A STUDY OF LOVE AND LIFE IN SANFRANCISCO: THE GOLDEN GATE

NOVEL BY VIKRAM SETH

A project submitted to MADURAI KAMARAJ UNIVERSITY for the partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

IN

ENGLISH

Submitted by

J. Pavitha
(Reg no: 20AY601300034)
Under the guidance of

Dr. R. Dhayalakrishnan, M.A., M.phil., Ph.D.,

Department of English
Directorate of Distance Education
Madurai Kamaraj University
Madurai – 625021
April 2022
1
 DECLARATION

I hereby state that the project entitled A STUDY OF LOVE AND LIFE IN

SANFRANCISCO: THE GOLDEN GATE NOVEL BY VIKRAM SETH for the partial

fulfillment of the award of DEGREE OF MASTERS IN ENGLISH is my original work and it

has not been previously formed on the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, associate ship,

fellowship or other similar title.

PLACE: Madurai J. Pavitha

DATE: Reg No: 20AY601300034

2
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the project entitled A STUDY OF LOVE AND LIFE IN

SANFRANCISCO: IN THE NOVEL THE GOLDEN GUIDE BY VIKRAM SETH

submitted by J.PAVITHA (Reg No. 20AY601300034) for the partial fulfillment of the award of

the degree of Master of English is his original work and it has not been previously formed on the

basis for the award of any degree, diploma, associate ship, fellowship or other similar title.

SIGNATURE OF THE HOD SIGNATURE OF THE GUIDE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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 I hereby express my great pleasure in thanking all those who helped me in completing

this project. It is great honor for me to be the student of the department of English, Directorate of

Distance Education, Madurai Kamaraj University one of the most prestigious institution in India.

I extend my sincere thanks to Dr. R. Dhayalakrishnan, Assistant Professor, Department of

English, Directorate of Distance Education, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai for his

immense support throughout study. I am highly indebted to thank my guide Dr. R.

Dhayalakrishnan Assistant professor and Head of the Department, for his able guidance and

support in completing this project.

I would like to thank the staff members of the Department of English for their valuable input and

enormous amount of help. I deeply express my sincere gratitude to my beloved father and mother

for their constant support and inspiration every step of my life.

J. PAVITHA

Reg no: 20AY601300034

CONTENTS

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S.NO Chapters Page no

Particulars

1 I Introduction 7-18

2 II Quest for Love in Life 19-40

3 III Summation 41-44

Work cited 45

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 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink

T.S. Eliot

Literature is a body of written works. The name has traditionally been applied to those

imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their authors and the

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perceived aesthetic excellence of their execution. The word literature derived from the Latin

littera, “a letter of the alphabet”, literature is first and foremost humankind’s entire body of

writing; after that it is the body of writing belonging to a given language or people; then it is

individual pieces of writing.

In literature, the tools used to create artwork are words which are used in expressing

human experience, feelings, emotions and thoughts. Literature is a total experience shaped into

beauty and attractiveness. It is a reflection of social, political, economic, and cultural realities. It

is a part and parcel of man’s self-realization and a symbol of man’s success and failure. It

explains human nature, caliber and his/her destination. Literature may be classified according to

a variety of systems, including language, national origin, historical period, genre, and subject

matter. Virginia Woolf states the literature in a perfect way,

“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the

opinion of others.”

Though many defined literature in different terms, it tends to be more expressive in many

languages. One of the most famous literatures, around the world was English literature. English

Literature is a broad term for all English language literature that has been produced throughout

history. Literature that is typically read in translation into English is not considered English

Literature. English literature is the study of literature written in the English language. English

literature dates back more than five centuries. It represents writers not only from different parts

of the world and time periods, but it covers every major genre and style of writing as well.

English literature dates back more than five centuries. It represents writers not only from

different parts of the world and time periods, but it covers every major genre and style of writing

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as well. By far, the most popular and influential writer during this period was Geoffrey

Chaucer. He was considered the first great English poet. His works encompassed a variety of

tones, styles, and genres. One of his most renowned works, The Canterbury Tales, is an epic

story of pilgrims playfully pitted against each other in storytelling contest. Each pilgrim’s tale

takes on a narrative of its own. The poem is structured as a frame narrative, or ‘story within a

story:’ a literary device that would go on to become one of the most popular storytelling

techniques in the history of literature.

Elements of literature consist of the things that make up the work of literature. Literature

comes in many different types and forms. The different types of literature are seen in works such

as novels, biographies, poems, dramas, non-fictional and short stories. All the different types of

literature mentioned are made up of certain elements like theme, plot, character, setting,

conflicts, etc.

Fiction is one of the most popular genres of literature, fiction, features of imaginary

characters events. This genre is often broken up into five subgenres: fantasy, historical fiction

contemporary fiction, mystery, and science fiction. According to the famous short story writer

Edgar Allan Poe, a short story is a piece of fiction that can be read in once sitting of about half

hour to about two hours. Next up, the Novella. Novellas are longer than short stories and tend to

run about 20,000 to 50,000 words, usually between 60 and 120 pages. Because novellas have

more room to work with, they typically have a more complex plot or storyline and more

characters than short stories. Famous novellas include Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange

Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Jack London’s The call of the wild. Finally, a novel is a

work of fiction that contains over 50,000 words or 120 pages. Novels are even more complex

than novellas, and they usually have more than one plot or storyline and many well developed

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characters. Novels can be as long as their authors want them to be. There is no outer limit top

their length. In fact the longest novel ever written is a 17th century work that contains over two

million words and more than 13,000 pages. The writings of the novel spring within the thought

of the writer, getting its source from the personal experience, head stories, society, etc. There are

different types of novels. The choices of the readers differ based on their preference or taste. The

writings and the techniques employed are simple as it needs to be application to various levels of

the readers.

Unlike fiction, nonfiction tells the story of real people and events. Examples include

biographies, autobiographies, or memoirs.

Another popular category of literature known as drama or play is a story created

specifically for a stage performance. The most renowned author of drama was William

Shakespeare-the writer of Macbeth, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet.

The fourth genre of literature is poetry in this style of writing words are arranged in a

metrical pattern and often in rhymed verse.

Another beloved genre of literature is folktale. Folktale, which is also referred to as

mythology, tells stories or originally oral literature and are meant to pass on particular moral

lessons.

The history of English literature is spread over different eras including Old English or

Anglo Saxon, The Renaissance, Victorian Era, Modern Era, Postmodern era, amongst others.

