Analyzing Attitude and Tone in 'The Tiger King'

1. The Two Pillars: Character Attitude and Authorial Tone

Extract-based questions require you to understand not just what is happening, but how the author is telling the story and why the characters act the way they do.

Character Attitude

This refers to a character's disposition, feelings, and motivations as revealed through their actions, words, and thoughts. In 'The Tiger King', the attitudes are often exaggerated for satirical effect.

• The Maharaja: His attitude is consistently one of arrogance, willfulness, selfishness, and obsession. He believes he is above fate and the law. His single goal blinds him to his duties as a ruler.
• The Dewan: His attitude is one of a meek, servile, and obsequious sycophant. His primary motivation is fear—fear of the king's anger and fear of losing his job. He enables the king's madness to survive.
• The British Officer: Represents colonial arrogance. His attitude is one of entitlement and vanity, wanting the glory of a tiger hunt without the effort.

Authorial Tone

This is the writer's attitude toward the subject. Kalki’s tone is the engine of the satire.

• The Tone: It is overwhelmingly satirical, ironic, humorous, and mocking. Kalki never wants you to feel sympathy for the king; he wants you to see him as a fool.
• The Technique: He achieves this through a third-person omniscient narration, where the narrator knows everything but chooses to present the events with a detached, humorous commentary.

Now, let's apply these two concepts to some exam-style questions.

2. Guided Practice: Analyzing Extracts

We'll work through a couple of extracts, focusing on identifying the attitudes and tone embedded within them.

Extract 1: The King's Proclamation

Let's look at an extract about the king's decision to ban tiger hunting.

From that day onwards it was celebration time for all the tigers inhabiting Pratibandapuram. The state banned tiger hunting by anyone except the Maharaja. A proclamation was issued to the effect that if anyone dared to fling so much as a stone at a tiger, all his wealth and property would be confiscated. The Maharaja vowed he would attend to all other matters only after killing the hundred tigers.

Now, consider the questions from a past paper based on this extract.

Let's break down the answers from the resource:

• (Tone): The author's tone in "'it was celebration time for all tigers'" is ironic and sarcastic. Why? Because the reality is the opposite of a celebration; it marks the beginning of their systematic extermination by the one person who is allowed to hunt them. This gap between words and reality is classic irony.
• (Character Attitude): The king's characteristics are 'Wilful and arrogant'. His decision to halt all state matters ('attend to all other matters only after killing the hundred tigers') and threaten citizens with confiscation of all property for throwing a single stone shows his extreme willfulness (determination) and arrogance (believing his personal vow is more important than his kingdom and its people).
• (Consequences): People obeyed due to fear of the severe punishment—the confiscation of "all his wealth and property." This reinforces the king's tyrannical attitude.

Extract 2: The Dewan's Predicament

Now let's examine an extract from the past paper you provided (Q.P. Code 1/1/1), which we also touched on in the last lesson. We'll look at it again through the lens of a video analysis.

At midnight when the town slept in peace, the Dewan and his aged wife dragged the tiger to the car and shoved it into the seat. The Dewan himself drove the car straight to the forest where the Maharaja was hunting. When they reached the forest, the tiger launched its Satyagraha and refused to get out of the car. The Dewan was thoroughly exhausted in his efforts to haul the beast out of the car and push it down to the ground.

As the video explains, the Dewan's actions are driven by desperation and subservience. The author's choice of words, like applying a term for non-violent political protest to an old tiger, is deliberately absurd and highlights the foolishness of the entire enterprise.

3. Your Turn: Independent Practice

It's time to test your understanding. Look at the image below, which contains an extract and a set of questions. Read the extract carefully and try to answer the questions on your own first.

Now, let's review the answers.

1. What does the British officer's request reveal about him?

   • Answer: (c) He was a vain man. His desire for a photograph with a tiger he didn't kill shows that he cared more about the appearance of being a great hunter than the act itself. This is pure vanity.

2. The Maharaja’s refusal to the request of the 'durai' reflects his...

   • Answer: (b) ego and selfishness. He isn't concerned about conservation (he's killing tigers himself) or courage (he later fears losing his kingdom). His refusal is purely based on his ego; he alone must be the one to kill tigers. His self-interest in completing his tally of 100 tigers overrides everything else.

3. The word from the extract which is a synonym of 'stubborn' is...

   • Answer: There seems to be a slight error in the question's premise in the image resource, as a perfect synonym isn't present. However, the king's action of refusal shows he is stubborn. If we were to infer, his entire stance is one of being unyielding.

4. The Maharaja stood in danger of losing his kingdom because...

   • Answer: (b) he had prevented a British officer from fulfilling his desire. During the British Raj, displeasing a high-ranking officer was a serious matter that could lead to a king being deposed. This shows the political risk the Maharaja was willing to take for his ego.

Conclusion

You've done an excellent job focusing on these specific skills today. By learning to separate character attitude from authorial tone, you can construct much more precise answers for extract-based questions.

Key Takeaways:

• Character Attitude is about the 'why' behind a character's actions (e.g., the king's ego, the dewan's fear).
• Authorial Tone is about the 'how' of the storytelling (e.g., Kalki's use of irony and sarcasm to mock his characters).
• In 'The Tiger King', the mocking tone is a direct commentary on the foolish and dangerous attitudes of the characters.

Preview of the Next Lesson:

We will now move to the next story in your high-yield list from Vistas: 'The Enemy' by Pearl S. Buck. Prepare for a significant shift in tone. We will leave the world of satire and enter a story of deep moral and ethical conflict. Our next outcome will be: Analyze Dr. Sadao's internal conflict between his duty as a doctor and his patriotism in 'The Enemy'.