CHAPTER II

SAROS COWASJEE’S GOODBYE TO ELSA – A STUDY IN THEME AND FORM

Introduction: Saros Cowasjee is an internationally known critic of Mulk Raj Anand. He

is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Regina in Canada. A graduate of the

Universities of Agra and Leeds(UK), he worked for two years with The Times of India

press, Mumbai. His fictional works apart from Goodbye to Elsa are My Dear Maura

(published in Canada as The Assistant Professor), Nude Therapy, and The Last of the

Maharajas (screenplay). Among others, he has written books on Sean O Casey, Mulk

Raj Anand and Indian and Anglo-Indian fiction. He has also edited several fiction

anthologies.

Goodbye to Elsa published in 1974, is Cowasjee’s experiments with ‘black

humour’. It has been his most successful and bestselling novel. Though Cowasjee does

not consider the novel autobiographical, there are similarities between him and Tristan

Elliott, the protagonist of the novel.

Goodbye to Elsa is a highly acclaimed novel of Cowasjee. Unlike other campus

novels, Goodbye to Elsa depicts many campuses. All the campuses play pivotal role in

shaping the protagonist as an individual.

The Plot: The plot of Goodbye to Elsa is woven around Tristan Elliott who is the only

son of a British father and an Anglo-Indian mother. Losing his father at a young age of

four years, he grows witnessing his mother’s illicit relationships and is persecuted by his

mother’s lover Belton and his daughter. Along with his bitter experiences of childhood,

the novel encompasses his misadventures as a student at the Army Academy, Universities

of Delhi and Leeds and later as a lecturer at Erigon College in Canada. At the same time

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his love affairs with innumerable girl friends, including Heather Malleson; his marriage

with Elsa and the birth of a son to them are also depicted. He becomes a broken reed

when he is struck blind in the left eye. He then takes leave of Elsa and his son and lives at

a lonely farmhouse with the intention of killing himself when he turns completely blind.

But there he falls in love with Marie, the grocer’s daughter and finds a ray of hope in life.

But when she too ditches him, he, by way of revenge kills her twin sister Marion. He

feels that it is virgin sacrifice to suspend suffering of the mankind.

Theme in Goodbye to Elsa - A Study: When Tristan’s life is traced from his childhood,

one can observe that it is marked by loneliness and insecurity, owing to his father’s death

and his mother’s promiscuous behavior. His first encounter with a campus is when he

joins the Army Academy at the advice of Colonel Melvin Ross, his neighbor.

In most of the campus novels, one or two campuses are found to be examined.

But in Goodbye to Elsa there are three different campuses examined. It is remarkable that

all these three are in different countries - the first is Army Academy in India, second is

The Leeds, England and the third is The College of Liberal Arts in Erigon, Canada. These

campuses play a vital role in the way Tristan Elliott gets developed as a student and then

as a teacher. In the campuses of Army Academy and Leeds, he is shaped as a student

whereas in Erigon he flourishes as a lecturer. Thus the theme of the novel is taken as the

influence of college or university campus on the life of the protagonist.

The depiction of the Army Academy has been a novel endeavor in the whole of

Indian English Literature. Tristan Elliott’s life begins with the Army Academy campus

and on the very first day he is bullied by his senior cadets. Here Tristan experiences the

indignities meted out by the senior Gentlemen Cadets. Ragging, which is an integral part

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of many campuses is depicted in its various facets. He is made to bear physical as well as

mental assault. They call him malicious names, intimidate him and attack his self-respect.

An instance in the sand model class can be quoted as an example. The instructor, a

captain expected brave and not intelligent answers from the cadets. He disapproves of the

answer given by Tristan and tells him that he would never make an officer, which

disheartens Tristan. The captain blames the new recruitment policy of the Headquarters

for the deterioration of the standard of the Army.

Instead of recruiting officers from the warrior classes such as the

Sikhs, Rajputs and Gurkhas, they had opened the doors to the

scribes….. “Here you have a young man” he said, pointing

towards me, “who has passed his Intelligence Test. And yet he

cannot think of anything better than writing a letter to Army

Headquarters or digging in. If I had my way I would bury him

six feet under-ground and put a tombstone on him to see that he

doesn’t get out”1.

And the whole class laughs aloud at him. On another occasion, he says, “My intellectual

bearing made me stand out in the midst of my comrades and the Sergeant Major rapped

me a couple of times on the calves with his silver baton.”2 He further says, “I would have

stayed in the army and earned a place in history, for I was a good marksman. But my

comrades-in-arms made my life impossible with their hate, malice and vulgarity.”3 He

has both capacity and heart to proceed in this profession, but this kind of tyrannical

atmosphere becomes too severe for him to put up with and he resigns from it.

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 Goodbye to Elsa highlights both the merits and demerits of Army Academy in

both lighter and earnest veins. The next campus that Goodbye to Elsa deals with is that of

Delhi. It is a tiny episode which brings out the aspect of romance associated with the

campus life among the students. Tristan meets his first love here. “……there was a girl

called Nellie. We were both students in Delhi. She at Miranda House and I at St.

