Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies

Conclusion: A Comparative Analysis

Jhumpa Lahiri portrays the marriage as a malady accompanied by symptoms which are reoccurring in cycle throughout the collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies. She takes up the role of the interpreter between the reader and the characters in order to provide all symptoms of disintegrated marriages, such as breaking down of communication, alienation and detachment, isolation and lack of care. Her short stories are in progression, so while the first one starts with inability to fix the broken marriage, the last ends with a healthy union in which Lahiri offers a remedy to the malady of marriage in the form of communication, effort and sharing experiences.

Firstly, Lahiri shows the romantic relationship, especially marriage “as the unifying theme for the collection, and marriage is indeed a key element of most of the stories” (Brada-Williams 455). Lahiri portrays the malady of marriage and its symptoms to reader through the multiple perspectives of the behavior and attitudes of her characters in their romantic relationships. She discusses mainly “relationships between Indian Americans in varying stages of assimilation, as well as the detailed struggles and silences that occur in and between both men and women are also explored, and skilfully exploited as tensions and motive forces in Lahiri’s tight plotting” (Jordan 203). Through these relationships Lahiri shows that her short stories are progressing, mainly to highlight the malady and also the remedy in marriage. The first story explores the neglected relationship between the young couple, illustrating what would happen if the narrator in the last story did not use the remedy offered by Lahiri in order to save their marriage from disintegrating. “By placing Shoba and Shukumar's story in her readers' minds first, Lahiri is able to inform readers of the final story of the ways Mala and her husband could have failed as a couple and as parents, thus emphasizing their experiences as achievements rather than mere norms” (Brada-Williams 453).

Collapse of communication as a symptom is presented in all Lahiri’s short stories. As she says in interview with Patel: “The characters I'm drawn to all face some barrier of communication. I like to write about people who think in a way they can't fully express” (Lahiri, “Maladies of Belonging”). This inability to fully express the emotions unites characters in all four stories presented: “Frequent denial of human communication can be found in all of Lahiri's short stories and indeed are the defining, structuring elements of her short story cycle” (Brada-Williams 454). Shoba and Shukumar in “A Temporary Matter” suffer from their breakdown of communication together, after the trauma of losing their child and their inability to discuss their feeling over this loss. However, the communication breakdown in “Interpreter of Maladies” is visible more from Mrs. Das’s side than her husband’s and it complicates their malady of marriage, mainly because it leaves her husband unaware of Mr. Das indifference and mere disgust towards him on the one hand, and on the other he is unaware of the infidelity and illegitimate son she keeps in secret. The breaking down of communication also leads to inability to compromise, which is the case of Sanjev in “This Blessed House”, who cannot fully express his opinion and dissatisfaction with Twinkle’s actions and her lack of care for the household. The communication barrier, which keeps the narrator in “The Third and Final Continent” in getting to know his wife properly, complicated and infected their marriage with the malady, until the time of application the remedy in form of constant talk, in order to obtain a healthy marriage. However, in the marriage of Mr. Kapasi, the absence of communication and constant silence become routine and none of the partners is able to change it. The symptom of breaking down of communication is the most crucial, because it is the catalyst of even more symptoms, which continue to disintegrate the marriages of characters in the collection Interpreter of Maladies.

The symptom of alienation of characters in marriage and their later detachment is common in the malady of marriage, which Lahiri presents. “Alienation has become their lot. The absence of the sense of belonging that these creatures experience makes them resolved to

achieve communication” (Swarup and Devi 2). The alienation of couple in “A Temporary Matter” is closely connected to their breaking down of communication. The reason why mainly Shoba feels detached from the household is not only the trauma of losing a child, but also the inability to express and discuss her grief with her husband. Therefore they become strangers in their own flat. However, the detachment of Mrs. Das is presented because of her repressed desire and lack of care for anyone in the family, except her illegitimate son. This detachment is illustrated by her unwillingness to share food with the family or being a part of their sightseeing walk near Konorak Sun Temple. The symptom of alienation has its importance in treating the malady of marriage, because if the alienation lasts a longer time, the couple keeps growing apart from each other, what is accompanied with changing their perception of the world. Therefore it makes the partners incompatible for each other and unable to find the remedy and way back to each other.

The third important symptom visible in the characters, who suffer from malady of marriage, is the isolation. The symptom of isolation is mainly displayed in Sanjev’s case in the short story “This Blessed House”. He feels pangs of isolation by being different from his wife and their clashing personalities make it difficult for him to comprehend her spontaneity and passion for things, which he does not understand. Sanjev’s constant misunderstanding of Twinkle results in feelings of degradation and therefore makes him isolated and alone in their marriage with only insecurities to think of. However the isolation of the narrator in the beginning in “The Third and Final Continent” is self-imposed by his inability to crawl out of the shell and face the new world around him and feel any regard for his wife. The treatment of the symptom of isolation is necessary in order to reach the remedy in form of communication and sharing experiences, what is visible in the “The Third and Final Continent”, where by proper treatment the narrator becomes less isolated and more eager to put effort to save their marriage.

