# CXXIII: Sighing at the Approach of Evening explained — The Kural > Chapter companion for The Kural by Thiruvalluvar. ## What happens The chapter captures the intense sorrow and despair of a wife pining for her absent husband as evening approaches. She personifies the evening as a cruel executioner that brings grief and recalls the image of her beloved, who is away pursuing wealth. ## Themes in this chapter ### Love and Marriage The chapter vividly portrays the pain of separation in marriage, emphasizing the emotional bond between husband and wife. ### The Vanity of Worldly Life The husband's pursuit of wealth is contrasted with the wife's suffering, highlighting the transient and often painful nature of worldly attachments. ## Character check-ins ### Bouderie The speaker, a wife experiencing pangs of separation, laments the approach of evening and recalls her absent husband. ## Key lines > Thou lookest melancholy and pale, O Eventide! Pray, tell me, dear, is thy lover also cruel even as mine? The evening appears sad and pale; the speaker wonders if evening's lover is also unkind, mirroring her own experience. _The speaker anthropomorphizes evening, projecting her own sorrow onto it._ > When the beloved is away, evening approacheth even as the executioner advancing to the execution-ground. Without her beloved, the arrival of evening feels like the approach of an executioner. _A powerful metaphor equating evening with death due to the intensity of her grief._ > This sickness buddeth in the morning, goeth on opening its petals the livelong day, and standeth full-blown at eventide. Her sorrow begins in the morning, grows throughout the day, and reaches its peak at evening. _The progression of her emotional pain is likened to a flower blooming._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kural_se/chapters/cxxiii-sighing-at-the-approach-of-evening - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kural_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_kural_se/chapters