Stephens.”4

One universal aspect that is associated with campus life is that of romance.

Goodbye to Elsa hints at inter-campus love affairs and also to one of the realized truths

that all romances do not end up in marriages, that most of the romances are subjected to

failures.

Tristan and Nellie also do not succeed in their love even though both of them are

very intimate to each other. They are forced to part ways due to the foul play of destiny.

Nellie meets with a train accident and loses both her legs in it. Ironically, Tristan is

always fond of kissing her from the feet. Symbolically their romance is shown as

impossibility as she has lost her legs up to the knees. Thus the campus in Delhi and the

related romance is depicted in this episode.

He then begins to wander in search of love and solace and leaves to Dublin to

study in the Trinity College. He even has an appointment with a History professor there.

But he never goes to meet him as he is dejected by a girl called Julie whom he meets in a

disco.

He then arrives in Leeds and meets his uncle and aunt there. As soon as he settles

down and begins his research on ‘Henry II’s Conquest of Ireland’, the first representative

of the foreign campus whom he meets is ironically an Indian – Rajeshwar Dayal, the

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President of The India Association. He comes to Tristan’s place and persuades him into

becoming a member by listing out the advantages. In this section, which deals with the

campus of Leeds University, some of the most important aspects of campus like

Students’ Union, Campus Politics, behaviour of Indian students in a foreign campus and

romance are subsumed.

Students’ Union and Campus Politics are represented with the portrayal of ‘The

India Association’- A forum which is said to have been built to safeguard the interest of

the Indian students. A series of ironies is found in the depiction of the Indian students’

community at Leeds. Mr. Rajeshwar Dayal, its president “…was working for his Ph.D.

in Sociology and had been in residence at the university longer than any other Indian.

This was his last year – as far as the Graduate committee was concerned.”5

The satire appears to be more pointed in narrating the office and functions of

student Associations. The India Association under the presidentship of Mr. Dayal

indulges in politicizing the academic matters. Besides holding mirror to the bias of

foreign academics towards the Indian students, the Association is associated with

malpractice as:

The Mayor is our worthy patron, and the Vice-Chancellor is

our Honorary Chairman. But we have to keep on our guard.

Some of the professors are colored-conscious. Do you know

that only fifty per cent of the members of the Association failed

their examinations last year, while seventy-five per cent of the

non-members failed. The university is now finding it very

difficult to fail active members of our Association. We have

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 issued a solemn warning that if they fail us we shall appeal to

the Human Rights Commission. If you want to pass, join the

India Association. We will fight for you.6

But the height of irony is that Mr.Dayal himself has not completed his course yet.

Dayal not only leads an immoral life but also guides the members to premarital and

extramarital affairs, by giving his own example. He dismantles fidelity towards his wife

and equates having an affair to enjoying life.

Shituloo Raman, who is introduced as the Secretary of India Association and a

medical student, also voices the same opinion. He goes a little further and manufactures

ayurvedic birth control pills. He is a philanderer and knows innumerable tricks to coax a

woman into agreeing with him. He doesn’t even leave Heather Malleson, whom Tristan

brings to him a little later in the novel, to get an abortion done. In the name of India

Association, its originators propagate liberalism to Indian youth and are leading them

astray. Tristan perhaps gets sub-consciously influenced by these people’s words. It is the

courage that Shituloo’s pills bring in him which instigates him to go for physical

relationship with Heather.

Goodbye to Elsa is a foremost novel which exposes the craze of Indian students

for foreign girls on the foreign campus. It looks like a fictional documentary of the life of

Indian students on the campus abroad. Irrespective of their marital status, the Indian boys

strive to attract the attention of white girls. Their craze is depicted in the following

instance where Lydia was surrounded by many Indian boys who were boasting about

themselves and trying to teach her Hindi.

When I returned to the room, Lydia was surrounded by four

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 admirers, all talking to her at the same time and she being

attentive to all. One was insisting that she try the pakoras

(dumplings), made from lentils he brought with him from India

and prepared to his mother’s ‘prescription’. Another who

occupied the attic of this house, was lamenting that

owing to foreign exchange difficulties he could not take delivery

of his Jaguar.7

Dating and dancing are extensively practiced by these students. It is at the

Students’ Union dance that Tristan meets Heather Malleson. Much earlier, when he was

in Dublin, he had met Julie, one of his ex-girlfriends at a dance hall. It is clear that in the

name of celebrations of Diwali and National festivals like Independence Day and

Republic Day, the Indian students drink and dance with their girlfriends. Thereby

ironically violate the national culture. Instead of upholding Indian values and principles

they surrender themselves to the colorful revelry of the West. Severe kind of satire is

intended when it is stated that the India Association has drawn a lot of white women to it.

Another most important aspect prevalent in the campus is the internal rivalry in

the campus politics among the students themselves. It is an open secret that there are

subgroups and dissidents in the politics of the students in the campus. The India

Association is not an exception to it. There are two rivals for Mr. Dayal – Santosh Kumar

and Shituloo Raman.