The last symptom, by which Lahiri portrays the malady of marriage in her short stories, is the neglect and lack of care for household or the children. The careless attitude of both Mr. and Mrs. Das towards their children represents the same careless attitude which they hold for their marriage. Mrs. Das sees the presence of their children rather like a burden than a joy and her severe treatment of her offspring only emphasize her detachment from family and presence of malady in their marriage. The neglect of household in short story “A Temporary Matter” similarly highlights the lack of care and effort of Shoba in the marriage itself. While before the trauma, she kept every aspect of her household, from packages of rice to a clean rug in order, but after the loss of child she resigns and leaves her sneakers thrown carelessly on the floor, just to show her lack of regard not only for the household, but also for the marriage with Shukumar. The symptom of neglect is important because even “small signs of negligence add up to reveal deeper emotional difficulties and detachments” (Brada-Williams 475).

Even though Lahiri portrays the marriage as the malady, she also offers a remedy and when the symptoms are treated right, the marriage might end as a happy union such as Mala’s and the narrator’s one in “The Third and Final Continent”. These remedies are communication, effort to improve the marriage, spending time together and sharing experiences. Lahiri offers a remedy to problems in marriage and shows the application of medicine through Mala, whose endless effort poses as a catalyst in starting the communication’s and wrecking the isolation’s barrier by which the narrator and Mala find the way to each other. However, Lahiri presents the remedy and its outcome only in the concluding story “The Third and Final Continent”: “While the first story of the cycle relates the tale of the death of a son and the possible destruction of a marriage, the concluding story provides a tale of the survival and resilience of both the parents' marriage and their son” (Brada-Williams 453).

The suffering from the malady of marriage affects various couples in different situations, but the unifying element is their unhappiness and dissatisfaction with the marriage. Whether it is young couple enduring the hardships of the trauma of stillborn child or the mother, for whom the children and husband are a burden, both of them suffers from the same symptoms of malady. The use of Lahiri’s simple language presents the symptoms and malady on powerful symbols and rituals, such as cooking, food consumption and the care for household. These rituals are part of everyday life of characters and therefore mirror the detachment and inability to communicate as representatives of malady even more. The symptoms such as breaking down of communication builds a wall of silence and detachment between the partners and makes them even more unable to make compromises in order to lessen the progress of the malady of marriage. The communication breakdown is deeply connected with the isolation and the estrangement symptom making the malady a form of a vicious circle, which is impossible to leave without a proper dose of treatment. Lahiri offers a remedy to these problems, in order to achieve a healthy marriage. These are the communication, effort of both partners in the relationship and their mutual acceptance. The treatment of the broken relationships by these remedies narrows the gaps between the couples and reduces the effects of every malady in order to obtain a healthy marriage.

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English Resume

The purpose of this study is to introduce the Jhumpa Lahiri’s manner of approaching the romantic relationships, in particular the institution of marriage. The thesis then proposes that Lahiri shows marriage as some kind of malady with accompanying symptoms, such as breaking down of communication, alienation, isolation and lack of care.

The first part analyzes Jhumpa Lahiri and the context of her work in relation to the malady of marriage. The second part is divided into four chapters, each one portraying the malady of marriage in four short stories chosen from the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Interpreter of Maladies from 1999. The thesis concludes with the last chapter, which is the overall comparison and assessment of the ways Lahiri approaches the marriage as the malady.

The aim of the thesis is to illustrate the Lahiri’s portrayal of the malady of marriage in Indian couples as well as to comment on the need of treatment of such a malady by searching for the remedy, which Lahiri offers in her last short story and that is communication and mutual acceptance.

Czech Resume

Účelem této studie je představit přístup Jhumpy Lahiriové k romantickým vztahům a to zejména k instituci manželství. Práce pak ukazuje, že Lahiriová popisuje manželství jako jakýsi druh choroby s doprovodnými symptomy, jako je selhání komunikace, odcizení, izolace a nedostatek péče.

První část analyzuje Jhumpu Lahiriovou a kontext její práce v souvislosti s chorobou manželství. Druhá část je rozdělena do čtyř kapitol, každá zobrazující chorobu manželství ve čtyřech povídkách vybraných z kolekce Tlumočník nemocí (1999), za níž obdržela Pullitzerovu cenu. Práce je uzavřena poslední kapitolou, která je celkové porovnání a zhodnocení způsobu, jakým Lahiri přistupuje k manželství jako ke chorobě.

Cílem práce je ilustrovat Lahiriové líčení nemoci manželství v indických manželstvích a následně vyjádření potřeby léčení takové choroby vyhledáním pomoci, kterou Lahiri nabízí ve své poslední povídce, jíž je komunikace a vzájemné přijetí.