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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Henna Artist, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Choice, Independence and Women’s Freedoms
Family and Responsibility
Societal Hierarchy vs. Unordered Intimacy
Care and Communication
Creativity vs. Possession
Summary
Analysis
Lakshmi gets Malik to cancel all her appointments, so she spends the day walking around, reflecting on the ways she has failed Hari and her parents and Radha. If Radha’s pregnancy comes out, Lakshmi knows that her ladies will abandon her, and that she’ll become ostracized and impoverished. Without meaning to, she realizes she has walked to the Pleasure District—first through the rundown houses, then through the bungalows, and finally, to the wealthy estates. This is where high-class courtesans (many of them Muslim, like Hazi and Nasreen) work.
The class differences of Jaipur are so stark that they often physically transform the architecture of the city. From this sectioned-off Pleasure District to the crowded Pink City buildings where Malik’s family lives (in contrast to the spacious Singh estate), caste and class shape society both metaphorically and spatially.
Themes
As she walks, Lakshmi wonders if Hari works with these women, and she thinks she glimpses Lala’s niece. Finally, she arrives in the European district, where wealthy expats live. Lakshmi knocks on a familiar door, and Geeta, Samir’s latest widowed mistress, greets her. Geeta thinks Lakshmi has sachets, but Lakshmi explains she needs to talk to Samir. He hasn’t arrived yet, so Lakshmi agrees to wait—but as soon as she steps in the door, her legs give out from under her. Seeing how weak she is, Geeta leads Lakshmi to the guest room, and Lakshmi falls asleep.
Whether or not the girl Lakshmi sees is really Lala’s niece, the ominous symbolism is clear: with a cruel word from Parvati (like the one Lakshmi is sure to receive once Parvati learns of Radha’s pregnancy), a person can fall into desperate circumstances almost immediately.
Themes
Just after midnight, Samir wakes Lakshmi up by checking in on her. Instantly, Lakshmi feels comfort, and she reaches up to touch Samir’s lip. He takes her thumb in his mouth. Lakshmi feels desire overtake her, and the two begin to have sex. As they roll on top of each other, Lakshmi’s notebook and her pocket watch (the one Samir gave her) fall to the floor.
This is the first time Lakshmi has had sex in 13 years, and the first time she has ever had consensual sex (unlike in her abusive relationship with Hari). This timing is therefore conspicuous: though she never states it outright, it is likely that Lakshmi is trying to imagine her way into her sister’s mind, experiencing the intense desires that led to Radha’s pregnancy. In some ways, then, this affair can be read as Lakshmi’s ultimate attempt to communicate with Radha.
Themes
After they have sex, Lakshmi falls asleep and wakes up again to Samir getting dressed. Though Samir is still feeling sexual, Lakshmi regrets that she had “shut everything out except desire.” It is hard for her to find the words, but eventually, Lakshmi is able to tell Samir that Radha and Ravi have been spending time together “like this.” Lakshmi reveals Radha’s pregnancy, and Samir is skeptical that the baby is Ravi’s, even though he acknowledges that “we’ve had trouble with servant girls before.” Lakshmi begins to understand why both Lala and her niece were dismissed.
Now, the tense interaction Lakshmi witnessed long ago between Parvati and Lala’s niece comes clear. Lala’s niece slept with Ravi, and because Parvati did not want her son associated with a lower-class girl (or with premarital sex), she fired both Lala and her niece. This dismissal represents the dual inequities of gender and class: because Ravi is a wealthy male, he suffers no consequences for the actions that destroyed Lala’s niece’s life. Moreover, Ravi feels none of the familial responsibility that Lala takes on for her niece (or that Lakshmi and Radha have for each other).
Themes
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Lakshmi expected Samir to come to her aid, but instead, he immediately insists that the baby be aborted—“isn’t that what we pay you for?” The two fight, and Lakshmi realizes that Ravi has learned this behavior from his father: “there had been servant girls in Samir’s past, too.” Samir wants Lakshmi to talk to Ravi, but Lakshmi insists that only Samir can do that.
At long last, Lakshmi understands that Samir is able to remain attractive because his sexual excesses and cruelties are swept under the rug; if there were “servant girls in [his] past,” they, too, were probably banished from polite society, too far away from Samir’s privileged orbit to ever air their grievances about him. Indeed, Samir even treats Lakshmi (whom he just slept with) as a servant, reminding her that “we pay you.”
Themes
The pair struggles to think through what to do. At last, Lakshmi has an idea: though abortion is out of the question for Radha, maybe she would agree to an adoption. And though adoption is generally stigmatized in India, Lakshmi knows better than anyone that the maharaja is looking to adopt. Samir does not want to “expose” Ravi and he fears that the marriage to Sheela will be derailed. Still, even he has to agree that this is the best plan, and he promises to get Ravi to agree to a paternity test.
Like his father before him, the current maharaja wants to adopt because he fears any blood heir would overthrow him. Samir noticeably does not care at all about Radha’s welfare, but he agrees to the adoption plan because he shares Lakshmi’s practical outlook (unlike the more emotive, impulsive Parvati).
Themes
Lakshmi and Samir start to work out the details. If Radha resists the adoption, Lakshmi can force her hand as her legal guardian. In less lucky news, however, Samir will have to tell Parvati about all this. Samir frets that they will have to send Ravi away to protect his reputation, and Lakshmi flares with rage that Samir is not giving similar care to her sister’s future.
Samir’s privilege, which now horrifies Lakshmi, is in fact exactly the same privilege that once impressed her. His lack of care about money and his nonchalant approach to their relationship, charming under peaceful circumstances, are revealed to be selfish and obtuse in a crisis.
Themes
Samir tries to apologize, but Lakshmi is disgusted—at the thought of Samir’s body on hers, and at herself for abetting Samir’s infidelity. “Each sale,” Lakshmi reflects, had been nothing more to her “than another coat of plaster or another section of terrazzo for my house.” Lakshmi goes to leave, ignoring Samir’s question about what will happen if the baby is a girl. As Lakshmi fumes about how easily Samir will move on from this, Geeta stops her. “You will not come again,” Geeta orders, and Lakshmi agrees.
Lakshmi’s sachets had begun as a healing process, allowing women choice and liberation that they would not have been afforded otherwise. But now, Lakshmi sees that her desire to take care of people has been transformed by her own material greed: she wants to own her own house, to have a marble floor that will forever prove her skill and ambition. Even Geeta’s final, pained words remind Lakshmi how her material goals (and her quest to fit in with her clients) have led her to do harm instead of good.
Themes