Santosh Kumar is about to move to Sorbonne to do his doctoral work on Marcel

Proust. He expresses his dissidence indirectly by writing a letter of parody of Mr.Dayal’s

letter of invitation for the Diwali socials and causes humiliation to Mr. Dayal. But here

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Tristan is made the scapegoat as he does this not under his name but that of Tristan and

directs Dayal’s fury to him.

Shituloo Raman, the second rival of Dayal encourages dissidence among the

members of the India Association in order to cause damage to the popularity of Mr.

Dayal. The rift between the President and the Secretary is made clear when the President

makes a mention in his letter that, “The secretary has been made to swallow an

elephantine lie, which has choked all reason out of him. Some sinister monster is perhaps

breathing hot and cold over his shoulders.”8 On the other hand, Shituloo Raman recounts

how Dayal was a ‘hypocritical scoundrel’9 when he comes to congratulate Tristan on his

‘brilliant satire’10 of the president’s open letter.

The major events in Tristan’s life take place in the campus. It is in the campus of

Leeds that Tristan meets the two very important women who shape his destiny. Indeed

the university campus is the platform which provides Tristan the scope to meet and love

women. These women are also students – Heather Malleson studying for her Honors in

Biology whereas Elsa is a student of English. These play a vital role in making some

important decisions in his life. Heather Malleson, is the girl with whom Tristan has an

affair for the longest time. If she was more faithful to him, he would even marry her. His

relationship with her stands on the foundation of dishonesty and it is obvious that it

would not last long. In the first place he conceals from her the fact that he is an Anglo-

Indian, because Indians had a bad reputation in England and he feared that even the three-

fourths English blood in him wouldn’t be sufficient to wipe off the stain of the one-fourth

Indian blood.

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 At times he would be reminded of Nellie while he was in Heather’s company.

When asked about this, he would assure her that she was the only girl he had ever loved.

He says, “It was a lie but then I had made a good start on a lie…….and soon convinced
11
myself that she was the only woman I had loved”. With such assumptions, the very

basis of his existence becomes lies. He is not only deceiving her but also himself.

So when he was cheated and deceived by her towards the end of their

relationship, he felt that “Some grim justice was being dealt to me. For it was I who had

lied and cheated her in the first place”. 12 He was comparatively more faithful to her, but

less honest and she was more honest and less faithful to him.

Though he himself starts dating Elsa, being with Heather, he gets infuriated when

he comes to know of Heather’s date with Shituloo Raman. He stops meeting her but only

for two days. On the third day he rushes back to her. It is only out of physical desire that

he goes back to her.

He neither wants to marry her because she was not intelligent nor does he want to

leave her. When her late periods are mistaken for pregnancy, he ponders over the kind of

his life with Heather, “The idea of spending a life-time with Heather chilled me and on

reflection I found that apart from sex, there was very little in common between us.” 13 On

the other hand, returning to her he says, “Go wherever you want, take whomever you

want, but don’t leave me. Heather, that is my dying wish, don’t leave me.” 14

They promise to remain faithful to each other but he continues his affair with Elsa

and Heather begins one with Moustafa Sadat. He is reminded of his research work when

Elsa enquires about it. Then he begins working seriously on it. He is unable to make out

whether his love for Heather is genuine or not. He thinks that he would be able to decide

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it after making love to any other woman. Even his visiting a prostitute too does not help.

Finally he decides against marrying Heather because of her frivolous nature. His

marriage with Elsa is just for the sake of companionship as he becomes lonely after

deserting Heather. He is able to concentrate on his research only after Heather leaves

England and goes to Damascus marrying Moustafa Sadat.

The novel traces his becoming a scholarly person. It highlights the process of

Tristan’s research methodology. In the University of Leeds Tristan is a research scholar

working on the topic “Henry II’s Conquest of Ireland” for his Ph.D. degree in History. In

the beginning, his supervisor is not contented with the standard of his work. His

comments on the quality of Tristan’s work exemplify the aspect of campus novel – “My

supervisor Dr.Geoffrey Adams, failed to appreciate the first chapter I had submitted. ‘Not

only is there not one, single original idea,’ he complained, ‘but even the rehash of

others’opinions makes no sense’”. 15

Tristan’s planning and collecting materials for his research is also rendered here-

I had planned on making the best use of my trip. I saw my

supervisor the morning of my departure. …………… My first

task was to map out Henry II’s itinerary in Ireland………I had

also to establish the authenticity of ‘The Bull Laudabiliter’of

which Henry made such good use. My professor commended

my goal, but doubted my ability to improve on Eyton. He

wished me the very best of luck and a happy voyage. My

briefcase was stuffed with note paper and index cards, and I

had a most impressive bibliography………I spent the day turning

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 over the pages of journals and by the evening had managed

to consult some thirty volumes. I had also taken down two

pages of quotations.16

Amidst his romances, break-ups, disappointments, marriage with Elsa, he

manages to obtain his Ph.D. degree. The novel does not even disregard the aspect of his

supervisor congratulating Tristan. This section of the novel has dealt with almost all the

aspects of the campus life as seen by the protagonist as a student such as – Student

Union, Campus Politics, love affairs among students, disappointments, the teachers’

attitude towards Indian students, teacher-student relationship, research strategy, etc.

