Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Hydrangea: Respect or Duty
I found it odd that Dadu still planted the Hydrangea in honor of his wife, when it was so blatantly obvious that he did not greatly love her. To me it seems that the only reason that he planted the symbolic flower was for Ruma's sake, since she would be the one to watch it grow and remind her of her motther on a day-to-day basis. My question is did he plant the flower because he actually had respect for his deceased wife or was it because of the marital duty that was so deeply engrained in him through his Indian unbringing. The relationship between Ruma's father and mother saddens me greatly, as it is obvious that it was a relatively loveless marriage that both partners were stuck in for the grand majority of their lives. It reminds me of why I am grateful to have been brought up in a society in which marriages based upon love are the norm and not arranged marriages.
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I think that planting the hydrangea was both out of respect and part of his marital duty. I agree with you that the relationship between Dadu and his wife was not full of love, but I do think that he still respected her as a person. They did raise a family and live together for many, many years and I find it hard to believe that after being with a person for that long even without loving them, it would be hard to not have some sort of feelings for that person. Dadu didn't hate his wife, so I think planting the flower was a genuine act of kindness.
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