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Final M.phil Thesis
Final M.phil Thesis
A THESIS
Submitted by
ADLIN FREEDA. M.R
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
NANJIL CATHOLIC COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE
KALIYAKKAVILAI– 629 153
APRIL 2017
TRANS - CULTURAL IDENTITIES: A REVIEW ON
SHASHI DESPANDE’S SELECT NOVELS
A THESIS
Submitted by
ADLIN FREEDA. M.R
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
NANJIL CATHOLIC COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE
KALIYAKKAVILAI– 629 153
APRIL 2017
NANJIL CATHOLIC COLLEGE OF ARTS AND
SCIENCE
KALIYAKKAVILAI– 629153
BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE
FREEDA M.R (Reg. No.: 61012080) who carried out the work under my
reported herein does not from part of any other thesis or dissertation on the
Mrs.SUSHMA JENIFER., M.A., M.Phil Dr. G.R. GNANA RAJA, MA., M.Phil., PhD
Assistant Professor and Head Assistant Professors
(The Superior)
Department of English Department of English
Nanjil Catholic College of Arts &Science Nanjil Catholic College of Arts &Science
Kaliyakavilai Kaliyakavilai
ABSTRACT
Despande’s Select Novels” explores the post colonial feminist context in which the
marginalised women find chaos in their own destiny and quest for their identity in the
patriarchal society.
The study inculcates the review of literature brought from the feministic
perspective. It also indicates author’s background and works of the contemporary period.
It elucidates how women are suppressed by the banner of culture and tradition. The
traditional thought drag them to forget about their destiny. The society forces the woman
to lead a restricted life in silence. The characters in Shashi Despande and novels find
themselves entrapped in the roles assigned to them by society and achieve self identity
and independence within the confines of their marriage. They use silence as a weapon to
The trans- cultural identities in her fiction is one of the favourite areas of
feminism. It comforts the modern woman who are dissatisfied with the cultural and
sexual roles assigned by the patriarchal society. But at the same time she cannot reject the
cultural social background too. The woman is neither free nor independent. She is in
between the two. There is an urge for the identity and independence in them. Most of
Despande’s characters are woman who are educated and exposed to western ideas, but
To God I raise my heart in deep gratitude and love for the abundance of grace,
wisdom, knowledge and good health he had given me to complete my dissertation with
constructive visionary who always provoke quality enhancement and motivate the
I am grateful to my guide and supervisor Dr. G.R. Gnana Raja, M.A, M.Phil, PhD
(Assistant professor of English) who guided me in my research work with far reaching
It is my duty to thank our Principal Dr. E. John Jothi Prakash and Mrs.Sushma
Jenifer M.A., MPhil., Head of the Department of English, who was a great source of
College of Arts and Science, Kaliyakkavilai and the American College, Madurai for
I like to express my heart full thanks to my parents, friends and lecturers who had
stood by my side at every point of my life. Their role towards completing the dissertation
I INTRODUCTION 1
II WOMEN IN TRANQULITY
V CONCLUSION
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Indian literature is usually believed to be the oldest in the world. Due to the vast
cultural diversities, there are around two dozen officially recognized languages in India. It
describes the writers of English language whose native or co-native language could be
one of the numerous languages of India. After the British rule in India there has been
Indian Writing in English. Indian Writing in English has turned out to be a new form in
which Indian culture and traditional voice converses regularly. The Indian Writers such as
poets, novelists, essayists, and dramatists have been made momentous and considerable
contributions to the world literature since pre-Independence era. In the past post colonial
Indian concept literature have been witnessed a prospering and thriving achievements in
the global market. Indian Literature represents the culture of India, tradition, politics,
national living, patriotism, atmosphere and sensibility of the people. AmitChaudri says
narrative and hybrid language that sustain theme seen as microcosm of India and
remarkable force in world fiction. The struggle for independence was a mighty and
momentous movement sweeping the entire nation and exerting tremendous impact on the
sense of national consciousness among the literary fraternity. Thus the lucid description
of the freedom struggle showcased images of the awakened Indians who sought to regain
their freedom from the grueling and torturous regime of the British. Apart from these
reflections, the writers were able to propagate their concept, which ultimately helped to
motivate and guide the people over there. Thus the Fixation on religious aestheticism was
replaced by concerns on socio-political issues. The horrors and evils of the society are
portrayed in the large scale, which provoke interest on the readers. Indian English
novelists have started to prove its mark in the global literary scenario. The most revolving
