Gathoni's relationship with Muhuuni serves to illustrate
how women are represented as having an ambiguous position of veneration and
marginalization in I Will Marry When I Want, a line spoken by
Gathoni in an ironic speech in Act I;
GATHONI:
Sorry!
I shall marry
when I want.
Nobody will force me into
it!
Muhuuni signifies
veneration for Gathoni by giving her presents and showering her with attention. His
parents, in a higher social and economic level than her, even come to their small
worker's home and arrange a wedding between them. Yet, in the end, Muhuuni signifies
Gathoni's marginalization, after she is persuaded to travel with him to Mombasa and
becomes pregnant, when she is rejected by him while the wedding plans are denied as she
is called a prostitute.
Thiong’o and Mirii thereby illustrate the
ironic and ambiguous situation women are in as represented by Gathoni's speech above.
Gathoni believes she can marry when she wants because all she has thus far experienced
is veneration, even though her mother hints at the
marginalization:
WANGECI
She'll soon marry and be out of
sight.
There's no maiden who makes a home in her father's backyard ...who
wants to get grey hairs at her parents'
home.
Gathoni doesn't at
first understand what Muhuuni later illustrates, which is that women only marry "when
they want" when not first marginalized by the victimization of men or
society.
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