T1 112010010 Full text

Binary Opposition on the Role of Woman as Depicted in the
Interpreter of Maladies

Abstract
Living in this patriarchal world may bring some disadvantages to women.
One of the example is bring women down to size by giving them limited role in
literary works. Examining “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri, I will
analyze how the main character, Mrs. Das, limited in her role. This paper attemps
to reveal how women’s role limited in literary works by embracing the theory of
binary opposition role by Gilbert and Gubar. It will explain how women are
portrayed either as an angel or a monster (3). In its conclusion, this paper will
show that Mrs. Das’ character is limited through binary opposition role in the
story of “Interpreter of Maladies”.

Key words: Interpreter of Maladies, binary opposition role on women, Gilbert
and Gubar

Introduction
Have you ever realized that we live under the man’s authority? Did you
ever notice that women have been marginalized in almost every aspect of life? Do
you know that men limit the women’s role in life? The above questions raised by

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“Interpreter of Maladies”. It is a story which is written by a woman, tells one of
Indian women’s experiences, and happened in her motherland, India.
Interpreter of Maladies is a book that contains 9 short stories including
one entitled the “Interpreter of Maladies”. The book is written by Jhumpa Lahiri,
an Indian born female writer, who is concerned with immigrant issues about
identity, marriage life, feminism, etc. The reason why I choose “Interpreter of
Maladies” because I found out an issue about feminism that is very thick,
especially in the dichotomy of women which discriminates women and shows
them in only two contradictory roles.
How society differentiates women’s and men’s role have been created
since ancient time. The assumptions of the differences such as man is believed to
use his logic while woman believed to use her feeling, man earns money and
becomes the leader of the family while woman is the one who manage it, and etc.
A concern emerged by Gilbert and Gubar who found out that there were
limitation in the roles of women in literature. The first role emphasizes the good
side of women and praises their goodness that makes them like angels. In
contrary, the second role defines women as devil or witch based on their bad

attitudes (3). This paper then will lead to a deeper discussion of how a woman is
portrayed in the “Interpreter of Maladies” in the lens of binary opposition role.
Based on “Interpreter of Maladies”, my research question is how women
portrayed through the binary opposition of women’s role by Gilbert and Gubar.
This study will analyze how society’s (specifically India) standardization shapes
limitation on women’s role and the effect of failure in fulfilling those

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standardizations. Moreover, the objection of this study is to understand how the
story of Interpreter of Maladies portrays Indian’s standards of woman.
Furthermore, this study will connect the standardization of Indian women with the
culture of India as the setting of the story and the origin of the writer, Jhumpa
Lahiri.
The aim of doing this study is to reveal how Mina Das depicted in binary
opposition role, how she failed to fulfill the society’s standards of ideal wife and
mother, and what is the effect of that failure. Therefore, the significance of this
study is to serve an example of how binary opposition role happened in literature
which may help the readers to gain better comprehension on it.

Summary of Text
“Interpreter of Maladies” is narrated from the third person and portrayed
through the viewpoint of an Indian man. It began with Mr. Das family who spent
their holiday in India. They hired Mr. Kapasi (the story teller) as the driver as well
as the tour guide. Along the tour, Mr. Kapasi noted many differences between his
culture (as a pure Indian) and Das culture (Indian descent who grew up and lived
in America).
As a native Indian, Mr. Kapasi felt strange about the way Mr. Das called
his wife in front of his three children by saying the girl’s name, Mina. The next
thing that surprised him was the way the Das family looked. It is stated in the
story how Mr. Kapasi was quite surprised because they were like Indians but they
wore brightly colored clothes that were not usually worn by the other Indians

