Analysis and interpretation of Rudyard Kipling’s short story “Lispeth”
The short story “Lispeth” is about the Indian Hill-girl Lispeth, who, ever since her parents died of cholera, is a half-servant, half-companion for two Englishmen; a priest and his wife. The story deals with many issues, such as identity crisis and unrequited love, but most of all a critique of Christianity and on the Western mindset towards the natives.
The point of view in this short story is a 3rd person point of view, but as a reader you do not know who the narrator is, except that it is an omniscient narrator with great sympathy and compassion for Lispeth. It could easily be Lispeth telling her story from a 3rd person point of view while being omniscient.
The story takes place in northern India in the Kotgarh Valley in 1886, which is during the imperialism. The British Empire ruled over a great part of the world, and their mission …show more content…
Lispeth lives in between cultures; she is neither a true Englishman nor a true Indian. She originates from India, but grows up surrounded by the English culture. “Her own people hated her because she had, they said, become a memsahib and washed herself daily” (p. 266, ll. 14-16); this sentence shows how her own people did not accept her, because they believe she has become a mensahib, which in this contexts means that she acts more like a European woman in India and is therefore an outcast to the Indian culture. At the same time, she is also not accepted as a part of the Western culture, which makes it hard for her to identify herself. Another theme could be unrequited love. Lispeth surrenders herself to love, because she believes she is an Englishman worthy, but the Englishmen feel superior to them. She has lived most of her life surrounded by English people and has obtained some of their habits, such as washing herself daily as the quote above tells us. However, she is clearly not accepted an
The short story “Lispeth” is about the Indian Hill-girl Lispeth, who, ever since her parents died of cholera, is a half-servant, half-companion for two Englishmen; a priest and his wife. The story deals with many issues, such as identity crisis and unrequited love, but most of all a critique of Christianity and on the Western mindset towards the natives.
The point of view in this short story is a 3rd person point of view, but as a reader you do not know who the narrator is, except that it is an omniscient narrator with great sympathy and compassion for Lispeth. It could easily be Lispeth telling her story from a 3rd person point of view while being omniscient.
The story takes place in northern India in the Kotgarh Valley in 1886, which is during the imperialism. The British Empire ruled over a great part of the world, and their mission …show more content…
Lispeth lives in between cultures; she is neither a true Englishman nor a true Indian. She originates from India, but grows up surrounded by the English culture. “Her own people hated her because she had, they said, become a memsahib and washed herself daily” (p. 266, ll. 14-16); this sentence shows how her own people did not accept her, because they believe she has become a mensahib, which in this contexts means that she acts more like a European woman in India and is therefore an outcast to the Indian culture. At the same time, she is also not accepted as a part of the Western culture, which makes it hard for her to identify herself. Another theme could be unrequited love. Lispeth surrenders herself to love, because she believes she is an Englishman worthy, but the Englishmen feel superior to them. She has lived most of her life surrounded by English people and has obtained some of their habits, such as washing herself daily as the quote above tells us. However, she is clearly not accepted an