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This story is a story within a story. This means that the tale starts out with one
narrator and is then switched over to another narrator, who begins another story.
The compostion will end with its original narrator and that narrator's story. It
allows the reader be more apart of the story; to connect more. THEMES
Imagination and Skepticism Imagination& Skepticisim Reality and Fantasty His
mornings make the impressions he had of the palace seem like pointless flights of
imagination his nights make his day seem worthless and boring Night Vs.
Morning: a perilous dream threatening to destroy the dreamer Morning vs. Night:
The first story of the book is written in the dark tone, giving a chill in the spine. The story is told
as "Narration within the narration". The first narrator describes the second narrator whom he met
while in a train journey. The story is told by the latter, which is about a palace he lived in while
he worked as the collector of cotton duties at Barich. The palace built 250 years ago along the
banks of Susta, which ..."chatters over stony ways and babbles on pebbles," tripping like a skilful
dancing girl in through the woods below the lonely hills.
Once the home of costly extravaganza, the palace was deserted and supposedly haunted. The old
clerk in the narrator's office warned about not spending the nights there.
The house has such a bad name that even thieves won't venture in the near it after dark. Not long
after, the house becomes alive with visions and strange feelings. The narrator gets pulled by the
palace at nights. He feels like he is guided to the unknown secrets of the palace by an invisible
but a maddening beauty, only to be awakened by a madman's shout:"Stand back!!"
The narrator goes on to describe how "the hungry stones" of the place kills the occupants except
Meher Ali who goes insane and proceeds to describe the story attached to the place.
Tagore in his expressive and extensive detailed descriptions draws a picture which could never
be ignored by the reader. The end of the story is even more surprising when viewed in that
perspective. It may leave reader in a dismay but that is what the writer wants to do to you. Just
like the Arab girl who leads to the seemingly dark secrets of the palace and interrupted by the
madman's shouts.