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whom Mr. Kapasi met every day. It can be concluded from their conversations
that the five of them (Mr. Das, Mrs. Das, Ronny,Bobby, and Tina) were more
likely to be siblings than parents-children. Also, Mrs. Das seemed busier with
herself rather than with taking care of her children.
Noticing how pretty, young, and attractive Mrs. Das was, Mr. Kapasi had

a desire to be closer to her. Moreover, his marriage was not satisfying him since
he lost his son because of sickness. His wife could not admit that because she
thought that Mr. Kapasi’s poverty was why they were unable to bring him to the
hospital. Then Mr. Kapasi’s job as an interpreter at the doctor’s office was another
thing that made his wife not able to forget about her dead son. She still served her
husband, but she always kept silent. This condition contrasted with what Mrs. Das
did. She praised Mr. Kapasi’s job as an interpreter because she thought that it was
a very crucial job that could save someone’s life.
When Mr. Kapasi took the Das family to visit the Sun Temple, Mrs. Das
told him a secret. It was about Bobby, whose father was actually the friend of Mr.
Das. Both of them (Mr. Das and also his friend) did not know about that secret.
She kept it for herself for years. Only to Mr. Kapasi did she tell the truth. It might
be because during their travel, Mr. Kapasi told Mr. Das family that he had another
job besides a tour guide. He worked with a doctor as the interpreter. He
interpreted what Gujarati patients complained about and their maladies (the doctor
himself did not speak Gujarati language).
Unable to do anything, Mr. Kapasi was confused with himself. In the one
hand, he wanted to tell the truth to Mr. Das, but in the other hand he could not say

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anything. He even questioned Mrs. Das what was her aim to tell him. Perhaps it
was because she felt that she could count on him or she just wanted to free her
guilt by sharing her sin. Since that moment, Mr. Kapasi knew that he would never
be closer to Mrs. Das because she was offended by his question of why Mrs. Das
told him that secret. Mr. Kapasi was wondering, was it because she needed
someone to rely on or was it because she wanted to free her guilty feeling?

Theoretical Discussion
The term feminism came up in 1960s where people started to think about
the gender differences especially in how male writers portrayed women in
literature. The first wave of feminism began before the 1960s where women
fought for their political rights (to have a right to vote) and in the industrial sector.
Then the second waves of feminism arose in the 1960s until the 1970s with the
huge issue of black women and homosexuals who were struggling to define their
place. The colored women had to fight twice as hard than the white women,
because they also have double marginalization before joining the feminist
movement. This movement continues into the 1980s until the 1990s where the
women of color empowered themselves to get the same rights as the white
women. The third wave of feminism emerged in the mid 1990s to struggle and

embrace the diversity and multiplicity that happened in their surroundings (Three
Waves of Feminism: From Suffragettes to Grrls, 1). Considering the three waves
of feminism above, the conclusion can be drawn that the main idea of many
feminists’ fight is to get equality for all.

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As claimed by Simone de Beauvoir, women exist as the second sex under
the men (who are the subjects). How society disparages women really makes
sense because we can discover that the society judges life in a patriarchal way and
supports men as the leaders of a family. The mother is belittled only as the
domestic goddess, like what Barbara Bergmann in The Job of Housewife stated,
that “Being a housewife is an activity that gets one food, clothing, and place to
live”. (171). The reason why women (especially wives) disparage is that she is
only given the role in the family as someone who has to take care of the children,
serve the meals three times every day, clean the house, have to look pretty every
time, etc, without having power like father (whose words have to be obeyed).
These domestic jobs can be considered as underestimating women because their
role as a domestic goddess is just the same as servant and none of it requires her
to use her brain.

Luce Irigaray in Women on The Market also proposed the same idea that
there are some exploitations of women because they are seen only as commodities
(799). In other words, women are only seen as things or objects that are treated
according to their owner’s will. The example is match-maker in an Indonesian
story entitled Siti Nurbaya created by Marah Rusli. It told about a young girl
named Siti Nurbaya who was forced by her father to marry an old man named
Datuk Maringgih. The marriage was due to the inability of Siti’s father to pay the
loans that he borrowed from Datuk Maringgih. Here we can conclude that Siti is
treated as a commodity or thing. Irigaray argued that the reason behind that
opinion is because women’s bodies are often being “consumed” through a sexual

