Rabindranath Tagore: Short Stories Lesson Plan

What does the narrator in A Single Night mean when he says “Now, years later, she had left the light and the crowds to be with me alone in this terrifying, deserted, apocalyptic darkness” (96)? What is the significance of Surabala’s choice to leave her home during the storm, leading to her chance meeting with the narrator?

When the narrator turns down the option to marry Surabala to pursue his own career ambitions, he rejects the convention of married life, forsakes the known, traditional existence for his own internal journey. When Surabala marries the lawyer Ramloachan, she (willingly or unwillingly) embraces the convention. The phrase “the light and the crowds” refers...