Tristan wishes to make a fresh start in a new country. With the help of his

professor’s letter, he gets a teaching position in Erigon College, Canada. This is the third

campus discussed in the novel. The novel gives a detailed description of the History

department, Faculty Wives’ Association, the lobby among the faculty, the work nature of

the faculty, the life of the faculty on the campus, the public notion about teachers etc.

This campus brings in new revelations, new responsibilities and thereby a new

perspective to his life. He gets to look at the goings-on of the campus from the angle of

an Assistant Professor now. Many amazing facts about the faculty at a university go on

getting revealed here.

Power Politics is seen to have a high-hand over everything else in the campus.

The substantiation of this point can be obtained from the following instances. When the

issue of the editorship of Notikeewin Review was in question, Cursetjee, was rejected

though he had the required capability and acumen. Mr.Peabody was selected, because, he

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was supported by his wife, the President of Faculty Wives’ Association although he did

not have any experience of editing.

Tristan comes to know of the power and prevalence of Faculty Wives’

Association, a union of the wives of the teaching staff. It was considered the most

powerful body on the campus and its weapon was slander. That is why gossips are not

new to him and he says that he is not afraid of gossips having lived three years in Erigon.

Its importance is further emphasized when Tristan tells about the Committee

Supreme, the most important of all the committees, “As the highest body of the college it

was above lobbying, and its decisions could not be influenced by anybody less than the

President of the Faculty Wives’ Association.” 17

Notikeewin Historical Review which was started as a serious research journal

had become a journal of stories and poems with historical themes. One cannot neglect an

element of doubt that it might be Peabody’s fabrication that there was deficiency of

research articles in History, in order to publish his own poems in the review.

Out of Peabody’s over fifty poems on the themes of marriage and divorce, only a

few of his divorce poems were published and none of his marriage poems were accepted

for publication. Irritated by this Mrs. Peabody herself applies to the Research Committee

for a grant of $500 to finance the publication of her husband’s tribute to her. “There was,

of course, no question of the sum being refused.” 18 Here Tristan observes the way the

funds get misused in educational institutions. Instead of the purpose, the Research

Committee takes into consideration the applicant to sanction the fund.

The behaviour and attitude of the faculty members are discussed meticulously in

the novel. On one occasion, the faculty members are together and the novel explains the

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difference between the faculty in England and that in Canada- “Nobody talked shop as

they do in England: One’s learning is looked upon as more personal than one’s wife.”19

After a few drinks the men are found to desire their neighbor’s wife. This comparative

analogy is an additional quality of Goodbye to Elsa as a campus novel.

Tristan describes a situation to show how unsophisticated and mannerless the

faculty members are. Tristan places a box of twenty cigars on the Secretary’s table as

customary, as a treat to his colleagues on the birth of his son. And within minutes, the

box was empty though only six people smoked. Two members were left with none and

Tristan had to buy them cigars of their choice from the college bookshop. One can never

miss the irony that cigars are available in college bookshop.

“After a few drinks the men were as fed horses in the morning: each neighing

after his neighbor’s wife”. 20 When two such men come up to Elsa, Tristan, instead of

getting angry feels proud to see his wife so desired by other men.

The ruined state of affairs in campus can be seen when Tristan explains Marie

how wives can play important roles in their husbands’ academic careers. The moral

degradation in educational institutions can be seen here.

For one, she can let her bottom be pinched by his immediate

superior, and that is worth one special salary increase in most

cases. A pretty girl like you could get me a full professorship

in two years…..A wife can blackmail her husband’s boss

and force him to promote her husband.21

He gives his own example, “How do you think I was promoted?......Through Elsa.

She and Petra – my Chairman’s wife – became the best of pals after we bought their

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house. And Elsa recommended me to Petra. After that it was rubber-stamped all the way

up”.22

Satire is one of the prime features of Campus novels. Satiric descriptions of the

goings-on in Erigon College are found in abundance in the novel. Debating with Marie,

Tristan denies her statement that the workload for professors is eight hours per week and

says that it is a ‘full nine hours’ in reality. He says, “A professor works harder than the

Prime Minister, and for longer hours. Wherever he is, his mind is intriguing. The only

time he is able to relax is when his students are reading their essays to the class”. 23

During a debate between Marie and Tristan, Marie charges a complaint against

the teachers that their workload is not proportionate to the salary paid to them. This is a

very significant issue in the wake of the recommendations from Human Rights

Commission that equal pay for equal work. While the work period is prescribed as eight

hours per day in other professions, eight hours per week for teachers show how they are

more privileged. Hence Marie’s contention is an issue which cannot be brushed aside

though it bites the ego of the faculty as a bitter pill.

Tristan’s defense does not bring out any significant difference in the workload.

“ ‘Dad says the professors only teach eight hours a week and

spend the rest of their time goofing around’.

