Rikki-Tik By Rudyard Kipling: Character Analysis

Lao Tzu once said “Being deeply loved gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Has the love for others ever given you courage? On the other hand, has the love from others given you strength? Rikki-tikki-tavi by Rudyard Kipling is a fictional story that demonstrates that love gives people a reason to be brave and to have strength, even in the smallest creatures. The main character in the story, Rikki-tikki, is brave and curious. Paragraph 33 explains that Rikki-tikki fights the snake named Karait to protect the little boy, even though Karait’s bite, if not more, was just as deadly as a king cobra’s, but since he was smaller he was more treacherous. As one can see, Rikki-tikki’s bravery and affection towards the boy and his family gave him the courage to fight Karait. His bravery is proven through this by displaying that Rikki-tikki would protect the little boy from something as deadly as
Nag himself. Looking at paragraph 15, one can see that Rikki-tikki explores the house, even after several injuries. For this reason, Rikki-tikki can be seen as a curious character because it depicts him exploring the bungalow, although there are several incidents where he may be injured. In other words, Rikki-tikki’s curiosity gave him the strength to continue examining the house. To sum up, Rikki-tikki, is both curious and brave.
The antagonist Nagaina, another important character in the story, is cowardly and vengeful. For instance, in paragraph 49 Nagaina persuades Nag into killing the family to get rid of Rikki-tikki instead of fighting him although they outnumber him. Furthermore, Nagaina is too cowardly to fight Rikki-Tikki which leads her to attempt to kill the family. Contrastingly, this shows Nagaina is different from Rikki-tikki since she is not brave enough to fight him even with her companion Nag. In fact, in paragraph 84, Nagaina tries to murder the family again to get revenge on Rikki-tikki after he killed Nag. Clearly, Nagaina is blinded by vengeance and spite for Rikki-tikki that it causes her to forget her eggs, allow Darzee to escape, and fail to execute the family at the same time. Although Nagaina’s cowardice got Nag killed, her vengeance proves that she loved Nag, which gave her the bravery to confront Rikki-tikki. To end, Nagaina shows several acts of cowardice and vengefulness, clearly showing that she is vengeful and cowardly.
Author Rudyard Kipling uses personification in the story to demonstrate that no matter who you are, you can be strong and brave enough to defend those you love.
In support of this, paragraph 24 introduces the small mongoose Rikki-tikki as the protagonist and the deadly cobras Nag and Nagaina as antagonists. Rudyard’s use of a small creature and treacherous creatures as rivals is an example of this. Also, this adds evidence to said theme by showing that Rikki-tikki is brave enough to combat Nag and Nagaina, which seems like a very dim battle. A different piece of evidence is that Darzee’s wife is willing to bait Nagaina with her life to defend the future of the garden. Darzee’s willingness to lure Nagaina at the chance of actually getting caught shows her love for the inhabitants of the garden. Another, even weaker, character displays that anyone can help for the greater good, no matter how much. Thusly, the use of personification by Rudyard Kipling helps prove that anyone can protect who or what they love if they are brave
enough.
In the end, no matter who you are, your love from and for others can give you the courage to defend those that love you and those you love, no matter who you are. Rikki-tikki-tavi, a fictional novel by Rudyard Kipling displays this perfectly. Rikki-tikki’s love for the family and the garden inhabitants gave him the bravery to defeat Nag and Nagaina and save the garden. If he had not loved any of them, he would not have been motivated enough to beat Nag and Nagaina. The lesson taught in this story can apply to everyone, big or small.