A Ghostly Wife Question Answer | Class 11 English Second Semester WBCHSE
1. “One night the Brahman’s wife had occasion to go to the tank….”-What happened to the Brahmani? Where was she kept hidden? What did the ‘Sankchinni’ do to her?
One night the Brahmani happened to go to an adjoining pond and by mistake she touched a sankchinni, the spirit of a married woman who wears white clothes and conch-shell bangles around her arms. At once the sankchinni became enraged and annoyed. She seized her by the throat and climbed into her tree.
The sankchinni wanted to re-live a happy married woman’s life. So capturing the Brahmani, she forced her into the hollow of the tree on which she lodged. The Brahman’s wife lay almost dead with fright.
The sankchinni had long desired to enter a human household. Now she found the opportunity. She wore the Brahmani’s clothes and assumed her form. She then started to act for the Brahmani.
2. Describe the activities of the she-ghost in the Brahman’s family. Or, “Next morning the mother-in-law discovered some change in her daughter-in-law”.-What changes did the mother-in-law notice?
The female ghost in Lal Behari Dey’s folktale ‘A Ghostly Wife’ took up the Brahmani’s form and resumed her household chores. At the onset, the mother-in-law took it easy, although she was astonished to discover how her slow-moving daughter-in-law turned over a new leaf. But gradually some changes caught her attention. She took care of the household in much less time than before; she took much less time to fetch things from one room to the next.
Then her suspicion grew. Close scrutiny revealed that the daugher-in-law stretched her hand several yards and brought a vessel in a trice. One day, she crossed all limits. There was no fire in the house to ignite the kitchen oven. The mother-in-law saw that the hearth was in a blaze and instead of fire-wood the daughter-in-law thrust her foot into the fireplace. She was convinced that she was a she-ghost, not real wife of her son.
3. “An ojha was therefore sent for”-Who is an ‘ojha¹? Why was he sent for? How did he send away the she- ghost? Or, The role of the ‘ojha’ in the story?
In Lal Behari Dey’s short story ‘A Ghostly Wife’, the ‘ojha’ refers to an exorcist who releases a spirit from the possessed person.
A she-ghost once kidnapped a Brahmani and entered her household to re-live a happy wife’s life. But the wise mother-in-law noticed that she was incredibly quick in running small errands like cooking, washing etc. Mother’s suspicion thickened when she saw her daughter-in-law stretching her hand to bring a remote vessel or burning her foot to cook instead of firewood. The Brahman and his mother concluded that this doppelganger was a sankchinni. So they sent for an exorcist to drive her out and bring back the real wife.
The exorcist knew that smell of burnt turmeric is an anathema to any spirit as garlic is to vampires. So she burnt a piece of turmeric near her house. The spirit intended to run away but the exorcist shoe- beat her and let her confess where she had hidden the Brahmani. Finally, the ghost left the scene and the real wife returned.
4. Justify the title of the story ‘A Ghostly Wife’.
Lal Behari Dey’s story ‘A Ghostly Wife’ is titled appropriately. From the thematic point of view, the title fully encompasses the activity of a she-ghost. The she-ghost appears in the dark night at the start and then she manages the Brahman’s household meticulously and disappears at the end of the story. She is literally the protagonist, and antagonist of the entire story. She might be a ghost but she arrests the readers attention all the time. She deludes and delights, enchants and enthrals yet, the title is ironical because a man’s wife should be a female human not a female ghost.
At another level, the ‘Sankchinni’ who died to escape the hazards of marriage, still wants to re-enter a household as a spirit to fulfill the quota of unfulfilled marital bliss. But instead of conjugal happiness, she receives cruel beating. She perhaps reaps the harvest of her sin. The title is therefore justified in matter and manner, in theme and technique.
5. “Sketch the character of the ‘Sankchinni’ as depicted in L. B. Dey’s story ‘A Ghostly Wife’. Or, Role of the she-ghost in the story ‘A Ghostly Wife’.
In Lal Behari Dey‘s story ‘A Ghostly Wife’, the she-ghost is a dominant character. As per the regulation of the spirit world, a supernatural being cannot voluntarily mess with any human activity. When the Brahmani brushes by her, she seizes her by the throat. In Coleridges poem ‘Christabel’ also the demoness Geraldine crosses the moat only when invited. But ‘she is a Sankchinni, a female spirit who wears conch-shell bangles. She has an unfulfilled desire, a pent up marital frustration to remove after death.
This psychic longing is legitimate, even human. But like the witches of Shakepeare’s ‘Macbeth’ she is envious, spiteful. Her method is cruel. However, she manages the Brahman’s household better than his real wife until she is shoebeaten and sent away. She perhaps reaps the harvest of her sin. But to conclude, like Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ she is “more sinned against than sinning”. She is silly and funny rather than demonic.
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