Another Evening at the Club – Short Story Analysis
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The short story, “Another Evening at the Club” written by Alifa Rifaat is based on a young woman who has no power in her marriage. The theme of this story is, “women play inferior roles in some societies and are forced to go against their beliefs.” Women have been going through these hardships for a long time, even now in our present society these injustices still exists.
Samia, a central character in the story is married to Abood Bey; their marriage was an arranged one. Samia is in love with Bey but, he has always been controlling everything she does. Her entire existence is based upon him. Samia and Bey live in a society where the only function that a woman has is to procreate. Bey has always been more of a father to Samia than a husband. He puts her to do things that are against her values. The theme erupts when Samia losses her ring and Gazia, the maid, was the only person in her room. She waits until her husband comes home from the club and tells him. He immediately accuses the young servant of being a thief, and comes up with a solution that involved sending her to prison. The next day Samia finds the ring and again waited on her husband to come home to tell him the good news. As soon as he hit the door he sees the ring on his wifes fingers. Upon seeing the ring Bey is instantly annoyed and refuses to entertain the thought of turning in the ring and freeing the young maid. Although Samia pleads with him to turn it in he would have none of it. Because of her role in the marriage and the fact that she has now power she only has to comply with whatever her husband does.
Samia feared that if Gazia wasnt freed she couldnt live with herself and the false accusation could change her life for the worst. Throughout the marriage her husband had forced her to lie even about her family background. Samias role in society as a woman is defenseless against her husbands demands. Samia wasnt brought up as a liar but there was nothing she could do. Her husband even demands that she has a drink when they go out; even if she doesnt want to, when she gets tipsy he is ashamed. If Samia tried to leave Bey she could end up back in the poverty that she married out of.
An irony in this story is that Bey is of no better status in society than his wife. He just tries to push himself into upper society when it is clear that he doesnt belong there. All Samias husband care about is what people think of him. This Rifaat story clearly depicts the hardship that woman go through in some societies.