A QUESTION OF DOWRY By SiewYue Killingley Siew

A QUESTION OF DOWRY By: Siew-Yue Killingley

Siew Yue KILLINGLEY

Siew-Yue Killingley (née Leong) was born in Kuala Lumpur on 17 th December 1940. She was educated at St. Mary's Girls' School (1947 -57), where she was Captain of Mc. Neil House and School Captain, the Victoria Institution (1958 -59) and the University of Malaya. She graduated with honours in England in 1963 and then studied for an MA in Linguistics, awarded in 1966. She went on to study linguistics and phonetics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where she was a Furlong Scholar. In 1972 she was awarded a Ph. D for her work on Cantonese grammar.

She has taught in schools in Malaysia (St. Mary's Girls' School and St. John's Institution in Kuala Lumpur; Methodist Girls' School in Klang; La Salle Boys' School in Petaling Jaya), at the University of Malaya, in various departments at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and at Newcastle College (formerly College of Arts and Technology). She taught for nine years at St. Mary's College of Education, where she was Senior Lecturer in English, until she was made redundant when the college was closing down.

This led her to found Grevatt & Grevatt in 1981. Since 1987 she has worked in the Centre for Lifelong Learning (formerly the Centre for Continuing Education) at the University of Newcastle, where she teaches linguistics and Chinese (Mandarin). Flute imagery and technique are important motifs in her poetry. Inspired in childhood by an uncle who played the Chinese flute naturally, she became a dedicated student of the flute. She began studying the flute with Mahmuddin bin Ngah in Kuala Lumpur and continues to study it in Newcastle while playing in amateur groups.

Siew-Yue Killingley's book publications include the following: Song-pageant from Christmas to Easter, with Two Settings (with Percy Lovell); The Pottery Ring: A Fairy-tale for the Young and Old; In Sundry Places: Views of Durham Cathedral (awarded Second Prize in 1982 in a competition to mark the Ninth Centenary of Durham Cathedral); Where No Poppies Blow: Poems of War and Conflict; Lent and Easter Cycle: Poems for Meditation; Northumbrian Passion Play (performed to full houses in Newcastle in April 1999); Other Edens: Poems of Love and Conflict; English in Education: How the Linguist Can Help; Cantonese Classifiers: Syntax and Semantics; A New Look at Cantonese Tones: Five or Six? ; Cantonese: Languages of the World/Materials 06; A Handbook of Hinduism for Teachers (with Dermot Killingley, Vivien Nowicki, Hari Shukla, and David Simmonds); Sanskrit: Languages of the World/Materials 18 (with Dermot Killingley); Learning to Read Pinyin Romanization and Its Equivalent in Wade-Giles: A Practical Course for Students of Chinese. She is a co-reviser of vols. 1 and 2 of Beginning Sanskrit: A Practical Course Based on Graded Reading and Exercises by Dermot Killingley (vol. 3 forthcoming).

A QUESTION OF DOWRY By: Siew-Yue Killingley

DOWRY A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to a marriage. (A dowry consisting mainly of linen and clothing, or the contents of a hope chest is called a trousseau. ) Dowry contrasts with bride price, which is paid by the groom or his family to the bride's parents, and with dower, which is property given to the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both dowry and bride price. Dowry is an ancient custom, and its existence may well predate records of it. Dowries continue to be expected in some parts of the world, mainly India.

Plot Summary • An Indian girl, Sivasothie was going to be engaged & married to a young man, Thiruchelvam who was chosen by the family. • Thiruchelvam was a doctor. • Sivasothie’s parents were preparing dowry, a sum of twenty thousand dollars to the bridegroom’s family. • They even had a gold necklace as a personal present to their daughter when she was going to be wedded.

• Problem arose when Sivasothie’s father, Mr. Ramachandran told his wife that they cannot afford to give the dowry and the necklace. • This is because the wife’s piece of land was disvalued to be sold & it was the only way to pay the dowry. • Mr. Ramachandran called the future son-in-law to come to their house.