‘That’s a bloody lie, Marie, we teach a full nine hours.’ ” 24

Though in correcting Marie about the workload, there is an addition of only one

hour, he has included all the other works of a professor like framing the syllabus,

conducting exams, awarding grades, attending meetings, participating in the activities of

the management of the college, etc. as part of a teacher’s work. It suggests that the work

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nature of teachers should not be measured in terms of physical labour but in terms of

intellectual labour.

The author explains the shift in the priorities of the professors in a very satirical

vein. Tristan tells Marie that “Lecturing is the least important of our jobs, and the

preparation still less. Our job is to keep the college going, except for the five months

when we are in London, Paris, Rome, Zurich, Madrid for research”.25As imparting of

knowledge to the students is the primary duty of a teacher, preparation for lectures,

lecturing and correcting their mistakes in their essays are the tasks of considerable

importance and no responsible teacher can afford to neglect them.

Though Tristan is comparatively more responsible in the beginning, being one of

the professors in such an unwholesome atmosphere, he too acquires the traits of lazy

professors. He tells Marie that he was given two courses about which he did not know

anything. The way of his running the classes was to ask the students to write long essays

and making them read to the class. He says, “I maintained a strictly neutral stance –

rarely opened my mouth. This helped them to be original.”26 Sometime later he says,

“When we couldn’t check on the facts our students gave us, we corrected their English.

And this is at the best of times a tricky job.”27 One clearly understands that he is trying to

justify in a subtle manner, his inability to teach the subject or comment on the essay. He

goes on to say that,

The divorce rate among professors is higher than in any other

profession. And because of the professors’ preoccupation with

matters that are academic, adultery is looked upon as a minor

aberration. And it is generally settled out of court by the wronged

person seeking redress through visiting the other’s wife.28

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A much uncivilized kind of system can be witnessed here which does not really go with

an educated society.

It is at this place that it dawns on Tristan that to be lonesome means not to be

alone but to be with people one does not love.

The big, happy family- The History Department- was a fiction.

It was torn with envy and strife. Everyone hated someone, and

I hated them all. Murder, betrayal, perfidy, treachery, rebellion,

massacre, cruelty, rage, madness, lust, malice, rape, plunder,

extortion, these were the lessons of History29.

He even finds the students disinterested. Their questions concerned only exams and

marks and not the subject.

He begins to consider them damned souls and refrains from failing anybody. He

also supports their opinions and endorses their view that they should have a voice of their

own in the college affairs and should not remain silent any longer. Because of these two

reasons, he becomes popular among the students. As he says, his popularity is further

‘sky-rocketed’ by the ‘Soup Deadlock’ in which he actively participates. It is a student-

protest against the rise in the price of soup in the cafeteria from fifteen to sixteen cents. It

was done by organizing the sale of Pepsi cola at twenty cents a glass. This instigates the

management to give in by retaining the previous price. But the quantity of the soup is

reduced.

Though Marie has not even entered the portals of learning she makes Tristan, a

learned man to reminisce his past, think and arrive at a clear picture about his life and

relationships. She criticizes his way of writing and use of words also. About his fear of

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losing his other eye, she says, “Your fear is your excuse to run away from all the things

you do not like. If you didn’t have this excuse, you would find another”. 30 This view is

strengthened by his further thoughts,

Marie may be right….I was thinking of renouncing the world and

walking the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail, preaching the doctrine of non-

violence before I lost my eye. Where would I have been now?

The Americans would have bombed me out. It’s good I lost my

eye, so that I can be with Marie….31

When there is renunciation, it should be total without the thought of any desire.

But here it is made clear that Tristan never wanted to renounce the world. But to run

away from all the things he did not want in life.

Towards the later part of the novel one can observe that he is a changed man.

Though Marie is ready to get seduced by him he doesn’t, until he tells her the truth about

himself. After that he feels composed and serene for the first time in his life, because here

he has given out the truth about himself honestly without retaining anything.

He becomes much aware of the fact that his relationship with Marie cannot

flourish. She cannot live the whole of her life as his mistress. He even thinks of her

family. He tells her, “You have come into my life much too late. You cannot help me, but

you can do yourself a lot of harm”.32 He is made capable of such sensible thoughts by his

experience and responsible position in the campus.

Marie helps him in one way but also causes a lot of harm to him. She asks him

about his past and questions him, which help him to retrospect into his own doings.

“Is your conscience troubling you?”

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 “It does, occasionally. I feel I have been very unjust to Elsa. I

never felt so till you made me speak about her the other day. I

married her thinking only of myself, and when I found that she

was not what I wanted – I discarded her like an old garment. It is

not her fault that I do not love her as I love you”.33

She persists on him to make a fresh start in his life. She wants him to live with her

and later obtain a divorce from Elsa and marry her. She says that there was nothing

wrong in it. She kindles a light of hope in his life but mercilessly turns it off which

becomes unbearable for Tristan. He resorts to avenging the wrongs done to him and

saving mankind from all suffering through virgin sacrifice. He tricks Marion, Marie’s

twin sister into coming to his place and offers her as a sacrifice.

