Mrs. Sen's

“Mrs. Sen’s” follows 11-year-old Eliot as he forms a relationship with his day-care provider, Mrs. Sen. These two characters form a bond because they are both thoughtful, introverted, and caring, and they both have primary relationships (mother and husband, respectively) that are emotionally distant. Eliot and Mrs. Sen have empathy for each other. Mrs. Sen is open to Eliot about her life in India and how much she misses it. Eliot’s mom is unnamed, which adds to the distance of her character from the story and Eliot’s life.

Mr. Sen is absorbed in his job as a professor at the university and does not take an interest in Mrs. Sen’s emotions and needs. Their marriage is rooted in the patriarchy in that Mr. Sen makes the major decisions and dominates his wife. He also prioritizes his career at the of cost Mrs. Sen’s isolation and lack of fulfillment as a stay-at-home wife and caregiver. The themes of the story include Alienation from Community, Patriarchal Gender Roles in Marriage, Memories and the Past, and the importance of language.

The tone of the narration suggests innocence, due to Eliot’s perspective as a middle-school-age boy. This tone is juxtaposed with the mature themes of the story, including Mrs. Sen’s depression and isolation, Mr. Sen’s cold indifference to his wife, and Eliot’s mom’s lack of interest in her child’s wants and needs. Although Mrs. Sen was hired to care for Eliot, the two behave more like equals. Eliot is too young to make decisions for himself; similarly, Mrs. Sen’s dependence on her husband (together with her difficulty speaking English and driving) takes away much of her agency.

One day Eliot goes to the shore with Mr. and Mrs. Sen. Eliot notices that Mrs. Sen looks happier and is dressed up for the occasion. Mr. Sen drives them and gets them lunch, but he is emotionally distant. The distance between the couple is plain to see. The narrator says:

Eliot looked through the tiny window in the camera and waited for Mr. and Mrs. Sen to move closer together, but they didn’t. They didn’t hold hands or put their arms around each other’s waists. Both smiled with their mouths closed, squinting into the wind, Mrs. Sen’s red sari leaping like flames under her coat (256).

Mr. and Mrs. Sen very rarely touch physically, and their interactions are described as tense and cold.

“Mrs. Sen’s” uses repetition and third-person narration to emphasize the themes of Alienation from Community and Patriarchal Gender Roles in Marriage. Mr. Sen becomes more indifferent and flippant toward Mrs. Sen as time goes on. He is cruel to her after driving her to the fish market. The narrator says, “Mr. Sen handed her some bills from his wallet. ‘I have a meeting in twenty minutes,’ he said, staring at the dashboard as he spoke. ‘Please don’t waste my time’” (250). Mr. Sen regards his time as more important than Mrs. Sen’s. He seems to assume that because he provides for the family financially, his needs are more important than hers. As the patriarch, Mr. Sen establishes dominance over Mrs. Sen. His is the more important voice in their house.

This unequal dynamic causes Mrs. Sen emotional distress. Eliot is a very observant boy and understands many of the moods that Mrs. Sen experiences in her marriage. Eliot relates to Mrs. Sen because his mother is emotionally absent from his life.

Relationships are vitally important to the story. Many of Mrs. Sens’s most important relationships are in India, which makes her feel alienated in America. Mrs. Sen is isolated because she stays in her apartment and doesn’t participate in her community or neighborhood. Mrs. Sen feels rejected by the community after being told not to bring fish onto the bus. Because she has no other way to get to the fish market than by driving, she feels obligated to drive the next time that she has a fish order. This decision leads to her getting into an accident with Eliot in the car, ultimately resulting in Eliot’s mom firing Mrs. Sen as his caretaker.

Lahiri makes extensive use of color and imagery in the story. Mrs. Sen is associated with bright colors throughout the narrative. When Mrs. Sen feels emotionally vulnerable, she shares her collection of saris with Eliot. The narrator says:

She flung open the drawers of the bureau and the door of the closet, filled with saris of every imaginable texture and shade, brocaded with gold and silver threads. Some were transparent, tissue thin, others as thick as drapes, with tassels knotted along the edges. In the closet they were on hangers; in the drawers they were folded flat, or would tightly like thick scrolls (247).

The story focuses on Eliot and Mrs. Sen as primary characters and Mr. Sen and Eliot’s mom as secondary characters. Both relationships that the main characters have with the secondary characters are strained and leave Eliot and Mrs. Sen unfulfilled. Mr. Sen is a negligent husband who is apathetic and negative toward his wife. Eliot’s mom is distracted and distances herself emotionally from her child with the help of alcohol and tobacco. The primary characters have unfulfilling relationships with their loved ones, and they become empathetic toward each other after learning more about the other.