Final Essay

Aiden Rivera 

ENG 2001 O525 

12/05/20 

What I Want or What’s right? 

Here I’m going to explain the ethical decisions made in “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri. The two characters that make these decisions are Mr.Kapasi and Mrs.Das. The most important form of ethics that is shown in this story is Utilitarian ethics. A utilitarian is someone who believes something is morally correct as long as the end result is positive. The process doesn’t matter, everything before the end does not impact the decision on something being morally correct, only the ending proves if it’s moral or not thus showing the self-interest of a utilitarian. Mr.Kapasi is the guide for the Das family. He takes them to different sites to show them a good time. While taking the family around he notices unspoken tension in the family while also getting an attraction to the wife Mrs.Das. He assumes there’s a distress in the marriage and begins making more assumptions. Because of his newly grown feelings towards Mrs.Das he is put into a decision. Does he share his feelings disrupting the already broken marriage, possibly making it better, or does he stay quiet and let the marriage crumble and resolve itself.  

With Mr.Kapasi’s tough choice he must decide what to do because after this encounter, he may never see this family again. Does he show his feelings towards Mrs.Das or not and does Mrs.Das try to resolve this tension in the family that Mr.Kapasi obviously notices. First, I will look at Mr.Kapasi’s unspoken feelings towards Mrs.Das, then I will explore how Mrs.Das plans on resolving the tension of her family, finally I will discuss what ethics both characters follow in the both the scenes these moments occur. By the end you should have a clear understanding of the ethics both Mr.Kapasi and Mrs.Das follow, being utilitarian ethics.  

In the first scene let’s discuss Mr.Kapasi’s daydreams. In the story Mr.Kapasi has a scene where he reminisces on a secret life between him and Mrs.Das. In his thoughts Mrs.Das and him become pen pals. She writes about how bad her marriage is and he does the same, including stories about his work. He dreamt that their friendship would grow and flourish until it became more:  

“She would write to him, asking about his days interpreting at the doctor’s office, and he would respond eloquently, choosing only the most entertaining anecdotes, one that would make her laugh out loud as she read them in her house in New Jersey. In time she would reveal the disappointment of her marriage, and he his. In this way their friendship would grow, and flourish.” (Lahiri 53). 

These thoughts began because of Mrs.Das interest in Mr.Kapasi’s old job at the doctor’s office. He wasn’t used to someone being interested in that job since his wife associated that job with the death of their child. This is what sparked the interest of Mr.Kapasi in Mrs.Das, other than the fact she was a good-looking woman. It’s obvious that Mr.Kapasi likes Mrs.Das and wants more with her. But there’s the fact that him and her are both married. What is he to do? Keep his feelings to himself and let both them be miserable or release them and possibly make life better for everyone. 

Now let’s discuss the scene with Mrs.Das and Mr.Kapasi in the car. In this scene Mrs.Das explains why there is such a tension between her and her husband. It in fact comes out that Mrs.Das had an affair with one of Mr.Das’s friends and the younger son Bobby is in fact the friend’s child not Mr.Das. She goes on to tell Mr.Kapasi about her whole life with Mr.Das and how everything over the years led to that moment of the affair. She goes on and on about her life till Mr.Kapasi finally asks her why she was telling him all this and responds with, “I told you because of your talents” (Lahiri 63). She was telling all of this to Mr.Kapasi because she felt he could help her. She completely misunderstood what Mr.Kapasi’s old job was and believed he could help her. 

Since you have an understanding of what happened in the two scenes let’s discuss how both Mr.Kapasi and Mrs.Das both showed examples of utilitarian ethics. Let’s begin with Mr.Kapasi’s thoughts. He showed a self-interest in wanting to help himself and Mrs.Das. When he had these thoughts of being pen pals with Mrs.Das it was for his own wellbeing. As said before a utilitarian believes that as long as the ending is good then it was an ethical decision. These thoughts showed where his mind was headed with Mrs.Das. He felt that she had feelings towards him and because of this it led to his intoxicated thoughts: “Her sudden interest in him, an interest she did not express in either her husband or her children, was mildly intoxicating. When Mr.Kapasi thought once again about how she said ‘romantic,’ the feeling of intoxication grew” (Lahiri 53). These thoughts show how Mr.Kapasi was following more of a utilitarian way of thinking. The next scene in the car also shows how Mrs.Das shows a utilitarian way of thinking. The only reason Mrs.Das was speaking to Mr.Kapasi about the affair (mind you she never told anyone else before, not even close friends) was because she thought it was his job to give her advice and make her feel less guilty. Cause that’s all it was. She felt guilty and needed someone to make her feel better: “It means that i’m tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr.Kapasi, I’ve been in pain for eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better, say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy” (Lahiri 63). You can see how yes; she wants to do the right thing by letting out the secret but because she is telling this to a stranger instead of her husband it shows the self-interest of the situation. The self-interest being that as long as she feels better than everything will be okay because she can be happy with her family again in the end. Also, would like to mention that during this car scene Mr.Kapasi starts to lose feelings for Mr.Das and doesn’t seem to want to help anymore showing it was also for his self-interest: “The feeling he had toward her, that had him check his reflection in the rearview mirror as they drove, evaporated a little” (Lahiri 63). It was always his feelings towards Mrs.Das that made him want to help. Once those feelings began to diminish, so did him wanting to play hero.  

Mr.Kapasi and Mrs.Das being utilitarians also played an impact on the story having a modernist ending. Modernism is a new way of writing, normally having a not so normal ending. The ending of this story isn’t normal because Mrs.Das a mother purposely put her own children in danger. No mother would do that and on top of that when she goes to fix her child’s hair, she pulls out a brush. When she pulls out the brush the paper with Mr.Kapasi’s address falls out and blows away. Symbolizing how he will no longer be with this family, not even a picture to remember them. There wasn’t a happy ending instead it kinda left us sad and at a cliffhanger. 

In conclusion Mr.Kapasi and Mrs.Das both showed examples of utilitarian ethics in the story. It was always their self-interest that made them make the decisions they did. The scenes given were clear examples of this. It was always their self-interest that led them to choose what they wanted or what was right. 

Work Cited 

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. HarperCollins Publishers India, 2017.