A Season 2 Podcast 57 The Precious Bane Part II
In George Orwell’s first novel, Burmese Days, we are introduced to the protagonist John Flory, in the following way:
“The first thing that one noticed in Flory was a hideous birthmark stretching in a ragged crescent down his left cheek, from the eye to the corner of the mouth. Seen from the left side his face had a battered, woebegone look, as though the birthmark had been a bruise--for it was a dark blue in colour. He was quite aware of its hideousness. And at all times, when he was not alone, there was a sidelongness about his movements, as he manoeuvred constantly to keep the birthmark out of sight.”
The birthmark governs Flory’s perception of himself. Whenever he did anything that he was ashamed of, he thought of his birthmark. Shy by nature, any failure caused him to dwell on his hideous birthmark. By age 35, he was single, friendless, jaded, and disillusioned.
The birthmark makes him shy and introverted around women. He takes a mistress and lives a dissolute life which makes him even more isolated. He is very lonely and wants to marry a European wife.
After saving the beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen from an attack by a water buffalo, he falls in love with her. Still his hideous birthmark is at the forefront. Rather than looking her in the eye, “Flory …turned himself sidelong to keep his birthmarked cheek away from her…feeling easier when she could not see his face.”
The birthmark is like a pouncing tiger always ready to attack when he was vulnerable, For example, during a tense moment, “Flory had turned very pale. When he turned pale the birthmark made him hideously ugly.” But that of course was only in his perceptions. At any stress, “The birthmark stood out on his yellow face like a splash of ink.”
He dismisses his mistress who becomes very spiteful.
Wanting security, Elizabeth had agreed to marry Flory, however, circumstances intervened that prevented the marriage. Meanwhile, urged by her aunt, Elizabeth fell for a handsome calvary officer and chose the penniless aristocrat who always lives beyond his means over Flory.
However, after the officer has his way with Elizabeth, he abandons her without even saying goodbye. She turns her attention back to Flory. Unfortunately, Flory, who only a brief time before had been a local hero for averting a riot, is publicly humiliated by his former mistress during a European church service. Her explicit details before the congregation horrified Elizabeth. It was not the affair that bothered her. She already knew that he had had a mistress. It was his public humiliation. However, it is the hideous birthmark that reveals Flory’s humiliation, “He sat staring fixedly at the alter, his face rigid and so bloodless that the birth-mark seemed to glow upon it like a streak of blue paint.”
It is also the birthmark that turns Elizabeth so violently against Flory. I quote:
“Elizabeth glanced across the aisle at him, and her revulsion made her almost physically sick. She had not understood a word of what Ma Hla May was saying, but the meaning of the scene was perfectly clear. The thought that he had been the lover of that grey-faced, maniacal creature made her shudder in her bones. But worse than that, worse than anything, was his ugliness at this moment. His face appalled her, it was so ghastly, rigid and old. It was like a skull. Only the birthmark seemed alive in it. She hated him now for his birthmark. She had never known till this moment how dishonouring, how unforgivable a thing it was.”
After the public humiliation the contrite Flory clumsily approaches Elizabeth, but regardless of the fact that he had overlooked her affair with the lieutenant, the shallow Elizabeth viciously turns against him and refuses to marry him regardless if his pleading.
