55 pages • 1 hour read
George OrwellBurmese Days
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1934A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Flory
The novel never reveals the first name of Mr. Flory, the protagonist and primary character of Burmese Days. A 35-year old English bachelor, Flory has spent his entire life in Burma working as a manager for a timber firm. Flory’s drinking and jungle life have aged him beyond his years; his most distinguishing physical feature is a large, crescent-shaped birthmark that runs across the left side of his face. Flory takes care not to show the left side of his face to others—he considers his birthmark hideous and blames it for all of his life’s disappointments.
Flory is caught between two cultures: his English upbringing and his Burmese home. He has been in Burma since he was 19, dodging the WWI draft, and later realizing that he has no ties in England and is too enmeshed in the local lifestyle. He loves Burma and Burmese culture, which isolates him from the other Europeans. On the other hand, although he is a fierce critic of colonialism and the British Empire, he hypocritically admits that he has no desire to see it end since it is how he hopes to become wealthy. Flory struggles with loneliness, and his primary motivation is to find a white wife who also loves art and culture.
Although he is portrayed sympathetically, Flory is burdened with a number of character flaws. The first of these is his cowardice. Flory tends to go along with the other members of the European club, and is generally reluctant to stand up for himself or his beliefs, particularly to the virulently racist Ellis, who bullies Flory. Flory manages to overcome his cowardice at several key moments, first because Elizabeth’s presence inspires him, and later because he has nothing left to lose.
Flory’s second flaw is his propensity toward self-delusion, which affects his relationship with Elizabeth and proves to be his downfall when he does not recognize the danger posed by U Po Kyin. Flory immediately falls for Elizabeth even though she is often cold and distant to him. He never fully understands some basic things about her: that she has racist beliefs about the natives and that his attempts to interest her in local culture are a turn-off; that she is most interested in him when he displays stereotypically masculine characteristics; and that she is so desperate to escape poverty and spinsterhood that she would marry almost anyone. Similarly, Flory dismisses Veraswami’s warnings about the threat posed by U Po Kyin, who eventually masterminds Flory’s complete discrediting in the church in front of the Europeans. Although Flory expresses positive beliefs about the Burmese, he does not see them as equals, dismissing the idea that U Po Kyin could pose a threat to a white man.
Flory commits suicide after being publicly shamed and then rejected by Elizabeth. His final moments connect Flory to the fate of the many other men in the colonies who killed themselves and were quickly forgotten.
Elizabeth
Elizabeth Lackersteen, a beautiful and fashionably 22-year-old woman with bobbed hair, is Flory’s love interest. Her father was a tea merchant who couldn’t keep up with fluctuations in their family fortunes and her mother considered herself a bohemian artist (though she never actually produced anything). After Elizabeth’s father died, she and her mother moved to Paris, squandering what remained of the family wealth.
Shortly before the beginning of the novel, Elizabeth’s mother dies from food poisoning and so Elizabeth travels to Burma to stay with her aunt and uncle, the Lackersteens. Once there, she hopes to find a husband, prodded by her aunt who constantly insinuates that if she doesn’t marry soon, she will face poverty and homelessness. Her arrival causes a stir in Kyauktada, as attractive, unmarried, white women are rare. Flory is immediately taken with her and they come close to marriage on several occasions. However, the arrival of the handsome and wealthy Verrall ends the courtship (as does Elizabeth learning about Flory’s native concubine). After Verrall abandons Elizabeth, she marries Macgregor.
The most formative experience in Elizabeth’s life is her year at high-class boarding school. There, she sees how the wealthy upper class lives, and desires above all else to have that lifestyle for herself. Elizabeth hates anything associated with art or intellect, which she associates with her mother. She believes that the expensive, elegant, and aristocratic are “Lovely” and that the cheap, shabby, and laboring—like her family of origin—are “Beastly,” which means that she accepts rigid English hierarchy in much the same way that Dr. Veraswami accepts white supremacy, both to their own detriment.
Dr. Veraswami
Dr. Veraswami is the Indian surgeon and superintendent of the jail in Kyauktada, as well as Flory’s only friend. He is a stereotype of the idealized colonized subject, who has an unfailing belief in the nobility and efficacy of the colonial project, believing it to be economically developing colonized countries while uplifting them culturally and spiritually. Veraswami truly believes that he is a member of a race inferior to the Europeans, unwilling to admit their many shortcomings. Despite this, all of the white characters except for Flory treat him with contempt. Even Flory, despite being a friend, sees him more like a sounding board rather than an equal partner.
Veraswami is the polar opposite of U Po Kyin, his rival for membership in the European club. Because Veraswami is the only character who correctly perceives U Po Kyin’s actions and motivations, Kyin (whom Veraswami calls, “the crocodile”) succeeds at destroying the doctor’s reputation through various schemes. Despite Veraswami’s upstanding incorruptibility—or maybe because of it— the Europeans are suspicious of him, and his primary protection is his friendship with Flory. After Flory’s suicide, Veraswami loses that protection, gets demoted, and is sent to a hospital in Mandalay.
U Po Kyin
U Po Kyin is the major antagonist in Burmese Days, although he rarely interacts directly with the other characters. He is a grotesquely overweight local magistrate in his mid-50s, who saw British troops marching in Burma as a young man and decided to become a parasite and leech on their empire. Since then, U Po Kyin’s primary motivation has been becoming rich and elevating his social status. To do this, the scheming and corrupt Kyin takes bribes and levies private taxes on areas under his control. Although his crimes are well known to the native population, the Europeans cannot perceive them, and he amasses a large network of supporters through patronage and graft.
The final coup would be becoming a member of the European club. Kyin contrives to destroy the reputation of Dr. Veraswami, his main rival for this position, while elevating his own status in the minds of the Europeans.
Like Veraswami, U Po Kyin is also a caricature of stereotypical colonial subject: a sly, cunning, scheming, and corrupt secret mastermind. The Europeans do not believe natives capable of intelligence, so Kyin flourishes and thrives within the colonial system whereas the noble and honest Veraswami cannot. Kyin’s very existence serves as an indictment of the colonial system, since it allows this kind of behavior.
As a Buddhist, U Po Kyin believes that those that do evil reincarnate as lower status animals, so he plans to build pagodas in order to redeem his karma in his final years to ensure coming back as a human male. Ironically, although Kyin succeeds in his plans to destroy Flory and Veraswami and becomes a member of the club, he dies before starting his pagoda-building project. His wife imagines him either being tortured in hell or returning as a frog.
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