Modernistic Aspects in Kiplings A Wayside Comedy1

Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India. He was sent to England to go to school and returned to India in 1882. He worked as a journalist in Lahore for the Civil and Military Gazette. He also worked on Pioneer in Allahabad later (www.kipling.org). Kipling returned to England in 1889 and met his wife, Carrie Balestier. They moved to the United States in the mid-1890s where he wrote many of his poems. They returned to England in 1896 (www.poetryloverspage.com). Kipling began to be regarded as ?the People?s Laureate,? but he refused most of the honors offered to him, including knighthood, Poet Laureateship, and the Order of Merit (kipling.org). He did accept, however, the 1907 Nobel prize for literature (poetryloverspage).

Rudyard Kipling wrote many short stories and poems. One that is interesting is ?A Wayside Comedy.? Kipling?s short story ?A Wayside Comedy? has several modernistic aspects. It has no definitive ending, a straightforward sequential plot, allusion, and complex symbolism.

?A Wayside Comedy? has no definite ending because no one dies, gets married, or is exiled. Life in Kashima goes on as it normally would if the fact that Kurrell was sleeping with both Mrs. Boulte and Mrs. Vans

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?A Wayside Comedy? also contains allusion, another modernistic aspect. Boulte even stated to Kurrell that ?We must let the old life go on? (Jarrell, 15). ? Edward Bonver?s Poetry Lover?s Page. Boulte tells her husband what has been happening between her and Kurrell. One of Kipling?s allusions to the Bible occurs when Mrs. The story begins with the arrival of the Vansuythens and their welcome to Kashima. Then it moves on to the Rains that come to India and what happens during those rains. Vansuythen to stop so she can talk to Kurrell. People?s feeling for each other changed when this secret came out, but since they were the only English in the town, they still had tea together, went hunting together, and sat together. Boulte begins to suspect that Kurrell, who had been with her, is now with Mrs.

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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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