Marriage is a term given to a social and legal contract between two people, if one “Google’s” term marriage, there are thousands of definitions that come up. The definition of the very term varies according to different cultures and how it is defined in India is what the poet describes in this very poem. To talk about Indian Culture, the term in itself is so complex that it is impossible to describe it in an 1500 word long essay! But in spite of all the differences within the Indian Culture, one can easily point out the gender inequality that has been inherent in the country since ancient times. Women in spite of given equal rights are still treated as the weaker sex, the inferior ones, as a thing. With changing time the position of women is getting stronger in our society but still there are many sections in the societies that still think low of women. And when it comes to marriage, women are treated as things rather than human beings where they are tested on various things such as their complexion, their height, weight etc. She should be perfect! She should be skinny, fair, good looking and it doesn’t really matter how educated she is as long as her father is so rich that he can fill the boy’s family mouths with gold and shut them up forever.
All these are the issues that the poet talks about, as how gender decides power. The poet talks about her cousin Elena, who is going to be married soon. She starts off by sarcastically describing all the tests and examinations that her cousin went through before she was accepted by the boy’s family.
“her family history examined for T.B. and