Cuckoldry in ‘Rajmohan’s Wife’/ A note on Cuckoldry/ Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel ‘Rajmohan’s Wife’: Cuckoldry

At the outset of our discussion, let us all have an idea of the term ‘cuckold’. ‘Cuckold’ refers to the husband of an unfaithful or adulterous wife. The chief purpose of cuckoldry, a crucial feature of the Restoration Comedy of Manners, is to ridicule the society by means of satire. Rajmohan’s Wife records the story of Matangini who is a pure and untainted girl. The novel also gives an account of her ill and unhappy wedlock with Rajmohan. In course of the novel, we come to find that Rajmohan is actually brutal and cruel by nature through and through.

Matangini was in love with Madhav before her marriage with Rajmohan. Madhav has been portrayed to be an English-educated man. However, she had to get married to Rajmohan due to her father’s pressure. Matangini, the female protagonist in Bankim Chandra’s novel, is found to be oscillating between the social norms and her scruples. After leaving the house with Kanak for fetching water, she asserts her own identity against the norms of the patriarchal society. Yes, she evinces her boldness promptly. Right then, her husband gives a vent to his outrage in an arrogant and uncouth manner. It can be discerned that she emblematises the idea of modern womanhood.

By and large, Matangini is a painstaking lady. As and when she finds her husband to be an accomplice in the case of robbery in her paramour Madhav’s house, she immediately resolves to oppose Rajmohan at any cost. In course of time, we get chances to know that she tries to shake off her identity of being Rajmohan’s wife; instead, she expands her petals to make an identity of her own.

Apart from that, challenging the so-called social criteria, Matangini gives a vent to her boldness by confessing her love for Madhav without any ambiguity. Broadly speaking, such a subversion of conventional society gives rise to the cuckoldry scene in the novel, no matter whether the society considers it unethical or bereft of decorum. Anyway, we cannot overlook the fact that the uncouth treatment of Rajmohan, in some way or the other, increases and revives Matangini’s love for Madhav, her paramour. It is to be noted that the mutual love between Madhav and Matangini, due to being adulterous and socially disapproved, did not gain maturity unfortunately. Although true to the deepest core of their hearts, their love could not find a happy conclusion. Even though we find the idea of cuckoldry to its entirety, we should admit that Matangini is unblemished all along. At last, to make the discussion complete, it must be mentioned that Matangini’s amorous rendezvous with Madhav resonates of Radha’s secret tryst or abhisara with Lord Krishna. Here we get a glimpse of Vaishnava Padavali suffused with Vaishnava poetry.