Notes of Marriage is a Private Affair

Marriage is a Private Affair

 Faculty - Arihant Bhandawat

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Summary:

Setting – the action of this story takes place in two locations

•    Lagos, Nigeria – a modern city

• An Ibo village in Nigeria

Characters 

• Nene – fiancée and later the wife of Nnaemeka; she is from the Atang tribe.  She has been educated at the university and is a school teacher.  She is a modern young Nigerian woman who wants to be accepted by her husband’s father. 

• Nnaemeka – a young Nigerian man from the Ibo tribe who has moved to the city of Lagos and has fallen in love with Nene.  He realizes that his father will not approve of his marriage but he goes ahead and marries the woman he loves.

• Okeke – Nnaemeka’s father; very religious; a rule follower; believes in traditional view that marriages should be arranged by the families, that people should never marry outside of their own tribe. He is the most dynamic character in the story and undergoes the greatest change when he feels remorse for rejecting his daughter in law and plans to make it up to her as soon as possible at the end of the story.

• Ugoye Nweke – woman that Nnaemeka’s father has arranged for him to marry

  Plot summary
  
   A young man from an Ibo village meets a young Atang woman in the city of Lagos, Nigeria.  They have fallen in love and intend to marry.  The young woman wants the young man to send a letter to his father telling him of their engagement.  The young man is hesitant because he knows his father has already arranged for him to marry a young Igbo woman from his village, in accordance with traditional customs.  Instead, he goes home to the village to inform his father in person.

  Themes of the story –

  • Conflict between traditional and modern ways.
  • Need for understanding in a family  
  • The price of stubbornness – hurts the stubborn person and the people Okeke is ignoring.