Would you consider Velutha a tragic hero?

Answer

Would you consider Velutha a tragic hero? Show your reasons. 

This writing will also cover the answer to the following question.

Sketch the character of Velutha. 

Velutha is the younger son of Vellya Paapen. He represents the untouchables in “The God of Small Things” (1997) by Arundhati Roy (1961-Present). He is a carpenter by profession and an active worker of the Communist Party. Velutha is the young rebel in the novel. Still, he breaks the rigid conventional and religious rules by responding to Ammu’s sexual advances, forgetting the fact she is a “forbidden fruit” for an untouchable like him. As a result, he faces dire consequences that ruin both.

Velutha’s efficiencies: In the novel, Velutha is unparalleled as a carpenter, mechanic, and engineer. Baby Kochamma refers to him as “Dr. Velutha” when he fixed her garden cherub’s silver inextricably. He never feels that he is an untouchable, especially when he takes up his profession. With full confidence, he easily surpasses his fellow workers who are jealous of him. But he does not bother about that. Though Velutha is untouchable in the eyes of his fellow workers, he is more than conscious about his duties to the working class.

A trade unionist: Velutha’s participation in the workers’ march has created ripples in Ammu and others in the Ayemenem family. He emerges as a brave trade unionist who succeeds in erasing his identity as an untouchable by fighting for the rights of the downtrodden in his white shirt and mundu. This is very significant for us.

Velutha as a lover: Velutha lives the life of a lover, and Ammu, the young divorcee, makes him a lover. His relationship with Ammu develops gradually. But the other members of their family don’t accept this love affair.

 It was a time when the unthinkable became thinkable, and the impossible really happened.

It intensifies after Ammu returns with her children to her parent’s home. When he was a kid, Velutha used to make little wooden toys for Ammu though he was to place them in her outstretched hand, he would not touch her. Eventually, she stops flattening her hand out. By allowing him to touch her on the river bank on a moonlit night, Ammu breaks down the social barriers that divide them. Ammu dreams of Velutha.

If he held her, he couldn’t kiss her. If he kissed her, he couldn’t see her. If he saw her, he couldn’t feel her.

A victim of societal rules or Velutha’s Tragedy: Velutha, the rebel, disregards societal rules in favour of love. For this, he pays a very deadly price. However, by our standards, he does nothing wrong by loving Ammu. He is falsely involved, though everyone knows that Sophie Mol’s death was an accident. It is Baby Kochamma who makes Estha give evidence before the police that Velutha has a hand in kidnapping them. This ultimately leads to the death of Sophie Mol. She also tells the police that he has threatened them at their house. Though Velutha is almost innocent in the affair that he had with Ammu, everybody of the touchable states that he is a true villain who should be stoned to death.

 Where they really lived. Where the Love Laws lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much?

The members of the Ayemenem family, Comrade Pillai, and the police play their heinous roles to finish off Velutha, the untouchable. The way he is tortured to death by police would perhaps be one of the most breathtaking descriptions in any fiction.  

In termination, we can say that Velutha is an untouchable and tragic character in the family drama “The God of Small Things”. Velutha has tragic flaws, but his ill-treatment by the police and others rouses our pity and fear. Velutha represents the untouchables who have been traditionally ill-treated and will continue to be treated so.