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lens only. Compared to men’s position who will not be used as commodities,
because the world is ruled by men so that they will not allow themselves to be
exploited. This exploitation of women is due to the power and superiority that
men have to be able to control women.
Based on the examples above, I can say that treating women only as
commodities can be included in lowering women’s position under men. Another
way to lower women’s position is limit their roles in literature. Sandra Gilbert and

Susan Gubar argue that the pattern of women in literature is the binary of the
angel or the monster and never shown as complicated as a man’s role. This
argument is based on how the writers (both male and female writers) show
women as completely angels or monsters.
The binary of angel or monster in literature can be found easily in children
stories. The easiest example is the characters of the step mother and Cinderella in
Cinderella’s story. Cinderella’s step mother is constantly described as a monster
because of her cruelty to Cinderella. In the other hand, Cinderella is always
depicted as an extremely kind woman almost like an angel. The reader can only
judge Cinderella’s step mother as a monster because the writer only tells the
wicked behavior of the step mother to Cinderella. The readers’ judgment is very
limited because they only have two choices (as devil or as angel), to judge the step
mother. At this point, society seems intentionally to depict that binary opposition
of women’s role in order to put woman down to size because they do not give
enough space in literature where woman can express herself or to show women as

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more nuanced than just devil or angel (as thorough or as complicated as the roles
that the man has).

Woman writers experience some difficulties in reaching their potential.
Gilbert and Gubar assured that “a woman writer must examine, assimilate, and
transcend the extreme images of angel and monster which male authors have
generated for her” (812). Those feminists advise that in order to break the
limitation that men writers gave toward the women characters, women writers
must do three steps. The first step is examining; here women writers are
demanded to look for the reasons of why men writers limit the women characters
in literature. The second, they have to assimilate and use the binary opposition
addressed for themselves as a trigger to develop their capability in writing
literature. The third step is transcend which means that women writers have to
fight against the binary opposition that men writers made for her. Their fight back
can be formed through writing the more complicated role on women characters in
literature by forming a heroic story where women become the hero. Here, Gilbert
and Gubar hope that women writers would redefine themselves so that they could
expand women’s characters more so that they would break the limitation on
women’s characteristics in literature. If women can break the limitation that men
writers put on them, then it will prove that women are not as weak as men think.
Later on, women can get respect from men and also it may work to end the
discrimination, bring equality to women’s life, and it will change people’s
mindset about women.

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Discussion
There are several ideas to prove the limitation of women’s role in
“Interpreter of Maladies”. Jhumpa Lahiri shaped Mina and put her in binary
opposition role which may lead the reader to think only in two contadictory sides.
I only focus on three main things, the first is about woman as object and men as
subject, the second is about the gender difference roles in a family, and the third is
about the the failure to fulfill society’s standards of an ideal woman. By means of
analyzing these three points, it will be clear that there is a limited gender role in
the story.
Man as Subject v.s. Woman as Object
The main concern regarding the discussion about women is mostly about
men. Women are regarded to be inferior to men, as they are thought to make
decisions and take action using their feelings or emotions (heart) more than their
logic. One of the reasons why women put in second place under the men because
the world we live is a patriarchal world where men become the leader. It is
derived from the definiton of patriarchy as defined by Russel Means,
“patriarchy is an imbalanced, fear-based, warlike and truly insane

system that completely lacks and fears the feminine. A patriarchy is
on top, obsessed with control and completely inhumane to everything
below. What it fears, it want to control; what it can’t control, it wants
to terrorise and destroy” (515).

This statement answers the question of why women marginalized as the inferior.
This world is ruled by men, so women just had to approve everything that men
labelled them. In literary works, Gilbert and Gubar convinced, “even the positive
images of woman in literature express negative energies and desire on the part of
male writers” (812). The negative energies received by male writers connect to