aspects of East-West conflict such as multi- culturalism, social realism, gender issues,
comic values, concern over ecology, magic realisms, diasporic cravings are identified as
and aboard. It has carved out a new track to response for faith and hope, myths and
traditions, customs and rites etc. Those Indian writers provoke a new structure and colour
to English literature parallel to Australians and Americans who pursue their own literature
writers who have made their attempt to the world English literature. Some of the most
noted Indian born writers are R. K. Narayan, Vikram Seth, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati
Among them ShashiDespande is one of the prominent writers of this century. She
is a well known literary figure in the field of Indian writing in English. She was born in
Dharwad of Karnatak. Her father, a renowned Kannada dramatist, great Sanskrit scholar
Shriranga who is called as the Bernard Shaw of the Kannada Theatre. Like her father, she
SahityaAkademi Award (National Academy of Letters) for her novels That Long Silence
(1990). She also won the Padma Shri award in 2009 for her valuable contribution to the
novel That Long Silence. She continued her education in Dharwad, Bombay and
Bangalore. She had an inquisite mind to learn many things. She received degrees in
Economics and Law. Infact, she was a gold medalist. After getting married, she shifted
over to Bombay (now Mumbai). During her stay in Mumbai, she decided to pursue a
Onlooker. She worked there for a couple of months. While working in the magazine, she
began writing short stories. Her writings made her popular and helped her to enter in the
reputed magazine. Her short stories were compiled in five volumes. They are: The
Legacy and Other Stories (1978), It Was Dark and Other Stories (1986), It Was the
Nightingale and Other Stories (1986), The Miracle and Other Stories (1986) and The
Intrusion and Other Stories (1993). Her maiden collection of short stories was published
under the title Legacy in the year 1978. Also she wrote novels which remarkable credited
the writer. Her first novel, The Dark Holds No Terrors was published in the year 1980.
Her novel That Long Silence, which brought ample of laurels and appreciation.
writer. Her protagonists are modern, educated young women, crushed under patriarchal
patriarchal structures, and try to establish their own identity bearing amidst of sufferings.
Infact, for her fabulous work, she received the SahitayaAkademi Award in 1990 and
NanjangudThirumalamba award in 1982-1983. Also she has been actively involved in
embedded in Indian culture and lifestyle. She challenges the existing ideology of gender
which justifies and neutralizes the inequitable division between male and female. By
understanding the mindset of Indian, she seriously tried to bring froth the gender issues in
her novels with the contemporary aspect of changing society. She excels in projecting a
realistic picture of the middle class educated woman who, although financially
independent, is still facing conflict and confusion between the old and the new, between
tradition and modernity, between idealism and pragmatism. She raises her voice against
the patriarchy in which ability and emotions of women are suppressed and the self is
subdued by the age-old customs and traditions. The women are particularly caught in the
process of redefining and rediscovering their own roles, position and relationship with in
Deshpande explores the new image of woman who tackles the problems boldly
and intellectually are in the society. Her novels explore the women identity, where they
try to fulfill their needs as a human being, independent of their traditional role as
daughter, wife and mother. They were examined by variety of common domestic’s crisis,
which trigger off the search path. Despande’s concern and sympathy are primarly for the
woman. While disclose the woman’s struggle to safe self-respect and self-identity for
herself, the author subtly bares the multiple levels of suppression, including sexual
In all her novels the protagonists tend to search of their own self. Deshpande
makes us to consider how male supremacy damages female egos and leads women to a
state of intellectual slavery. Educational and professional opportunities enable women to
function outside the family domain to prove their efficiency. But there is a discrepancy
emotional dependence on men and in a sense the whole purpose and meaning of woman’s
life is to win and retain a man’s love in her life. Even though the middle class Indian
women want to stand against the patriarchal set-up of family and society achieve the self-
fulfillment in their endeavours, they fear that their rebellion attitude could affect their
relationships. And they become the slaves of their own emotions as they do not want to
have any emotional as well as economical independence at the cost of their relationships
in the family.
Indian women desire to have intellectual and spiritual companionship with their
male counterpart which would culminate in their total surrender of minds and bodies for
each other. But very few are lucky enough to get such type of egalitarian relation with
men. So they lead life restrain their dreams, desires, visions, goals and ideals in mind.
