Tikki Tavi Short Story Analysis

This story, “Rikki-tikki-tavi” was written by Rudyard Kipling. Nagaina is a black cobra, she is the antagonist of the story “Rikki-tikki-tavi.” She is selfish and just wants the garden to herself. Nagaina has a spouse named Nag, who is also a black cobra. In this story Nagaina meets Rikki-Tikki and finds out that he wants to make this yard safe, but Nagaina has different plans. In this book you will find that Nagaina is stealthy, murderous, and selfish.

Rikki-tikki knew from the first day he saw Nagaina that she would cause trouble. Nagaina is stealthy. In this story she sneaks up on the family and Rikki-tikki. Nagaina tries to kill Rikki-tikki so that he won’t get in the way of her having the garden all to herself except, of course, for her spouse, Nag. In the story, it says, “Rikki-tikki knew better than to waste time in staring. He jumped up in the air as high as

She tries to kill the family so that Nag and Nagaina will have the garden all to themselves. “When the house is emptied of people… then come out and tell me, and we will hunt Rikki together” (21). She is constantly trying to rid herself of the family and of Rikki-tikki. She has plans to destroy them so that she and her husband can have the garden all to themselves. She never thinks of them being able to share the garden. She just plans to kill the others so that she can have all that she wants without any interference. Another example of this is when Nagaina says, “If you move, I strike, and if you don’t move I strike” (24).

As well as being murderous, Nagaina is selfish. She is selfish because she will do anything to have the garden all to herself, even if it means murdering, even if it means risking losing all her eggs, and even risking her life. In the story it repeatedly shows Nagaina being selfish. “He will have to go away, and the garden will be ours again” (21). As you know she will “strike”(24) regardless of the situation, and regardless of who the victim