Temporary Matter Lahiri's Interpreter Maladies Essay Factors

¶ … Temporary Matter Lahiri's interpreter maladies essay factors give marriages difficulties? The focal point of Jhumpa Lahiri's short story, "A Temporary Matter," is a game that a married couple plays each night during a time period when they do not have any electricity in their home. The object of the game is to tell one another something that each of them had not previously known.

To the reader, the game appears to be a diversion to keep the couple -- which is experiencing significant marriage difficulties -- from having to deal with awkward silences during a time in which they must endure one another's presence. However, during the course of this game the pair uncovers many of the intricacies that can complicate, and perhaps even end, marriages.

A closer look at this game and the facts revealed by each of the characters (Shoba and Shukumar) indicates that the pair had different expectations of one another, which eventually results in their marriage sundering. It is quite clear from a thorough examination of the text that Shoba's motive in playing this game with her husband is to separate from him. She is the one who has suggested that they play the game, after all.

Moreover, on the final night that they are together, she tells him that she found an apartment and is moving from their home. Thus, her suggesting and playing this game with her husband is her way of slowly revealing things to him that he did not know -- such as the fact that she is leaving him. The subsequent quotation, in which her husband reacts to this information, readily confirms this fact. "It sickened Shukumar, knowing that she had spent these past evenings preparing for a life without him.

He was relieved and yet he was sickened. This was what she had been trying to tell him for the past four evenings. This was the point of her game" (Lahiri). This passage reveals Shoba's intention in playing the game with Shukumar. She wants to slowly introduce the hurtful information that she is abandoning their marriage.

However, the very way that she approaches revealing this information -- by playing a seemingly innocuous 'game' -- instead of trying to work out the differences with her husband or merely telling him directly, shows that her perception and expectations of her marriage are egregiously different from those of her husband. Shukumar, for his part, is simply playing this game because his wife asked him to do so. Once he begins to participate in this affair, however, his intentions in doing so are extremely different from those of his wife.

Whereas she is attempting to merely abandon her husband, Shukumar sees the game as an opportunity to achieve the opposite effect -- to grow closer to his wife, and to work out their differences. Although initially he is relieved to involve himself in this affair so he would simply have something to say to his wife, he eventually comes to enjoy the intimacy (both physical and otherwise) that sitting in the dark and peeling away layers of deception between Shoba and himself produces.

The subsequent quotation, in which the pair engages in passionate sex following the playing of their game, supports this viewpoint. "As he made love to her he wondered what he would say to her the next night, and what she would say, the thought of it exciting him" (Lahiri). The game has produced a profound effect upon Shukumar. It has brought him emotionally and physically closer to his wife.

Part of the reason why is he does not know her true intentions, but he also has a different perception of their marriage. Despite the fact that he has been having problems with Shoba, Shukumar is not willing to abandon the commitment he made to her. This varying perception of Shukumar's is a great difference between the pair, and proves that his expectations of Shoba and their marriage are distinct from hers.

Ultimately, these differences between the pair's expectations for their marriage are merely manifestations of deeper-rooted differences in how the couple thinks and in their respective personalities. For instance, it greatly appears that Shukumar is a much more creative, emotional individual than his wife is. He does not conceive of elaborate games to tell her how he feels, he simply tells her. The subsequent passage showcases this fundamental difference between the couple.

"…she said that she never liked the one poem he'd ever published in his life, in a literary magazine in Utah. He'd written the poem after meeting Shoba. She added that she found the poem sentimental" (Lahiri). This passage demonstrates the difference in personality.