Woman realizes that the only way to relate her male counterpart is by offering body and
mind to him unconditionally. She becomes puppet in hands of her husband. She
understands the situation that otherwise there will be discord in her marriage, a secure and
safe institution for woman as per social norms. Being aware of this humiliating and self
denying experience of woman in the family, Deshpande’s, novels dealt the readers a wild
During the recent decades , a galaxy of Indian women novelists have started
writing about India women, their conflicts and predicaments against the background of
contemporary India. In the 21st century, women’s writing was considered as a powerful
of love, understanding and championship. In the patriarchal society setup the structures
were established by the dominant group. Women have to depend the power patriarchal
model for their economical and social survival. They become the passive object
unquestioning the power role. ShashiDeshpande exposes the feminist view in her novels.
She incubates the advance political, economic, personal, and social rights that make the
woman recognised in this society. It also includes equal opportunities for women in
education and employment. The present study focuses on how women is struggling as a
wife, mother and also as a humanbeing in the patriarchal and capitalistic society.
Her novels shows the concern over a woman's struggle, in the context of
contemporary Indian society, their efforts to find and preserve their identity as a wife,
mother, and as a human being. She also focuses on modern women are inclined towards
the social issues, and trying hard to improve their social status at large. Increased
awareness and education has inspired women to come out of the four walls of the home.
The woman characters portrayed in her novels are actively supported and participated in
the nationalist movement and secured eminent positions in offices and public life in free
India. She satirizes face the modern working environment where the women lot of
In the male chauvinistic society, the tradition does not support woman to go for
preferred job. ShashiDespande in her novel “That Long Silence”, the protagonist Jaya
also experiences the same problem. She has been controlled by her husband and even she
was not allowed to express her thought or expression through writings. In the Traditional
picture Indian women exist because of the family and for the family. Just like their man
counterpart, women are also fond of attending social functions and value her social life
quite a lot. Previously, men-folk used to dissuade women from leaving their households
for attending social functions. Now the modern expansion of education, especially that of
women, and with that the changing social attitudes of educated women have changed the
traditional order.
The status of women in modern India is again a dilemma of finding the women
identity. The modern Indian women have honed their skills and jumped into a battlefield
of life fighting against social restrictions, emotional ties, religious boundaries and cultural
clutches. She can now be seen working on par with men in every sector. When compared
with socially accepted women, modern times woman is achieved partially and still
prolony with the same social clutches. According to A. Cripps “Educate a man and you
can educate an individual; educate a women and you educate a family” (87).
literature, the writers are questioning it. Marriage leads to heartbreak woman and stay
alone are may comfortable for woman. But ShashiDeshpande is one of the writers who do
not reject marriage. In her novels, marriage without the foundation of love and only as
means of social security for a single woman is not acceptable. Matrimony is often
In India every one follows the tradition. The peoples are judged on the basis of
tradition. Women are compelled to follow the traditional manners especially in their
dressings. In her novels the characters compel to follow the traditional rules. The
character of Kalpana is focused to wear traditional dress code. In the modern world
women are also influenced by education, jobs, friends, family and money are increasingly
changing the image of women. In modern world women try to avoid the traditional rules
and regulations. In India woman won’t get any property from her parent’s. In the
patriarchal India Women position is to be good daughters, good wives and good mother.
In olden days women were live in joint family, they unable to take independent
decision in their own life. In her novel the character of Jaya also in same situation. Even
though she was educated she can’t able to take her own decision. She asks permission to
her husband as well as her mother-in-law. The women live with her husband's and his
family. She adjusts in every situation. In her novels the character of Jaya and Mira was
adjust in their husband family. Women sacrifice her own need, education and hard worker
and always contribute to new family wealth being. Many Indians believe that not only
young girls should get married early but as well be less educated than the males in the
family. The daughter has to live by father and family arrangement. Even in India joint
family system is breaking. Women in India had been desire in their mind that they shall
be establishing a home of their own in which they had desired that there shall be one
Though women were educated the marriage choice has been selected by their
parents. Many young girls of the middle and upper classes are educated with a marriage
rather than career. Again, many girls enter into careers apparently not because they want
them, but because there is nothing else to be done until their parents find them husbands.
In her novels the few protagonist never able to choose their future partner, parents select
In art, literature and philosophy are essentially attempts to found the world anew
on a human liberty, individual creator and woman are so moulded and indoctrinated by
tradition. They are assuming the status of beings with liberty. Maternity is feminine
function impossible to perform in liberty.In old days woman did not have right to vote.
When they get right to vote they thought that they got liberated but still women suffers
within herself. Woman has employed but until she cannot be liberated.In her novels she
says that employment does not gurantee or liberty. If she wants independence she faces
all obstacles in society. Woman respects the man and also she was inferior to man.