Through this various period Literature has many origins like American literature, African

literature, Greek literature, Tamil literature, Contemporary literature, Indian literature and

Modern literature etc. Indian literature is arguable one of the oldest and richest literature in the

9
world. Additionally, the oldest works of the Indian literature include oral transmission of

knowledge. India is a country with the huge diversity and accommodates people from different

cultural backgrounds.

The growth of Indian writing in English started during the time of the British rule in

India. It has been started like a drop of water and now the water drop has been developed into an

endless sea with number of ships and boats sailing in it. The sailers represent not only the Native

people, but also the foreigners who came for a visit and sailing all through our sea. This has been

developed after the rise of writers like R.K. Narayan, Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, and Raja Rao, and

other leading writers who were the Gem of our sea, In modern time the Gem has been developed

and now the boat sailing all over the world.

Indian English Literature now attained a status to be an Independent in the world of

literature. Our Indian literature reflect our Indian culture social values, tradition and also our

Indian history through our great writers like R.K. Narayan, Raja rao and some more leading

writers who developed our Indian writings and also our culture to the entire world. Among the

leading writers Sri Aurobindo who was the main cause of spreading our Indian branches all over

the world. He was the first Indian poet who has developed a numerous interpretation of myths

and spiritual humanism.

The Early century noted the growth of English literature in India. But it did not black the

development and standard of literature in Indian languages. The number of reade3rs increased in

India as English had made their growth in universities of India also. This was the reason that the

Indian writers’ were made their interest in translating most of Western literatures to English. It

took a plenty of time to increase the values of English and vernacular literatures.

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 The skill of translation also offered a great number of Indian writings into English, from

these translations Indian readers make their own way to develop their skills and gained many

knowledge. Most of the Indian poets have shown that they were producing their own work and

not translating. The best translator depends only on his approach from his method; a literary

translation is useful only if the translator knows literal formula of phrase for phase translation or

word for word translation it will not produce a fine translation because two languages have

separate grammar, separate idioms and separate structural patterns. A perfect translator creates

the reader to feel like an authored one.

As a country India plays an integral and significant contribution to the literature world.

Additionally, Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali writer is the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize

in the field of literature. He received the award for his work ‘Gitanjali’ in 1920. More

importantly, in recent times, one could see more women coming up in the field. Some of them

are Arundhati Roy, the author of ‘God of Small Things’, Jhumpa Lahiri and Shoba Dey. Indian

English Literature exudes a variety of themes ranging from the rich Indian Culture, Social and

traditional values to multifarious issues like the freedom struggle, nationalism and contemporary

modern issues.

In the 21st century the readers quit novel and downloads e-books. Through this time also

many 21st century writers like Chetan Bhagat, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth and Sudha murthy etc.

The works of the 21st century attracts more readers through their style of writing in the present.

The major theme of that encapsulate the major works is New Urban Realism, Gender and

Secular History, and Globalizing India, Reinscribing past, but approached in a different way. The

contemporary Indian literature has derived a sophisticated version of the romantic themes in

Indian Literature. Themes of Indian literature during the Vedic age, themes in Indian literature

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during the classical age, themes in Indian during the medieval age differ from the themes in the

contemporary age.

Vikram Seth is among the most celebrated Indian novelists and poets. He was born on

20th of June, 1952 in Kolkata to Leila, a court judge and Prem Seth, a shoe company executive.

He has roots in Punjab. He traveled a lot with his family as a child from Batanagar to Danpur to

London. He received his early education from St. Xavier’s High School in India. Seth went back

to England and during his A-levels he developed interest in Chinese language and poetry. Seth

moved to California in pursuit of Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University but couldn’t

complete the course. His interest in economic field had dried out and gradually developed in

writing. Afterwards, he studied creative writing at Stanford University and classical Chinese

poetry at Nanjing University.

Seth has experienced with a number of genres in writing. He initiated his writing career

with poetry. He published the first volume of his poetry in 1980, named Mappings. The volume

was ridiculed when he sent a copy to a famous English Poet, Philip Larkin. However, he

persuaded Seth to brave the difficulties of writing and write on. In 1985, the second volume The

Humble Administrator’s Garden With this volume Seth proved his poetic prowess as he garnered

Commonwealth Poetry Prize. Seth also penned a few travel books. From Heaven Lake: Travels

Through Sinkiang and Tibet was published in 1983 which explores the travel through Nepal,

Tibet and China. The book also happens to win Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

After poetry and travel writing, he made his literary debut in 1986 with the novel, The

Golden Gate. The novel is structured around 690 rhyming iambic tetrameter sonnets. It is a satire

on romance which illustrates the lives of yuppies who are in quest of love for commercial

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reasons. Seth received the 1988 Sahitya Akademi Award from India’s National Academy of

Letters. However, it was Seth’s second novel that brought him in the limelight. A suitable Boy

(1933) is a 1349 pages long colossus, unparalleled to any book published recently in English

Language. The novel explores the national and political issues in post-independence period. The

book is not based on a single story. Seth demonstrates the concerns of the society in the

partitioned India which range from Hindu-Muslim conflicts, academics affairs, intra-family

relations and land reforms.

An Equal Music was published in 1999 that is considered to be one of Seth’s

masterpieces. The book is the testimonial of his musical inclination in which he illustrates a

heart-wrenching story of a violinist agonized by his separation from a former lover. The

emotional intensity and music knowledge demonstrated in the book places Seth’s creative

powers at the zenith. In fact, the book had Seth earned Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award.

Seth’s versatility can be deduced by his contribution to libretto as he was commissioned by

English National Opera to write one based on the Greek legend of Arion and the Dolphin.

Moreover, Seth is polyglot, who is well-versed in quite a few languages, including Mandarin,

Welsh, Urdu, English and French. Being a music buff, he takes great pleasure in singing German

lieder and playing cello and flute.

A writer is assigned based on the socio geological network and culture to which he has a

place and those convention, life and language he uses in his works. The writing verbalizes about

person’s life however it speaks to the whole human methodology towards the society. In

undeniable reality, writing molds the mentality of the society and it draws the philosophy and

mind of society. The writer’s point of view towards society assumes a basic job in safeguarding

the history, mirroring the contemporary society and anticipating the future world.

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 Vikram Seth’s novels satirically and gravely look at the issue of national legislative

issues, the separation of standing and class, scholastic issues and interfamily relations. Vikram

Seth novels manage present social situation, social changes, and the social transformation. The

socio-social foundation of the novels drives the perusers to break down genuine authentic

foundation of the nation. Therefore, Edward said attests, the creators are throughout the entire

existence of their social orders, forming and molded by that history and their involvement with

various measure. Vikram Seth’s novels uncover worry towards society and he anticipates the

indecency and criminal operations which had happened in the society. He is the genuine

representative of the society so he never wavers to uncover the genuine reality about the society.

