Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies

5. The Malady in “Interpreter of Maladies”

“Interpreter of Maladies” is a short story, which bears the name of the whole collection and portrays the malady of marriage of the two Indian couples trapped in their loveless marriages. On the one hand, there is the story of a Mr. and Mrs. Das, whose marriage is crumbling because Mrs. Das has no satisfaction with her life bearing the secret of her infidelity and illegitimate son. On the other, there is Mr. Kapasi whose role as an interpreter helps Mrs. Das to understand the malady in her marriage more, but he comes to realization that he is also trapped in silent and loveless marriage. The symptoms of dysfunction in the marriage of young Das couple are breaking down of communication, which leads to no awareness of the problem in their relationship and their lack of carefulness towards their children, which mirrors their lack of care towards their marriage. The accompanying symptoms are illustrated mainly from Mrs. Das’s point of view, but they are told from Mr. Kapasi’s perspective, who by listening and seeing the marital problems acknowledges his own symptoms of malady of marriage. Such as collapse of communication, running away from reality and the repression of desire, a feeling, which he shares with Mrs. Das.

The first symptom of the malady of marriage appearing both in Das’s and Kapasi’s family is no communication between the partners, which leads to different outcomes in both marriages. Mr. Das is completely unaware of his wife revolting feelings not only towards him, but also towards the institution of marriage and Mr. Kapasi’s breakdown of communication leads to silent routine in his loveless marriage, which the couple endures for years: “While they both can be seen longing for communication with others, Mrs. Das is a woman with a life of relative comfort and ease who yearns to be freed of the responsibilities of marriage and children, and Mr. Karpasi is a man who has given up his dreams to support his family and who only yearns for some recognition and interest in his life” (Brada-Williams 458).

Mrs. Das’s non-existent communication with her husband is not only a symptom of their loveless marriage, but also one of the crucial reasons why their marriage is dysfunctional. The fact that Mr. Das does not realize the arising problem in their relationship and continues to reside safely in his bubble is shown throughout the attitude of his wife towards him. Her detachment from him and the family is visible by her constant ignoring of his pleads and question: “She was lost behind her sunglasses, ignoring her husband’s requests that she pose for another picture, walking past her children as if they were strangers” (Lahiri 58). However, Mrs. Das’s signals of her desperation in their marriage go completely unnoticed by her husband. This leads to her closing inside herself even more and isolating not only from him, but also from the outer world. Mr. Das’s blindness towards his wife’s feelings continues, while she silently endures the life of young wife with three children. The more frustrating the marriage becomes, the more she leaves her dissatisfaction to herself, isolated from her friends and too tired to even communicate with her husband: “Only occasionally did they go out after Ronny was born, and even more rarely did they entertain. Raj didn’t mind; he looked forward to coming home from teaching and watching television and bouncing Ronny on his knee” (Lahiri 64). Mr. Das’s ignorance of the malady in their marriage appears to be even more visible throughout their trip to India. He is anxious about capturing every important moment around him with his camera, observing everything through the lens of the device, while he stays completely unaware of the desperate feelings of his wife. “Mr. Das placed the camera to his face and squeezed one eye shut, his tongue exposed atone corner of his mouth” (Lahiri 54). The symbol of his focusing the lens of the camera on details around, while ignoring the world around him in India is sadly ironic, mainly because of his inability to spot or understand the larger context of his wife’s signals and their outcome on their marriage. However, the problem of communication as an important symptom of the malady, which results in Mr. Das’s unawareness of the disintegrating state of their marriage, is also caused by Mrs. Das’s unwillingness to share her feelings of dissatisfaction and desperation with her husband: “Don’t you see? For eight years I haven’t been able to express this to anybody, not to friends, certainly not to Raj. He doesn’t even suspect it. He thinks I’m still in love with him” (Lahiri 65). The collapse of communication and ignoring signals from one another, leads to even more isolation between the partners, when one is completely unaware of the crumbling relationship, while the other one stays isolated by her inability and unwillingness to show dissatisfaction with the life and the marriage.

Moreover, the breaking down of communication as a symptom leading to the malady of marriage is visible throughout the short story in the marriage of Mr. Kapasi and his wife. Their life after the trauma of losing their son because of typhus turns into even more silent isolation and routine, which they endure every day. Mr. Kapasi’s observation of the broken marriage in the Das family reminds him of the disintegration of his own: ”Perhaps they, too, had little in common apart from three children and a decade of their lives. The signs he recognized from his own marriage were there—the bickering, the indifference, the protracted silences” (Lahiri 53). The communication barrier arouses from his wife’s side, who blames his husband from their son’s death. Furthermore, Mr. Kapasi’s job as an interpreter for a doctor is a constant reminder of her tragic loss. The collapse of communication puts a wall of silence between them, although Mr. Kapasi is eager to communicate or hear praise over his job. However, throughout the decades they spend together in their loveless marriage, both of them accept the situation and learn to endure it: “Ordinarily he sped back to Puri using a shortcut, eager to return home, scrub his feet and hands with sandalwood soap, and enjoy the evening newspaper and a cup of tea that his wife would serve him in silence. The thought of that silence, something to which he’d long been resigned, now oppressed him” (Lahiri 60). The sight of such a young couple who also suffer from the malady of marriage has only greater impact on Mr. Kapasi’s grasp of his own miserable and ill relationship and his inability to cure it.

