The Setting in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Short Story A Temporary Matter
In “A Temporary Matter,” Jhumpa Lahiri creates an apartment that lives through the past actions and current stagnation of its inhabitants. Whether by Shoba’s “endless sealed pyramids” of now-eaten leftovers or the”lace she had once planned to turn into curtains,” the setting teems with reminders of busier, hopeful days bygone. The present is more defined by inaction, lack of apparent action; instead of working, Shukumar reads a novel that we know nothing of, and while Shoba takes on more and more overtime, that money goes nowhere that Shukumar can see.
The apartment is overwhelmingly defined by Shoba’s actions, not Shukumar’s; the way she takes off her satchel and shoes, the way she pays bills, the way she cooks. To that end, he might as well be living in her world. Much of the story comes from his memory and reflection, which all lend awareness that the house is distinctly Shoba’s. With that awareness and stagnation comes unwillingness to change, even though the apartment has been staged as a transitionary “elsewhere” which even Shoba now treats “as if it were a hotel.” “For some reason,” the narrator says of the room which was to house their baby, to nurse a better life, “the room did not haunt him the way it haunted Shoba.”
Something changes when the lights go off. A world that seems to float in backward- and forward-reaching timelessness in the light goes dark at precisely eight o’clock. Shukumar and Shoba now feel they can, maybe must, talk to each other as they never do otherwise but as a couple is “supposed to do.” Thus the nightly ritual is grounded in time and social tradition. This couples with the change in scenery to add tension to their nights, as the conditions of the setting build tension even without direct and bombastic conflict.