Wole Soyinka composes, A writer records the experience of his society and is the voice of vision

of his time. He needs to work as social inner voice or something bad might happen, he should

pull back to the position an after death specialist. Vikram Seth is conceived on twentieth June

1952 in Calcutta and his family had a place with the upper white collar class society.

Vikram Seth is remarkable for his sensible outline of India, California and Vienna. He

focuses on socio-political, recorded and social components of the nation and representations the

practical image of the contemporary India. The point of the exploration is to discover the social

view of Vikram Seth through his three extraordinary novels: The Golden Gate, A Suitable Boy

and an Equal Music. The target of the exploration is to show how modernization,

Westernization, Globalization and digital culture changes the more youthful age of the world.

The heroes in these three novels are the agents of the advanced youth. This sensible depiction of

the socio-social perspective makes Vikram Seth’s novels arrive at the Zenith. The adolescents go

through the greater part of their time on earth in scanning for an occupation and in finding an

ideal life accomplice. These two fundamental topics are all around utilized in the novels of

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Vikram Seth. The motivation behind the examination is to follow the adjustments in the society

in two levels. One is the interior piece of the social part and another is changes in the inward

psyche of the human.

Among the third era Indian writers in English, Vikram Seth’s portrayal and contention

venture the social and social status of the nation in an energetic way. In the wake of recognizing

the important Indian Writers in English, Vikram Seth’s one of a kind spot has been followed.

Subsequently the basic part gives a full length concentrate on the life story of Vikram Seth. His

true to life accounts are trailed by a striking portrayal of his scholarly achievements. The point,

goal, reason, and extent of the examination and the different methodologies received by the

exploration researcher are additionally expressed in detail. The subsequent part, Socio-cultural

life of India manages the Indian social and political status. The idea of socio-cultural

encompasses two primary areas: society and culture. Society incorporates various free

individuals who have a place with various networks; and culture is only the conduct of the entire

society. Socio-social point of view mirrors a specific society’s language, brain science, human

science, sex issues, race, financial matters, orders, culture, convention, custom, conviction and

qualities. Every one of these ideas can be examined through Marxist hypothesis, socio cultural

hypothesis, Cultural brain research and queer hypothesis

Vikram Seth stands as a new corner in the stream of Indo English Literature. He has

made significant contribution to enrich Indian English novel with respect to both theme and

techniques. He is better known as an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, author, children’s writer,

biographer and also memoirist. He writes the novel in the Omniscient. It is as though the reader

is looking through windows into the family relationships and the mental and emotional attitudes

of the individual characters. Seth’s characters are defined not so much through a description of

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their consciousness, self-expressive or views of themselves. But through their relationship with

others and other’s view of them. His characters in the novel crave the basic human desire to love

and to be loved.

Vikram Seth had been motivated by Steele’s generally organized stanza with formal

rhyme and meter and he embraces the comparative proper order in his own verse as well. Vikram

Seth went through two years from 1980-1982 to do his broad field work in China to accumulate

a few information for his proposed doctoral paper on Chinese populace arranging. Later he

deciphered Chinese just as Hindi verse into English. He had generally excellent Chinese

language familiarity when he came back to his old neighborhood Delhi. In result he composed

From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet in the year 1983. It was the blend of

travelog and diary. Later he went to better places like Britain, China, California, and India and

clearly the understanding of his encounters in these various nations had been shown in the

novels. His first novel, The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse, distributed in 1986, 14 featured the

encounters of one gathering of companions living in California. A Suitable Boy distributed in

the year 1933, depicts the perfect and sensible post-autonomy life of Indians and this novel won

the W.H. Smith’s Literary Award. An Equal music distributed in the year 1999. Seth managed

two unique cultures and did equity to both the cultures.

The Golden Gate is Vikram Seth’s first novel. The work is a novel in verse. It is

comprised of thirteen sections of sonnet-story. It is composed of Onegin Stanzas (sonnets written

in iambic tetrameter, with the rhyme scheme following the ababccddeffegg pattern of Eugene

Onegin.) It was inspired by Charles Johnston’s translation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. The

novel The Golden Gate captures the life of modern California. This novel is in verse about a

group of California yuppies. The novel is on the whole story of a man who cannot get love in life

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and ends up much the same way as he begins an abandoned human being. The novel ranges

through all the significant part of human life: birth, love, marriage and death.

There are the five central figures in The Golden Gate with their different quests. Each of

them is defined within the parameters of his profession, personal life whims, and family and

social conditions and connections. By the end of the narrative, all of them have interested with

each other at some level. Each of these characters represents one particular aspect of love, of

friendship. All these characters are outsiders to California. They are immigrants but, none of

them has a personal hangover of displacement, no sense of loss of cultural roots. What they share

however is their overwhelming personal loneliness, the sense of a loss of companionship, and

understanding.

The theme of the novel is one of the typical materials of all common man searches for

bliss in the form of love and the variety of mishaps that befall him in the course of that search,

although the rest of the novel guides less to the traditional comic ending, than to astonishing

sadness. The novel begins from this connecting simple beginning and gradually enlarges in scope

as it becomes a bitter-sweet love story, a brutally funny novel manners, and a hard-edged

reflection on ethics and the nuclear abyss.

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 CHAPTER II

QUEST FOR LOVE IN LIFE

“LOVE IS LIFE”

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 In the on-going abstract history, novels in section have not showed up however Vikram

Seth says he has drawn motivation from Alexander Puskin who has created Eugene Onegin, a

novel in refrain. Seth’s The Golden Gate has every one of the fixings to be portrayed as an

‘American novel’. It manages the way of life, culture and love of present America. Vikram

Seth’s utilization of Realism and his social concerns are extraordinary with regard to different

writers of Indian birthplace. Different ideas on Realism have used to examine his major

anecdotal attempts to determine the highlights of authenticity under play in his books. By

investigating real works in the pragmatist stream in Indian Fiction in English, a sincere endeavor

have been made to stick point that, as a story procedure, authenticity prevails in every one of

them. By his own story procedure and uniqueness of social concern, Seth has isolated himself

out of the fleeting trend of other pragmatist writers and built up his noticeable quality over others

as a noteworthy author of the subcontinent.

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 “Some proficiency pundits might want to arrange Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate, a

novel that breaks new ground as in it is a novel written in poem shape as an Indian novel in

English in light of the reason that Vikram Seth was conceived in Calcutta and lived in India for

about the initial fifteen years of his life and he didn’t set foot in America until the point that he

achieved the age of twenty three. In any case, I for one feel this by itself isn’t sufficient to

legitimize the novel as an Indo-English novel. Many commentators portray it as a California

novel.”

