Dowry O’ Dowry…
What is the significance of dowry actually? Well, I’ll explain on a little bit detail about it. Dowry is property or money brought by a bride family to her husband family on their marriage. In Indian marriage, giving dowry is culturally compulsory. The bride family is the one who offer the dowry as a gift or reward to bridegroom side. The value of dowry depends on the bridegroom family and they have rights to demand on it. Some of them put the higher value on the dowry to bride side while some of them do not demand on it. Thus, dowry is a bride’s responsibility but the decision making towards the dowry is on the bridegroom’s shoulders.In both short stories, “Everything’s Arranged” and “A Question of Dowry”, they have been highlighted on the dowry issue in Indian culture and tradition. First, throughout the story “Everything’s Arranged”, Rukumani has a secretive relationship with her lover, Devanayagam. They concealed their relationships without their families’ acknowledgement. Then, both families start finding the suitors for their arrangement marriage. Accidentally, both of families have agreed to marry their daughter and son. We can clearly see in the story that the bridegroom’s family has demanded to the bride’s family with such expensive ones in dowry such as money ($80,000), house and a plot of a land. When the rumors about the relationship with Rukumani and a Chinese boy, Johnny had reached to the bridegroom’s family, they have decided to increase the dowry as the bride’s family has brought shame to their family’s name.
On the other hand, in the story, “A Question of Dowry”, Sivasothie’s marriage has to be cancelled because the bridegroom, Thiruchelvam does not feel satisfy on the dowry offered by the Mr. Ramachandran, Sivasothie’s father. Mr. Ramachandran has failed in offering the land to his future son-in-law and, because of that, he has to accept the decision made by Thiruchelvam for cancelling his marriage with Sivasothie.
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