MATCH BOX

Character sketch of NOMITA 
       Nomita in the story "Matchbox" wriiten by Ashapurna Debi is a typical Indian housewife who is bound to sacrifice many of her ambitions and hopes and be enslaved in the kitchen. Ashapurna 
Debi portrays her colourless - without the hues a happy life. Her widowed mother thinks that she is successful in consigning her daughter to a rich family which is not on the merit of finance but by looks alone. Nomita expects a minimum freedom of reading the letters addressed to her. Her husband seems to be dubious about the letters when he tries to read it without her conscent. It is true what Ashapurna Debi says about Nomita and women in general that they are like matchboxes settled at the corners of the house with their hidden power to explode at any time. Nomita follows the example of a matchbox and she burns with anger when she is helpless.
To break the shackles of marital slavery she is ready to kill herself. Again she is depicted as a meek innocent woman 
who smiles infront of others when a volcanoe is burning inside her. She can tear off the mask of her husband’s large  
heartedness, but she doesn’t. Thus she proves to be a protype of an Indian woman who is meek as a lamb.
Character Sketch of Ajit:      
            ‘Match Box’ is a story of a married couple Ajit and Nomita. Ajit married Nomita because of her beauty. He has the habit of opening his wife Nomita’s mail and reading it. He says that it is his right to check it to see if she has a lover. Even if she questions about it, he would laugh or 
scold her. When there is a letter from her mother, Ajit says sarcastically to find out a money order form. To suppress his behavior problems, he highlights Nomita’s family and background saying that she is dung picker’s daughter and now a queen only because he married her. Though he is from a rich family, his behavior towards Nomita seems not up to his status. Towards the end of the story, Nomita burns the anchol of her sari. He was frightened to see it and immediately he puts out the fire. It s clear that Ajit is of dominating nature outwardly where as he 
fears inwardly when Nomita asserts her rights and tries to break the shackles of her domestic slavery. He is presented here as a man who always tries to keep his wife under his control and thus becomes a 
typical male- chauvinist.

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