“The book test “permeable myths”. It manages a man’s visually impaired love for and

undetectable God and his declarations man’s anxiety for his kindred men, and for the universe

where he lives Paternal love (John Brown and his transoceanic dad appeared differently in

relation to phil weiss and his child paul), maternal love (Mrs. Borate’s Solicitude appeared

differently in relation to Claire’s relentlessness) sentimental love (Liz Dorati for her beau John

Brown), fellowship and friendship conceived of regard for the accomplice (Liz and phil weiss)

lastly liberality of psyche and benevolent commitment (as in Janet Maya Kava)”

Of every single distinctive kind of adoration among people talked about above,

sentimental love is in core interest. There are three key in his work: John and Liz, Phil and

Claire, Art and Sue. It is likewise realized that Phil and Ed are additionally in gay undertaking

for a concise period and John and Janet Hayakawa are likewise recent sweethearts and present

companions.

According to this novel The Golden Gate, it is difficult to perceive how Vikram Seth can

be viewed as an Indian Writer with the exception of unintentionally of birth. There are cou7ple

of Indian references in the content, for example, the “Essence of Honey” and the charioteer

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representation and the peaceful disposition of the harmony marchers has evident Gendlian

associations yet, there is nothing here that California has not had for quite a while This is,

indeed, an absolutely California novel.”

This is a direct result of Seth’s aggregate contribution with life in California. Seth

accentuates that it isn’t his separation yet rather his adoration for California that is most

profitable to him in composing the novel. Seth states that one cannot accompany a chilly and

target eye from outside and afterward compose with love about a place. One more likely than not

lived a very long time in that put and not simply watched for a considerable length of time. The

novel is packed with gigantic measure of data on California. What’s more, pandering says “that

he finds scarcely any hints of Indianisms in Seth’s cleaned refrain whose figure of speech is

straightforwardly American and all the more instantly California. Consequently as far as

phonetics and topic, the novel can be viewed as an impression of American Life particularly that

of Sanfrancisco”

Before the specialist focuses on “Affection and life” in Sanfranciso a concise overview of

the detail of the structure of the work is endeavoured here. The novel the Golden Gate is formed

totally in rhyming tetrameter poems. It comprises of 594 pieces, written in rhyming tetrameter.

Furthermore, it pursues the fourteen line stanza example of Eugene Onegin. With respect to,

Seemita Mohanty in A Critical Analysis of Vikram Seth’s Poetry and Fiction remarks in the

Accompanying way:

“Eugene Onegin is written in sections of versifying tetrameter with the strange rhyme

plot ‘aBaBccDDeFFeGG’ where the lowercase letters represent female rhymes and the

capitalized represent manly rhymes. This shape has come to be known as the ‘Onegin stanza’.

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Not at all like the shakespearian work of ‘abbacddceffegg’ the Onegin stanza does not separate

into littler stanzas of four lines or two of every an undeniable into littler stanzas of four lines or

two out of a conspicuous way. There are a wide range of ways the work can be separated, for

instance the initial four lines can shape a quatrain or rather join with the ‘cc’ to frame a sestet.

The shape’s adaptability enables the creator more degree to change how semantic areas are

partitioned from poem to work, while keeping the feeling of solidarity given by keeping a settled

rhyme scheme.

Vikram Seth has utilized this stanza in his novel The Golden Gate. There are thirteen

parts with a normal of forty five works. Seth’s rhyme conspire varies from the conventional

piece frames. The customary works were written in Pentameter, and the rhyme plot utilizedwere

abba cde (petrarchian) or ababbcbccdcdee (spensarian) or ababcdcd efefgg (Shakespearean).

Seth’s rhyme conspire is especially not at all like these and goes ababcdcd in the octave and

effegg in the sestet, and this is uncommon in the work shape. For Seth the pieces work as

interlinked units which bit by bit advance with the story pace of the novel.

The novel opens on John Brown, a twenty-six year old computer engineer, who, well

established in his growing field, now realizes that he would like to be in a relationship. When he

complains about his loneliness to his friend and former girlfriend Janet Hayakawa, a sculptor and

a drummer for a band called Liquid Sheep, she advises him to advertise in the classified section

of the newspaper. John laughs off the idea, but Jan does it anyway, describing him in the Bay

Guardian as a “Well-rounded and well-meaning square/Lusting for love.”

Three Eggs, An Adolescent Lion,

Clothed Nude, Study of Young Man Caught

22
 In Eagle’s Claws—have not yet brought

The sober critical attention

She craves.

John gets many responses; the one that sticks out is from Liz Dorati, a trial lawyer who

went to Stanford. John and Liz get together, their relationship, at first, amazing because they are

extremely sexually compatible. They get an apartment, and at first, their only disagreements stem

from John’s dislike of Liz’s cat, Charlemagne.

We then encounter Liz’s brother Ed, who is in the middle of an existential crisis- he is

both a staunch Catholic and closeted gay man. He is living in a vicious cycle: having secret

passionate sex with his lover, then feeling terrible self-hatred afterward for having committed a

sin.

We also meet John’s recently divorced friend Phil, who is raising his young son, Paul, as

a single parent, since his wife decided to move back to the East Coast. Trying to find himself,

Phil quits his solid job in order to join the movement protesting nuclear weapons. He spends his

days at rallies, much to John’s confusion- why couldn’t Phil just do his protesting as a side

hobby?

Liz and John throw a party in their new apartment to celebrate their engagement. There,

Phil meets Ed, and they end up in bed together. From there, their relationship grows into a

romance. Meanwhile, Liz and John marry.

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 The two couples discuss their various philosophies of life, united in a shared purpose of

trying to find personal fulfillment through self-actualization. Soon, however, the honeymoon

period of these relationships ends, as both couples face irreconcilable problems and difficulties.

Phil realizes that Ed can never fully commit to their relationship because Ed can never

fully overcome the self-hatred that he feels as a Christian. Over time, it becomes clear that Ed

doesn’t even really want to try. The couple’s breakup becomes inevitable.

Liz and John, meanwhile, find themselves arguing more and more over their radically

different political views. John has left this IT job in order to work for a defense contractor, while

Liz has grown increasingly involved with the same anti-nuclear movement that Phil has

embraced. While Liz cannot wrap her mind around John’s ability to work for a government

willing to develop such horrific weaponry, John fall victim to unfounded jealousy. Their

marriage dissolves.

