Symbolism of Darkness in Character's Relationships

In A Short-term Matter, Jhumpa Lahiri illustrates a short-term blackout that enables Shukumar and Shoba to reconnect only to find that they have lengthy been disconnected from each other. Shukumar and Shoba face 4 states of light, which metaphorically represent 4 stages of their relationship. Ahead of the blackout, they are ambiguously distant as they stay away from confronting every other about their feelings. In the course of the blackout, the couple takes the opportunity of reconciliation. However, when the electrical energy has been repaired, they realize that they can only talk in a temporary darkness. They finally wake up from ignorance when Shoba turns on the light and reveals the purpose of their secret ‘game’. By means of these stages, Shukumar and Shoba come to admit that they are not happy to be collectively. As a result, the short-term blackout ironically leads to the permanent end of their marriage life.

Shukumar and Shoba’s partnership is in an ambiguous stage before the blackout. They are uncertain about their feelings towards each and every other but they also steer clear of confronting this uncertainty. As a result of in search of their own approaches of resolving the stillbirth trauma, their lifestyles change as if there is a reverse in gender roles. Shukumar becomes passive in the house as Shoba interacts with the outdoors globe. Shukumar does not discover the motivation to finish his paper or even to brush his teeth routinely. “He would lie in their bed until he grew bored, gazing at his side of the closet”(4), whilst Shoba would be “sipping her third cup of coffee currently, in her office downtown, exactly where she searched for typographical errors in textbooks and marked them”(4). The contrast in their lifestyles highlights the distance that has grown between them. For months, Shukumar and Shoba pretend to live their normal lives whilst becoming “experts at avoiding each other in their three-bedroom home, spending as much time on separate floors as possible”(four). Shoba’s busy schedule allows her to be gone to perform prior to Shukumar wakes up. Likewise, Shukumar pretends to write his paper in the room prepared for their kid simply because “it was a place Shoba avoided” (eight). Ahead of the blackout, the couple is in an unresolved stage in their partnership, living an unhappy life together but trying to ignore the reality that they are disconnected.

For the duration of the blackout, Shukumar and Shoba look to be capable to reconcile their adore. Due to the fact there is no electricity, Shukumar and Shoba have no excuse to take their plates to every of their workrooms and so they have to dine collectively beneath the candlelight. When Shoba initiates the secret game, the two start to share secrets and memories of their passionate enjoy: “something occurred when the house was dark. They have been in a position to speak to each and every other again” (19). They begin to revert each of their life patterns Shoba “came home earlier than usual” (14) and Shukumar finally has the motivation to go out “through the melting snow” (14) to purchase candles in preparation of their dinner. Nonetheless, this reconciliation below the darkness is sudden and unsual. In spite of not being aware of Shoba’s intention of playing the secret game, Shukumar responds unquestioningly to the opportunity of reconciliation. He does not even know regardless of whether he still loves Shoba, and yet he is excited by the idea of reconnecting with Shoba: “All day Shukumar had looked forward to the lights going out. He thought about what Shoba had said” (15). As they “walked very carefully upstairs…making really like with a desperation they had forgotten…in the dark” (19-20), Shukumar and Shoba seems to be in a position to blindly reconnect their really like.

Nonetheless, when the electricity has been repaired, the residence remains dark Shukumar and Shoba could have turned on the lights but they select not to. At this point, they recognize that they can only talk in the short-term darkness. With the lights back on, they would have to return to their separate lives. “It wasn’t the same…knowing that the lights wouldn’t go out” (20), Shukumar thought upon getting informed that the electricity has been repaired. That night, the couple refuses to turn on the light and eat in a darkened area, in try to retain this short-term reconciliation. This reveals how Shukumar and Shoba have been taking refuge from reality as they share secrets and make really like in the dark for the past four nights. Even Shukumar who remains hopeful of reconnecting with Shoba knows that what they have been carrying out in the darkness is only a ‘game’.

The temporary matter lastly leads to an understanding of their permanent finish when Shoba turns on the light. Shoba ultimately takes the initiative to admit the reality of their failure to reconnect as she “blew out the candle, stood up, turned on the light” (20) and reveals her final secret to Shukumar. Upon discovering that Shoba is moving out and that “she has spent these previous evenings preparing for a life with no him” (21), Shukumar realizes that all along, even prior to the blackout, he has been in a state of darkness. He has not been pleased with his marriage life, living in a property that has been neglected and living with a individual who has neglected the residence and him. It is ultimately time for him to let go of living with “a flashlight, but no batteries, and a half-empty box of birthday candles” (9), eating on a table complete of “piles of mail [and] unread library books” (10), avoiding all “the buddies and close friends of friends” (9), and refusing all the liveliness in his life. The secret game that they have been playing in the course of the temporary matter has not been a way of reconnecting, but it has been “an exchange of confession—the tiny ways they’d hurt or disappointed every single other, and themselves” (18). When Shoba turns on the light, it is as if Shukumar lastly wakes up from a dark dream. As Shukumar reveals the final secret about their dead child—a secret “he promised himself that day that he would never tell Shoba, simply because he still loved her then” (22), he ultimately admits that he no longer loves Shoba. Their partnership has ended.