Silence and Unresolved Grief in Jhumpa Lahiri's "A Temporary Matter"

This paper examines the representation of silence and unresolved grief in Jhumpa Lahiri's short story "A Temporary Matter". Set in the aftermath of a loss, the narrative depicts the slow and gradual disintegration of a relationship due to unspoken loss and emotional withdrawal. While the existing scholarship has focused on grief, trauma and communication breakdown, this paper shifts attention to silence itself and the task it performs within the narrative. Using textual analysis and close reading, the study aims to explore how silence is structurally positioned within the text rather than merely reflecting emotional detachment. This paper examines how silence functions as a narrative strategy that restructures domestic life, impacts moments of articulation of buried truth and sustains the unresolved grief. The analysis focuses on three aspects of the text. First is the establishment of silence in everyday domestic routines. Second is the silence turning into speech under the temporary and conditional circumstances during the scheduled hour-long power cuts. Third is the refusal of closure at the end of the text. By reading silence as a narrative strategy, this study shows how Jhumpa Lahiri's story represents grief as ongoing condition that persists through silence, is further complicated by confessions and culminates in separation.