Still, although these first relationships fall apart, the group of friends reshuffles into new

couples that are much more destined for long-term happiness and success. Liz and Phil connect

over their shared activism, eventually falling in love and getting married. Meanwhile, John

confides about his marriage to Janet, and these old friends find themselves once again falling in

love as they had when they were very young. John’s newfound happiness is palpable, but the

novel resists giving him a happy ending. Instead, abruptly, Janet is killed in a car accident. A

grieving John is invited by Phil and Liz to be their newborn son’s godfather.

This part harps on the affection and life of Sanfrancisco. As a feature of looking over the

evolution of Vikram Seth as a novelist, which is the goal of this exposition, this part manages the

affection and life of Sanfrancisco that is depicted in The Golden Gate his first novel. The

24
Scientist draws out the affection and life of Sanfrancisco through the key characters John and liz,

Phil and Claire, Phil and Ed, Sue and Art. Of these sets, John and Liz appear to be in core

interest. It is gained from the work that John was enamored with Janet Hayakawa likewise

previously. Be that as it may, when the novel opens, they are named as previous darlings and

present companions. All the previously mentioned sets endure just disaster in their affection lives

with the exception of Art and Sue, however Phil and Liz get hitched at last.

Frequently in literature the crucial moment in the hero’s life happens during the heat of

battle or the pursuit of a quest. In author Vikram Seth’s novel-in-verse, The Golden Gate, the

pivotal moment comes when John Brown, a Silicon Valley computer expert who extremely

winning career is in dreadful contrast to his personal life. When he gets hit hard by a Frisbee

while taking a walk, he thinks: “If I died,” he thinks in iambic tetrameter, “who would be sad?

Who would weep? Who had gloat? Who would be glad?”

This depressing thought is not in the nature of terrified self pity; it is a cold blooded

estimate of the state of dealings in John’s world. John is an expressive non-entity. Nobody needs

him away from his work, and this inconveniences him. He has the essential human need to be

loved by somebody like others. He painfully senses that he subsists in a vacuum, while around

him life is short-lived by him. The point of view involved in an interpretation of the reality of

experience expressed in terms of its accessories in The Golden Gate is not geared up to

sociological commitments but as a phenomenological obsession with the state of a whole society

obtaining in the behavior of a handful of people.

Love is the master key that opens the lock of happiness. To enjoy that happiness John

pursues love. Love is a basic human emotion, but understanding how and why it happens is not

25
necessarily easy. In fact, for a long time, many people suggested that love is simply something

that science couldn’t understand. The meaning of love cannot really be explained, but to be

experienced. John reawakens the love towards Janet Hayakawa. But as destiny would have it,

just when they are on limit of committing to each other, Janet dies in the accident. John is left

heart-broken.

When Janet dies in an accident, John is left entirely alone again. The novel surveys the

loneliness in modern American society. Seth bravely presents this woe that badly affect the

modern society; the moody fixation with one’s own dealings to the elimination of everything and

everyone else, the self-interest inborn in the non-sharing of thoughts, time and needs, the

immovable elimination of human bonding.

Janet’s death constitutes an unusually poignant moment in the protagonist’s search for

ultimate satisfaction and beauty as he turns upon himself in a characteristic effort to come to

terms with his past. John is lonely, isolated, alienated and lost. There is no one to console him

except the imaginary voice of Janet who is no more. Emptiness leads to nothing but further

emptiness. Modernity marks a naked craze for physical comforts and there is no time for

intellectual growth. The modern concept of living is the twisting of everything to make it fit into

its own priorities and so a terrific disruption takes place. And modern man becomes vulnerable to

such influences.

Seth expresses the perfect idols our minds build up that do not exist, and instead of trying

to make others conform to our expectations so that one may find it easier to love them, one ought

to make an effort to adjust with other people as proof off one’s love. Every relationship has a

26
chance of succeeding, if people are willing to make changes in themselves, instead of just opting

out of the relationship when things start to get sticky.

Dear Phil, Forgive me, I don’t know

How you’ll react when you receive this.

Perhaps you’ll think, “I don’t believe this.

We talked for two whole days. What could

Be left that I’ve misunderstood?

Let me explain, Phil, my position…

Ed muttering, “This won’t do at all,”

Of every single distinctive kind of adoration among people talked about above,

sentimental love is in core interest. There are three key matches in this work: John and Liz, Phil

and Claire, Art and Sue. It is likewise realized that Phil and Ed are additionally in gay

undertaking for a concise period and John and Janet Hayakawa are likewise recent sweethearts

and present companions.

The key character is John whose associates round out the huge number of Sanfrancisco.

The novel starts and finishes with him. He is a light haired, great-looking, solid, utilized,

aspiring, sound, dissolvable, independent reserved out a depressed individual. John is a young

fellow of twenty six and is portrayed as unapproachable, tidy and forlorn. He yearns for a family

which he supposes will pad his isolation. John feels chilly cast of self-centeredness wraps him.

He has no family to think about him. His mom is dead and his English dad after his retirement

27
from taxpayer supported organization abiding in his local kent infrequently reacts to the letters

sent by John. At the point when John accuses his dad for not expeditiously and much of the time

reacting to this letter, his dad covers himself behind the poor service of postal division. On the

off chance that he is in contact with his child who endures a feeling of depression, it may

comfort John to some degree. After he leaves the school, his life has become more blunt and

more tedious. Despite the fact that he drives a monetarily and fiscally agreeable life, he has no

one with whom he can have sharing of things. After the fruiting of his education, he doesn’t

demonstrate much enthusiasm for keeping his fellowship. He works with the atomic firm which

fabricates atomic arms. Forlornness may have disappointed him to extraordinary degree yet it has

not made him unempathetic. At whatever point his colleagues are stuck in an unfortunate

situation, he makes it a point to loan them some assistance to leave it. At the point when a

kindred specialist of John is terminated from his activity, John takes up the case with the

manager who is exceptionally difficult and persistent and says what is done will be done and he

cannot make a move.

Love is intangible, because it means different thing to different people. For John and

Janet, it is all or nothing at all, for Phil and Liz., sadder but wiser, it is a comfortable sharing of

trust, mutual respect, loyalty and friendship. For Ed love is an abstraction linking him to God and

to his own soul. Seth’s basic premise is that love is a vital, life giving force; that it is possible to

exist without love but only in an inhuman vegetable kind of way. Love, in a broader context, is

evinced by Father O’Hare’s crusade against nuclear research, embodying man’s concern for his

fellowmen and for the environment in which he co-habits with all of creation. Maternal love is

exemplified in Mrs. Marie Dorati, and paternal love in Phil.

28
 In all these visions of love, Seth’s motto rings true: love is the medium by means of

which man can redeem his life. He recalls the reader to sanity and old fashioned values, the

cornerstones of which are family and a general human sympathy. The modern day wasteland that

is man’s legacy may still be reclaimed. If the gentle showers of love and compassion fall upon it.