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men’s egoism that will often be offended when women described themselves as
better than as shown through the male writers. Combine two statements from
Russel Means and Gilbert and Gubar above, it is clear that men have control to
define women as they wish. Men who are playing their role to be God, cannot
accept the idolization of women because men think that they are the ideal. That is
–usually male writers—describe the women characters in a negative way.
Marginalization of women not only happened by giving them bad
characterization. There is a possibility of lowering women’s dignity by putting
them as the object in literary text. As it claimed by Simone de Beauvoir that men
are the Subject and Absolute while women are the Other (16). Through examining
what Beauvoir said above, we can infer that as the Subject and Absolute, men
have more power to treat women as the Other.
Connect to “Interpreter of Maladies”, we will see many examples of
binary opposition role as a subject and object. It is stated, “I am not a doctor, I
work with one. As an interpreter” (42). The statement came when Mr. Das asked
Mr. Kapasi about his other job besides tour guide. Not only that, Mr. Das also told
Mr. Kapasi that he is a science teacher (39). This excerpt showed that both men
characters, Mr. Kapasi and Mr. Das had the opportunity to have career. Their jobs
as an interpreter, a tour guide, and science teacher caused them to meet many
different people everyday. This means that they are able to socialize well with
people.
The different thing happened to Mrs. Das because she has no opportunity
to continue her education, because after married to Mr. Das, she had a baby

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quickly (51). Mrs. Das was never have the chance to meet other people except her
husband and three children,
“Always tired, she declined invitations from he rone or two college
girl-friends, to have luch or shop in Manhattan. Eventually the friends
stop calling her, so that she was left at home all day with the baby ...”
(52).

The above statement indicate that Mrs. Das had limited access to the world
outside her house. She almost made no contact with other people. She had no
social life because of her big responsibility to take care of the children.
The different between the subject and the object also can be derived from
the way the subject (here Mr. Kapasi) determine the object (Mrs. Das). From the
“Interpreter of Maladies”, we know that Mrs. Das is defined as a pretty woman,
“He observed her. She wore a red and white checkered skirt that
stopped above her knees, slip-on shoes with a square wooden heel,
and a close-fitting blouse styled like a man’s undershirt. The blouse
was decorated at chest-level with a calico applique in the shape of a
strawberry. She was a short woman, with small hands like paws, her
frosty pink fingernails painted to match her lips, and was slightly
plump in her figure. Her hair, shorn only a little longer than her
husband’s, was parted far to one side. She was wearing large dark
brown sunglasses with a pinkish tint to them, and carried a big straw
bag, almost as big as her torso, shaped like a bowl, with a water bottle
poking out of it. She walked slowly, carrying some puffed rice tossed
with peanuts and chili peppers in a large packet made from a
newspapers, Mr. Kapasi turned to Mrs. Das” (39).

Mr. Kapasi observed Mrs. Das in almost every little detail. Her physical
appearance seemed very interesting to Mr. Kapasi. He gave his attention to her
continually as he guided the Das’ family in their tour. The reason why Mr. Kapasi
acted in such a way to Mrs. Das is explained by Beauvoir, “Since woman is an
object, it is quite understandable that her intrinsic value is affected by her style of
dress and adornment” (548). Beauvoir insited that outer beauty will affect the

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inner beauty. When Mr. Kapasi watched Mr. Das attentively, he might begin to
imagine about her in erotic way of thinking.
In contrary, Mrs. Das did not define Mr. Kapasi. She did not peer over Mr.
Kapasi. It is because she is the object, so she has no power to define Mr. Kapasi.
This argument is supported by Beauvoir who said that,
“Woman may fail to claim to the status of subject because she lacks
definite resources, because she feels necessary bond that ties her to
man regardless of reciprocity, and because she is often very pleased
with her role as the Other” (20).

Mrs. Das is seen as the weaker because she needed the bond which tied her to
man and because she might feel comfortable as the Other. It is because she was
dependant to man (here it means her husband) so that she did not realize that she
became the Other or the object of man.
Breadwinner v.s. Homemaker
Many definitions try to reveal the meaning of breadwinner and
homemaker. Here I use the prominent definition of breadwinner as “a member of
family whose wages supply its livehood” and homemaker as “one who manages a
household especially as a wife and mother” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).
Apply the definition of breadwinner and homemaker in “Interpreter of
Maladies”, we will find that Mr. Das acts as a breadwinner of the family because
he works as a school teacher, where he got the salary to support his family’s need.
It is showed from the chat of Mr. Das and Mr. Kapasi,
”I teach middle school there.”
“What subject?”
“Science” (39).

