought that they would like sausages in the same manner like her and her inability to understand Sharmila’s rejection of her ideas (after she felt sorry for Sharmila for the life she was leading) made her bitter. This subconscious superiority with which she judged the Indians and which led to her disillusionm ent cannot lighten the fact that she was earnest at her efforts (the White man’s burden or here, the white woman’s burden). When she wanted to free Sharmila from her life of misery or when she thought that a change of place (that she considers quite ideal with English food and anglicized milieu), can help Sharmila lose her past. This becomes a subtle metaphor about the British process of acculturation2. Indeed, it was unsuccessful since she was measuring one culture from the point of view or partial eyes of another and she just assumed that Sharmila would like what she had to offer.