Theme of Violence

The present work systematically studies the etymology of the term 'Violence', underlines its various types through the literature review of different literary genres and time periods. It analyses and comprehends the treatment of the theme of violence, in its various forms and manifestations in the short stories of R.K. Narayan and Ramesh K. Srivastava. The work intends to see how far the descriptions of violence appear to be gratuitous or called for and their contribution to the overall artistic effectiveness of these stories. The discussion on the short stories of R.K. Narayan and Ramesh K. Srivastava regarding the theme of violence manifests the fact that many of their stories have the violent subject, language, atmosphere, characters, and symbols. It seems as if violence is inherent in these stories. They depict physical, psychological, verbal violence without making it appear unreal even for a while. Both authors go to the very core of the genre and exploit all the possible techniques to achieve a heightened effect of the treatment of theme of violence. It is their immense talent, which largely contributes to their reputation as the great masters of the short story.