Final Essay

Diana Castillo

Professor Sean Scanlan

English 2001

14 December 2020

Ethics in the Maladies 

Word Count: 998

            Throughout this essay, I will explain the ethical decisions made in “Interpreter of Maladies” by Jhumpa Lahiri. Ethics is defined as a set of moral principles, especially one relating to or affirming a specified group, field or form of conduct. Of the five different types of ethics discussed in class, I believe a utilitarian form of ethics was most prominent between the two main characters, Mr. Kapasi and Mrs.Das. Utilitarianism is the view where a moral right action is that which produces the most good. In other words, this person believes that as long as the outcome of an action is positive, than it is morally correct. In the story Mr. Kapasi is a tour guide of the Das Family, who is visiting family in India. During his time spent with the family, he begun to notice tension between Mr. and Mrs.Das. He develops a romantic attraction to Mrs. Das on the assumption that she too has marital problems like his own with his wife. Mr. Kapasi is then torn between a decision to pursue his newfound romantic feelings, disrupting a crumbling marriage but hope she shares the attraction or keep his thoughts to himself and let the marriage fall apart. 

            The author, Jhumpa Lahiri, displays issues with strong focus on the relationship between the characters, like that of the one between Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das. Mr. Kapasi becomes infatuated with the idea of a romantic connection that he is torn between acting upon it for his and Mrs. Das happiness or leaving it be and letting what’s already suggested happen. First, I will analyze the onset of this connection formed by the main character. Then, I will discuss the intentions the main character has on correcting the issue that appears to be causing problems in the Das family. Finally, I will introduce how the characters display ethics. By the end of this essay, a clear understanding of how utilitarianism is displayed by the two main characters should be achieved. 

            In the middle of the “Interpreter of Maladies,” Mr. Kapasi, says “In these moments Mr. Kapasi used to believe that all was right with the world, that all struggles were rewarded, that all of life’s mistakes made sense in the end. The promise that he would hear from Mrs. Das now filled him with the same belief.” (Lahiri 53) Throughout this scene, Lahiri displayed the start of Mr. Kapasi’s romantic interest in Mrs. Das and the day dream of a secret relationship forming between then where they would write to each other. He fantasized their conversations would include exchanges of feelings toward their failing marriages. Their made-up relationship would grow through these letters he imagined they would exchange. Here, he appeared to be driven by his need for intimacy. 

            Mrs. Das stated, “It means that I’m tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I’ve been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better, say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy.” (Lahiri 63) In this scene, Mrs. Das confessed the root of the problem in her marriage. She went on to tell Mr. Kapasi of her affair and the real father of one of their sons. This made him confused and wonder of the reason behind her vent. She goes to respond with, “I told you because of your talents.” (Lahiri 63). Mrs. Das developed an initial interest in her tour guide’s second position, an interpreter, to use his abilities to make herself feel better. She then realized her mistake when he was unable to provide good advice. 

            The two main characters of this story showed examples of utilitarian type of ethics through the interactions provided in the two scenes.  The first scene, of Mr. Kapasi, displayed his want for intimacy taking over his emotions. We see this when Lahiri said, “When Mr. Kapasi thought once again about how she had said “romantic,” the feeling of intoxication grew.” (Lahiri 53) It was then clarified he developed an interest in Mrs. Das with the hope to find happiness. It is a utilitarian because he knew the positions both of them were in, yet he rejected moral codes of marriage and somehow justified his feelings off of one word, romantic. He only saw the positive result where he and Mrs.Das are united. The second, that of Mrs. Das, shows a utilitarian view because she shared her secrets with the tour guide purely out of her own good. It was confirmed with her reaction to Mr. Kapasi’s response of, “Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?” (Lahiri 63) He too had picked up on subtle hints during her confession. She needed to say it out loud to someone in order to feel better about the situation to be happy with her family again, however things did not turn out as planned and she left upset with advice received. 

            In conclusion, Jhumpa Lahiri’s story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” presents two characters who continuously show a utilitarianism type of ethics. Mr. Kapasi daydreamed a romantic relationship between him, a married man, and Mrs. Das, a married woman. His goal was to ultimately find happiness through each other and bond over the fact that they both had failing marriages. The second character, Mrs. Das, misinterpreted the tour guide’s second profession and shared her deepest troubles in hopes that he would say something to remedy her situation. Both characters acted out with intentions of moral good in search of something positive. Also, this story displays embodied globalization, one of the four social form of globalization. Manfred Steger’s definition of embodied globalization states, “involves movement of people across our planet.” (Steger 9) The Das family traveling to India is an example of this. 

Works Cited

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

Scanlan, S. (2020) Five types of Ethics. https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/profscanlan-english2001-fiction-f2020/files/2020/11/Five-types-of-Ethics-fall-2020.docx

Steger, M. (2020). Https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/profscanlan-english2001-fiction-f2020/files/2020/11/Steger-Globalization-Definition.pdf.