The story A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri is about a couple dealing with the stillbirth of their child. In the six months since, the couple, Shoba and Shukamar, have grown distant from each other. When the power is scheduled to go out during dinner every night due to maintenance, they begin to play a game where they reveal secrets to each other in the dark. The game allows for the couple to learn more about each other and grow closer, however all is fleeting when Shoba reveals that she is leaving Shukamar, he retaliates with information about their child.
The couple begins to acknowledge that their love for one another is not as powerful as it was before. Their marriage, amongst other promises, are broken. They also face turmoil after their secrets are shared. The revelation of Shoba and Shukamar’s final secrets indicate that diminishing love can result in broken promises and emotional anguish. The realization of their shrinking love causes Shoba and Shukamar to break promises they made to themselves and each other. Shoba tells Shukamar that she is leaving him, saying that “She needed some time alone (p. 21). This statement shows Shoba breaking the promise of their marriage.
She decides to leave Shukamar and end their marriage. Shukamar realizes that “this was the point of her game (p. 21). ” He understands that she was trying to tell him that she was leaving him, while he had hoped the game was for them to get closer together. He thought of the game as a way to amend their marriage, whilst she used the game to break it. In his retaliation, Shukamar decided to tell her something “He would never tell Shoba, because he still loved her then (p. 22)” and tells her about their son.
Shukamar breaks the promise to himself because he realizes that he doesn’t love her as he used to. After her announcement when “it was his turn to speak… (he says) for six months he had done his best to block (his secret) from his mind (p. 21)” He never planned to tell Shoba about their son, and had been trying to forget what he knew for “six months. ” He never reveals what his secret would have been if Shoba wasn’t leaving him and if he hadn’t realized the loss of their love for each other. He choose his secret only because he knew it was something that she wouldn’t want to hear, like how he didn’t want her to leave.
They do thi because their love for each other is not as strong as it had been. Shoba and Shukamar face emotional turmoil because of their receding love. When Shoba reveals that she is leaving him, Shukamar reflects that “he was relieved and yet he was sickened (p. 21). ” Shoba’s secret makes Shukamar conflicted because he doesn’t know how to feel. He is “relieved” because it means that they no longer have to awkwardly pretend that nothing is wrong and that they are happy together, but Shukamar is “sickened” because her decision to leave hurts him.
He then decides to tell Shoba about their son. The secret “enabled her to seek refuge in a mystery… (it was) the one thing she wanted to be a surprise (p. 21-22). ” Shukamar decides to end her “refuge” and tell Shoba the gender of their child. Not knowing about the child was her way of processing her grief. She never knew her child and the “mystery” allowed her “seek refuge” and forget about the stillbirth because knowing her baby would have given her more things to grieve.
However, Shukamar was able to “hold his son, who had only known life within her (p. 21). Shukamar was the only one to know their son, but their son had only known Shoba and this reflects in their processes of grieving. While Shoba was glad she hadn’t known her son, her grief hit her harder because she was the only one her son had had the chance to know. Shukamar was able to know his son and this interaction comforts him, despite how his son never had the opportunity to know him. When Shoba learns about their son, “her face contorted with sorrow (p. 22). ”
Even though she was fine when revealing her secret to Shukamar, she is “contorted” by the grief she feels pon learning his secret, which further her grief because she now knows her son. After revealing their secrets, “they wept together for the things they now knew (p22). ” They reconciled after their turmoil, and prove that they still have love for each other. They could only find comfort in one another, because of their close relationship, which shows how their love hasn’t disappeared, but still caused them to hurt one another. The story ends ambiguously, and the fate of Shoba and Shukamar remains unknown.
Their broken promises, of both the end of their marriage and the gender of their child, have left them emotionally raw. However the couple still weep together in a small form of reconciliation. Shoba and Shukamar have acted like they wish their marriage to end, but still go to each other for comfort at the end of the story. This shows how the love between may have dimmed, and they may have broken promises and hurt each other, but they still love each other dearly even if it wasn’t in the way they originally planned when they were married.
