What kind of superstition do you find in Nassim Ezekiet's Night of the Scorpions?
In Indian society, superstitions have always existed and continue to exist despite the anti-superstition law which brings superstitious practices such as witchcraft under the criminal offense. These superstitions vary according to caste, religion, society and region and harm our society in numerous ways. “The Night of Scorpion” by Nissim Ezekiel portrays the picture of such superstition-ridden India and it is also a satire on the way Indian society functions with its maladies. The poem also explores the theme of love of the mother for her children, which is the essential feature of Indianness and womanhood. The poem is written as a first-person narrative in which the son is a witness of pain and agony of his mother when she is bitten by a scorpion.
When the scorpion stings the narrator's mother instead of looking for medical assistance the ignorant villagers start looking for the scorpion so that they can paralyze it. According to their superstitious belief, every movement of scorpion is directly proportional to the movement of poison in the blood of the mother. The narrator's father who is called “skeptic and rationalist” also does not try any scientific medication to cure the poison; rather he himself acquires the role of doctor and pours paraffin on the sting wound and burns it. Such thoughtless procedures by villagers and family members show the extent to which Indian society is drowned in the stream of superstitions and myths. The villagers are superstitious to the extent that they believe that mothers present suffering will reduce the misfortunes of next birth of lady and that the pain will purify her soul of sins.
The husband of the woman was a skeptic and rationalist. He did not share the views of the naïve villagers. Hence, he applied powder, mixture and herbs to the bitten spot. He also poured paraffin and put a match to it. Ironically, however, all his treatment also proved futile. It was only after a lapse of twenty hours that the pain naturally wore off and the woman heaved a sigh of relief. Even so, he stood for reason unlike all others on the scene. Ezekiel draws upon irony and contrast to explore the conflict between superstition and reason. The irony of the whole poem consists in what the peasants did to cure the woman and what they should actually have done. The streak /note of this irony runs through the images of the good and the evil, the images of light and darkness, and the juxtaposition of belief and reason. It should, however, be noted that the poet takes a perfectly detached view of the situation. Just as he does not satirize those who are superstitious, so also he does not admire the one who stands for reason. He only views the situation as an onlooker. If he does anything, he only casts an ironical smile, as an onlooker, on one of the ever-so-common incidents within his society that feeds on superstitions.
