“The Eyes Have It” by Ruskin Bond – Justify the Title | Significance of the Title “The Eyes Have It”

Introduction: In the story Ruskin Bond exploits the situational irony that originates between two people who made by chance in a railway compartment. The young man and girl are unaware of their individual blindness and converse with each other from the conviction that both of them can see.

Significance of the Title : The title of the story contains the following significance based on the subject matter and themes .

1. Eyes Fail to See : The author takes our physical eyes and replaces them with the mind’s eye to discover an unknown self of ours. The quest of discovery of the narrator is attained but our eyes stick to the blindness. The newly boarded passenger is the only character who can ‘see’ the blindness of the girl, and again,is unable to ‘see’ the blindness of the narrator. Ruskin Bond, therefore, places aquestion before the plate of the world – Is it really important to have the eyes “that fail to see what is right in front of them? ”

2. Irony of Beautiful Eyes : Ruskin Bond in his ‘The Eyes Have It’ provided the irony of beautiful eyes. The young man and the girl were unaware of their individual blindness.

3. Eyes Have Stories : The discovery of her blindness comes as an ironical twist at the end of the story. The blind narrator was thinking that the girl could see. After the girl left the train the narrator discovered that the girl too was blind like him. A gentleman got into the train and told the narrator that the girl had beautiful eyes but she was blind.

Justification of the Title : This irony of situations makes this story significant enough that the title becomes an ironical presentation of two blind person who were acting like they can see.

The title “The Eyes Have It” is a play on words that emphasizes the irony of the situation. The narrator, being blind, relies solely on his sense of hearing to create a mental picture of the surroundings. However, the title suggests the importance of vision and perception in understanding the world, which becomes ironic due to the narrator’s blindness.