Nawab+Visits+Olivia


 * Riowena's Response:**

The Nawab’s visit to Olivia’s home serves to portray the Nawab as an important and arrogant character. As the Nawab enters Olivia’s house, “servants [announce] him”(p18), indicating his high rank in society. Entirely at ease in Olivia’s home, the Nawab is pictured as “tak[ing] possession” and “[sitting] right in the middle" (p19) of the sofa, entirely occupying the space and denying a seat to the other characters in the room. This shows his self-centeredness and arrogance, as if it is the Nawab who is the master of the home and can do as he pleases, seating himself in a most selfish and unrefined manner. The Nawab is then referred to as “the master of the scene”(p 19), characterizing him as being powerful yet attractive to the other characters, emphasizing his dominating, controlling presence in this visit to Olivia’s house. TheNawab's arrogant, self-important nature is further highlighted as he “invited Olivia...to make herself quite comfortable on the sofa...and to enjoy Harry’s humour”(p19). The Nawab's invitation to the hostess to make herself comfortable in her own home connotes that the Nawab has a patronizing, almost condescending attitude, creating the impression that the master of the home is not Olivia but himself. The small but selfish and ostentatious actions of the Nawab in his first visit to Olivia’s home thus introduce him as being a proud and controlling figure, which continues to be seen throughout the rest of the novel.


 * Robert's Response:**

The Nawab’s Visit to Olivia’s house reveals the hidden irritation Harry has towards him. “Harry declared himself charmed with [Olivia’s] room, (Pg. 16)”; even though Harry always lived in Nawab’s prosperous environment with huge and comfortable rooms, he is charmed by Olivia’s “average” European styled house. The statement portrays Harry's boredom living in the Nawab’s Palace. To Support the above factor, when Harry entered Olivia’s house, “He flopped into an armchair (Pg. 16)” and “[panted] like a man in exhaustion(Pg.16)", "pretending he had crossed a desert and had at last reached an oasis. (Pg. 16).” Interestingly, Harry describes Olivia’s house as an oasis, a heaven-like place in the desert where abundant amount of water is found, he also “pretends” to pant in exhaustion as if he was crossing a desert. Harry’s behavior links to Nawab’s poor relationship with him, the desert is a metaphor of Nawab in which the crossing of a desert is tiring and exasperating just like the Nawab, the Nawab makes Harry so mundane that he became extremely joyful when he comes to Olivia’s house; Harry escapes the ‘desert’ and reaches the ‘Oasis’. As presented from the above factors from the visit to Olivia’s house, it is manifest that Harry does have a concealed dislike towards the Nawab.