The Widows of Malabar Hill

“Their relationship had started with Perveen serving as Alice’s confessor. The Englishwoman’s revelation that she’d been expelled at sixteen from Cheltenham Ladies’ College for having a girl in her bed had confounded Perveen. It was natural for female relatives and friends to sleep close together. But after Alice explained the longing, she still felt for a long-ago classmate, Perveen understood how multifaceted relationships could be.”

Early conversations between Alice and Perveen reveal their emotional closeness and cultural differences. The fact that anyone would be surprised at the physical closeness between female friends astonishes Perveen. She does not understand Alice’s lesbian identity until it is explained to her. Despite their differences, the two women bond over mutual compassion and their status as independent women who do not always follow their parents’ desires for them.

“The young man with her was dressed like a Parsi and had thick black curls that tumbled perfectly over his forehead. Esther’s companion had an attractive profile with the kind of hooked nose that made Perveen think of portraits of ancient Persian royalty.”

Perveen’s first sighting of Cyrus, her eventual husband, emphasizes his physical beauty and his charm—traits that are very different from the cruel young men who torment her at college. However, despite Cyrus’s profile which is compared to “ancient Persian royalty,” his outer beauty hides a rotten core. Perveen later learns not to trust appearances after seeing the abuse Cyrus is capable of inflicting.

“‘Won’t you tell me about your family?’ It was a question she loved to ask. She knew all about the Yazdanis’ dreams for young Lily, Gulnaz’s mother’s health problems, and Hema’s competitive relationship with a perfect older sister.”

This passage illustrates many of the traits that make Perveen an excellent lawyer. She is interested in others, a good listener, and curious about the world around her. This question also subtly reveals Perveen’s deep love for her family.

“Losing Lillian wasn’t a worry. She was part of the Mistry family, and like a prodigal daughter, she always returned.”

This passage draws parallels between Lillian, the parrot, and Perveen. Lillian escapes her cage briefly but always returns like “a prodigal daughter.” Perveen also believed she was escaping a cage for true love but found herself returning home with a new appreciation for what she had left behind. Though being in her parents’ house curtails her freedom in some ways, it also allows her to practice law and live a life of dignity and purpose.

“Gazing into it, she was overcome by a sense of an old, elegant culture that seemed somehow familiar. Zoroastrians had ruled Persia before the Arab conquest in the middle of the seventh century, and a shared aesthetic came through in the ornate floral tiles.”

In the Farid home, the beauty of the architecture moves Perveen. It reminds her of her upbringing and helps to bridge the gap between her Parsi culture and the Fardid widows’ Muslim heritage. She remembers that there are similarities between them, despite their differences.

“Here every window was shaded with a marble jali screen, casting dotted bits of light everywhere. It was beautiful but dim, reminding Perveen of what it was like to try to read on her balcony after the sun had set.”

Though the Farid widows insist that they have chosen purdah, Perveen still thinks of isolation as limiting and dangerous. This imagery plays on both these ideas. The marble screen produces a room that is “beautiful but dim” and perhaps offers limited resources for freedom and learning, represented by the comparison of reading in the dark.

“I thank Allah daily that we are not on the streets surrounded by dangerous types and that our daughters are growing like roses in a walled garden. This is a special, peaceful life. If only we can keep together and stay in this home, I will have no worries.”

Sakina intuits that Perveen is judging her and speaks fiercely in favor of purdah. She sees it not as a cage but as a “walled garden” where the girls and wives can flourish safely. From her perspective, this isolation is a gift.

“Fabrics produce thousands of bolts of khaki cotton drill cloth. For my husband, it was good business. But in my mind, we were dressing men so that they could fight—and very likely be wounded or killed. I didn’t like that.”

Here, Razia demonstrates her sensitivity, integrity, and cleverness. She recognized that her family business directly profited from war and set up the wakf, or charitable foundation, to make amends. Her donations to injured soldiers and widows help to ease her conscience.

“Behnoush’s sari was grander than Perveen’s—a blue-silk satin with a pettipoint border—and grander still than the understated yellow chiffon with zari embroidery worn by Camellia.”

At the first meeting, Perveen’s future mother-in-law dresses in a lavish outfit, foreshadowing her ostentatious nature. Perveen comes to learn that Behnoush is uncaring and callous toward her, worrying more about the family reputation than her daughter-in-law’s happiness.

“While Camellia’s expression had softened, Jamshedji looked the way he did when he came home after losing a case. Under the tablecloth, Perveen slipped her hand into his. She squeezed it firmly. In the touch, she tried to say what she couldn’t. Yes. I want this.”

Though the idea of arranged marriages often faces scrutiny, this passage shows how much Perveen’s parents love her. She and her father hold hands under the table, a physical representation of their emotional closeness. The prospect of losing his daughter has Jamshedji crestfallen as if he has lost a court case.

“Because he had hit her first, he would be the one to rule the family, according to the proverb. Perveen knew this would please the in-laws, but it meant nothing to the two of them, as they were bound together in a relationship like no one else’s.”