The novel charts the progress of each character from selfishness and rigidity to concern and

caring. By the end of the novel, most of them even Charlemagne, the cat, have traversed the

Golden Gate Bridge symbolically and grown.

“Bright crew-cut zombies will efface

All humankind. Too late to posit

What made them fire from the hip.

A flight of geese? A faulty chip?”(7.8)

Seth deals with the lack of humanity prevalent in the minds of these people that hold the

controls to life and death where human beings are held to be mere statistical figures. It is rather

easy to put the blame of an accidental killing of millions on a faulty chip that went of

accidentally. Technology is seen as a medium to hide behind and avoid blame while at the same

time be inhumane. Thus, technical words like “optimizing Effective yield” are used in place of

“death” to de-sensitive individuals. This is a blatant misuse of technology but it doesn’t matter as

being in the lead of the race of arms is what is of prime importance.

Dropping a bomb is taken to be an effective measure to solve political differences. As

Cranberries in their song ‘Zombie’ point out, the main concern is that the people being targeted

‘is not me, is not my family’ and since they are strangers what does it matter if they live or die?

29
 “Nice folks don’t use nukes,” “Work for life,

Not death,” and a huge “strive with strife” (7.9)

Seth through his poems ask people to consider the fact that though technology may be

heartless and souless, the men and women sitting behind the controls have a conscience and

should exercise it instead of merely following blind orders. The placard of “Strive with Strife”

calls to mind Longfellow’s poem, ‘Psalm of Life’ where he says: Be not like dumb driven cattle/

be the hero in the strife.

Renowned creator of Victorian

Architecture in Pittsburgh; How

Pittsburgh Was Lost and Won; and now,

With plumps grants from the Frosch Foundation (4.2)

An individual architect’s been let go John argues his cause. John with his persistence

champions the reason for his expelled associate and he develops effective in restoring him. This

is an occurrence that demonstrates the compassion of John for other people. That he shares the

sadness and distress of his companions ends up clear and apparent from this occurrence. And yet

he has experienced a change in him. His companions say he isn’t what he used to be. Work and

the disorder of belonging allow forever’s diversion. What’s more, it can’t be said that his present

predicament is because of his work with the resistance yet his adolescence raised and childhood

likewise has affected him as it were. In his youth, he can’t appreciate nurturing adoration,

friendship and care. It might likewise be a motivation behind why he has totally bound to his

work and moving with others openly. After he returns home from the workplace, to dispose of

30
the torment of forlornness, he tries hard to do his perusing yet he gets himself unfit to do it

because of absence of focus.

“And what’s your plan for- extirpation?”

“To crub our own complicity

In violence and in exploitation (8.2)

He endures the torment of forlornness and with the end goal to beat it, he visits frozen

yogurt parlors where the sight of young ladies being as one end their discussion among

themselves remind him about his isolation. Such scenes of people sitting and talking together

further compound his situation and he leaves the place without a moment’s delay. On an event

returning home, he recalls his school days and his school companions, for example, Phil and

others and the evenings they spent together. That he endures void in his private life is frustrating

to the point that it constraints him to make calls to his companions, for example, Phil over

telephone. On misgivings, he surrenders that though since Phil has invested in atomic

demobilization. John works with Lungless Lab where atomic-weapons are made and he is

worried about the possibility that their relationship, whenever recharged, will be politicized. At

that point John makes a call to Janet Hayakawa who is of Japanese nationality and past darling

and present companion of John.

“And how was prison?”“Paradise!

Like-minded souls in dense proximity-

Juggling, hair-braiding, foot massage-

31
 We did our own things, by and large,

And worked plans out with equanimity,

By, as they say, consensus—whence

We formed the new verb: ‘to consense.’”

The delicate and creatively skilled Janet is energetically required with her chiseling of “Mama

Hen” her work in stone. She is additionally a drummer in a band called Liquid sheep. Besides,

she is sitting tight for calm basic acknowledgement for her “Three Eggs”, “An adolescent Lion,

dressed Nude,” “Investigation of Young Man got in Eagles hooks” and “Once-sided portrait of

an ogress’.

The delicate and creatively skilled Janet is energetically required with her chiseling of

“Mama Hen” her work in stone. She is additionally a drummer in a band called Liquid sheep.

Besides, she is sitting tight for calm basic acknowledgement for her “Three Eggs”, An adolescent

Lion, dressed Nude,” “Investigation of Young Man got in Eagles hooks” and “One-sided portrait

of an Orgess”. Whenever John and Janet meet, she comes to know the issue with John. What’s

more, she says to him what John requires now is somebody to cherish. The activity is gotten

under way when she steps up with regards to put an individual commercial for a partner in a

daily paper with the expectation of facilitating John’s depression. It is to the message composed

by her, Liz reacts. Notwithstanding Liz, two different young ladies by name Wasp Bluestocking

and Belinda Beale react to John’s own, marital notice. In any case, the two flop in their

endeavour to impress John who is looking for adoration and friends that will get rid of his

fearsome isolation. Out of a heap of explicit answers to his commercial, he chooses these two,

32
frantically wanting to get an appropriate love accomplice. He takes Wasp to see the play

Macbeth Where he is exhausted by her resolute exigencies.

This exhibition, bland and themeless

Bronzes and plasters, wood and stone

Promiscuously strung in schemeless

Sequence strives vainly to disown

It is formalism and immaturity.

The scholarly commentator in her surpasses her loving self. She untiringly discusses

appearance and realing subjects, the importance of dreams and obscurity and the particular

theory that the Third Murderer is the focal figure of each demonstration. All through the dinner,

she overflows French and all through the play she overflows basic language. In this manner her

philosophizing renders John as pale and white as Banquo’s phantom.

Belinda Beale is the second hopeful challenging the determination. Sadly for John, she is

another imbalanced and halfway lady. In her, the physical is predominant over the learned

person. She is an obscene maenad distraught with sullen desire. She is very sex-cognizant, sex-

fixated, and nearly sex-distraught. Her energetic developments amid the play stuns John and her

appalling physical developments underneath the feasting table astonish and render him quiet.