In India male dominated societyis a well equipped in the family. Woman only
loved by her body not for her intelligence. She cannot find her own decision, she always
depend on men. After marriage the woman sacrifices everything for her family but even
though male dominate towards them. They suffer a lot after her marriage with the
dominance of male, family and society. The materialization of these problems still
Shashi Despande says male can able to do what he wants but at the same time
women cannot. If they broken such rules or refused she may be get severe beating and
frightened her to death. The society cannot allow to treat them as a same level.
The independent woman is torn between her professional interest and the problem
of her sexual life. The woman does not dare to aim too high. She enters upon her
profession with superficial preparation but soon she sets limit to her ambitions. A woman
is afraid to go further she will break her back. She has to sacrifice herself to maintain a
balance between her professional interest and the problem of her sexual life. While she
sacrifices herself she becomes tensed. Woman is limited in their strength and they soon
become ill. The character of Mira get married, her husband rape within in her marriage
life. Her ambition is to become an intellectual woman but he was physically weak. When
other that accepts. In her novel characters like Jaya, Sulu and Kalpana are fall into
acceptance mode and she excels in the platonic method of looking for answers. He
explores in her novels womens pain, agony, helplessness, exploitation and the problem of
being a woman. She shows the inner world of Indian women and the conflict of tradition
and modernity.
The woman can only able to understand the another women feelings. In Binding
Vine the character of Mira and Urmila are strong. Urmi understand the suffering of pain
and pain of her dead mother-in-law and expose her pathethic life through publication of
her writing.
fears and hopes, loves and hates withdrawal and alienation, suppression and oppression,
and marital discord and male chauvinism through in social conventions. Shashi
Despandedelieneately describes the challenging women, who come out from the social
structures to establish their identities face numerous problems in social and family lives.
The present study focuses on three novels namely That Long Silence, Small
Remedies and The Binding Vine. In the first novel That Long Silence, Shashi Despande
tried to portray the marginalized condition and the miserable plight of women in a
traditional society. Through the character of Jaya, who is also the protagonist of the
novel, the novelist has tried to delineate the women’s attempts to erase the silence and to
give voice to their inner conflicts and traumas, which the women are destined to live since
ages. The novels explore tensions between family members and the alienation of middle-
class women. It mainly focused the depression and frustration of the woman.
In her novels she presents the condition of the woman in the traditional and
patriarchal society. Most of her novels portray the situations of the woman in the male
contemporary society and the inner aspring of the woman. It also portrays the identity of a
In this novel she indicates that the plight of woman is miserable in a patriarchal
society, whether they belong to the upper sections of society or they are from the lower
state of society. The characters like Jaya, Mukta, Jeeja, Manda, Ai, Ajjietc used to lead a
life of subjugation. They are conditioned by the society to be in the strict boundaries of
mother, daughter, wife etc. They are tempted to play these roles in their life. Their life
has no significance if they are not able to perform these roles of wife or mother perfectly.
She delineates Jaya’s silence and her writing is related. In the biography she has to
submit to a newspaper she pares herself down to the barebones of: “I was born, My father
died when I was fifteen I got married to Mohan. I have two children and I did not let a
The breaking of silence or life of passivity not only on the domestic level, but the
novel talks about breaking the silence of traditionalism by women writers also. Jaya in
That Long Silence attempts to break not only her own silence but that of women,
especially women writers, down the ages. A desire for identity and self-expression spurs
the creative writer but Jaya finds it being smothered by her husband’s reactions.
In the novel That Long Silence Jaya, who is leading the roles of wife and mother
perfectly. After the seventeen years of her marriage, she has to face a catastrophe. Her
husband is caught in the malpractice of funds at his office and their marital life comes to
halt. They have to shift to the Dadar flat gifted to her by her uncle. She spend some days
at that flat, she introspects her married life with Mohan, while the children are away with
some relative. Women are leading the same routine life. For seventeen years, Jaya has
been leading a life of routine performing the roles of wife and mother, caring and
handling her household works. She never shown her feelings towards other:
either. There’s only order and routine-today I have to change the sheets:
tomorrow, scrub the bathrooms: the day after, clean the fridge…. (TLS
147-148)
Like Jaya and other female characters in That Long Silence are fall in sufferings
and struggling individuals. Jaya the female protagonist, the desire to become a mother
haunts her, and this craze alone forces her to enter into wedlock. This motherhood craze
proves to be a burdensome weakness for women. The women lead a life in her household
roof as a mother or wife. The life of the woman turns out to be one of struggle and
suffering as a mother.
