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Articles: Literature | A Man of No Consequence
- Dr. Rajeshwar Mittapalli
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The actual or perceived distance from this exalted ideal would precipitate the original inferiority feeling. The subject then experiences a complex of these feelings as debilitating. The unconscious goal one sets to fight off the primary feeling of inferiority thus paradoxically leads to the secondary feeling of inferiority.
Subbaiah is an inferiorized and marginalized individual. His suffering has been realistically, yet artistically, portrayed in A Man of No Consequence. The beginning of the novel itself—the very first passage—sets the tone:
“Subbaiah is not good-looking.”
That is Subbaiah’s opinion.
“Subbaiah is just plain no good.”
That too is Subbaiah’s opinion.
-.-
“Father is scared of mother.”
This is what his son Krishnudu has discovered.
“Subbaiah is very inefficient.”
This is the remark the head clerk in his office passes.
“Subbaiah is too timid.”
This is what many people say.4
This beginning unmistakably establishes the severity of the inferiority complex in the protagonist. His inferiority complex is however not the same as propounded by Adler. Society as a whole, and his own wife as well, regard Subbaiah as a feckless fellow. But in reality he is a law-abiding and god-fearing man, even if unabashedly pusillanimous. He works as a clerk in a government office. He is afraid of everything and everybody around him—his wife Savitri, his brother-in-law Venkat Rao, and even his colleagues at the office. He is afraid of even himself and is greatly surprised when he inadvertently makes (what to him looks like) a bold statement. Being such a timid man, he is not efficient as an office worker. He is very slow in disposing of the files entrusted to him. For this reason he is transferred finally to the Despatch Section which is considered to be a fit place for incompetent clerks like him.
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