Second symptom that confirms the spreading malady of marriage in Das family is the attitude and treating of their children. Mrs. Das’s careless approach and no regard for their offspring emphasize her detachment not only from her husband and marriage, but also from the family: “Mr. and Mrs. Das's lack of carefulness in raising their children extends to their carelessness in maintaining their marriage vows, at least on Mrs. Das's part” (Brada-Williams 458). The lack of care and shifting the responsibility of treatment of the children to one another is a symptom and also a symbol of their malady of marriage, which mirrors their lack of interest in their own relationship: “At the tea stall Mr. and Mrs. Das bickered about who should take Tina to the toilet. Eventually Mrs. Das relented when Mr. Das pointed out that he had given the girl her bath the night before” (Lahiri 43). Mrs. Das’s attitude towards the presence of the children is seen more like a burden, than a joy, as she deliberately avoids any physical contact with her offspring: “She did not hold the little girl’s hand as they walked to the rest room” (Lahiri 43). Moreover, their indifferent treatment of the children, such as addressing wife by first name when speaking to little daughter leaves an impression of already disintegrated family and dysfunctional marriage on unfamiliar people like Mr. Kapasi. “They were all like siblings, Mr. Kapasi thought as they passed a row of date trees. Mr.and Mrs. Das behaved like an older brother and sister, not parents. It seemed that they were in charge of the children only for the day; it was hard to believe they were regularly responsible for anything other than themselves” (Lahiri 49). The lack of care and interest in the children as a symptom for malady of marriage is visible in the attitude of Mrs. Das. Her ignorance of the matters of her children and their needs only emphasizes her lack of care, towards her husband and the marriage. Mrs. Das’s detachment from the family is noticeable not only through the confrontation with the children in the first place, but also through her behaviour, such as not sharing any food with the family: “She sat a bit slouched at one end of the back seat, not offering her puffed rice to anyone” (Lahiri 47). Mrs. Das’s striking indifference and alienation from the family and by this from the marriage is represented mainly by ill-treatment of the children, which mirrors her disgust with everything connected with her husband. She sees the husband as the reason why she has to suffer the burden of bringing up the children, who she in the fact does not want. Mrs. Das’s detachment from her offspring is a symbol of her trying to clean herself from the stains and revolting feelings, which her husband and the marriage leaves on her: “I feel terrible looking at my children, and at Raj, always terrible” (Lahiri 65). However, Bobby the illegitimate one, gets Mrs. Das’s attention from time to time. She conceived Bobby with her husband’s friend and of this fact is Mr. Das completely unaware. Bobby is the source of her independence from her husband, the secret, which she carefully keeps only for herself, until her revelation to Mr. Kapasi. The mirroring of her attitude towards the family is visible in her careless manner towards the rest of the children, while motherly protecting the illegitimate one. For example, when Bobby is attacked by monkeys during their stay in India: “’Poor Bobby,’ Mrs. Das said. ‘Come here a second. Let Mommy fix your hair’” (Lahiri 68). Mrs. Das’s unusual care for her illegitimate child in comparison with the other two, only emphasize her alienation not only from husband and their ill marriage, but also from the family itself.

The third symptom of the malady in Mr. and Mrs. Das’s marriage is their different expectations of life, which result in Mrs. Das’s repression of desire. The symptom of repressed desire accompanies Mrs. Das through her marriage and has its roots in the born of her children, when she had to abandon her former friends and life. Mrs. Das’s dissatisfaction with her life and her feelings of constant distaste are the main symptoms in already spreading malady of her marriage. Wife’s repression of desire is visible throughout her behaviour, such as treatment of the children, ignorance and indifference to her husband, but the main repression of her needs is revealed by her confession to Mr. Kapasi. Mrs. Das finally gets rid of her emotional burden by her revelation: “Kapasi realizes that this confession is not the shared intimacy he had been hoping for, but that Mrs. Das had told him the story more or less to purge herself of it” (Lewis 220). Mrs. Das’s symptom and later trauma of her repressed desire rises with her early marriage and her feelings of being inseparable from her husband: “Back then we couldn’t stand the thought of being separated, not for a day, not for a minute” (Lahiri 63). She starts her life as a wife and mother very young, without getting any chance to live on her own or to even think about her own life expectations. The more she becomes isolated from her former friends, the more she realizes how alone she is and that the decision to get married and by this, change the course of her life was also her own. “As a result of spending all her time in college with Raj, she continued, she did not make many close friends. There was no one to confide in about him at the end of a difficult day, or to share a passing thought or a worry” (Lahiri 63). Mrs. Das becomes detached from the outer world, only enduring days with the company of children. She feels lonely and tired, desperate for communication or sharing her distress. However, the happy and joyful attitude of Mr. Das, still unaware of his wife’s feelings, only makes her close inside her even more. The feelings of isolation and missed opportunity to enjoy life is the only thought she has in mind, when she looks at her husband, who always comes home from work fresh and looking forward to children:

After marrying so young she was overwhelmed by it all, having a child so quickly, and nursing, and warming up bottles of milk and testing their temperature against her wrist while Raj was at work, dressed in sweaters and corduroy pants, teaching his students about rocks and dinosaurs. Raj never looked cross or harried, or plump as she had become after the first baby (Lahiri 63).

This repression of her own desires for life makes her detached from her husband and builds the invisible wall between them, of which is Raj not aware. The taking care of babies steals her the chance to live on her own, without being glued to the flat and crying babies, where Raj leaves her every day. Mrs. Das’s lack of time for personal growth removes her not only from her husband, on whom she puts the blame, but also from her contacts with the outer world: “Eventually the friends stopped calling her, so that she was left at home all day with the baby, surrounded by toys that made her trip when she walked or wince when she sat, always cross and tired” (Lahiri 63). Mrs. Das constant regret of what could have been; only makes her more dwelling in the apathy. She does not care for the consequences of her actions anymore and that makes her available towards the infidelity without any notion of guilt. Her alienation from her marriage and family is visible not only by her missing feeling of guilt about the infidelity, but also from the attitude she gives towards her only child back then, when she leaves him unattended and crying, in order to enjoy being independent in her decisions. “Bobby was conceived in the afternoon, on a sofa littered with rubber teething toys, after the friend learned that a London pharmaceutical company had hired him, while Ronny cried to be freed from his playpen” (Lahiri 65). However, by the revelation of the truth to such unfamiliar person as Mr. Kapasi, she finally understands her situation as being trapped in a loveless marriage. She realizes that it is also she, who infected the malady to their relationship by her infidelity and this awareness makes her tired and unwilling to maintain the marriage: “It means that I’m tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I’ve been in pain eight years” (Lahiri 65). The confession she gives to Mr. Kapasi makes her think about the course of her life even more. She is unable to continue in loveless marriage, where she is according to Mr. Kapasi: “woman not yet thirty, who loved neither her husband nor her children, who had already fallen out of love with life” (Lahiri 66). Moreover, the proposed question of Mr. Kapasi, whether the terrible urges she feels are pain or guilt, makes her unable to remain in the conversation with the only person she is able to reveal her secret. Mrs. Das’s regret and emotional burden, which accompanies her all the time, builds walls between her and the marriage with Mr. Das. Moreover she leaves the trail of self-reproach and guilt, which brings even more chaos to family. The secrets are falling through her fingers like the rice, leaving a trace, which eventually calls the monkeys, the representation of chaos in the story:

She opened the car door and began walking up the path, wobbling a little on her square wooden heels, reaching into her straw bag to eat handfuls of puffed rice. It fell through her fingers, leaving a zigzagging trail, causing a monkey to leap down from a tree and devour the little white grains. In search of more, the monkey began to follow Mrs. Das. Others joined him, so that she was soon being followed by about half a dozen of them, their velvety tails dragging behind (Lahiri 66).

. The fourth symptom of the malady not only in Das’s marriage but mainly in Kapasi’s one is romanticizing and high expectations, which serves as a form of escape from the reality of everyday routine in their marriages. This symptom is more applicable on Mr. Kapasi, since he is the one, who keeps fantasizing about the relationship with Mrs. Das. The possible remedy in the form of more communication and intimacy is uncovered through Mr. Kapasi’s behaviour. His high expectations from only a little contact with Mrs. Das only emphasize the state of malady in which his marriage appears to be: ”Lahiri skilfully builds the tension as we gradually realize how much Mr. Kapasi desires Mrs. Das, and how much he has let his fantasies carry him away in dreams of a romantic future” (Brians 198). His hope grows, when Mrs. Das offers to send him their photograph. Mr. Kapasi clings on the idea of sharing correspondence with practically unknown person, just from the impression that Mrs. Das is interested in his work, by addressing it as a romantic. He already plans the conversation in his mind, calculates the time it would take to get the letter and imagines the feelings, which Mrs. Das might hypothetically feel by reading his letter:

She would write to him, asking about his days interpreting at the doctor’s office, and he would respond eloquently, choosing only the most entertaining anecdotes, ones that would make her laugh out loud as she read them in her house in New Jersey. In time she would reveal the disappointment of her marriage, and he his. In this way their friendship would grow, and flourish (Lahiri 55).

