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Chapter-111 a Clergyman's Daughter 54 CHAPTER-111 A CLERGYMAN’S DAUGHTER “I wanted to submerge myself, to get right down among the oppressed, to be one of them and on their side against their tyrants .... Therefore my mind turned immediately towards the extreme cases, the social outcasts: trumps, beggars, criminals, prostitutes. These were the lowest of the low 9 and these were the people with whom I wanted to get in contact.... I could go among these people, see what their were like and feel myself temporarily part of their world. Once I had been among them and accepted by them,...” 1 This was what George Orwell thought of the oppressed people. He wanted to experience the life of the downtrodden. Orwell was keen in studying the lives of the social outcasts like tramps, beggars, criminals and prostitutes. He was a humanist and had a sympathy for the social outcasts and he was on the side of the working class. After returning from Burma Orwell had decided to taste the uncertain career of a writer. So he went into the slums of London and Paris and studied keenly the poor and the unemployed. Thus he had a first-hand experience of poverty. Poverty, he thought, is an inseparable part of society and civilization. In Burma also he found poverty. In London and Paris he disguised himself as a tramp and went into the streets of London and Paris to 55 mix up with their world. His tramping expeditions helped him a lot for his understanding the downcasts in the society. His first book Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) contains his experiences among the world of the tramps, beggars, criminals, hop-pickers, and prostitutes. Orwell, after the success of his realistic writing like Burmese Davs (1934) and Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) attempted to create a ficitional character whose basic position in society and life is quite different. He attaches all his own experiences to Dorothy Hare, the protagonist of die novel, A Cleevaman’s Daughter. Dorothy is the only daughter to a country-town Rector. She becomes an outcast who loses her memory and enters the sub world of tramps, beggars, hop-pickers and prostitutes. Dorothy Hare is the only daughter of Reverend Charles Hare who is the Rector of St. Athelsten’s in a country town, Knype Hill, Suffolk. She is twenty seven and a spinster. The clergyman is a miser and poor. Unfortunately he has developed no affection for Dorothy. He never cares for the bills of debts. The grocer, the butcher, always send their reminders. Dorothy is a person who always tries to manage these bills. Her father, on die contrary, is interested in investing his money in the shares. Frequent 56 clashes occur betwen Dorothy and her father ; and always the father thinks it is wiser to reinvest his money. Everyday remains hectic for Dorothy. She gets up early in the morning, bathes in cold water and prepares breakfast for her father. She has prepared her memo-list of the works to be done on the day. She prepares the breakfast for her father with bacons which are the cheapest in the market. She discusses with her father about the bills to be paid to the grocer and butcher. She goes into the town on her bicycle for distributing the magazines. Also, she visits the people in the town and tries to convince them for visiting the church atleast for Christening the new bom babies. She also visits people for raising funds for the church. She is also busy in preparing constumes for the children for a chronicle play. This is Dorothy’s busy schedule of every day. It is due her efforts people visit the church. Once she is invited by Mr. Warburton with the intention of introducing her to his friend. Dorothy visits him but no guest friend arrives at Mr. Warburton. It is a wicked plan of Mr. Warburton to seduce Dorothy. Dorothy is shocked. In a disturbed state of mind she returns to Knype Hill. She goes on working for the preparation of the costumes for the children for the play to be enacted on the stage to raise funds for the church. 57 All of a sudden, now she is found on the streets in Kent, London. Due to amnesia she loses her memory; and she does not know where she is and what she is doing in Kent. On the way she is robbed. Meanwhile Mr. Warburton also has left Knype Hill on the same night. Mrs. Semprill, a wicked woman, spreads rumours about the elopment of Dorothy and Mr. Warburton. Within week the rumours spread in daily newspapers and magazines with her photograph. As she is standing in the New Kent Road, London, she meets three young tramps, who take her for hop-picking. They are socially outcasts, who live on anything like hop-picking and sometimes stealing and begging. Nobby, a young man, is their leader who is braver than Flo and Charlie, the other two tramps. People around her are discussing about the rumours of Dorothy’s relation with the aged Mr. Warburton. She is not at all aware of the news being read about her. She has told her name as Ellen Millborrugh which comes to her memory first when it is asked by Nobby and his group. Throughout the day Nobby and Dorothy, Charlie and Flo pick the hops and in the evening they stay in the camp meant for the hop-pickets. Charlie and Flo leave the camp as they cannot bear die pangs of hop-picking. Dorothy starts preparing food for both Nobby and herself. Nobby steals 58 apples, hens from the neighbourhood daily. Once he is arrested by the police and Dorothy is left alone. After regaining memory the society around her becomes unbearable for her. She writes a letter to her father explaining the reality which her father doesn’t realize initially. The season of hop-picking is coming to an end and Dorothy is not getting sufficient food to eat. She writes to her father requesting him to send her some money in order to purchase some clothes for her and return to Knype Hill. As the season of hop-picking is over she has to leave the camp. Then she enters a very cheap lodge which is a brothel. It is notoriously known for a shelter for prostitution. She is tortured by prostitutes. After all her money is spent she once again comes into the streets. She spends ten days in Trafalgar Square along with many tramps who try to save themselves from the bitter cold. They cover themselves with papers to save themselves from the cold. Early in the morning these tramps rush into a cheap hotel to share a cup of tea among two or three, and to get the warmth of the hotel. As the library opens these tramps rush into the library, acquire their chairs, open a magazine lying before them and fall asleep within a moment. The unemployed rush to the library to see the advertisements pinned on the notice-board. Dorothy, too, gets some of the advertisements 59 and visits the places in search of a job, but she is rejected due to her lack of references, having no luggage and sometimes due to her educated accent. She has no alternative than to beg. In the crucial phase of life she has lost her faith in god and religion. Being penniless and homeless, she is leading her life with the tramps in the square with sleepless nights. She has no hopes that her father will help her. The Rector writes a letter to Sir Thomas Hare, cousin of Dorothy, requesting him to find a suitable job for her in London. He sends ten pounds alongwith the letter to Sir Thomas to help Dorothy. Finally after spending about six weeks in the company of social outcasts in a sub-world, Dorothy returns to a respectable society. It is the solicitor of Sir Thomas Hare who suggests Sir Thomas that Dorothy should enter teaching profession. Accordingly she becomes a school mistress in a girls’ school in the suburb of South bridge . This private school is run by Mrs. Creevy who has mercenary attitude. She has classified the students according to their economic status. Mrs. Creevy never bothers for academic developments. She is so crooked that she gives Dorothy neither sufficient food nor leisure. Though Dorothy starves, she spends her salary on purchasing new books for the students. She desires to experiment with the conventional teaching techniques of the school. No doubt, Mrs. Creevy, is jealous of Dorothy. But, later on, an incident in the classroom makes 60 Dorothy change her new teaching techniques and readapting the previous ones. Eventually she loses her job and returns her home at Knype Hill. On their way to Knype Hill, Mr. Warburton askes Dorothy about her future and explains to her the type of life she has to lead in future. Dorothy is totally confused. At the same time he proposes her but she declines. In her conversation with Mr. Warburton she makes it clear that she has lost her faith in religion and church. At Knype Hill Dorothy continues to live her life as hecticly as she used to do previously. She desires to forget the past; hence , she gets involved in multiple activities. Thus die circle completes. As eveiy writing of Orwell comes through his experiences, A Clergyman’s Daughter projects the experiences and opinions of Orwell applied to the protogonist Dorothy. Though the central character is a woman, her sex becomes quite insignificant in the whole course of the narration.
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