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The proof came from Mr. Das’ chat with Mr. Kapasi while they were in the car.
Both of them started to change information about their job. Mr. Das told Mr.
Kapasi that he is a science teacher and he will get salary to support his family.
In contrast, Mrs. Das cannot earn money because she is only a housewife.
Barbara Bergmann is convinced that a housewife is an unpaid married woman
who works fulltime or twenty four hours in seven days to serve her own family
with the main concern of child care, food preparation, housecleaning, and other
housechores (173). This statement is supported by the example in the “Interpreter
of Maladies”,
“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 agains her wrist while Raj at work, dressed in
sweaters and corduroy pants, teaching his students about rocks and
dinosaur. Raj never looked cross or harried, or plump as she had
become after the first baby” (51).

It strenghten the fact that Mr. Das (Raj) worked as a school teacher and Mrs. Das
as a homemaker because she stay all day long to take care of the children, do the
housechores, and handle the household matters. How bussy a housewife was
depicted in the text,
“... 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” (52).

The above quotations showed that as a housewife, all of the children needed her
attention until she had no time for herself. Her world after married to Mr. Das was
only her husband, three children, and home. No room for anyone or anything
except her family. It is true if we infer to what Betty Friedan stated in her book,

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The Feminine Mystique, “Many women no longer left their home, except for shop,
chauffeur their children, or attend a social engagement with their husbands” (17).
Notice how different life is for a married couple make the readers look for
the reason behind it. Mrs. Das and Mr. Das are told to enroll the same college
before they get married. It is stated, “We married when we were still in college”
(25). It showed that both of them are well educated which later on become an
issue of why one should work while the other should stay at home. Sharma,
Pandhit, Pathak in Hinduism, Marriage, and Mental Illness said that,
“There are stringent gender roles, with women having a passive role
and husband an active dominating role. Marriage and motherhood are
the primary status roles for women” (243).

This argument strenghten the asumption of different gender roles in family.
Women are given a passive role which can be mean as a housewife and men are
given active and dominating role as a leader of the family and take action by
working to fulfill their family’s needs.
According to Sri Sathya Sai Baba, a well known Indian guru and spiritual
leader, in the Role of Women,
“The Mother is held as the object of affectionate reverence in Indian
Culture. She is the home-maker, the first teacher of the child, the
person who lovingly transmits the culture of this ancient land to its
heirs in their most formative years” (1).

This statement convince that a mother is the home-maker which means that she
has to do the housechores, take care of the children, teach the children simple
things in their childhood, introduce the culture of their land, and etc.
Responsibility of Mrs. Das as a homemaker is not as simple as it seems. Besides
became a mother who responsible of her three children, she had to be responsible

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to her husband too. the wife’s responsibility included pleasing her husband as said
by Alison Macdonald in ‘Real’ and ‘Imagined’ Women: A Feminist Reading of
Rituparno Ghosh’s Films that a ‘good’ woman “pleases her husband and gives
birth to male children” (2). This paradigm that an ideal woman should give birth
to boys to gratify her husband is such a way to shape society’s idea that baby boys
are more desirable than baby girls. In other way, it implies a comprehension that a
woman will not be an ideal woman or wife if she cannot gratify her husband.
Society’s Standards v.s. Personal Traits
Society often determine some standardization to make people behave
properly according to the society’s standars. Society’s standard used to manage
people’s behavior so that there will be no chaos in life. Some standards of woman
according to society is believed by Sharma, Pandit, and Pathak in their work,
Hinduism, Marriage, and Mental Illness,
“The primary roles for the women are still ‘marriage’ and ‘motherhood’. Marriage
confers a positive status to the woman which is greatly enhanced by motherhood”
(244). If we splice this idea to “Interpreter of Maladies”, we can see that this idea
formed women to agree that marriage will give them more positive status than
unmarried women. While society make some standards about an ideal women,
there was Mrs. Das who seemed to fail in fulfilling the standard of a good woman.
In ‘Real’ and ‘Imagined’ Women: A Feminist Reading of Rituparno Ghosh’s
Films by Alison Macdonald,
“Women are expected to be dutiful, respectful and submissive wives
and al giving self-sacrificing mothers. The honour of a family and
preservation of class and caste boundaries is heavily reliant upon
women’s behaviour and control of their bodies” (2).

