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The Portrayal of Indian Marriages in the Stories The Old Woman and The Bhorwani Marriage
Culture is comprised of those things which we tend to cherish, and
those things, which are important to us, being therefore the accepted
and patterned ways of behaviour of a given people. India is one of the
richest countries in the importance it gives to its culture and
heritage. Marriage forms an important of Indian culture and traditions
and is considered as one of the major pillars of society.
A traditional Indian marriage is an arranged affair in which the
decision of the 'perfect spouse' is the parents', mostly the mother's,
as is shown in the short story, 'The Bhorwani Marriage', written by
Murli Das Melwani, and taken from Contemporary Indian Short Stories
(1983). In 'The Bhorwani Marriage', we see an Indian mother, living in
Uruguay, yet coming to India to visit a matchmaker, in search of good
marital prospects for her daughter. Throughout the story, we see the
mention of Indians living overseas coming to India in search of
spouses for their children, showing how Indians retain their customs
and values no matter how far away they are from their homeland. The
names used in "The Bhorwani Marriage" all rhyme ("Rowanis, Parnanis,
Casanis, Charwanis, etc.)", creating the impression that the broker
does not have time to breathe. This reflects the author's camouflaged
criticism of the custom of arranged marriages, as all the hassle and
trouble could be avoided, if only the girls were allowed to marry
whomever they preferred. If analysed closely, one can see why the
custom of arranged marriage came into being. In earlier times, women
were suppo...
... middle of paper ...
... brides whose families do not
or cannot afford to pay high dowries. I find this idea degrading to
women, and unsuitable for modern days, as it is high time that people
changed their medieval ideas and tuned in with time. Women are paraded
in front of prospective suitors, and being rejected can often be quite
hard on one's self-esteem. However, in "The Old Woman", we see what
the girl goes through even after her marriage was not arranged, making
us realise that change has to come about drastically, as having one or
two people change their minds would not really help as like with
Menaka, it would lead to discrimination within the family. Both the
writers have made their points quite vividly and have portrayed the
Indian culture very effectively, but writing in such a way, that their
personal opinions are clearly visible.
A History of Marriage by Stephanie Coontz speaks of the recent idealization of marriage based solely on love. Coontz doesn’t defame love, but touches on the many profound aspects that have created and bonded marriages through time. While love is still a large aspect Coontz wants us to see that a marriage needs more solid and less fickle aspects than just love. The first chapter begins with an exploration of love and marriage in many ancient and current cultures.
During the time in the 1950’s, the escalation of mass media with the use of television shows had greatly emphasized the idealist family standards: a white nuclear family standard of living within conventional gender roles that stresses on family hierarchy that became a societal norm as a “perfect family” today. In Gary Soto’s “Looking for Work” and Roger Jack’s “An Indian Story”, bother short stories contest against familial customs. Soto describes how the media shapes the idea of a “family” to the young narrator that inspires him to push his family and himself to assimilate into the while culture. Roger conveys a story of a young Indian boy defying against both his Indian and familial ethics. Together, these stories share a common theme. Both
Marriage is an important theme in the stories Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin. When someone hears the word “marriage”, he thinks of love and protection but Hurston and Chopin see that differently. According to them, women are trapped in their marriage and they don’t know how to get out of it so they use language devices to prove their points.
Did you know that in the Native American culture there are different types of marriage? Being because their husband/wife died, or if the man has three wives. Sometimes within the tribe they got married and probably exchanged wives, sometimes they even shared or exchanged them! If you didn’t know just keep reading, because i’m going to explain it all to you. Enjoy!
