Marriage Is A Private Affair | Summary

Summary of " Marriage Is A Private Affair ". "Marriage Is A Private Affair" was written by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He attended the University of Ibadan. In 1958, his pioneering novel "Things Fall Apart" was published. It went on to sell more than 12 million copies and been translated into more than 50 languages. Achebe later served as the David and Mariana Fisher University professor and professor of African Studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He died on March 21, 2013, at age 82, in Boston, Massachusetts.

This story shows the tribal conflict in marriage affair. The main characters in this story are Nnaemeka the son, Nene the girlfriend of Nnaemeka or later his wife, Ugoye the girl chosen by Nnaemeka's father to marry his son and the father Okeke. Nnaemeka and Nene live in a room in Lagos Nene wants to know if Nnaemeka has informed his father about their engagement. He says that his father will be shocked to hear such news so he will tell him consciously. Nene cannot understand this because she is unaware of this matter. She has not known that in remote parts of the country they have caste consciousness that if the cast is different they will not be accepting. Nene was brought up in city and she does not know about it. Nnaemeka tells that caste system is common in the traditional society. He does not tell her about his father's letter he has already chosen a girl for him. Her name was Ugoye, who used to quarrel with the boys during her school days.

On leave, Nnaemeka goes home and tells his father that he will not marry Ugoye because he was already engaged to Nene himself who was a good Christian lady and a teacher. By listening it his father was very angry because he believes that Christian woman was not allowed to be a teacher. When he knows that she is a woman not from his own tribe, he becomes hopeless and much angry. Nnaemeka knows that his silence is more dangerous than his angry speech. After that his father tries to convince him not to marry that girl. But later when he is sure that his son will marry the same woman, he abandons (त्याग्नु) his son. Nnaemeka returns to Lagos. An old man tells Okeke that such kind of event had never taken place before.Some of them advise him to get help from a native doctor to make his mind right but it was also ignored.

Some months later, Nnaemeka sends their wedding pictures to his father but he returns it to them by cutting the pictures of Nene. She cries when she finds that her picture is cut off. He tried to convince that his father is a good hearted man and one day he will forgive them. Everybody from his village except his father knows that they are a most successful couple. By a great effort for eight years, Okeke manages to forget him.

After a long time, one day Okeke receives a letter from Nene daughter-in-law. She mentions that his two grand-sons want to see him. She also requests him in the letter to permit them to visit him for a short time. He falls in confusion about this request. He imagines that they are standing outside in the rain by requesting him to get in. He cannot sleep that night. Though he hasn't seen them, their love makes him very fascinated. He feels that he lost his battle. Then he allows his son with daughter-in-law and grand-sons to come home.

Or You May Choose Below Short Summary:

The story, "Marriage Is A Private Affair", takes place in a tribe in Nigeria. The main characters are Nnaemeka the son, Nene the girlfriend/so to be wife, Ugoye the girl chosen by the father to marry his son and of course the father Okeke. Nnaemeka is deeply in love with Nene and have plan to marrying but his father has no idea about his love. He knows that he will not be pleased since she is not part of their tribe. Nene lives in the Lagos the city in South Western Nigeria. Soon after Okeke Nnaemeka receives a letter from him stating that he has arranged him a marriage with Ugoye a girl from their tribe that in his opinion she has all the qualification to become a great wife. With this news Nnaemeka torn apart because he loves Nene but has to face his father with the decision that he will not obey him on this marriage he has planned.

Nnaemeka keeps that information away from Nene and heads to his tribe to have his conversation he has not been looking forward to. When he finally has the conversation it rises to a verbal argument for he tells his father about Nene and that she is the only girl he will marry even if it goes against his rejection to it. Okeke is upset and does not want anything to do with Nene or him and will not bless this marriage. He then goes on telling Nene all that has happened but besides the opposing conflict on their marriage they still get married and form a family and have two sons. All this time his father has isolated himself from them. After some time, Nene's sons wished to meet their grandfather. So she send Okeke a letter letting him know about his grandsons and how they want to met him. This letter makes him very emotional and he realizes family ties are hard to let go. He wants to meet his family because they are his family and this dispute (झगडा) has gone too long and has only wasted perish (नास गर्यो) time when they could have been united.

Or You May Choose Below Short Summary:

"Marriage Is A Private Affair", takes place in a tribe in Nigeria. The main characters are Nnaemeka the son, Nene the girlfriend/so to be wife, Ugoye the girl chosen by the father to marry his son and of course the father Okeke. Nnameka was a boy from village. He belonged to Ibo tribe. But he was in love with a girl from the different tribe who was the resident of Lagos. Though, they had decided to marry, Nnameka at first couldn’t accumulate his courage to convey this information to his father who was stuck to traditional culture and beliefs. But as he got the message from his father that he was going to get engaged with a country girl, he went to his house and gave his decision that he wouldn’t marry her. His father got extremely enraged with this and responded him that he wouldn’t accept Nene, Naemeka’s beloved, as his daughter-in-law because that would be against Ibo culture. And so he tried to persuade Nnameka not to marry Nene.

But Nnameka as already determined and didn’t follow his father and got back to city and married Nene.His father heard this and was highly shocked from this news. From that day, his conflicts with his father began. His father had to be humiliated from the villagers. They advised Okeke to consult the herbalist since he was said to have problems in his mind.Okeke getting angry with his son didn’t let him come home for eight years. He had almost forgotten his son and daughter in law. Once, afterwards, Nene sent a letter to her father-in-law requesting him to let his grandsons come to see him as they had extremely desired to do so. Ultimately, he felt regret for what he had done and was supposed to make resolution to allow them to visit him.