The playful wedding custom of throwing rice foreshadows Cyrus’s real physical violence toward Perveen. She naively assumes that they have a relationship “like no one else’s.” Here, Massey uses dramatic irony, since she has already revealed that Cyrus is a dangerous man and that Perveen is mistaken in assuming his kind heart.

“These days, crouching down to decorate the Sodawallas’ house was nothing but a chore. It felt like making an elegant frame to go around the ugly picture that her life had become. If Perveen had permission to pick out the chalk’s color, it would have been a blackish gray like the ashes from dirty fires on the Calcutta streets.”

Perveen sees the chalk painting as yet another chore in Calcutta. She imagines the paint as the ashes of mourning rather than the bright colors that should greet guests, symbolizing her despondent state.

“Perveen stared at her mother-in-law’s loom and thought about the unseen threads that had spun around her, creating an unbreakable trap.”

Behnoush’s weaving becomes a symbolic web that traps Perveen in the household. Like a spider, the Sodawalla family has lured her into a trap and plans to keep her for her family’s wealth. Perveen feels helpless and afraid.

“‘Then it’s very special,’ Perveen said, regarding the stern expression on the subject’s face. She would happily live with her grandfather’s visage for the rest of her life, no longer taking it as a mark of criticism. She hoped he would watch out for her now, as he had when Cyrus has appeared.”

After enduring her unhappy marriage and returning home, Perveen’s anger toward her grandfather has faded. She now sees his distance during her engagement as his fear for her safety, and she imagines him watching over her from the afterlife.

“‘Why would he wish to be separated? He cannot ever remarry. You are a lost asset.’ ‘What rot! You speak as if I am a jewelry set!’ Perveen snapped.”

Perveen has spent her life as the educated and beloved daughter of a wealthy family. In discussing her divorce case with her father, she realizes how little the law values women. Like a jewelry set, a wife is an asset to be passed from family to family and disposed of when no longer deemed valuable.

“She wasn’t excited to leave her beloved home. But if she became Bombay’s first woman lawyer, that would string the beads back on the ruined necklace and turn them to diamonds.”

Perveen thinks of her grandfather’s saying about lost reputation as dropped beads on a necklace. In this metaphor, she imagines that she repairs her reputation through law school and brings even greater honor to her family.

“‘Households with two sections might appear to have privacy, but it could be that they have the fewest secrets.’ Jamshedji sipped his port. ‘Precisely because of their walls and screens, people are curious to know everything.’”

Jamshedji points out the irony that households that practice purdah have fewer secrets because people in them pry and seek discovery. Throughout the novel, Perveen discovers that many of her assumptions about purdah and the Farid widows are misguided. There is much more going on in Malabar Hill than first meets the eye.

“Even though the vials and bottles were closed, the shop was heavy in scent. Perveen stopped breathing for a moment as she thought that these myriad fragrances, just like the secrets at the Farid house, couldn’t be completely suppressed.”

Thinking of the secrets she and her father spoke of earlier, Perveen compares them to the scent of the attar shop. In this simile, the secrets escape just as the heavy scent pervades the street outside the shop. Perveen realizes that nothing in the house can ever be truly hidden.

“Perveen sat down on a jute sack that he’d dragged out. She felt elated. She had been meant to die, yet she’d cut her way out of that fate and back to the world she loved.”

Perveen’s kidnapping is one of the novel’s lowest moments for her; she worries she might die. However, she cut herself out of the sack and survived, just as she struggled out of her abusive marriage. This passage highlights her tenacity and courage.

“Perveen had once believed the Farid widows were similarly helpless, but she didn’t anymore. It must have been maddening to have a household agent thrust into their world.”

Toward the end of the novel, Perveen finally understands the dynamics of the Farid household. She thought of them as caged birds, but now, she realizes that they are not helpless but canny and determined women who live in purdah by choice. She understands how angry they are that people constantly underestimate them due to their cultural beliefs.

“‘Gentlemen—just a moment.’ Perveen gently lifted the end of Sakina’s sari and let it fall so it covered her face. It was a small thing to do, but it preserved her dignity.”

Though Sakina tried to kill Amina and Perveen herself, Perveen still offers her a moment of compassion and veils her. She understands Sakina’s motives even if she does not condone them. This moment also highlights Perveen’s strong moral compass and empathy.

“Sir David gave her a wry half smile. ‘And you Parsis have stabilized Bombay as well—building hospitals and schools, projects that my people overlooked.’”

Here, Sir David acknowledges that the British Empire has not done a good job of helping the people of India in many ways. Perveen sees this conversation as an early step toward arguing for Indian independence since she believes her community can care of itself.

“The sick man had Cyrus’s voice, but she saw no trace of his former beauty: just a body covered in pockmarks.”

Early in their marriage, Perveen was horrified to find that Cyrus’s physical beauty concealed inner ugliness and cruelty. Now, syphilis has caused his appearance to match his insides. He is ugly both in physicality and in action.