The amount of hopes, which Mr. Kapasi puts into the letter, emphasizes his need for communication and attention. However, it is not only the communication that Mr Kapasi is searching for. The value and demand for intimacy are shown as an important remedy to the malady of marriage through the attitude of Mr. Kapasi. Only if they are addressed to the right person, such as his wife and not Mrs. Das, who is Mr. Kapasi’s object of fantasies: “Perhaps he would compliment her strawberry shirt, which he found irresistibly becoming. Perhaps, when Mr. Das was busy taking a picture, he would take her hand” (Lahiri 60).

Mr. Kapasi’s urge for human contact and communication is stated by their visit of Konorak temple, which is the representation of sexuality in both Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das. However, before viewing the temple, they notice a dry river before the entrance of the temple. “’The Chandrabhaga River once flowed one mile north of here. It is dry now,’ Mr. Kapasi said, turning off the engine” (Lahiri 57). The dry river as many of surrounding which would follow, are the metaphors of their marriages and the state of their malady. The fact that the river once flowed, but is gone now only emphasizes Mr. Kapasi’s love life and the disintegrated marriage, which becomes dreary and empty such as the canal of the river. However, Mr. Kapasi’s searching for intimacies and romanticizing Mrs. Das as a form of running away from reality will not help him to heal the spreading malady in his marriage: “For Mr. Kapasi has already imagined an illicit mutual attraction between them that mirrors the illicitness of the affair” (Reddy 52). His fantasizing about the relationship with Mrs. Das and the surroundings of the temple in which they are, unfold the understanding of his needs. Thus it helps him in finding a remedy in his malady of marriage in the form of more intimacies and being praised and acknowledged. The surrounding plays an important role in his realization, mainly the temple of Koronak, the representation of the intimacies and fantasies occupying his mind: “What he referred to were the countless friezes of entwined naked bodies, making love in various positions, women clinging to the necks of men, their knees wrapped eternally around their lovers’ thighs” (Lahiri 57). The temple is a portrayal of his fantasies which are rooted deep in his mind and which are declined to him in his marriage, like the impossibility to enter the temple: “It was no longer possible to enter the temple, for it had filled with rubble years ago” (Lahiri 57). The impact of the surrounding and the company of Mrs. Das make him think about his marriage and its flaws even more. The reminder of not sharing any intimacy with his wife occurred to him, by being exposed to such vivid sexual scenes on the walls of temple and willingly admiring Mrs. Das body. Mr. Kapasi’s marriage lacks any sort of intimacies due to the fact that his wife keeps protecting herself not only by silences and detachment, but also by not offering the whole naked body during the lovemaking:

Though Mr. Kapasi had been to the temple countless times, it occurred to him, as he, too, gazed at the topless women, that he had never seen his own wife fully naked. Even when they had made love she kept the panels of her blouse hooked together, the string of her petticoat knotted around her waist. He had never admired the backs of his wife’s legs the way he now admired those of Mrs. Das, walking as if for his benefit alone (Lahiri 58).

Because of the absence of any intimate moments in their marriage, the malady keeps widening the gap of no communication and alienation between them.

However, it is not only Mr. Kapasi, who is enchanted by the surrounding and the temple of Konarak. The effect, which it has on Mrs. Das makes her realize the dysfunction of her own marriage and also evokes sort of awakening in her. Mr. Das’s admiration of the statues of Konarak in their various sexual positions does not emerge the need for more contact like on Mr. Kapasi’s side, but makes her acknowledge her own needs. Such as her liberation and her sense for independence: “Rather than sharing in Mr. Kapasi's gaze upon the Surya's eroticized beauty, Mina channels Konarak's erotic energies into her own sexual liberation in confessing her sexual transgression” (Reddy 51). The surroundings of Konorak temple play also an important role in Mrs. Das revelation to Mr. Kapasi. Accepting her own sexual liberation, she finally purges herself from the burden, by making a confession to Mr. Kapasi about her infidelity.

In conclusion both Kapasi’s and Das’s marriages suffer from the malady of being trapped in loveless marriages. The symptom of collapse of communication leads to isolation between the partners, where one is unaware of the feelings and in Das’s case also secrets of the spouse. These secrets become burdens for Mrs. Das, who feels utterly suffocated by her marriage and the feelings of her lost youth, which unfortunately reflects on her attitude towards children, bringing chaos to the whole family. Through the perception of a discord in such young family, Mr. Kapasi acknowledges the malady in his marriage and identifies the remedy in the form of praise and intimate contact. However, he stagnates in silence and routine, with only a flicker of joy in the form of running away from reality by romanticizing and imagining how would proper healthy relationship look like.

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