Rajmohan’s Wife is a novel written By Indian novelist, poet and journalist, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. The novel was originally published in 1864. The novel explore the theme of Love, revolt and morality.
Rajmohan’s Wife Summary By Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
Summary of Rajmohan’s Wife By Bankim Chandra
The story of novel revolve around a life of Matangini, a 18 years old very beautiful girl. She is married to a person named, Rajmohan. Matangini is a characterize as modern girl who represent modern India. On the other hand, Rajmohan is unemployed and abusive person. She has one sister named Himangini, who is married to Madhav Ghose. One day, Matangini goes at banks of river with her friend, Kanak, to fetch some drinking water.
On the way Matangini meets her brother in law, Madhav Ghose, who is standing with his brother, Mathur Ghose. Mathur ask Madhav, who is that beautiful girl. Madhav replied that she is his sister-in-law who is married to Rajmohan. Mathur says, Rajmohan is very lucky man as he is married to such a beautiful girl.
On the other side, Matangini returns to her home after fetching water from river. Rajmohan is waiting at home for Matangini. As soon as Matangini arrives, Rajmohan yells at her in anger. Actually, Rajmohan had forbidden Matangini to go out. So he throws his wife water away.
Afterwards, Rajmohan started beating Matangini ruthlessly. And poor, Matangini cries in pain. After few days, Matangini goes to her mother and father’s home where she meets her sister, Himangini. She ask her sister, Himangini about jobs for her husband.
Please ask your husband, Madhav, if there would be any jobs for Rajmohan, do let me know. Madhav Ghose had one Uncle who was rich and before dying he gave all his proporty to Madhav in return of looking after his wife.
Madhav is a gentleman and good person by heart but his cousin, Mathur is quite bad person. Madhav agrees to give job to Rajmohan. He is ready to give him a job as security guard of his land. Rajmohan thinks, why Madhav is giving him job for no reason ? Maybe there is something going on between Matangini and Madhav that’s why he offered a job to me.
Rajmohan don’t want to work for Madhav so he give excuses, he tells him that he can’t do his job as there would be no accommodation for him. But Madhav arrange all the accommodations for Rajmohan. As Rajmohan has no option left, he accepted Madhav job offer.
Rajmohan has doubt on his wife, Matangini but something crazy is going on his mind. He wants to grab a land of Madhav. Rajmohan calls two robber named Sardar and Bhiku to captured the land of Madhav. All three of them are making plans to capture the land of Madhav. But Matangini learns about their plans.
She goes to Madhav and Himangini by passing jungle at night. She tells them about Rajmohan’s plans like how they are planning to capture land. Madhav gets alert and also ask his men to be alert. Afterwards, Rajmohan failed in his plan. Matangini falls in love with Madhav, who is a good person by heart. She propose to Madhav. But Madhav does not accept her as he is already married to her sister, Himangini.
Matangini gets very sad and return to her home with broken heart. At home, Rajmohan is desperately waiting for her. Rajmohan realize that Matangini must have told about their plans to Madhav otherwise how would he know ? So now, Rajmohan wants to kill his wife, Matangini. There comes Rajmohan’s friend, Sardar and Bhiku who feels that they failed because of Rajmohan, so they starts beating him ruthlessly.
Matangini sees the opportunity and runs away from Rajmohan’s house, she goes to her friend, Kanak. Kanak’s old mother tells Matangini that she will protect her from Rajmohan. Kanak’s mother work as a servant at Mathur’s house. She ask Matangini to go at Mathur’s house with her as she would be safe there. When Matangini goes at Mathur’s home, Mathur get very happy to see her.
Although, Mathur has two wives named Tara and Champak but he wants to make physical relation with Matangini. After some time, Rajmohan learns that his wife, Matangini is at Mathur’s home. Thereafter, Rajmohan goes at Mathur’s house to pick Matangini. He ask Kanak’s mother to send Matangini at his home.
Rajmohan again start making plan to grab Madhav’s land. When Rajmohan returns home, he doesn’t find Matangini there. Matangini is not at home as she is kidnapped by Mathur. Mathur lust is making him restless, he wants to make physical relation with Matangini anyhow.
Mathur captured Matangini in his Godam. He tries to make physical relation with her but Matangini doesn’t accept him. On this, Mathur gets very angry and tells her that he will not give her food and water. Matangini lives several days without food, she is ready to die with hunger rather than accepting Mathur.
On the other side, Rajmohan is busy in planning to grab Madhav’s property. After few days, Rajmohan’s robber, Sardar and Bhiku kidnapped Madhav and brings him at Mathur Godam. When they go inside Godam, they heard a sound of a woman who is Matangini.
Sardar and Bhiku saw a shadow of woman who is holding lamp on her hands, they thinks its a ghost, they run away from Godam. That was Tara’s shadow who is a wife of Mathur and came to release Matangini. Tara release Matangini and serve food to her. Afterwards, Madhav take Matangini at his home. On the other hand, police officer captured Bhiku, he tells everything about their plans to police.
The interesting part is that Mathur is involved with Rajmohan, Sardar and Bhiku. Mathur and Madhav’s Uncle gave all his property to Madhav so that’s why Mathur was involved with Rajmohan. Mathur is tensioned as he knows Bhiku has tells about him to police officers. So Mathur hang himself and died. At the end of story, Matangini goes at her father’s house and died at a young age. The story of novel ends with the death of Matangini.