The Club butler
The servant who runs the European Club at Kyauktada: a dark, stout Dravidian with liquid, yellow-irised eyes, who answers everything with "Yes, master" and retires. He is present in almost every Club scene in the novel, is kicked by one member and mocked by another for speaking English too well, and is the source, without knowing it, of the intelligence U Po Kyin's ally collects.
To give satisfaction and be left alone. He answers every order the same way, takes what the members do to him without appeal, and is on his knees in the corner when the town finally comes for them.
The book
At a glance
- Butler at the European Club in Kyauktada
- Dark, stout, with liquid yellow-irised eyes
- Chapters 2, 16, 18, 19, 21 and 22
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeThe Club is where the Europeans of Kyauktada spend their evenings, and the butler is the one constant in it. George Orwell describes him as a dark, stout Dravidian with liquid, yellow-irised eyes. His part in almost every scene is the same two words and an exit: yes, master, said the butler, and retired.
Two incidents give him more than that. Ellis, who cannot bear an Asian who speaks English well, baits him about the price of a piano and is answered in correct, quiet English, which is exactly the offence. Later Verrall, the visiting Military Police officer, kicks him, and the butler comes to Mr Macgregor in tears to say the new master has been beating him. The complaint produces nothing.
He is also the leak. Ko Ba Sein reports to U Po Kyin that he has been talking to the Club butler, which is how the conspirators know what the Europeans said in a room no Burman is allowed to enter. The butler is not conspiring; he is answering questions from a man who has taken the trouble to ask them. In the riot at the end he is the one who raises the alarm, and during the siege of the Club he is found on his knees in a corner, crossing himself.
How the book draws them
- How the book draws himDark-skinned and stout, and old enough that the book calls him the old butler. His eyes are liquid, with unusually yellow irises. Beyond that the novel gives him almost no appearance at all, which is part of the point it is making about the Club.
- "Yes, master"His line, repeated through the book, followed by a retirement from the room. He is spoken to more often than he is spoken about.
- His EnglishGood enough to annoy Ellis, who despises Asians who speak the language properly and needles him about a piano's price to make the point.
- The kickVerrall kicks him, and he comes to Mr Macgregor with the tears rolling down his cheeks to say the new master has been beating him. Nothing is done about it.
- The unwitting informerKo Ba Sein reports to U Po Kyin that he has been talking to the Club butler. Every conspiracy in the novel is fed by servants who are treated as furniture.
- The riotHe raises the alarm when the crowd comes, shouting that bad men are coming to murder them all. During the siege he is on his knees in the corner, crossing himself.