Kusum the cousin of Jaya is not a mother, but the motherhood complex is deep
seated in her. That is why she thinks that she is mother, though she is not. Marriage plays
a vital role in the life of women. It drags the woman to a life of suffering. It forces her to
dependent state and this is the root of all her struggles and suffering. In every case the
women were depending a men even she is educated. Jaya is trained, educated and cultural
by her elders to keep her marriage intact, not with standing the defects and faults in
Mohan and not with standing the adverse circumstances. Therefore, she suffers along
with Mohan when he commits the offence of corrupt practices and consequentely hides
from his children and avoids law. Jaya was sufferings and struggles only because she is
blind to the faults of Mohan. She meets her brother Ravi, who tells her of this knowledge
of the corrupt practices of Mohan, which has forced him out of his office. She gets
delayed in returning home. This infuriates Mohan she suffers silently bearing the burnt of
his anger. This is a classic instance of male chauvinism. The character of Jaya expressed
that she want to be quiet even if she know the reality of the men. She convinces herself
for her husband’s fault. It makes her to suffer silently in her heart.
The woman suffers because she submissively acquires all to the husband, which
includes that of her body. She yields to sexuality perforce. She knows that he needs her
body alone and that he cares not for her feelings and thoughts. ShashiDespande
establishes the truth that it is the women that suffer because of the roles devised for them
The double standards practiced by the male dominated society the women to
education and a position of pelf and power and solid earnings the women perforce suffers
from lack of economic independence and the opportunities to live on her. The roles of the
daughter, sister, wife, mother and widow force the women to experience a life of
constraints and restraints. Her life becomes a constricted because she is to conform to
certain customs, traditions, and follow the rituals. She suffers from the impositions of
taboos.
The second novel Small Remedies, in this novelDespande describes the period of
about a year in the life of Madhu. It is a woman-centered novel. It is a novel about myriad
feelings-love, courage, honesty, truth, trust, death, the pain associated with death, about
music, about the power exerted by time and by words. The theme of self-discovery, it also
deals with oppression and subjugation of women in a conventional Indian social order. In
this novel all the female characters are subjected to gender discrimination but
SavitribaiIndorekar is the only one who dared to choose an independent and challenging
life. Bai married into an affluent Brahmin family elopes with a Muslim table player in
In this novel all the characters are tradition, modern, educated and empowered
women through society labels them subaltern. Madhu and Savitribai walking out of
wedlock are post modern women. Leela on the other hand is a strong leflist woman and
outrightly admits her hatred towards Gandhiji’s principles of Ahimsa and Sathyagraha.
However both Madhu and Leela admire and uphold the familial values of Indian tradition
and culture. Savitribai through closely tied to Indian culture through traditional music
She shows how the protagonist searches for identity and the liberation. Madhu’s
search for identity is linked with quest for liberation and selfhood of Leela and Savitribai.
Madhu feels alienated after her father’s death and goes through a phase of feminine
insecurity and identity crisis. She says “my own life had ceased to exist and I could only
watch, from a distance, others living out their lives” (SR 44). Madhu senses a self and
decides to start a new life with Som. Leela, too decides to come out of a cocooned after
her husband’s death and moves on. Savitribai’s search for identity as a singer forces her
to give up all that she has. Memory plays a dominant role in the journey of these women
towards their selfhood and self-assertion. “memory, capricious and unreliable though it is,
widowhood. Savitribai and Madhu are portrayed as biological mothers but Leela’s
maternal instincts overrules. Munni rejects her relationship with Savitribai for known
reasons while Aditya distances himself from Madhu for personal benefits. Both of them
are unable to get along with their mothers. Madhu finds Bai’s indifference to Munni
unacceptable as she herself is a grieving mother. Adiya’s death gives her a hard blow
whereas Bai is unaffected by Munni’s loss. Madhu narrates:” when I look into the
mirrors, I see only what I want to see: a mother, a loving mother… PutaMoha. Yes, I am
Widowhood is a major issue of women. She keeps staying in her husband’s house even
after his death and educated her brother-in-laws. Her cross-caste remarriage to Joe
retaining her identity shows her determination in self-hood. The psychological effects of
widowhood are very much visible in Madhu as she ruminates over their past memories
and desires for a better life with Som. The novel portrays the wishes and sufferings of a
woman as a widower. The unique traditions and culture shows that the women must
suffer or want to end her life after the death of her husband. Modernism shows the
remedies for this social problem as remarriage. It will give a new life for a woman.
