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Comparing Interpreter Of Maladies And The Lady With The Dog

Decent Essays

“I feel terrible looking at my children, and at Raj, always terrible.” (Lahiri 460) “Do you think it’s unhealthy?” (Lahiri 460) Infidelity can cause psychological and sociological issues. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story “Interpreter of Maladies”, these issues don’t effect only the family, but the cheater themselves. Also in the short story “The Lady with the Dog” by Anton Chekov. “Adultery is one of the many key factors on a stressful dysfunctional family.” (Infidelity, Initiation, and the Emotional Climate of Divorce) And “Women are shown to have higher rates sexual infidelity.” (Marriage as a Public Issue.) In both “Interpreter of Maladies” and “The Lady with the Dog”, both Mrs. Das and Anna Sergeyevna experience negative effects that are …show more content…

Das feels guilty that she cheated on her husband Raj. In one line she states when she was talking to Mr. Kapasi alone “I feel terrible looking at my children, and at Raj, always terrible.” (Lahiri 460) and also she when is said “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 461) Mrs. Das has been feeling the guilt that she cheated and one of her children is not her husband child like the rest. And also not telling her husband about any of this and wanting to have Mr. Kapasi tell him everything so she could feel better since he helps cure maladies. Anna feels guilty that she has to her relationship with Gurov a secret because she is already married and society would not accept it in her time period not because she is cheating with her husband. Her guilt was shown the story said “They forgave each other for what they were ashamed of in their past, they forgave everything in the present, and felt that this love of theirs had changed them both.” (Chekov 270) “Cheating cause the individuals to experience the emotion of guilt.” (Infidelity, Initiation, and the Emotional Climate of …show more content…

Das experience the feeling of seclusion from her family and friends. She wasn’t able to tell her secret to her friends, her family nor her husband for eight years. Based on what she says to Mr. Kapasi “Don’t you see? For eight years I haven’t been able to express this to anybody, not to friends, certainly not to Raj.” (Lahiri 460) She feels alone because she couldn’t tell no one she trusts about her secrets. But sometimes she wants to be left alone and have freedom of her life. She wants to be away from her children and also from her husband and all the stress from her life. When she states “I have terrible urges, Mr. Kapasi, to throw things away…. The children…. Everything.” (Lahiri 460) In “The Lady with the Dog” Anna secluding herself by currently having an affair with Gurov and not being faithful to only her husband. There is also a sense of regret with both Mrs.Das and with Anna in their respective stories. Mrs. Das regrets that she held her secret of cheating on her husband in the past and it is causing her pain. Based on how she is asked Mr. Kapasi for advice in the short story. When she said “I was hoping you could help me feel better.” (Lahiri 461) Anna on the other hand regrets that she married before she was ready and not thinking hard on marriage base on what she said “I was twenty when I was married to him. I have tormented by curiosity; I wanted something better.” (Chekov

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