Wife by Bharati Mukherjee

This section of the novel, Wife by Bharati Mukherjee covers the time between Dimple, Amit and the Jyoti family are preparing to leave the party that is held at Mullick's apartment to choosing an appropriate name for the newborn baby. During this section, Dimple fears insomnia, and the typical American stories that Amit and Jyoti talk about; consisting mainly of murder, suicide and shootings, only increase Dimple's fear. For example she wakes up in the middle of the night only to hear, "...men putting keys in the front door...had baby faces and hooded eyes" (97). Adding to the plot, Dimple now feels, "...bitter that marriage had betrayed her, had not provided all the glittery things she had imagined..." (101). Overall, character deterioration establishes within this section of the novel. Theses sets of problems are the rising events leading to the climax of the novel.

In this section, there is a change in setting from Jyoti's house, where the new immigrated couples Dimple and Amit were settling, to their own apartment. Amit's success in receiving a job, not only had been the reason for the change in setting to occur, but the job struggle conflict is resolved. The couple's new apartment is significant because, now, in order to live and function as a family, they are not relying on others. Independence is establishing with the alteration in setting, and also intensifying the atmosphere of loneliness for Dimple. Dimple is even more withdrawn from social activities because of Amit's job.

Many themes are present in this section. Such themes include character deterioration, fear, betrayal and evil. For example in the previous chapter, Dimple concluded that committing suicide was unintelligent and not worthy. Currently, Dimple begins to think of seven ways to commit suicide. For example character deterioration is seen when Dimple is saying that she feels, "sort of dead inside." (110). Fear is a central topic that is surrounding Dimple throughout this section. She still has the feeling that anything is possible in America "... could be raped and killed on any floor of the apartment or anywhere ..." Dimple has the feeling that marriage betrayed her. She had thought that marriage is the answer to her deep desire and fantasizes. She now understands that marriage is not the answer to her happiness and desires. Dimple is now disappointed and hates her husband whom she thinks earlier as a man easy to be loved. The evidence of evil within Dimple is seen when she looks at Amit, her husband's "... body and looked for weakened spots until she knew just where to strike or pierce and make him bleed in the dark - her own thought shocked her." (116) The wickedness inside Dimple is driving her mind to focus on committing suicide and murdering, parallel to that of the American society.

The story is told in the past tense and third person, which is effective for this particular novel because there are Dimple's numerous secrets which belong to Dimple only and also lets the reader read it as if it were a movie, for Dimple refers pretty much everything to Indian movies. Prior to the start of this section the author ends the paragraph with peer pressure engulfing Dimple. For example, knowing Dimple is just about adjusting to the American lifestyle, a character at the party says, "...I am going to fix you my sister's favourite drink. The nice thing about vodka is that your husband will never know" (83-84). The author hints secretively at the peer pressure and the provoking atmosphere that bombards Dimple. However, the author is not giving further detail, not only continuously grasping the readers attention, but also giving the reader time to reflect on the situations the protagonist, Dimple is in.

In this particular section, a star and a bonfire take on the role of a symbolic value. "Dimple felt like a star, collapsing inwardly," (109) is showing Dimple's comparison of her life that was once filled with desires and dreams to collapse inwardly shrinking to nothing. The star is her life, which shines so bright full of desires, now shrinks inwardly toward nothing from all around. In the same way, "a dying bonfire: that was her visual image of life," (119) is essentially symbolizing the theme of character deterioration. She feels as if her life is gaining of any sort of desires or happiness. Overall, she feels that she is failing to succeed in life.

A significant quotation that illuminated this section was, "At her feet lay Ina Mullick, in Dimple's sari, a think line of water spilling from her mouth." (103). This is significant because Ina Mullick would never wear a sari, for she is now an American who had lost her culture. Dimple is seeing an image of who she wants to be, which is Ina but without giving up her culture and her fate is tragic. This piece of quotation foreshadows the events to come.

Wife by Bharati Mukherjee

Pages 3 - 48

* Dimple Dasgupta, the pliant, obedient daughter of middle class Indian parents in Calcutta, India, had her heart on marrying a neurosurgeon, but her father was looking for an engineer.

* Dimple was about twenty years old and was supposed to be studying for university, which infuriated her.

* She worried that all the handsome young engineers would be married by the time she got her degree.

* While she was waiting to get married, she worried that she was ugly, especially because of her sitar-shaped body and her undeveloped breasts.

* Dimple's father announced that he had found his 'ideal boy' and the candidate was Amit Kumar Basu, consultant engineer who had applied for immigration to Canada or the U.S.

* After the marriage Amit, they both lived in Amit's house temporarily until their emigration.

* When she married Amit, she told herself that it was easy to love Amit, not in the way movie stars were but in a normal way.

* After reading some magazines, Dimple thought marriage was the song of the road and we should all sing it and committing suicide was a foolish and unjust attack on a long lasting and noble way of life.

* She also believed marriage teaches the virtues of sacrifice, responsibility and patience.

* Amit