Forbidden Love in The God of Small Things written by Arundhati Roy

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This essay focuses on the theme of forbidden love, The God of Small Things written by Arundhati Roy. This novel explores love and how love can’t be ignored when confronted with social boundaries. The novel examines how conventional society seeks to destroy true love as this novel is constantly connected to loss, death and sadness. This essay will explore the theme of forbidden love, by discussing and analysing Ammu and Velutha's love that is forbidden because of the ‘Love Laws’ in relation to the caste system which results in Velutha’s death. It is evident that forbidden love negatively impacts and influences other characters, such as Estha and Rahel, which results in Estha and Rahel’s incestuous encounter.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy tells the story of the communist state of Kerala and the forbidden love between two castes, which changes the lives of everyone. In the novel an ‘Untouchable’, Velutha is a carpenter and works at Paradise Pickles and Preserves for much less than he deserves because of his status as an Untouchable in the caste system. Velutha falls into a forbidden love with a divorced woman, Ammu who is associated with an upper caste Syrian Christian Ipe family. Marriage was the only way that Ammu could have escaped this life, but she lost the chance when marrying the wrong man, as he was an alcoholic and this resulted in them getting a divorce. Ammu breaks the laws that state ‘who should be loved, and how and how much’, as their affair threatens the ‘caste system’ in India, which is a hierarchal structure and social practice in India in which your position in society is determined and can’t be changed. Arhundati Roy portrays the theme of forbidden love within the caste systems and shows how they are t...

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...herefore found pleasure and contentment within each other because of the pain that they both shared. Therefore this proves that in a country such as India, where social status and prosperity are crucial, it is evident that love takes preference over all, despite the norms of India, love will always be a priority. Therefore we see that not only did Ammu and Velutha break the ‘Love Laws’ , but so did Estha and Rahel break the ‘Love Laws’ when sleeping with each other.

As a result of Velutha and Ammu’s affair, Velutha was later murdered by the police for false accusations.

Baby Kochamma also experiences the theme of forbidden love, as she wants to believe that she chose not to accept Father Mulligan’s love, the one thing she desired more than anything. Ammu and Velthu’s foribidden love is disgraceful to her, as this could be because they have what she couldn’t have.

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