‘The Second Wife’ is one of the famous novel written originally in Hindi by
great Indian writer Premchand and translated in English by David Rubin. Premchand himself had spent a very pitiful life. He was connected to his soil. So he had the best knowledge of his society. All his works gives a flavor of social problems in Indian community in one or other way., ‘The Second Wife’ also clearly
justifies these problems prevailing in Indian society like dowry
system, widow marriage and low standard of women in society etc.
Whole play revolves around a young girl Nirmala who
always pays cost for being female. She is married to a man of her
father’s age just because her father died and mother had no money for
dowry. Her man Totaram already has three sons of which eldest is of the
age of Nirmala. Totaram makes his best efforts to get close to
her. She also wants to change herself according to conditions but fails to do so. how could she share her feelings with a man of his father’s
age. However she accepts the situation thinking that it is her destiny
and adopts Totaram as her husband and his children as her children. She develops friendly behaviour with the elder son and because of this closeness, Totaram becomes suspicious of Nirmala. The dutiful son couldn’t bear this and dies after some
days.From here bad days for the family starts. Totaram's both sons also run away from house. Nirmala’s whole family
ruins completely because of the ruthless behaviour of Totaram. Finally
Nirmala also dies in the grief.
In the story Premchand exposed the cheap thinking of
people in our society in a very nice fashion. Situations are created in such a manner that reader thinks about the story again and again. Comparison between characters is timed very beautifully. Although the novel is
written hundred years back but it truly fits to modern society as well. We all inhabit one or more evils which are shown in the story. It
is an age-old story depicting care, jealous and remorse which is basic
human nature. In the world of literature, it’s a tragedy which touches to
heart.
David Rubin also used very simple language in the
translation. He emphasized on reflecting the motto of the story rather
than doing word to word translation. Some of particular words of Hindi are
retained in translation to give it a better context. The title of
the translation is also quite appropriate as all the
mis-happenings occurs after Nirmala’s entry in Totaram’s house as his
second wife. She becomes culprit in the story without committing any crime.
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