The Intrusion

The intrusion a story of a troubled marriage, a story where a woman becomes an object of
pleasure, or in clearer sense a sex-toy; the story begins with the depiction of a married
couple who are just fresh out of an auditorium, going to their honeymoon spot. Here the
couple are described as total strangers, and are about to start their martial venture. The
narrator here is the wife in the story, who due to a husband with an obsession for sex is
subject to marital rape. efore I describe the scene, I believe that an introduction on Indian
marriages needs to be given. !arriage, today in the Indian society is something that is
absurd and strange. The reason for it is that, marriage was once and still is "in some cases#
an institution that was ta$en for granted with certain fixed notions on how the people
involved in the relationship are expected to behave. ut this is not the absurd bit in marriage,
but it is that this involvement was not expected from both the partners in the same degree. %
man or the husband in a relationship was never expected to strictly adhere to his set of rules
that are set in a marriage, and it is only the woman that is expected to be the obedient,
submissive and the lobotomi&ed dummy incapable of thin$ing or reacting in a relationship.
%nd 'hashi (eshpande was someone who had devoted her life and career as an author to
bring to light these things. %ll her novels had dealt with the same topic, which are about the
flaws in the Indian marital system marital system.
In India, there is an age old saying that pati parameshwar, the )paremeshwar* here means
god 'hiva, who according to mythology was the perfect husband. There is nothing wrong in
believing or adhering to that, but there is one +uestion which one can as$ oneself regarding
this. %nd it is that, the wife of 'hiva or ,arameshwara is ,arvathy, so a woman needs to be
as elegant and gracious as ,arvathy then should not the husband be as good, capable and
lovable as ,arameshwar- This +uestion is indeed very valid, as in one sense if the husband
as$s the wife to be good should she not also be as good as the husband- .hy can/t a wife
expect the same treatment from a husband who she treats nicely in all the senses of the
term and is it just a man that matters in a relationship- (oes not the woman have a role- %ll
these +uestions could be raised when this +uestion is brought into light. ut here arises
another problem of the women Indian society, and it is that they shall most probably never
complain and just face the )relentless pounding* and $eep mum. There might be umpteen
number of reasons behind it li$e a woman might not feel so secure to share it even with her
parents, or else she might be expecting only such treatment from her husband in her marital
relationship. I shall not be prodding into those details now as I here am concerned only
about a particular short story by 'hashi (eshpande )the intrusion*. %s that story also
portrays )the relentless pounding* which a woman has to suffer in every avenue of their
marital relationship.
'o as the story continues we see the couple chec$ing into a hotel, the wife at first wants to
see the place, and discover it. .hile the husband advances towards her for the
consummation of their conjugal love or in simpler, crud and more precise terms he advances
toward her for sex, the very intention for which the wife is ta$en there; made clear by the
)silence* he leaves in the scene was for sex even the emphasis on the words )complete
privacy* shows us the reason for their arrival. 0ven the reason why the narrator got married
was because of the dowry that they had offered her family, and the reason the father gives
her for its conduction is that )I have two more daughters to be married*. 'he at first as$s him
whether they could go down to the sea and admire the view, but he replies negatively saying
that it is about to get dar$. %fterwards she as$s him to stand out and admire the
surroundings he again denies and pulls her close to him for conjugal union, but she
denies that, this ma$es her not so better half angry, she then gives the reason as to why she
did not do it and it was that they or rather she did not $now him. He is surprised by her reply
and says that )1now each other- .hat has that to do with it- %ren/t we married now-* the
reply which the husband gives is +uiet important as it is the usual reply that almost 234-254
Indian husbands have. !arriage for a man "but not all men# is something li$e an all you can
eat buffet. !en always expect sex in marriage whether the partner is willing to give it or not.
This is again mentioned in another of (eshpande/s story where a mother overhears her
daughter and son-in-law/s shallow and extremely physical relationship where the son-in-law
demands and the daughter offers it, after the act they continue with their lives. %nd so the
wife wanted to say to the husband that she wanted to $now him and what he felt and why he
agreed to marry her etc. ut she did not say any of these things to him as she $new from his
expression that the reply to her +uestion would not be favourable or given. Then the
narrator6wife tries to sleep and later is wo$en up by the noise of a )relentless pounding* and
that pounding was her husband who to her was a stranger, trying to intrude into her most
personal self. %nd it is not the physical pain that a virgin experienced during their first
conjugal )sleep-over* that hurt her more but it was the pain of her personal life which was
slaughtered li$e a lamb which had hurt more. The sexual act between them was agoni&ing
"physically and mentally# and very, very shallow. (eshpande described the act as if it is
rape, which in reality it is. ut this rape the very famous marital rape was or is "even now in
some cases# never $nown.
!arital rape was a commonplace situation in olden times, it is only now that it has been
made into a legally punishable offence. 0ven in front of law or lady justice a woman was just
an object, and did not even have rights, their suffering can only be called 7objectification/ and
not 7othering/, as other has always been assigned some properties, and is given some value
no matter how meagre it may be. ut they were just objects or gooses that laid a golden
egg, which gave eggs to its mater sometimes one, at other times many; regardless of
whether it wanted to or not. The woman in this case li$e (e eauvoir says was objectified,
and through this objectification she is not even given the value or the position of a prostitute
as a prostitute is at least paid for her services while a wife never is.
To conclude I would say that 'hashi (eshpande shows us the situation of a woman who
was denied an agency in the act of )relentless pound* by her not so better half, and thus
gives us an insight into conservative6commonplace marital relationships. !y personal ta$e
on marriage and sex is that. 'ex is a necessity and it/s never a self service nor is it even a
service for that matter. %s, in sex the involvement of both the parties are needed e+ually. %s
to me sex is not just a mad race to the finish line of pleasure but it is something +uite
delicate and it involves serving as well as being served. Through this short story we get to
see the story of a wife, who if spo$en in terms of golf was given just the place of a hole in
which a putt needed to fall. Here in the story we see a complete objectification of the female
sex, and (eshpande also through this story tries to tell us that sex is not just the only thing
that is needed and necessary in a relationship, but there are other things also that matter.