Doctor's word (Short story) by R. K. Narayan

Doctor's Word (Short Story)by R.K. Narayan

      Critics have noted that Narayan's writings tend to be more descriptive and less analytical. The setting for most of Narayan's stories is the fictional town of Malgudi. His narratives highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life. He has been compared to William Faulkner , who also created a fictional town that stood for reality.

   It is very simple story and it gives aesthetic delight too. story focusing on Dr. Raman who is one of the major character ,he is known as a straight-forward and to the point Doctor. He reasons that he might as well tell the truth about his prognosis for his patients, since nature will take its course one way or the other. and the other major character Gopal,who is very sick. Dr. Raman is suddenly told that his good friend from boyhood, Gopal is seriously ill. 

  Dr. Raman goes to his friend, and gives Gopal an injection, and he and his two assistants perform some type of operation on Gopal. Gopal becomes conscious and asks his friend Dr. Raman if he can expect to live. If not, Gopal must immediately sign his prepared last will and testament. Dr. Raman takes a break, then comes back and lies that Gopal is in good shape and must rest. 

          The doctor realizes that the man could die that night. For Gopal is very sick (dying in Dr. Raman's judgment) and requests a truthful prognosis in order to settle his will and avoid the "endless misery for his wife and children" that an unsettled will would entail, a realistic eventuality with which Yet, if Dr. Raman reveals his pessimistic opinion, which he does to his assistant, i.e., that Gopal will not survive the night, then it would "virtually mean a death sentence and destroy the thousandth part of a chance that the patient had of survival."

As we know that what is the role of Doctor, Doctor never behaved with emotion ,his work with what is the way that he survive the life of patient, Doctor always deals with truthfulness. but here in this fiction Dr. Raman does "a piece of acting" and assures his friend and patient that he will live. Gopal replies, "If it comes from your lips it must be true . . . . " Gopal lives and Dr.Raman remarks to his assistant.

"How he has survived this attack

will be a puzzle to me all my life."

  In other words, this story's concern is not only with professional ethics but also with the tension that often arrives when personal ethics and professional ethics intersect and conflict meta-ethics for professional morality" in the journal Ethics.it wad also mentioed in ' Vanity Fair' that..

"Human is more important than the Science , religion,and literature.”

   In Narayan’s stories it has been observed that the stories begin with the characters but in a skilful manner during his narration of the character, Narayan plants a situation. The build-up generally deals with how a character reacts in that situation. So, we can say that...

Literature is the product mind and heart.