Cross – Cultural Confrontation In Bharati Mukherjee’s Wife

Abstract

The increased mobility of people in this age has broken the continuity of the cultural environment and natural environment resulting in superficialisation of relationships. Immigration has proved to be one of those major stresses to which we of the twentieth century are exposed. In majority of the cases expatriate experience has developed the stresses which have resulted from the break-up of traditional societies bringing about a change in the ethos and man’s psyche. ‘Wife’ is the story of a middle-classed Bengali girl Dimple, who is married to Amit, an engineer. After their wedding they go to America. Once abroad, she understands that life is not as glamorous as she had imagined it to be. Cultural shock, alienation, media violence and her husband’s long stays at office complicate the basically morbid mind of Dimple. It makes her neurotic of killing her husband in a grotesque manner.