Interpreter of Maladies

by Jhumpa Lahiri

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Analysis

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Jhumpa Lahiri uses the motif of interpreting to draw attention to the difficulty human beings have in not only understanding their emotions for themselves, but also in expressing their emotions accurately to others. The title story’s protagonist, Mr. Kapasi, works as an interpreter at a doctor’s office during the week, helping the doctor to understand his patients’ symptoms and helping the patients to understand the doctor’s treatment for any ailments they have when doctor and patient do not speak the same language. Mr. Kapasi was actually a scholar of languages in his younger days, and he spoke not only a number of Indian languages, but a number of European languages as well. He is, we might say, an expert when it comes to communication.

And yet despite Mr. Kapasi’s expertise and the good money he makes at his job, he is unable to communicate effectively with his own wife. They seem to completely lack emotional and physical intimacy, at least ever since the death of their son by typhoid. The same can be said of Mr. and Mrs. Das. When Mrs. Das learns of Mr. Kapasi’s occupation, she describes it as “romantic” and emphasizes its “intellectual challenges,” which flatters and even thrills Mr. Kapasi. He notes, “She did not behave in a romantic way toward her husband, and yet she had used the word to describe him [Mr. Kapasi].”

However, Mr. Kapasi does not seem to understand that Mrs. Das is not thinking of him in a romantic way—as someone with whom she is interested in developing some intimacy—but, rather, that she finds his job to be interesting and ideal. When attempting to express their emotional responses, the two people misunderstand one another. Mr. Kapasi begins to harbor fantasies of a growing emotional intimacy through the exchange of letters, while Mrs. Das clearly only sees an opportunity to unburden herself to someone in the medical community who she hopes can suggest a remedy for her emotional pain and unhappiness.

Eight years ago, she admits to Mr. Kapasi, Mrs. Das was unfaithful to her husband and conceived a son with a friend of his; she has never told Mr. Das the truth, and the unspoken secret weighs on her. Mr. Kapasi, however, does not know how to react to this confession and does not see Mrs. Das as being anything like the pain-racked patients for whom he interprets. In the end, he says to her only, “Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?” Mrs. Das does not reply and instead exits the car, indicating a total failure of communication and leaving Mr. Kapasi aware that he and Mrs. Das were never destined for any sort of intimacy.

There are failures of communication everywhere in the story, showing that characters struggle to express their emotions properly, resulting in further emotional pain and isolation. The slip of paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address falling out of Mrs. Das’s handbag at the end of the story, unnoticed by anyone but Mr. Kapasi himself, symbolizes the loss of any opportunity for real communication between the characters.

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