II explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Tradition vs. Modernity

  Bimala's attachment to the traditional household contrasts with Nikhil's desire to bring her into the modern outside world.

• Gender Roles and Women's Liberation

  Bimala's confinement to the zenana and her resistance to leaving it highlight the constraints of traditional gender roles.

• Self-Identity and Self-Realization

  Bimala's internal conflict about her place in the household and her sense of self.

Characters to notice

• Bimala

  Reflects on her life in the zenana, her attachment to the ancestral home, and her resistance to moving to Calcutta.

• Nikhil

  Wants Bimala to come out of purdah and live with him in Calcutta, but respects her wishes.

• Bara Rani

  The grandmother who kept the household together and was fond of Bimala, though she disapproved of Nikhil's modern gifts.

Key passages

• “Men never understand these things. They have their nests in the outside world; they little know the whole of what the household stands for.”

  Men do not comprehend the significance of the household because they live in the external world.

  Bimala expresses her belief that men are oblivious to the importance of domestic life.

• “I have read in books that we are called 'caged birds.' I cannot speak for others, but I had so much in this cage of mine that there was not room for it in the universe—at least that is what I then felt.”

  Although women are often compared to caged birds, Bimala felt her confinement was so full that it surpassed the entire universe.

  Bimala reflects on her contentment within the zenana, despite the common perception of it as a prison.