The Intrusion is the title story of the book. The story revolves around the consent of a woman. Her parents do not give importance to her consent before her marriage. Later, her husband also ignores her consent. Consequently, her husband intrudes into her ‘privacy’, and she cannot protect herself from 'the intrusion' into her body. The Intrusion, as the title suggests, is the unwanted entry of someone or something. In this case, this title refers to the intrusion of the man in the “private” space of the woman without her consent. At another level, the intrusion is also of societal expectations into the way of living of a newly married woman. George Bernard Shaw once said, “Marriage is legalized prostitution.” The story suggests that it can be forced prostitution too as it discusses the issue of marital sexual violence.
Characters of The Intrusion:
The story revolves around a newly married woman who is the narrator. She is an Indian girl who just got married to a man chosen by her family. She knows nothing about her husband and he is a total stranger. The girl hopes to develop a friendly relationship with that stranger who is already her husband but the husband has other plans. The narrator is unnamed and it appears that the author left her unnamed deliberately. It lets the story offer a sense of deja vu, as the reader to their own life and the story appears relevant. Her husband is the other character whom she calls the man, the stranger to whom she has already been married. He is a young Indian man who acknowledges his privileges for being a member of the patriarchial society and practices his authority with utmost ruthlessness. Thus, intruding on the privacy of his wife without acknowledging or caring for her consent. The story is about the marital rape he attempts on his wife.
Summary of The Intrusion:
The narrator is a newly married girl who belongs to a middle-class Indian family. She is a modern educated woman who expects that husband and wife should know each other pretty well and be good friends before they start a normal married life. She is not “a frigid woman incapable of love”. She is only “shy and frightened about exposing the mysteries of her body to him.” She has her own dreams of how husband and wife should be. She got married to a man of her family’s choice whom she never knew nor ever met before their marriage. She had no choice nor any say in that marriage because she also had younger sisters and her revolt could have ruined their prospects. After her marriage, she reaches her husband’s home which is crowded. She hardly gets any time alone with her husband and he remains a stranger to her. However, the man is eager to consummate their marriage. So he decided to take the narrator on a trip which is supposed to be their honeymoon.
The narrator, along with her husband, crosses a fishing village. She is aware of her physical surroundings as much as she is aware of her inner chaos and the unreasonable twinge of irritation against her husband. They walked out of the seaboard and were back in the village, hiking up a steep rocky path and finally reaching the top with the square stalk building.
The newly married couple hardly know each other. Therefore, the narrator feels uneasy about her partner. The unease that the narrator experiences continues to grow when they are finally boarded indoors. In the room, the man attending to them opened the window to let the wind in. The narrator was aware of the man smirking and revealing an awareness of what they had come here for and the gaze that the man was giving made her feel uneasy and embarrassed. The man left the room, having left alone to themselves, she felt a painful silence as if they were strangers left to themselves.
Soon, silence predominates in the room between them. Therefore, to break the silence, her husband suddenly starts talking. He tells her he feels fortunate to come to the place as their honeymoon destination. He is happy because they have “complete privacy”. On the other hand, she feels nervous at the thought of being alone with a strange man in a strange land. She is skeptical about the room too. She describes the room as ‘non-homely’ and says, “…the sheets looked grubby and the pillow covers disgustingly greasy…it didn’t look like seem like a place where children have ever shouted.” She doubts that the room was frequently visited by prostitutes.
Because of the tedious journey, the narrator feels tired. Therefore, she relaxes in the chair, and she is lost in her thoughts. Suddenly, he breaks the silence and asks why she is so silent. She says that she is a little tired. He comes closer and puts his arm around her firmly, which causes her uncomfortable. However, she pretends to act normal and gets up. She suggests to him they should go out to the veranda since she wants to see the sea.
On the veranda, she also suggests to him they should go down to the sea. But her husband tells her they should go in the morning as it is already dark. The man approaches her again. He puts his arm around her waist and pulls her inside. Upon seeing the bed, she remembers her narrow bed at home. She feels homesick. She remembers how she was not ready for the marriage. She was hurt when the alliance was fixed up without her willingness. “No one had asked me if I had agreed; it had been taken for granted.” When her father asks her the reason for her rejection of her marriage and what she is going to do after that she has no answer. And so she agrees finding no fault with the groom. Suddenly a few days before the wedding, I had gone to my father stricken by doubts. “Why?” he had asked me, again and again. And, “What will you do then?” In a panic, I asked myself, “What will I do?” And I thought of a thousand answers, but not to the question, “What’s wrong with him?” She realizes that if she revolts against her family’s will, she will become the black sheep of the family. No one would marry her sisters. For her, her parents would feel disgraced.
The man is unaware of her feelings, and her hesitation. He excitingly changes his dress. On the other hand, the narrator feels low and lonely. She sits quietly for a while, then dashes to the veranda. She wishes to be anywhere in the world except in a strange place. When he does not find her in the room. He calls her to change her clothes. She follows his words unwillingly. She changes feeling glad that her night-dress was simple. However, escaping his sexual overtures seemed difficult now.
She again opens the door to the veranda. But he forbids her to go out. She reluctantly goes to him. He puts his arms around her tightly. The sudden and tight grip of his embrace makes her too uncomfortable. She struggles to get rid of his approaching rough chin. He tries to kiss her, but she averts her face and, in the struggle, his glasses fall. His touch reminds her of the instances of molestation that the character experienced from “faceless, nameless men in crowds”
Her defiance makes him furious, and he demands to know why she is avoiding him. Finally, she breaks the unbearable silence and says that they don’t know each other. He is astonished to hear that. She wants to express her feelings that she wants to know all about him. She wishes to develop a friendship, a cordial relationship, and a level of comfortability. However, his view of marriage is limited to only satisfying the physical needs of the husband. The other’s state of mind and emotion are marginal things to be avoided. He thinks marriage gives the man the license to invade his wife’s privacy. The man thinks that he can come to know his wife through physical intimacy. Her consent has no value in the relationship. She can’t say a word anymore because his fierce look frightens her and she knows it is futile to express her feelings to him.
Discontent fills his face and he lies still in the bed uttering nothing. After him, she also tries to sleep. She remembers the days when she was not married. She is very practical and before her marriage, she wanted to know more before getting involved with her married life. Hence before her wedding, she reads a book on sex. Unlike the other girls who have their own dreams of their husbands, she thinks of the realities of her would-be husband. And there were all those fears crouching in him – would his breath smell, and were his feet huge and dirty with uncut toenails, and did he chew his food noisily and belch after meals?
However, the man to whom she is married is uninterested in her as a person. He considers her a property that he has a right to exploit. Somehow, she falls asleep. At midnight, she finds herself in a dreamy state. She is lying on the beach; she feels the waves hitting her hard. When she comes into consciousness, she realizes that the sound of the sea is real, but it is not the wave, rather her husband is hitting her body. She attempts to push his chest away from her body, but she fails. He has intruded into her private space. She wished her husband to become her friend and understand her before they undergo any of the experiences a husband and a wife undergo. But finding him keyed for a different experience, she was unable to communicate none of these things to him and as a result feels humiliated when her husband forces himself on her. On the whole, she finally becomes submissive and compromises with life as any other Indian wife does.
The story raises the issue of troubles in an arranged marriage and suggests that proper coordination, and a reasonable mutual understanding between husband and wife is essential for a happy married life. So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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