Describe the poverty of Ghisu and Madhav.

"The Shroud" depicts a poor family of a low caste in India in the 1930s. On the one hand, the author depicts the protagonists, Ghisu and Madhav, as awful, lazy, and to blame for their predicament. There is no shortage of work in the village, yet the father and son simply do not want to work. On the other hand, the narrator expresses some sympathy for their situation, attributing it to the highly unequal and unjust class system in which they live. The narrator remarks that Ghisu and Madhav's attitude is no surprise given that they live in a society where poor peasants who do back-breaking labor are in no better shape than they are. Finally, "The Shroud" offers a reflection on poverty as a cycle and a trap. Ghisu's son, Madhav, has taken his father's attitude to an even greater extreme. After their feast at the wine-house, the men will presumably awaken to the same miserable situation. The only thing that has changed is that now Madhav, just like his father, will have the memory of a feast he will likely never be able to experience again.