Liz Dorati is a twenty multi year old, powerful ex-stanford Law school lawyer. She is

wonderful, vivacious blue- looked at, well adjusted blonde who is from a group of Italian

migrant wine-cultivators. John is impressed by her written by hand answer that Jane advances to

him, and welcomes her to meet him. They share an energetic hurricane sentiment that goes on for

a short period. It is likewise realized that when people are accustomed to complimenting her

33
style and prettiness, she quietly acknowledges it without reacting to them. Furthermore, Liz’

mother Mrs. Dorati in the most grounded terms encourages her to get hitched. Liz deals with her

adage that after her investigations get over and she acquires a law degree, she will go into

wedlock. Her mom, on edge, adoring, inflexible stated,” Liz, a pretty young lady like you should

consider ……. “IT tu”, Located Liz, “Mother Do you believe I’m bone chilling? Simply given

me a chance to get my law degree off the beaten path- and after that, I’ll see.

“Assaults against the heart of life?

You knew their purpose, yet you made them.

If you had scruples, you betrayed them.”

When she sought after her graduation in at Law school, Liz gets into odd undertaking or

two, yet so far she has not run over any individual who is fit for marriage, until the point that she

meets John through the commercial. Then, John is seen meeting her amid day time since his

prior endeavors in sentiment end up being a disaster as he meets them around evening time. John

and Liz meet at an eatery called Café Trieste. At the point when the gathering happens there,

Janet Hayakawa who is instrumental in making this game plan in view of her consideration and

worry for John turns up and seeing them talking so nearly to one another, she leaves reluctant to

bother them. John’s personal discussion with Liz delights Jane all things considered. She being

his previous sweetheart and present well-wisher and companion is very brilliant to see John

disregarding the entirety of his stresses drenches himself in discussion Liz makes reference to her

pet feline Charlemagne to him. Since John has so far endured just isolation and dejection in his

life, his new relationship and issue with Liz is truly God sent to him. Amid his youth likewise,

John has not been honoured with nurturing adoration and love. On an event Phil states to Liz

34
John’s odd and peculiar conduct can be ascribed to his absence of minding and friendly

childhood. Thinking about every one of these elements, John’s undertaking with Liz implies

such a great amount to him and it is of central significance as far as affection life of John.

After Janet Hayakawa, just now John has figured out how to acquire the core of a young

lady. That he is extremely cheerful is a shock to John who states to Liz about it. Liz asks him for

what reason he is amazed to be upbeat and in the event that he gets depressed frequently. Liz is

enchanted to comfort him. The connection between them has developed so more grounded that

they start to remain together around evening time. With respect to love and sentiment Angeline

Multani in her paper A Metro Sexual Love story points out that “When John and Liz leave on

their relationship, they are jazzed and overwhelmingly infatuated. This sort of energy is

represented a little liberally by seth as it is clarified that sentiment is additionally some sort of

rationally weakening variable, something which decimates reason and sense”

There pursue a long time of sweet compulsion To isolated if Sparkling wine Liz, now

tended to by John as “Nectar” Reacts to him with “interesting bunny”. Their phrasing has oh

dear, progress toward becoming Incomprehensible and imbecilic. Their minds have all the

earmarks of being dissolving to sugary slime as they touch.

Also, they share their perspectives and suppositions on motion picture stars, the ills of

their autos, the felines, the microchips, the buoyancy of partnership bonds, nightfall’s, expansion

and their childhoods, which concrete their relationship and bond further and further. They have

started to meet all the time. John who at first is very on edge and apprehensive to converse with

her has gradually beaten his weakness and moved calmly with her. Liz, on her part does

everything conceivable to make him alright with her. She encourages and supports him so that

35
John, easily and comfort beating his feeling of delay verbalizes his sentiments and perspectives

on a far reaching subjects from the idea of’ ‘truth’, ambition in life to the wonders of human life.

They meet both in mornings and nights. Other than the pair begin heading out to motion pictures

together and visit eateries they put in their evenings together. At this point, the adoration

between them has developed to a degree where John tends to Liz as ‘Nectar’ and consider, him

to be ‘Amusing Bunny’. What shocks is that after they have driven an actual existence of

colossal closeness and love, shared and seen everything, they withdraw from one another unfit to

get along. The accompanying occurrence prepares for that.

Now, Liz informs John about a show to be presented by her sister Sue in her almamater

Starford and she further includes that Sue will anticipate their visit. All together not to make any

failure Sue, Liz stresses that they need to visit the show. Whenever Liz and John turn up at the

show, Sue performs there and it drives Liz to review her youth days when her mom Mrs Dorati

used to demand them on learning music. She discloses to John that Sue just receives the rewards

of the agonies their mom put in to sharpen their abilities in music, including that record of the

propelling age of their folks, they can’t make it to the show. What’s more, Liz advances that Sue

has said she will tap.

It says, Dear John, We have a son.

We hope that you’ll be his godfather.

We’ve called him John. We would far rather

Have you than any other friend.

36
 Please speak to us, John. In the end,

We’ll all be old or dead or dying.

My mother died two weeks ago.

We thought perhaps you might not know.

Phil and I send our love. Liz. Sighing

A harsh, prolonged, exhausted breath,

John feels his heart revisit death.

They words expect significance since they are intelligent and expressive of low much

love and fondness Liz and Sue have for their folks. Despite the fact that they are occupants of

cosmopolitan city of Sanfrancisco where it shows up adoration and love for guardians, care and

worry for them don’t appear to have any predominant place, Liz and Sue affectionately recollect

their folks. Another scene that has totally modified the game-plan in the novel is likewise

connected with little girl – mother relationship. Whenever Mrs. Dorati always influences Liz to

get hitched early, she can’t turn down her recommendation bringing about wedding Phil when

Liz and John experience an extreme period of their undertaking.

“In life’s brief game to be a winner

A man must have…oh yes, above

All else, of course, someone to love.

37
The connection between them has developed so more grounded that they start to remain together

around evening time. With respect to love and sentiment Angeline Multani in her paper A Metro

Sexual Love Story points out that “When John and Liz leave on their relationship, they are

jazzed and overwhelmingly infatuated. This sort of energy is represented a little liberally by Seth

as it is clarified that sentiment is additionally some sort of rationally weakening variable,

something which decimates reason and sense”. They words expect significance since they are

intelligent and expressive of low much love and fondness Liz and Sue have for their folks.

Despite that fact that they are occupants of cosmopolitan city of Sanfrancisco where it shows up

adoration and love for guardians, care and worry for them don’t appear to have any predominant

place, Liz and Sue affectionately recollect their folks. “The Love—Life of a couple is not

palatable and they are commonly contradictory and not well balanced. Claire, in the wake of

living with Phil for a long time, abandons him on the pretext of Phil’s tyrannical manner. In spite

of the fact that a year goes since her flight she neither visited nor spent a blessing to her multi

year old child Paul. The reason she gives for not visiting her child is that her sporadic visits may

make nervousness in Paul. Phil wedded in flurry and atones at recreation.

