Pratap Character Analysis in A House for Mr Biswas

Mr Biswas’s older brother, who works in the cane fields from a young age and never learns to read. When the neighbors raid his family’s garden looking for Raghu’s buried money, Pratap wants to attack them, but his mother, Bipti, holds him back. Later, he ends up relatively well-off and shelters Bipti in the sturdy house where he lives with his wife and children.

Pratap Quotes in A House for Mr Biswas

The A House for Mr Biswas quotes below are all either spoken by Pratap or refer to Pratap. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Mr Biswas never went to work on the estates. Events which were to occur presently led him away from that. They did not lead him to riches, but made it possible for him to console himself in later life with the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, while he rested on the Slumberking bed in the one room which contained most of his possessions.

Related Characters: Mr Biswas, Bipti, Raghu, Pratap, Prasad

Page Number and Citation: 23

Explanation and Analysis:

Pratap Character Timeline in A House for Mr Biswas

The timeline below shows where the character Pratap appears in A House for Mr Biswas. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Education, Work, and Language Theme Icon

...school—he only minded that he could not go in ponds and rivers, like his brothers Pratap and Prasad (whom his father taught to swim) but enjoyed his baths and played with... (full context)

...the cane fields (but would never have advanced on the estates because he was illiterate). Pratap, who was also illiterate, nevertheless found success: he made enough to buy his own land,... (full context)

...the family’s garden, breaking the bottles Raghu had planted there. She woke up Prasad and Pratap—while Mr Biswas “closed his eyes to keep out the danger”—and, out the window, they saw... (full context)

Colonialism, Oppression, and Escape Theme Icon

Pratap and Prasad woke before dawn, remained silent about Dhari’s meddling in the garden and went... (full context)

At night, Bipti, Pratap and Prasad waited with Raghu’s cutlasses and sticks—Mr Biswas again drifted off to sleep but... (full context)

...Dhari” before moving with Mr Biswas to live with some of Tara’s relatives in Pagotes. Pratap and Prasad went to live with a distant relative and continue working on sugar-estates, “and... (full context)

Ramchand felt sorry for Ajodha (who was “just asking” to “fall really sick”), Pratap (whose donkeys kept dying), Prasad (who could not find a wife), and Bhandat (because of... (full context)

...also promised to marry off the reluctant Mr Biswas, which would complete her life’s work. Pratap and Prasad were already married, but Mr Biswas preferred to read, soon finding himself “addicted”... (full context)

...of wives. Mr Biswas went to visit Bipti and Tara, then on Boxing-day, his brothers Pratap and Prasad who “had married nondescript women from nondescript families.” He went to Arwacas the... (full context)

Pratap and Prasad visited Hanuman House, treating the children kindly but underestimating their number and chatting... (full context)

...a peasant in the village where Prasad lived found him. Then, he went to see Pratap and discovered that Bipti had been living with him for some time. She had suddenly... (full context)

Mr Biswas brought Shama and the children to Pratap’s house, where he was surprised at the huge crowd of relatives he had never met.... (full context)