Muni’s Wife Character Analysis

A long-suffering woman who is childless and impoverished, Muni’s wife must worry each day about obtaining enough food to eat for the couple. It is often she who must go out and perform odd jobs to earn enough money to buy food as Muni, with his negative reputation in the village, is denied food and other items on credit from the local shopkeeper. Although readers may assume that Muni’s wife originally began working outside the home for reasons related to survival, Muni suggests that she now wields greater power over her husband as the primary breadwinner in the family. Muni’s wife reveals that patriarchal norms in Indian society are highly complex and nuanced, as she exerts more influence as the breadwinner in her family despite her ostensibly low status in society as a woman.