The Glass Palace

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2000

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Part 2, Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary

The king is hidden away in his mansion in Ratnagiri and never makes public appearances. His four daughters now wear saris instead of Burmese clothing and speak the local language. Dolly is the only one of the original servants who remains with the royal family.

Every morning, the king watches the fishing fleet through his golden binoculars and, one day, he notices that a storm has taken one of the ships. The king watches over the bay constantly, becoming something of a local legend. He is the first to notice the arrival of the monsoon season and first to spot visiting steamers, which bring him pork and other delicacies.

When a plague hits Ratnagiri, Dolly must deal with the fallout. She strikes a deal to have workers live near the compound, forming a little village away from the disease. By the time the plague subsides, fifty families live around the royal compound and deify the queen.

An English governess is hired and she teaches Dolly and the youngest princess her language. Dolly enters into a relationship with Sawant, the family’s trusted servant, until they’re caught by the First Princess. The compound falls into disrepair, resembling a shantytown.

Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary

Huay Zedi is a logging camp turned into a town, sitting on the intersection between many trails. Rajkumar passes through regularly with Saya John and he meets Doh Say, who works with the elephants. The two become friends and, when discussing their romantic interests, Rajkumar remembers Dolly. Doh Say insists that Rajkumar go to India to find the girl.

Rajkumar learns about anthrax and how it kills elephants, the pain sending them into a rage. Rajkumar sees it for himself, encountering a deafeningly loud elephant that has killed its master. The camp empties, taking the other elephants to safety to prevent infection. A day later, the elephant dies and the camp holds a funeral for the dead man. That evening, Saya John tells Rajkumar a story of a similar incident, in which a young man died at a logging camp. When the young assistant of the camp refused to sign the dead man’s release papers, the man’s elephant attacked the camp and killed the assistant. When Saya John inspected the accident zone, he found a mysterious, mangled footprint in the wet mud beside the dead elephant.

Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary

A new District Collector, or administrative head, arrives in Ratnagiri in 1905. He is an Indian named Beni Prasad Day. Though it is a time of political upheaval, the collector dismisses the king’s interest in Japan’s victory over Russia when meeting the royal family. The collector reminds the king of the might of the British Empire. The collector’s wife, Uma, finds a watercolor painting of Pagan and interrogates Dolly about its origins. The queen is impressed by Uma and asks to inspect her sari, which is tied in a non-traditional manner, establishing a friendly relationship between her and the royal family.

As Uma settles into life in Ratnagiri, she befriends Dolly. The two reminisce about Mandalay, though Dolly states that the city is firmly in her past. When the two become close, Uma asks Dolly about the queen and whether anyone was killed by royal decree. Avoiding the question, Dolly asks about a picture of Queen Victoria in Uma’s home and ponders how many people had been killed in the name of the British monarch. A few days later, Uma takes down the picture and sends it to her husband’s office.

Uma asks her husband about the princesses’ futures, wondering whom they will marry. Convention prevents them from marrying anyone without royal blood; thanks to the queen’s purges of potential rivals to the throne, there are very few eligible men left. During a trip to a local temple, Dolly confides in Uma that the First Princess is pregnant and that Sawant, the royal family’s servant, is the father. The family is content with this, though they worry about the collector’s reaction.

Uma probes Dolly about her own prospects and Dolly confesses that she feels as though the princess’s baby is her own. In response, Uma urges Dolly to leave and make a life for herself. Dolly refuses, saying that this arrangement is the only home she knows.

Part 2, Chapters 7-9 Analysis

The story told by Saya John is one that attempts to teach Rajkumar the importance of acquiescing to local cultures and knowledge. The imperial figure in the story, the assistant, fails to comprehend the importance of the release papers. In doing so, he releases a force he does not understand. The way Saya John tells the story, the rogue elephant becomes a force of nature, empowered by its grief over the death of its handler. The assistant, distant and uncaring in his hut, will never comprehend this bond and, as a result, he dies. Later in the story, Rajkumar will struggle to deal with issues similar in nature: though he is fluent in the local languages and customs, the color of his skin will see him chased out of town as a force of vengeful nature sweeps through the city.

An ignorance to the changing course of history is a fatal flaw shared by many characters in this book. In Chapter 9, the collector’s dismissal of the Japanese army’s victory over Russia indicates a flawed understanding of the importance of geopolitics. It’s an example of dramatic irony, in that the reader knows that wars such as this eventually led to the destruction caused by World War I, but this is easily dismissed by the collector. From that moment on, the collector’s judgment is markedly compromised and the audience is imbued with a sense of inevitable violence surrounding the colonial enterprise in Asia. Likewise, Uma’s growing skepticism surrounding the Empire is evidenced by the removal of the picture of Queen Victoria and will eventually become a major part of the novel.