Disguise in marriage as portrayed in Chughtai’s The Quilt and The Homemaker

Disguise in marriage as portrayed in Chughtai’s The Quilt and The Homemaker

Chughtai’s The Quilt and The Homemaker are set in a society where marriage is just a disguise for both men and women. Men deceive women into marriage to make up a disguise to hide away their own identity from other people. Women, however, are also behind that disguise, thus know and suffer all that from the selfish purpose of their husbands. In need to solve their problems created by men, the women themselves eventually create their own disguise. In these two stories, the disguise is shown sexually, especially when Begum Jaan and Lajo’s carnal desires are so repressed that they resort to other means to satisfy themselves – having sexual relationship with other men and women.
Marriage is portrayed by Chughtai as a responsibility that must be fulfilled by both men and women no matter what, even if there is no love. That explains why in The Quilt, Begum’s parents agree to marry her off to the nawab, though the only thing they know about him is that he is virtuous, as they believe he would take good care and not ill-treated her. However, being taken care of does not mean that Begum can be happy. Though the nawab can fulfill her material needs, her emotional needs are total neglected. He treats her just like all his other possession, as if she is not a human but a decoration in the house. This situation might appear brutal to Begum, and she starts deteriorating physically due to the lack of love; but to the nawab, she is nothing more than a disguise for him. He does not have any love for her but just needs her to be there so other people would not figure out the fact that he is a homo.
Similarly in The Homemaker, Lajo is persuaded to agree to marry Mirza, but is abandoned and forgotten right after that. “Mirza felt contented that he was able to make a decent woman of her. Now he didn’t feel any urge to get back home in a hurry. Like other husbands, he spent time with his friends so that no one could call him henpecked!” It appears that he just marries...