In The Golden Gate happiness is love but the definitions of love in the minds of the

characters are contradictory in nature and conflicting in essence. Love is perceived differently as

chemical affinity, lust, concern, respect, trust, understanding, friendship, and jealousy. These

broken arcs in their case fail to make the wholeness of love and therefore life. The human story

of love and loneliness is unfolded against the magnificent backdrop of the city of St. Francis, the

city of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Voices in my head,

38
 Chanting, ‘Kisses. Bread.

Prove yourself. Fight. Shove.

Learn. Earn. Look for love,’

Drown a lesser voice,

Silent now of choice:

‘Breathe in peace, and be

Still, for once, like me’.

The Golden Gate not only highlights John’s personal failure of compassion and

friendship, but also focuses on his failure. In The Golden Gate physical consummation becomes

the point of departure. Love is not merely the friction of two skins and any lasting relationship

cannot be predicted on a sexual or chemical affinity but must be based on respect, trust and

understanding. John’s character and his attitude are the reasons for his isolation. Unless he

changes himself and his personality he is likely to continue to invite unhappiness.

“Never place your happiness in one person’s power.

Be just to yourself.”

39
 SUMMING UP
My research paper deals with the role of love in an ordinary man’s life who, cannot get love in

life and ends up much the same way as he begins and abandoned human being. This novel had

written in the Omniscient form. It is as though the reader is looking through windows into the

family relationships and the mental and emotional attitudes of the individual characters.

The author Vikram Seth didn’t defined the characters in so much description of their

consciousness, self-expressive or views of themselves. But through their relationship with

40
others and other’s view of them. His characters in the novel crave the basic human desire to

love and to be loved.

The author wrote the novel in poetic form in Thirteen chapters. The novel is a sequence

of nearly six hundred sonnets in iambic tetrameter with acknowledgements, dedication and a

charming contents list, all in perfect octosyllabic sonnets. The inspiration for the novel was

Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. After reading Onegin, Seth realized that he had found a medium for

the story he had been wanted to tell about California.

The basic theme of the novel was provided by a lunch meeting with a friend, a Japanese-

American woman. Their discussion of their then rather unsuccessful love lives became the

opening scene of The Golden Gate. The main theme of the novel is one of the classic materials

of all comedy/ man’s search for love/ and the various mishaps that befall him in the course of

that search, although the rest of the novel leads less to the traditional comic ending, than to

surprising sadness.

Now comes to the title, Seth has chosen is of special import, because the name The

Golden Gate bridge captures the quintessence of modern California. It stands as a defining

feature of America’s west coast, just as the Stand of Liberty is the defining feature of the

eastern one. In the novel Seth uses the bridge to indicate the setting of his tale, and the

identifying landmark of San Francisco. The humor in the novel is predominantly of thiskind, the

humor of situation coupled with the somewhat endearing neuroticism of the characters.

Seth also takes a close look at the institution of marriage. The ideal marriages presented

in the novel are those of Janet’s parents and Liz’s parents. Both these marriages are based on

41
old world values, with both spouses committed to one another and to their respective families.

In stark contrast is the marriage of Phil and Claire and the relationship between John and Liz.

On the other hand Phil and Liz succeed in maintain a relationship chiefly because they have

learnt a lesson from their previous relationships. The novel becomes a bildungsroman as it

traces the growth of John from his childish, petulant phase to a maturity and an acceptance of

life.

Seth chooses the sonnet sequence for his novel to describe California and its people. In

the novel he has depicted a range of loves which are possible and acceptable in a modern

metropolis evincing unique culture and lifestyle. The characters attitudes to love reveal their

attitudes of life, to issues that are ‘outside’ or beyond the ‘private’ question of romantic and

sexual love.

In The Golden Gate, John Brown represents Eugene who is unable to respond to Janet

Albeit Tatyana when there was a time for them to have future together; it only brings out

John’s weak and self-indulgent nature. The various choices made by the different characters in

The Golden Gate represents their ability or inability to lead personally happy or fulfilling lives.

John and Ed, Seth’s heroes become conscious of the complexes within them on this

bridge and are later purged of their pain, anxiety and self-love. John too visits it in the

beginning of the novel when he is more imperfect and confused, he revisits it when he is in

abject pain at the death of his beloved and the bridge becomes a metaphor of peace and

though unseen, it becomes a metaphysical power that ennobles John during his tragedy while

Ed succeeds in achieving a spiritual uplifting of mind and soul. Janet Hayakawa, a Japanese

42
immigrant, is single and like John, indulges in her job excessively and plays the drum to assuage

her loneliness. Similar contrasting images are evidenced in her characters; ‘stress and pleasure’,

toil and leisure’ have been coined together to describe Janet’s routine. Janet stresses and toils

in order to get leisure and pleasure; a stark irony of cosmopolitan life is evinced here.

John obviously is a loser; dejected and desolate. He feels insulted. Seth manages to

incorporate all the harsh facts of life with great craftsmanship; not even a single reference

remains and ordinary one. The novel ends satisfactorily. A healthy nine pound baby is born to

Liz and Phil. A large hearted and compassionate couple that they are, they accommodate

willingly Matt and Joan’s son Chuck, Paul Janet’s Cuff and Link, and Liz’s Charlemagne. Having

overcome his timidness, Ed is adamant on standing on his own feet. Interestingly, the baby is as

healthy the fertile, complete family or Phil and Liz. Both suggest to John that he should be their

son’s godfather and name the baby ‘John’. The novel ends at a positive note. John decides to

pay his heart’s arrears by resuming friendship with the two.

Vikram Seth’s work is housed in a variety of eclectic and traditional forms and location

of his prose and poetry move across the world, making literary home of distant land and

cultures. About homosexual concern Seth implies that when relationship will undergo

deterioration due to loss of values. The result could be guilt-ridden people, indulging in

malformed relationships. While we conclude Vikram Seth’s fiction. We can see that the central

motif in The Golden Gate is the quest for a companionship in life with love.

43
 WORK CITED
PRIMARY SOURCE:

The Golden Gate: Vikram Seth.

Penguin Publications, Srivalliputhur,2012.

SECONDARY SOURCES:

1. Super Summary
https://www.supersummary.com
2. Internet Public Library
https://www.ipl.org/essay/summary-Of-Vikram-Seths-The-Golden-Gate-
PJYQ4D42AU>

44
3. Ignited.in
http://ignited.in/a/58061
4. eNotes
https://www.enotes.com
5. Ivypanda
https://ivypanda.com
6. Google site
https://sites.google.com/site/jeltals/archive/5-1/9-the-golden-gate-RT8UV
7. Indian literature
https://knowindia.gov.in/love-and-life/literature.php

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