Form in Goodbye to Elsa - A Study:

Structure: The novel is in the first person narration. The novel begins on a note of

anguish with Tristan Elliott’s loss of an eye and his rushing to the hospital and ends on a

tragic note with the loss of his life. The novel oscillates between the present and the past,

which is depicted in the reminiscential mode. In the later part of the novel when Tristan

meets Marie, she acquires the role of the collective audience. As Rajendra Singh puts it,

“Although Cowasjee uses flash-back, the novel has a fairly straight-forward plot.” 34 The

narration is non-linear. But that does not lead to any confusion as all the episodes,

whether present or past are narrated at a stretch. He does not begin his account of life

with his childhood, but with his love affair with Nellie. His childhood and his stay at the

Army Academy are the foremost events in his life but are narrated only towards the end,

to Marie. It can be said to have the hotchpotch mode of narration. Anna Rutherford

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opines, “It is true that this is an unusual novel and Cowasjee mingles tragedy and comedy

in rapid succession in the O’Casey manner.”35

In an interview with O.P.Mathur, Saros Cowasjee has said that when he began to

write Goodbye Elsa, “All I had in the mind was that mine will be a story of persecution –

there will be no laughter in it. But as the story progressed, the comedy of life broke

through and the novel took a very different turn from what I had planned”.36

Cowasjee makes use of different literary forms in the novel to drive home his

point or make it more effective. Some of the forms used are poem, report, letters,

allegory, jokes, etc. Irony, satire and symbolism are also used in abundance throughout

the novel.

Letters constitute an integral part of the novel. The first letter of the novel which

appears in chapter seven is written by the President of The India Association, Rajeshwar

Dayal inviting the members to the Dipawali Day celebrations. The second is its parodied

letter supposed to have been written by Tristan but in actuality by Santosh Kumar, who

was to leave to Sorbonne to do his doctoral work on Marcel Proust.

Two letters from Heather to Tristan appear in chapter nine. His letter of

resignation from the Army Academy is the next one which appears in Chapter Twenty

five. In Chapter Twenty eight, bits of Marie’s love epistles to Tristan are given. The final

chapter, Chapter Twenty nine contains Marie’s terminal letter giving up Tristan forever is

presented. These letters are specimen of various kinds of letters like- Letter of invitation,

letter of parody, letter of resignation, letter of love, letter of betrayal. Heather’s letters act

as gap fillers, as hints of her whereabouts and her condition after she leaves Tristan.

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 There are some jingles used in the novel like the one which is used by Tristan

when he rushes back to Heather in spite of her disloyalty towards him.

There has fallen a splendid tear

From the passion - flower at the gate.

She is coming, my dove, my dear;

She is coming, my life, my fate.37

A hymn sung by a choir of six girls which was conducted by a Salvation Army

officer in Hyde Park is included in the narrative-

O God of my salvation hear,

And help a sinner to draw near

With boldness to thy throne of Grace.38

This has an ironic touch as at that time Tristan was searching for a whore, in order to

affirm his love to Heather. The author has incorporated another technique to bring out the

innermost feelings of the protagonist that is Tristan’s conversation with God. In one of

those he even feels that God replies to him-

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so

far from helping me ….I heard His voice, clear and metallic:

“For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins of

the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth

generation of them that hate me….”39

As Tristan does not confide his true feelings to anyone, this technique helps to reveal his

deep-rooted thoughts.

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 Symbolism is very skillfully used in the novel. One such example is when he is

rejected by Nellie, he says, “I ran into the streets. There were no people- nothing but

grinning faces; rows and rows of horrible grinning faces. I ran faster. I turned here and

there, but wherever I went there were more faces – just senseless, endless, jeering

faces”.40 These grinning, jeering faces symbolize his feeling that the whole world was

laughing at his helplessness, his loneliness.

Cowasjee’s novel is not without comic elements. When he describes Prof. Patrick

Dunlop, he writes, “You couldn’t imagine him without his beard – he must have been

born with it.” 41 He also writes that Dr. Horace Peabody wore his most colorful doctoral

gown whenever he was engaged in “solemn pursuits” 42 like editing and writing poetry.

Irony is prominently used throughout the novel. To quote one example – While

selling their old house to the Elliotts, Mr. and Mrs.Dunlop try to persuade them saying

that such “old houses are hard to come by”. 43 Mrs.Dunlop says that she wouldn’t stay in

a modern house as they are very uncomfortable and don’t have a fireplace. But ironically

they move on to a modern house. Understanding that it was just a trick to sell off the old

house, Tristan uses Dunlop’s very words repeatedly to emphasize the irony involved. The

label on Shituloo Raman’s birth control pills reads “…for Gentlemen only”44 which is

outright irony.

Anna Rutherford writes “the satire more often than not is razor sharp, and there

are few that escape it. The foibles of the English, the Irish, the Indians and the Canadians

come into ridicule and the author hits out without qualms in every direction.”45 For

example: “….the Canadians are so neutral: they are neither sane nor insane, neither good

nor bad. They generally take the color from their surroundings. Don’t think I am being

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unkind. I love Canada and the Canadians…..Where else could I have been a

professor?.....”46 ; he writes of Indian men ogling every foreign female under fifty on the

ship. The campus life too is depicted in a satirical vein which has already been discussed.