• Mr. Ramachandran told Thiruchelvam the truth about the dowry matters. • Knowing this, Thiruchelvam rejected the marriage because the bride’s family could not afford to give the dowry as promised. • Sivasothie felt sad & hurt for she had to for get the marriage & after all, she began to like Thiruchelvam.

Literary Critism CULTURAL AQOD GENDER SOCIAL

CULTURAL

Dowry • In India, dowry or dahej is the payment in cash or/and kind by the bride’s family. • Originated in upper caste families as wedding gift. • To help with marriage expenses and a form of insurance in case her in-laws mistreated her.

• Although dowry is legally prohibited in 1961, it continually to be highly institutionalized. • The groom usually demands a large sum of money, farm, animals etc. • Eg: In the story, Thiruchelvam’s family demanded twenty thousand dollars as the dowry from the bride’s family. –E 1: “Twenty thousand dollars is not to be scoffed at –that’s more than I can say what Thangathurai gave his daughter when our son married her. . ”.

• However, they could not afford to pay the dowry and the necklace for they had only a piece of disvalued land which cost them less than the amount they wanted it to be sold. –E 1: “Come now, wife! Don’t you remember? We have only one piece of land left from your dowry –we sold the other two for our third and fourth sons’ weddings. ” –“About the land, I’m afraid it is impossible to sell it at a quarter of its former price. You see, water has been seeping out from some well for about ten years and so the land is now too marshy for house-holding. ”

Arranged Marriage • Indian generations are traditionally engaged in an arranged marriage by their elders. • Marriage is not only necessity for girl but a religious sacrament as well, since it was believed that a female virgin could never attain spiritual enlightenment in this world.

• As we read through the story, the daughter is going to be engaged to a doctor. –E: “Sivasothie, you are a very lucky girl. You’ll have a doctor for your husband –and Mrs. Muthu will have a fit from envy. ” • However, due to the incapability of the bride’s family to fulfill the dowry as promised, the wedding had been called-off. –E: “Thiruchelvam, having less faith in Mrs. Ramachandran’s father, believed the news about the disvalued land… Mr. Ramachandran had to let his wife and daughter knows about the changed situation. ”

• Though it is not stated directly in the short story that the marriage is arranged, logically we know the bridegroom and the bride seem to just meet and barely know each other. • In addition, if the marriage is based on love, the man would defend the marriage instead of rejecting it because of the dowry.

SOCIAL

Social Class Comparison between the Groom’s and the Bride’s Social Class Thiruchelvam (The Sivasothie (The Bride) Groom) Well educated Unstated education Stable income Unknown income source Doctor Jobless Upper class family Middle class family

GENDER: Feminism

Patriarchal Power • Man is on top of the family pyramid • In Indian beliefs, a marriage is arranged by the father and if he died his role will be taken by a girl’s brothers instead of the mother. • In general, man insists that a women’s place is only at home and she is satisfied by serving her family and fulfilling the needs of her house hold members.

• The short story itself contains a lot of examples on man’s power ruling over women’s. • It is the women who are responsible for the household and take as an example, in this story, Mrs. Ramachandran has worked hard for the festive and preparation for the engagement. –E: “Mrs. Ramachandran flew here and there, as fast as her 160 pounds would allow her, and helped with her commanding suggestions. ”

• It is very important for the women to obey the men in Indian’s tradition. • Mrs. Ramachandran has been mentioned to be a respectful and obedient wife. –E: “She went out dutifully, for she managed her husband well –obeying him in the little things with such readiness that he thought himself as lord of everything as well.

• Even if it is not her willingness to call-off the wedding, she still respects her husband, Mr. Ramachandran’s decision. –E: “Well, commented Mrs. Ramachandran stoically, there’s more than one doctor in our community, and it’s up to you, Ramachandran, to do your duty as a father. ”