At the door of the hut father and son sat silently by a burnt-out fire; inside, the son’s young wife Budhiya lay in labor, writhing with pain.
In the opening line of the story, the author introduces the dynamic of this family. The narrator points to the father and son's poverty through the description of their hut and the burnt-out fire. The mention of "the son's young wife" might normally indicate the hope of a full life ahead of the couple. Yet it is clear that any hope that existed is already gone, like the fire itself that has already been extinguished. Finally, while Budhiya is struggling in labor, her husband and his father leave her alone, in pain and without help. Over the course of the story, it becomes clear that this carelessness and even cruelty characterized the men's treatment of Budhiya.
If only the two had been ascetics, then they wouldn't have needed any exercises in self-discipline to achieve contentment and patience. This was their very nature. Theirs was a strange life. Except for two or three clay pots, they had no goods at all in the house. Covering their nakedness with torn rags, free from the cares of the world, laden with debt—they suffered abuse, they suffered blows too, but not grief.
An ascetic is a person who practices strict self-discipline and avoids all forms of pleasure, often for spiritual or religious reasons. In one form or another, asceticism has been a part of Hinduism, the religion of most of the society in which Ghisu and Madhav live, since ancient times.
In this quote, the narrator expresses the irony of Ghisu and Madhav's way of life within the religious context of their society. The ascetic must adopt strict practices of self-discipline in order to accept a simple way of life and reject pleasures. But the narrator sarcastically asserts that Ghisu and Madhav do not need try so hard, since it is their very nature to live a life of poverty and lack.
A society in which those who labored night and day were not in much better shape than these two; a society in which compared to the peasants, those who knew how to exploit the peasants' weaknesses were much better off—in such a society, the birth of this kind of mentality was no cause for surprise.
In many ways, the story presents Ghisu and Madhav as detestable characters. They are selfish, uncaring, and thoughtless. They take advantage of the generosity of Budhiya and their fellow villagers. But the author also treats the protagonists with sympathy and even appreciation. In this quote, the narrator explains Ghisu and Madhav's bad attitude within the broader context of the highly unequal society they live in. The narrator suggests that the father and son's carelessness and cruelty are only to be expected in a careless and cruel society, in which poor people who work day and night do not find themselves in much better shape than Ghisu and Madhav.
In the morning, when Madhav went into the hut and looked, his wife had grown cold. Flies were buzzing on her face. Her stony eyes had rolled upward. Her whole body was covered with dust. In her stomach, the baby had died.
Madhav came running to Ghisu. Then they both together began loudly lamenting and beating their breasts. When the neighbors heard the weeping and wailing, they came running. And following the ancient custom, they began to console the bereaved.
The narrator describes the deaths of Budhiya and her baby in cold, distanced terms. While the description of Budhiya's dead body evokes disgust, it is factual and without feeling. This language reflects Madhav's own apparent lack of care about the untimely deaths of his wife and child. The author draws a stark contrast between this apparent lack of care and the loud weeping and wailing that Ghisu and Madhav do in front of their fellow villagers. In this way, the text implies that the father and son are only putting on a show of mourning to obtain donations.
"What a bad custom it is that someone who didn't even get a rag to cover her body when she was alive, needs a new shroud when she's dead."
"After all, the shroud burns along with the body."
"What else is it good for? If we'd had these five rupees earlier, we would have given her some medicine."
This conversation between Ghisu and Madhav highlights both their own hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of the society they live in. Ghisu laments that if they had had the donated money earlier, they would have been able to buy some medicine to help save Budhiya's life. Yet this statement is hypocritical, since Ghisu and Madhav did not even try to obtain donations to get medicine to help Budhiya—let alone try to help her themselves. They only asked for donations once she had already died and they could keep the money themselves.
At the same time, Ghisu and Madhav point to the broader hypocrisy of their society. This is because people don't care enough to help the poor to get decent clothing while they are still alive. Yet when they die, it is required that they be covered in a shroud.
The whole wine-house was absorbed in the spectacle, and these two drinkers, deep in intoxication, kept on singing. Then they both began to dance—they leaped and jumped, fell down, flounced about, gesticulated, [strutted around]; and finally, overcome by drunkenness, they collapsed.
"The Shroud" comes to a close with this dramatic final scene. The main characters of this satirical, sarcastic, and ironic story are anti-heroes, who evoke hatred but also a degree of sympathy and admiration. In a society in which they have few options, they have found a way to be neither exploited peasants nor exploitative tricksters. In this sense, they have created a twisted sort of freedom for themselves.
Just as Ghisu and Madhav defy conventional social and ethical codes, so too does Premchand's short story defy conventional literary codes. This story comes to no narrative resolution. It simply ends when its main characters become so drunk that they collapse.
