Professional Mourner Short Story

Alagu Subramaniam was born in the year 1915. He is of Sri Lankan origin and belongs to the Tamil community. He was one of the founders and editors of the literary magazine Indian Writing.His short stories were published by journals, such as Life and Letters Today and the Left Review. He was also involved with the anti-colonial organisation Swaraj House.

II. Professional Mourners: Professional mourners are women who become professional with their ability to integrate themselves with the family of the deceased with their extreme display of emotions. Their physical display of grief makes it seem as though they were attached to them for years. This rather grand display of emotions makes the others grieve even more, however none of the actions

Due to the death relatives of the family and villagers gathered in front of the house. The uncle of the narrator is the master of ceremonies and due to his dominating character he catches the attention of the readers. The narrator’s uncle’s is ‘a teacher of small school and a trifle mad’ according to the narrator. As the master of the ceremonies he arranged the whole ceremony. It seems that he is a arrogant character without pity and a person who focuses too much on caste and class. Apart from all the tasks at the funeral house his concentration goes for professional mourners. The fact that he rushed out to seek the mourners shows how the funeral instead of being genuine becomes an act where crocodile tears are shed. The master became more furious and physically drags them with their saris to mourn for the grandmother .This shows how the uncle not only uses mental power over the lower cast but also does not hesitate to physically over power them. This shows how the powerful people in the society can dictate their terms and enforce their will on the lower caste and class of the society. The story depicts the caste and class as a rigid inhuman system as most of the time low class associates with illiteracy, poverty, and servility. For example the uncle upbraided the fishermen who were getting ready to go fishing for not coming to respect his aunt. For him the poor fishermen were

The educated people of the family are more considerate and sympathetic when they found out that the mother of two mourners passed away and they paid them and asked them to leave as they felt bad for them. So it seems that the educated people who have a sufficient amount of knowledge dissociate themselves from the rigid conventions of the caste system. Other than the criticising the rigid caste system, the writer criticises the artificial character of professional mourners.
V. Themes:
Main Themes of professional mourners
• Celebration of power- it shows how the upper classes force their power over the lower classes i.e. physically and mentally.
• Dehumanisation - this also shows how the upper class deny the basic rights of the lower class just due to their social standing in the society.

Sub themes of professional mourners:
Hypocrisy behind social customs – the story according to the narrator who is a grandson of the dead person critically looks at the actions of the uncle’s and performance of the professional mourners.
The rigidity of the cast system– The uncle shows no respect to the professional mourners and also his attitude towards the fishermen show the general cast rigidity of the people especially the uncle .Story shows how the upper cast who are rich treat the poor and low cast.
Treatment for women in conventional society– The story shows how women are treated in the society and looked down on. It also shows they are not treated