Thrown in the United States: A Heideggerian Existential Perspective of "Wife"

Abstract

Bharati Mukherjee's novel Wife (1975) presents the story of Dimple Dasgupta, a young Bengali woman who moves from Calcutta to New York following an arranged marriage. While critics have traditionally approached the novel through postcolonial, feminist, and diasporic frameworks, a Heideggerian existential analysis reveals deeper philosophical dimensions of Dimple's experience. Martin Heidegger's concept of "thrownness" (Geworfenheit) provides a compelling lens through which to understand Dimple's existential condition—first as a woman thrown into the constraints of patriarchal society in Calcutta, and subsequently as an immigrant thrown into the alien cultural landscape of the United States. This paper argues that Dimple's tragic trajectory can be understood through Heidegger's existential analytics, particularly his concepts of thrownness, Being-in-the-world, authenticity versus inauthenticity, and temporality. Through this philosophical framework, Wife emerges not merely as a novel about immigration and cultural displacement, but as a profound meditation on the human condition of finding oneself always already thrown into situations not of one's choosing.