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Macdonald convinces that a good women should accomplish the standards which
are dutiful, respecful, and willing to sacrifice herself as a mother. In the story of
“Interpreter of Maladies”, Mrs. Das was depicted as a bad women because she
was unsuccessful to fill the standard. It can be proven by looking at the way she
treated her children. It is shown when her daughter, Tina, wanted to go to the
bathroom. Mrs. Das did not hold the little girl’s hand when they walked to the rest
room (37), whereas they were in the place where they did not know very well.
From this event, the readers may be concluded that Mrs. Das was not afraid of
losing Tina in those teastall areas. There was a possibility of losing children in the
public places because those teastall areas were a strange place for Tina and Mrs.
Das seemed to not care about that. The way Mrs. Das walked also influenced the
impression that accompanying Tina to the rest room was something insincere. It is
shown from her attitude when she walked lazily to accompany her daughter,
“Mrs. Das emerged slowly from her bulky white Ambassador, draging her shaved,
largely bare legs across the back seat” (37).
The other standard which society used is explained that “The idea of
womanhood in India is motherhood – that marvelous, unselfish, all-suffering, ever
forgiving mother” (58). This statement revealed an understanding that a mother
should has willingness to forgive, suffer, and being unselfish towards her children.
Unluckly, a group of well-known feminists (Adrienne Rich, Nancy Chodorow,
Dorothy Dinnerstein and Jean Baker Miller) against this belief. They claimed that
“The institution of motherhood is the root cause of the oppression of women and
the sexual malaise experienced by men and women” (826). Examine the attitude

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(about how she treats her children) showed by Mrs. Das will draw a thought that
she oppressed by motherhood. Or in other words, what Mrs. Das felt as a
housewife may a kind of boredom and weariness. She was also exhausted to take
care of her three children everytime without having any help from others. The
independence of taking care of the children also called intensive mothering in
which the mother became the center of children’s life. It may cause several mental
illness as suggested by Rizzo, Schiffrin, and Liss who conducted a study on
motherhood by saying that intensive mothering beliefs are detrimental to women’s
mental health. There were several mental health outcomes from motherhood that
can be classified into three main categories. The first is losing social life, causing
stressfulness, and the last is causing depression. All of these matters happened to
Mrs. Das because she was the one who was depicted as a full-time housewife who
stayed at home with the children and discontiued her college while Mr. Das
continue his college and work outside the house.
The first category about motherhood is causing a mother to lose her social
life. According to Tummala-Narra (2009), when women feel they must subsume
their needs to the needs of their child, they lose a sense of personal freedom,
which may result in women experiencing negative mental health outcomes (e.g.,
lower levels of life satisfaction). Reduced levels of life satisfaction will influence
someone’s character. In the case of Mrs. Das, her life satisfaction has declined
because she lost her love for her family and she feels frustrated because she is not
ready yet to be a mother of three children. Moreover, in her youth she had to be
trapped in her boring routines as a housewife which limits her social life. This

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argument can be proven by looking at the textual examples that happened in the
story,
“Always tired, she declined invitations from her one or two college
girl friends, to have lunch or shop in Manhattan. Eventually the
friends stopped calling her, so that she was left at home all day with
the baby...” (52).

It is shown that the routines of a housewife faced by Mrs.Das made her feel
oppressed. She was exhausted doing those housechores and taking care of the
children. She was also left by her friends because she did not have any time for
them anymore. Mrs. Das’ weariness was depicted by the proof that Lahiri showed
that Mrs. Das was forced to be a housewife and take care of her children. She has
no choice but to keep doing her role even though she did not enjoy it. The way
Mrs. Das did not enjoy her role as a mother can be concluded from how she busy
with herself (coloring her nails while her children and husband chatting with Mr.
Kapasi in the car, eating puffed rice without offering it to the other). Linked to
what Adrienne Rich said that motherhood which ghettoized women, it is true that
Mrs. Das felt a kind of oppression in her married life. She lost an opportunity to
meet her friends, get in touch with other people, which means that she also lost
her potentials to develop herself to be a better person (notice that she quit college
after she married to Mr. Das, means that she may lost the chance to get better
education and other experiences in work). She was trapped in her routines
surrounded by her three children.
The second impact of motherhood that harms women is the stress.
Women have reported that taking care of their children is more stressful than

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being at work (Guendouzi2005; Kahneman et al. 2004). In the story, we can
conclude that Mrs. Das coped with a kind of stress in raising her children,
“...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. Only occasionally did they go out after Ronny was born,and
even more rarely did they entertain” (52).

At her young age, where the other wives might still enjoyed their youthfullness,
Mrs. Das had to take care of her children who were born too quickly in her
marriage. She might not be able to enjoy her married life with Mr. Das.
Moreover, Simone de Beauvoir stated in the Marriage Woman that “a man is
socially an independent and complete individual” (445) which is connected to the
fact that Mrs. Das had to be a housewife who stayed all day long at home and ran
the household. Mrs. Das might feel envious to her husband because she did not
have the same opportunity just like her husband. It was because they went to the
same college, but Mrs. Das’s role as a housewife limited her social life, where
her husband could be a teacher (which made him have more opportunities to
socialize with other people).
Mrs. Das’ stress has been growing into the last category of detrimental
motherhood which is depression. Depression is defined as disruption in physical
and psychological characterized by different degree of sadness, disappointment,
loneliness, hopelessness, self-doubt, and guilt (1). Mrs. Das faced such
depression started when she felt tired of her life (52), lost interest in keep in
touch with friends (52), which means that she lived in her own world, surrounded
by her three children, housechores, and husband. She had no one to share her
feelings, like stated in the text,

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“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. Her parents now lived
on the other side of the world, but she had never been very close to
them, anyway” (52).

The last standard that society’s address to woman is about her faith for
her husband. Macdonald gave her statement deeper about motherhood when she
remarked that,
“In particular nationalists invoked the trope of motherhood as a
symbol of unchanging and authentic culture which subsequently reconceptualised womanhood as the ‘Vedic superwoman’, the “chaste
virgin, pure and faithful wife, the all giving mother” (3).

She associated an ideal wife as someone who is chaste virgin and faithful to her
husband. Unfortunatey, Mrs. Das was unable to saturate that society’s standard.
She was portrayed as unfaithful wife because she had an affair with her
husband’s friend from Punjabi. This affair later become the cause of Bobby’s
born.
By miscarrying the society’s standards, Mrs. Das felt such kind of guilty
feeling. She told Mr. Kapasi and hope that she would get solution and
consolation. She confessed her sin to someone she did not know really well.
“Raj’s. He’s not Raj’s son” (50). Mrs. Das told Mr. Kapasi that Bobby was not
Mr. Das’ son. Bobby was Mrs. Das son with a Punjabi man who was Mr. Das’
friend. No one knew that secret, even the Punjabi man himself. Now, she told her
secret to Mr. Kapasi and hoped that he would give her a kind of suggestion,
solution, or anything that can cure her bad feeling toward her family. Mrs. Das’
stress is supported by the textual evidence,
“It means that I’m tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years,
Mr. Kapasi, I’ve been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help
me feel better, say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy” (53).

25

In her 8 years of married life, Mrs.Das always feels pain. She has no one to count
on. She was no friends where she could share her peoblems. She also did not very
close to her parents. Perhaps what makes her suffer is because she was hiding
from reality. She hid from the reality that she is Raj’s wife who was expected to
be faithful but she was not. She had an affair that made her pregnant from her
lover. She hid from the reality that she was a mother of three children who always
needed her attention, but she failed to be a good mother. She could not treat her
children (notice the incidents when Tina wanted to to to the toilet, asked her
mother to color her nails, etc) the way other mothers treat their children. Maybe it
was true that she had lost her love for her husband and children. It can be proven
from the excerpt,
“I feel terrible looking at my children, and at Raj, always terrible. I
have terrible urges, Mr. Kapasi, to throw things away. One day I had
the urge to throw everything I own out the window, the television, the
children, everything” (53).

