Pritam exploits Guleri’s absence from her family as an example to illustrate the wife’s segregation from the nuclear family around her, hence disregarding her as if some sort of an incarcerated object. It appears as if the ardour to visit her parents on the extremely infrequent occasions is the only thing that makes her life worth living.
When Guleri eventually finds the opportunity to visit her parents’ “after the harvest”, she and her two friends have to be in the presence of a guard, which may appear to be intended for their safety, nevertheless, it is conspicuous to the reader that Manak’s mother does not trust her daughter-in-law in the slightest, and therefore incessantly has her monitored. Moreover, this reinforces the notion in stereotypical Indian culture that women are frail and must be constantly guarded by their male counterpart.
Guleri has, as many girls do in India as exposed by Pritam, inherited the responsibility of performing a myriad of chores on a daily basis. These errands place immense pressure upon Guleri, which places her last in the family ladder, as personal time to think about herself is scarce. These acts of responsibility placed upon girls in India indicate that females are thought to be insignificant in contrast to the ‘superior’ males, who merely have to work and arrive home to a warm meal which must be cooked to ‘their’ standards.
Whether or not Guleri really has acquired the ‘wife’s’ responsibility is dubious. The usual role of a wife from a Western perspective to make a choice between taking welfare of her family, or retaining her own independence within marriage by not necessarily being domesticated. However, the position that Guleri is unlucky enough to adopt is to assume the role of a house servant;
“She went about her daily chores – fed the cattle, cooked food for the parents-in-law”.
The daily chores that Guleri is enforced to fulfil portray Indian females as nothing other than free labour, and that their own welfare is not even a concern for them to ponder. The very detail that Guleri has to “sit back to work out how long it would be before someone came to fetch her” on a daily basis, establishes that she is discarded from the family.
Superstitions are alluded to in Pritam’s unflattering story to signify the prevalent cultural beliefs in India;
“it’s said that anyone who goes through it becomes deaf”.
It seems as if it is these infinitesimal habits and old traditions that people harbour, are what keep the villages in India from becoming more perceptive and urbane.
The fact that Guleri and Manak sarcastically, yet subtly mock each other proves that their relationship founded on love, now borders estrangement, a direct cause of the Indian traditions they were born into, that slowly devour the trust they once had for each other;
“You must have passed through that bluebell wood. You don’t seem to be hearing anything I say.
You’re right, Guleri, I can’t hear anything you’re saying to me,”.
It appears that in the Indian culture, ‘producing’ children is the prime objective, and given that Guleri had been “married seven years but she had never borne a child”, the reader identifies that her mother-in-law judged Guleri to be an inapt wife for ‘her son’, due to her egocentric and obdurate infatuation in having grandchildren. The message portrayed about the women in India, is that they are powerless against the conventions, and their job is to merely be subservient towards not only their husbands, but also their in-laws.
Manak’s mother also has an almost obsessive preoccupation with his son’s marital situation;
“Manak’s mother had made a secret resolve that she would not let it go beyond the eighth year”.
It appears Pritam is insinuating that Indian mothers’ do not look into the future interests of their children, but instead desire to build upon their position in society’s hierarchy.
This matriarchal authority is a convention that is valued and consecrated to all Indian people. Manak’s mother plays the imperative role of influence, and has carte blanche over not only her son, but her daughter-in-law too. This ‘matriarchal authority’ can also be expanded to characterize the country’s current state of affairs. As Guleri epitomises the browbeaten and neglected people in society, her mother-in-law typifies society with its obsolete ethos and their disrepute for the people’s wishes, and Manak, embolic of the frail spectators that can do nothing as they lack the supremacy or support that is requisite to surmount the problem at hand.
Pritam has no problem in revealing the truth about the handling of Indian females, as she quite effectively enlightens the reader about the ‘dowry’, a price paid for the girl when arranging a marriage;
“she had paid five hundred rupees to get him a second wife”.
It is almost akin to the policies involved in an auction, where the prospective wife is sold to the highest bidder.
Once Manak had witnessed the ‘prearranged’ subsequent wife for himself, he in spite of standing up for what he believed in, took the straightforward path and stood obdurately by his tradition, welcoming his new wife and in-laws whilst masquerading, supposedly content;
“Obedient to his mother and to custom, Manak’s body responded to the new woman but his heart was dead within him”.
The fact that Manak concealed his true emotions and beliefs when seeing his new bride for the first time signifies that there is a tendency in Indian culture to ‘repress’ one’s true feelings, as this would avoid disgracing and humiliating the family (This tendency also epitomises the aristocratic English mentality, which through colonialism has had an influence on Indian culture). This leads the reader to realise that Pritam is aiming to convey the image of Indian citizens possessing to some degree a social deficiency.
When Manak hears the depressing news of Guleri committing suicide by setting herself ablaze, he cannot truly convey how he feels;
“Guleri is dead…she soaked her clothes in kerosene and set fire to them… Manak, mute with pain, could only stare and feel his own life burning out”.
The repercussion of Guleri’s death, leads to Manak becoming oblivious to the world encompassing him;
“But he was like a dead man, his face blank, his eyes empty”.
The perpetual love that Manak held for Guleri is a love that the author utilises to accentuate the significance of communication inside intertwining relationships. If Manak stood up for how he truly felt in the company of his mother, his once deeply loved wife would still be living.
Moreover, by not learning from the faux pas he made with his former deceased wife, Manak once again opts to remain unspoken; conversely, the silence he now bears is the result of sorrow for his wife’s demise.
Towards the end of the story, all of Manak’s pent up emotions had finally escaped through a fit of rage;
“take him away!…Take him away! He stinks of kerosene!”.
The baby who he wishes to be taken away serves to be a horrid memento of Guleri’s ‘needless’ death.
Pritam’s pessimistic perception of Indian culture also lacks enthusiasm. She strives to convey her belief in that India ought to make more of an attempt to dispose of the archaic beliefs that ‘women are inferior to men’. Nevertheless, I must also add that in some parts of “A Stench Of Kerosene”, it emerges that she dramatises the extent of Indian females being oppressed, and also the authority of the husband’s mother.
