Funny Boy

by

Shyam Selvadurai

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Aunty Doris Character Analysis

An old burgher woman who directs the production of The King and I that Arjie and Rahda Aunty join. During Radha’s conflict over whether to marry Anil or Rajan, Doris encourages to think her decision through (instead of simply leaving Anil all at once, like Ammachi wants) but warns about her own experience. Decades before, Doris went against her English family’s wishes by marrying a Tamil man; in retaliation, her family left Sri Lanka and never contacted her again. Now that her husband has died, Aunty Doris wonders whether her marriage was even worth it; her experience demonstrates that, sometimes, it is foolish to give into the power of love and, in the process, undervalue family.

Aunty Doris Quotes in Funny Boy

The Funny Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Aunty Doris or refer to Aunty Doris. 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:
Masculinity and Queerness Theme Icon
).
2. Radha Aunty Quotes

Sometimes I wonder if it was all worth it in the end. To have made all those sacrifices. Life is a funny thing, you know. It goes on, whatever decisions you make. Ultimately you have children or don’t have children and then you grow old. Whether you married the person you loved or not seems to become less important as time passes. Sometimes I think that if I had gone to England with them maybe I would have met somebody else….” She clicked her tongue against her teeth and laughed. “Anyway, there’s no point in thinking about that—no?”

Related Characters: Aunty Doris (speaker), Radha Aunty, Anil Jayasinghe, Rajan Nagendra, Mala Aunty
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:
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Aunty Doris Quotes in Funny Boy

The Funny Boy quotes below are all either spoken by Aunty Doris or refer to Aunty Doris. 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:
Masculinity and Queerness Theme Icon
).
2. Radha Aunty Quotes

Sometimes I wonder if it was all worth it in the end. To have made all those sacrifices. Life is a funny thing, you know. It goes on, whatever decisions you make. Ultimately you have children or don’t have children and then you grow old. Whether you married the person you loved or not seems to become less important as time passes. Sometimes I think that if I had gone to England with them maybe I would have met somebody else….” She clicked her tongue against her teeth and laughed. “Anyway, there’s no point in thinking about that—no?”

Related Characters: Aunty Doris (speaker), Radha Aunty, Anil Jayasinghe, Rajan Nagendra, Mala Aunty
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis: