In Wife By Jyoti Mukherjee Analysis

Geographically, the story begins in India and takes off from Europe to America, where it bounces back and forth from Florida through New York to proceed to Iowa, then finally lands in California. The novelist deliberately transports her in time and space again and again so as to bring in a sense of instability into the novel.. She is seen against the backdrop of the rigid and patriarchal Indian society in which her life is controlled and dominated by her father and brothers.
However, Jyoti seeks a modern and educated husband who has no faith in dowries and traditions, and thus finds a US based modern-thinking man, Prakash. Prakash encourages Jyoti to study English, and symbolically gives Jyoti a new name Jasmine, and a new life. “He wanted to break down the Jyoti as I’d been in Hasnapur and make me a new kind of city woman. To break off the past, he gave me a new name; Jasmine....Jyoti, Jasmine: I shuttled between identities.” (Jasmine- 77)
Jyoti’s transformation starts here from a village girl under the shell of her father and brothers to a wife of an American traditional husband who gives her all liberties. Jasmine’s happiness is

But throughout the novel the protagonist Dimple has been portrayed as a free minded and rebellious wife. She has no inhibition in expressing whatever she feels. Thus, we observe two different characters Jasmine and Dimple in two different dimensions. Finally, it can be understood that the protagonists of the two novels of Bharathi Mukherjee experience a sense of loss, alienation, and thrive for identity. But they desperately try to get adjusted in the West to the extent possible to them in order to meet their ends successfully and satisfy their long cherished dreams. Thus the words of Rabbi Sofer - “No woman is required to build the world by destroying herself” rightly justify the