This part showed how seriously depressed she was. There were two possibilities
of her depression, her hatred toward her own family and her guilt. The first
discussion was about her hatred toward her own family because she feels that she
is going crazy because she has a desire to throw everything including her own
children away. These acts can describe her psychology where she wants to be free
from everything. She is burdened by her role as a wife and mother of three
children. She may feel that she does not give her life to her own family. So she
wants to escape from her situation where she should be a good wife and mother
for her family. She wants to be free from her boring routines of taking care of her

26

children and husband. She wants to be released from her guilt of cheating on Raj.
The next discussion was about her guilt where she was ladened with sin because
of her affair with Raj’s friend. She wanted to forget it, but she could not. She is
trapped in her own guilty feeling because on the one side she had to love her
husband but on the other side she had an affair with other man.
The reason why Mrs. Das got involved in an affair was Mrs. Das’
loneliness. Yes, it is true that she was never lonely in the literal meaning, but deep
inside her heart, she lost her husband’s attention.
“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” (52).

As a woman and wife, Mrs. Das actually needed togetherness with her husband
without being bothered by the kids. Unfortunately, as a husband, Raj did not know
this requirement. He was busy with his job, pampering his children, until he forgot
that his wife also needs to be as close as possible to him. That’s why when Raj’s
friend from Punjabi came and stayed for some days in his house, Mrs. Das found a
kind of “entertainment” or “pleasure” which made her happy. Yes, it is not stated
that she seduced that Punjabi man, but she also did not make any refusal when the
man started to touch her. Her act implied an impression that she also wanted that
to happen and she needed it too.
That’s why Mr. Kapasi was confused about what he would say when Mrs.
Das confessed her sin to him. He was totally shocked because he did not presume
that Mrs. Das would tell him such a kind of big secret about dishonesty in

27

somene’s married life. The way Mr. Kapasi felt strange about Mrs. Das’ story can
be seen from the way he responded to Mrs. Das.
“He looked at her, in her red plaids skirt and strawberry T-shirt, a
woman not yet thirty, who loved neither her husband nor her children,
who had already fallen out of love with life” (53).

Conclusion
This study concludes that Mrs. Das’ character is limited through binary
opposition role. There are three ways to see how Mrs. Das’ role is limited. The
first is to realize Mrs. Das’ position as the Other or the Object and Mr. Kapasi’s
position as the Absolute or the Subject. The second, compare Mrs. Das’ role as a
homemaker to Mr. Das role as a breadwinner. The third, understanding the gap
between society’s standards and Mrs. Das’s personal trait.
Thus, Mrs. Das’ character in “Interpreter of Maladies” is sucessfully
represent binary opposition role on women which result in disempowering women
in literary text.

28

Acknowledgement

The success of this thesis cannot be separated from the help of others. I would like
to express my deepest gratitude to:


Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior who has given the knowledge, strength,
and ability to finish this thesis timely. He guides me to traverse all the
trials for completing this thesis.



Danielle Donelson Sims, M.A. , my supervisor who was always helpful
and offered support and guidance all over the time.



Ibu Purwanti Kusumaningtyas, M.Hum., my examiner, without her
encouragement, this thesis would not have materialized.



Bapak Turwanto, Ibu Dewi, Rheza, and Nong, you are all my beloved
family who have been greatly tolerant and supportive in every way. I am
nothing without you all. I love you.



My best friends, Nanda, Eren, Nana, Tyas, who are always be there to give
encouragement, solutions, and bring happiness in my life. I feel
incomplete without you, gals.



Last but not least, special thanks to Tenners. I am lucky to be part of
Tenners. Love you all, guys.

29

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