Character of Suki’s Mother/ Portrait of Suki’s Mother in ‘Rajmohan’s Wife’ by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee/ Character Sketch of Suki’s Mother

In Rajmohan's Wife, a novel by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, we come across the character of Suki’s mother in the twelfth chapter of the work. Portrayed as a bucolic character, she is a middle-aged woman. She had dark complexion with partial hair growth and a creased visage. Clad in abrasive clothes, she had a very simple appearance. She had a couple of friends named Kanak and Matangini. Apart from being sympathetic to Matangini, she was full of duty, responsibility and awareness of her household chores.

Besides being helpful and supportive, Suki’s mother, by and large, loved and advised Matangini a lot. She was suffused with receptivity, compassion and affection. Moreover, she fostered a mind that was practical. Suki’s mother, with a heart full of mercy, with strong resolution, worked as a maidservant in Mathur Ghose’s residence. She was very much loyal too.

However, nothing or nobody can be bereft of any ill act. Who can be perfect completely? Suki’s mother was not an exception as well. To note the evil side of her character, we should take into our account that though she helped Matangini, the former betrayed the latter also. At some point of time, she troubled Matangini too. She acted as a “woman-fiend”; she endangered Matangini.

Like anybody else, she was a blend of good and ill too. She nurtured a human as well as a bestial nature within her. She evinced her hypocrisy, atrocity and destructive nature also. Still, we cannot call her devilish through and through.