A traditional extended family living in Northern India can become acquainted through the viewing of Dadi’s family. Dadi, meaning grandmother in Hindu, lets us explore her family up close and personal as we follow the trials and tribulations the family encounters through a daily basis. The family deals with the span of three generations and their conflicting interpretations of the ideal family life. Dadi lets us look at the family as a whole, but the film opens our eyes particularly on the women and the problems they face. The film inspects the women’s battle to secure their status in their family through dealing with a patriarchal mentality. The women also are seen attempting to exert their power, and through it all we are familiarized to
Both of these marriages may be unhappy but the cultural difference among them, which results into shattering the idea of Mr. kapashi’s friendship with Mrs. Das. Mr kapashi felt the cultural difference between him and Mrs. das was way to vast and hence he did not even wanted to think about having any further personal conversations. This teaches us how two entirely different people can carry one mutual heritage but being brought up into different cultures can be very different and UN mutual. Looking back in the story we realize and feel how important it is to keep our cultural believes when it comes to interact with different people as we are not only representing
Indian society was patriarchal, centered on villages and extended families dominated by males (Connections, Pg. 4). The villages, in which most people lived, were admini...
In the Indian culture, marriage is different from another culture's point of view. In the film Ravi decides to break a two year relationship from an American woman before he attended his family trip to India, which coincides with
“Arranging a Marriage in India” by Serena Nanda is a well written, informative article aimed at sharing the view of the Indian culture on arranged marriages and also showing how much effort is put into the process of arranging a marriage. Our own culture has evolved into accepting the fact that we are all independent individuals who could not imagine having someone else make such a significant decision for us. Serena Nanda does an excellent job of using her sources within the society as evidence of the acceptance of the arranged marriage aspect of their culture.
William Wycherly represents marriage in a peculiar way in The Country Wife. The classic marital values of love, trust, and becoming one with your partner in a bond of love are distorted by intense emotion. The appropriately named Mr. Pinchwife is a jealous husband who moves his new wife Margery to the country with hopes keep her from the outside world, namely the city of London, and the inevitable infidelity that lies there in his mind. However, by denying Mrs. Pinchwife her freedom, Mr. Pinchwife alienates her and encourages her resentment of him.
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy tells the story of the communist state of Kerala and the forbidden love between two castes, which changes the lives of everyone. In the novel an ‘Untouchable’, Velutha is a carpenter and works at Paradise Pickles and Preserves for much less than he deserves because of his status as an Untouchable in the caste system. Velutha falls into a forbidden love with a divorced woman, Ammu who is associated with an upper caste Syrian Christian Ipe family. Marriage was the only way that Ammu could have escaped this life, but she lost the chance when marrying the wrong man, as he was an alcoholic and this resulted in them getting a divorce. Ammu breaks the laws that state ‘who should be loved, and how and how much’, as their affair threatens the ‘caste system’ in India, which is a hierarchal structure and social practice in India in which your position in society is determined and can’t be changed. Arhundati Roy portrays the theme of forbidden love within the caste systems and shows how they are t...
The story I have chosen for my assignment is `Everything's Arranged' by Siew Yue Killingley. It is about arranged marriages practised by the Indian communities.The story is centered around Rukumani, a young maiden from the Ceylonese Tamil community whose family has settled in Malaya. Probably her father or grandfather was brought to this land by the British those days. Though Rukumani, is sent to study in the university (`MU' as stated in the story ), the thinking of her parents is just like how it was back in their motherland, Sri Lanka. The Ceylonese, however educated, still hold to their tradition, beliefs and family values so adamantly. Education failed to change their thinking. Social life is a taboo for their young sons what more for a daughter.
Each marriage comes with a different perspective and story, whether it is an arranged marriage or love marriage. Arranged and Love marriages are very similar yet different. Love is the pure feeling of attachment. Arrange marriage is like a blind date in hopes to find love. It could be love at first sight or love after a while so in somewhat way they end up being a love marriage after all because the end result is the same as they get married or find love. In this essay there will be comparison done on love marriage and arrange marriage. Each country has a different perspective on each type of marriage. I will be comparing both marriages in America and India. Love Marriages come with a responsibility of their
Almost every culture around the world have the idea of bringing together households in marriage. In the United States, this a coupling of two people who will start a life on their own. In India, a marriage is more than two people falling and love and getting married. Family, religion and casts play a role for the future bride and groom. The Indian culture’s weddings have different traditions when it comes to proposals, ring traditions and ceremonies not only for the couple but for the families as well.