The novel is surely “A departure from the mainstream of Indian Writing today, as well as

from European and American Literature.”47

Diction: Cowasjee uses a very informal kind of diction which increases the readability of

the novel. He has used Hindi words while depicting the Indian campus which is the Army

Academy. Words and phrases like ‘bania’, ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’, ‘Mahatma Gandhi ki jai’,

and even some vulgar words have been included.

A sample of Irish English is also given. When Tristan is in Dublin and his friend

Robert becomes a part of the heated discussion about their territories, in a pub, one

Irishman says, “Be God!.....Looka dhat fella sayin’ we can’t look afther ah’selves an’ he

a chiseller from school!” 59

A bit of rural English is also provided for once, in the conversation between

Tristan and Marie-“Surely important institutions aren’t run like that?”

“The whole world is run like that”. 60

When Shituloo Raman is telling about the women in Leeds, he says, “This is

England, my friend, not India. Women here don’t have the modesty of our Indian

ladies!”61 The word ladies which shows respect is used only for Indian women here, even

by a man like Shituloo Raman.

Another aspect of Cowasjee’s diction is the use of short sentences like P.M.

Nityanandan in The Long Long Days. Some examples are- ‘That is easy’; ‘Yes, I think

so’; ‘And how many more?’; ‘An Egyptian?’ etc.

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 The author has used non-lingusistic expressions like ‘chuck-chuck’ and ‘puff-

puff’. It is clear that Cowasjee has made stylistic experiments with language.

Characterization: Cowasjee’s skill in drawing Tristan’s character is extraordinary. He is

the only main character who is drawn at length and so only his character is discussed

here.

Tristan’s unhappiness results as much from the callousness of

modern society as it does from his own inability to meet the

demands of life. He is an alienated person, and the two facets of

the alienated mind: the desire to put down roots and an inordinate

egotism come into conflict. This conflict remains unresolved

because of the hero’s proneness for deception and self-deception.48

“I sought her out when I was lonely and wanted company.”49 This is said by

Tristan regarding Heather. But this can be applied to Elsa and all his girlfriends, as their

feelings had never been his concern. He wanted them only to ward off his loneliness. One

can observe that whenever a girlfriend leaves him, he is terribly disturbed, remembers

Nellie and his mother, suffers from insomnia and so resorts to drinking.

Contemplating on the reasons for his marriage with Elsa, Tristan says, “There are

a thousand and one reasons- and for all seasons.”50 He wanted to get away from Heather,

he wanted to live a clean and virtuous life; he was tired and wanted a home, he was

lonesome – are some of them.

The stories of Tristan’s girlfriend Nellie and Elsa’s boyfriend Wilhelm are almost

similar in that both are victims of fate. This similarity brings Elsa and Tristan closer and

244
it is he who asks her to marry him. But later he says, “Meditating on a dead man and a

crippled girl, I was consigned to life with a woman I did not love.”51

It is mainly because of her huge body that he detests Elsa and is devoid of any

emotional attachment with his own child. He feels that his son meant his “facsimile who

must re-enact the human drama, suffer like me, and through copulation pass on affliction

and wretchedness to others. With my death only I would die, the evil in me would live

on”.52 But surprisingly he agrees when Marie expresses her wish to have a child by him.

In the early part of his life he longs for wholesome relationship. As a child he says

that in his school, “There was one girl I wished I had as a sister.”53 Here one can notice

his desperation for relationship. For the whole of his life he does not have even a single

true friend. He does not understand his virtuous and moral wife, Elsa’s worth. But during

the last moments of his life, he remembers none but Elsa. His last words are - “I am

going, Elsa. Goodbye, Elsa” 54

According to Rajendra Singh, Tristan is “a rather curious mixture of Quixote and

Christ.”55 He is immoral, but at times he reiterates the words of Christ. As Julie, his ex-

girlfriend says that even the Blessed Virgin would dread to come to his room alone. But

later he changes to such an extent that he says he was greatly influenced by Herman

Hesse’s Siddhartha; captivated by the saga of Gautama; wanted to go to Indo-China and

walk the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail imparting the noble eight-fold path.

Tristan sometimes seems to be a complex character. He says that his doctor has

advised him to see a psychiatrist “And it is the only medical advice I have always scoffed

at. I am sane. A good proof of my sanity is that though I am ready to die, I have not yet

killed myself”. 56 He says, “I am the plaything of Fate”57 in that he is a very naturalistic

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creation and without any doubt one can agree with Mr. Rajendra Singh’s words- “It

shows control and a clear sense of the craft on the author’s part…”58

Conclusion: The novel is noticed because of its frank treatment of the aspects of campus

as well as of life. Here a realistic picture of the merits and demerits of the Army

Academy can be found. An almost inevitable phenomenon in any campus - love is

remarkably delineated by Cowasjee. He has proved that he is a master in sketching

unique characters. In campuses both tragedy and comedy go hand in hand, and the author

has aptly made use of black humor to depict this. Writers of campus novels tend to turn to

satire as campus has a lot of pain and sorrow in them, which can be contained in a farce

alone.

