A House for Mr Biswas

by

V. S. Naipaul

Dhari Character Analysis

A neighbor who entrusts the young Mr Biswas to care for his calf, which disappears while the protagonist is busy playing with fish in a stream and is later discovered to have died. Dhari begins a feud with Bipti and her children, breaking into their garden at night to dig for Raghu’s buried money.
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Dhari Character Timeline in A House for Mr Biswas

The timeline below shows where the character Dhari appears in A House for Mr Biswas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 1: Pastoral
Education, Work, and Language Theme Icon
Colonialism, Oppression, and Escape Theme Icon
When his neighbor Dhari’s cow birthed a calf, he paid Mr Biswas to bring it water. Mr Biswas took... (full context)
Education, Work, and Language Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
...bed, where he pondered the dusty cloth smells and the muffled sounds that surrounded him. Dhari came to report that his calf had gone missing, and Raghu told him and Prasad... (full context)
Education, Work, and Language Theme Icon
Colonialism, Oppression, and Escape Theme Icon
...argued about who would dive into the pond to look for him. Raghu suggested that Dhari was responsible, because he charged Mr Biswas with caring for the calf, but Dhari threatened... (full context)
Gender and Family Theme Icon
...Mr Biswas “closed his eyes to keep out the danger”—and, out the window, they saw Dhari digging up the bottles and singing. Pratap threatened to “beat him like a snake” and... (full context)
Social Status and Hierarchy Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
Colonialism, Oppression, and Escape Theme Icon
Pratap and Prasad woke before dawn, remained silent about Dhari’s meddling in the garden and went to work at the buffalo pond. After sunrise, Bipti... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Gender and Family Theme Icon
...with Raghu’s cutlasses and sticks—Mr Biswas again drifted off to sleep but woke to hear Dhari singing wedding songs as Pratap paced frantically around the hut with his cutlass. Bipti saw... (full context)
Independence vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Social Status and Hierarchy Theme Icon
“In the end Bipti sold the hut and the land to Dhari” before moving with Mr Biswas to live with some of Tara’s relatives in Pagotes. Pratap... (full context)