Tristan’s first experience of a campus at the Army Academy is not a pleasant one

but it provides him with the fortitude to face the atrocities of life. When Rajeshwar Dayal

mistakes Tristan to have written the satirical letter to him and throws Tristan’s annual

dues, a fistful of coins at him, Tristan, without any complaint, just picks up the coins,

counts them and gets stone drunk at the nearest pub. The reason for such a calm response

might be that he had found the insult too trivial in comparison with the insult experienced

by him at the Army Academy and so he does not feel any pain of the rudeness. He is even

enabled to cope with the power politics so prevalent at Erigon College.

It can be observed that Tristan gains courage to fornicate Heather for the first time

only because he has ayurvedic birth control pills with him which were given to him by

Shituloo Raman. This shows that the people associated with campus play a very

prominent role in making Tristan a philanderer.

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 The last campus with which he associates makes him mature and responsible. The

plethora of negative elements present in the campus like betrayal, treachery, rebellion,

cruelty, rage, madness, lust, malice, extortion, etc. and his hatred towards his wife Elsa

makes him feel completely lonely. So he begins to lean towards spirituality, though not

completely. Though he gets attracted towards Marie and she too is ready to get seduced

by him he doesn’t, until he tells her the truth about himself. He thinks of her future and

also her family. These changes are seen to be the result of the influence of campus life on

him.

Goodbye to Elsa has depicted the campus life at St. Stephens College Delhi,

Army Academy, University of Leeds, and Erigon College of Liberal Arts Canada. It

gives a considerably bleak and pessimistic view of life. The novel has subsumed the

students, teachers, administrators, parents and public in the narrative; highlighted various

aspects of Academy like romance, marriage, love, associations, politics, parties, divorce,

and ethics in association with the persons involved in campus/Academic life.

Above all, it appears as a poetics of campus novel as it incorporates multiple

campuses to render the narrative of campus life comprehensively. It can be considered an

experimental novel as it incorporates various campuses and varied aspects of campus

novel.

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Notes
1
Saros Cowasjee, Goodbye to Elsa, (Toronto: New Press, 1974) 127
2
Cowasjee, 126
3
Cowasjee, 128
4
Cowasjee, 11
5
Cowasjee, 26
6
Cowasjee, 27
7
Cowasjee, 31
8
Cowasjee, 28
9
Cowasjee, 33
10
Cowasjee, 33
11
Cowasjee, 44
12
Cowasjee, 45
13
Cowasjee, 53
14
Cowasjee, 60
15
Cowasjee, 53
16
Cowasjee, 69
17
Cowasjee, 119
18
Cowasjee, 91
19
Cowasjee, 92
20
Cowasjee, 92
21
Cowasjee, 115
22
Cowasjee, 115

248
23
Cowasjee, 118
24
Cowasjee, 117
25
Cowasjee, 118-119
26
Cowasjee, 117
27
Cowasjee, 118
28
Cowasjee, 118
29
Cowasjee, 94
30
Cowasjee, 110
31
Cowasjee, 110
32
Cowasjee, 108
33
Cowasjee, 112
34
Rajendra Singh, Review; The Journal of Indian Writing in English, July 1976,

Vol. 4, No.2 ed. G.S. Balarama Gupta, 80

35
Anna Rutherford, Review of Goodbye to Elsa in The Literary Half-Yearly, Vol.

XVI, No.2, July 1975,175.

36
Dr. O P Mathur, The modern Indian English fiction (New Delhi: Abhinav

Publications, 1993) 205.

37
Cowasjee, 59
38
Cowasjee, 71
39
Cowasjee, 74
40
Cowasjee, 13
41
Cowasjee, 90
42
Cowasjee, 91

249
43
Cowasjee, 92-93
44
Cowasjee, 48
45
Anna Rutherford, Review of Goodbye to Elsa The Literary Half-Yearly, July

1975, Vol. XVI, No.2, 175

46
Cowasjee, Goodbye to Elsa, (Toronto: New Press, 1974)142
47
Anna Rutherford, Review of Goodbye to Elsa The Literary Half-Yearly, July

1975, Vol. XVI, No.2, 175

48
Anna Rutherford, Review of Goodbye to Elsa, The Literary Half-Yearly, July

1975, Vol. XVI, No.2, 174

49
Cowasjee, 82
50
Cowasjee, 88
51
Cowasjee, 85
52
Cowasjee, 95
53
Cowasjee, 137
54
Cowasjee, 152.
55
Rajendra Singh, Review in The Journal of Indian Writing in English Vol. 4, No.2,

ed. G.S. Balarama Gupta, July 1976, 80

56
Cowasjee, 79
57
Cowasjee, 79
58
Rajendra Singh, Review in The Journal of Indian Writing in English Vol. 4, No.2

ed. G.S. Balarama Gupta, July 1976, 80

59
Cowasjee, 70
60
Cowasjee, 115
61
Cowasjee, 49

250