The third novel, “The Binding Vine” occupies a special place in all the works of
ShashiDespande in the sense that it presents especially the world of women. In The
Binding Vine the theme of sufferings begins with the painful experience of Urmi, who has
recently lost her daughter Anu, who died in an accident. The loss of her one year daughter
makes Urmi extremely sensitive to woman’s intense relationship with their children.
Giving birth to a child make the women happier more than nothing else in the world. The
loss of her child makes her to suffer internally. It is the emotional suffering which makes
her to feel. Proper care from her family can make her to feel protect and to find solution
for the problem. This growing awareness makes her relate to other woman who may not
be close to her in time or relationship. But it is their female experience of child bearing,
nurturing of the child, and the precarious kind of life women live in a patriarchal society
that draws her to them. She realises the strong emotional bonds that relate a mother with
her child. The experiences of Shankuntala, a poor woman, whose teenaged daughter has
been a victim of rape, of Mira, her dead mother-in-law, are instances of women whose
urge for freedom, creativity and full human development was destroyed through forced
explored through these instances and the novelist probes into many forms of female
subjugation, suppressions and even destruction through male and social indifference to
The loss and despair of Urmi finds Shakuntai caught between her loyalities for her
younger sister Sulu, who commits suicide, and her daughter Kalpana who is almost a
dead person. Urmi involvement with Shakuntai, Mira and the decision to bring out in
public these incidents irritates her mother-in-law Ajji, and Vanaa, her sister-in-law. They
are worried about public exposure and embarrassment that would follow thereafter.
Shankuntai, having lost Kalpana and Sulu, now looks a upset woman. Yet she becomes
all the more concerned about the second daughter, Sandhya, afraid that she might lose her
too. She blames herself for the sufferings of Kalpana. But as a mother she finds within
Urmi’s relations with Inni, her mother also acquire a new level of understanding
when Urmi learns the ways in which her mother was powerless against her father’s will.
Inni tells Urmi that the decision to send Urmi to Ranidurg to live with her grandparents
was taken by Urmi’s father, as a form of punishment to Inni for her supposed neglect of
the child. Urmi had always resented this distancing from her own home, and blamed her
mother for casting her away. Inni’s helplessness and inner sufferings makes Urmi realize
the wide spread subjection of woman to the men; women do not have freedom or right to
live as they wish to: their lives are bond by male will, desire and physical strength,
depriving women the opportunities of growth into full human beings. Women’s bonding
and mutual support seems to Urmi to gain a great social value when she realizes the
disadvantages in which women like Mira, Kalpana and Shakuntai live. Unable to speak
for themselves and fight for their rights, they suffer all forms subjugation, deprivation and
Shashi Deshpande has created domain to write about women. Her creativity is
reflected in her wide range of woman’s experience which she has made her province to
confer status and dignity on woman. Her women suffer because of inequality and denial
of freedom leading to disillusionment at every stage of life. They feel that fulfilment of
life is possible and could be achieved only through freedom of self and self-reliance and
The introductory chapter provides necessary information about the writer and the
Indian literature. It also deals about ShashiDespande as a novelist and it highlights the
The second chapter ‘Woman in Tranquility’ focuses the suffering of women. The
society forces the woman to lead a restricted life. So she suffers a lot in silent. Nobody is
there to console or support her. Women’s life start and end with tranquility.
The third chapter ‘Quest for Identity’ analyses how the protagonist of the novels
identify their own destiny. By their quest they identify their life goal and work hard to
suppressed by the name of culture and tradition. The traditional thought drags them to
forget about their destiny. Modernity forces them to forget their moral values. So it gives
The last chapter conclusion sums up the scholar’s analysis of the novels.
Deshpande characters are trapped in the trans cultural identities in which the women
characters are educated and exposed the western ideas but confused with tradition and
modernity.
CHAPTER II
Women in Tranquility
CHAPTER II
Women in Tranquility
The real spiritual progress of the aspirant is measured by the extent to which he
achieves inner tranquility. Tranquility is the weapon of women. It helps to avoid some
problems in our day today life. The plight of the women are still worse, aggravated by her
problem of marital adjustment. The women are leading a good life because of their
that crosses all borders and all classes of women. Many years Indian women are a silent
sufferer. In the novel, That Long Silence protagonists, Jaya is oppressed by particularly in
all her different roles, she plays in her life-as a daughter, as a wife, as a mother and as a
writer.
Early times women have been viewed as a creative source of human life.
Historically, they have been considered not only intellectually inferior to men but also a
major source of temptation and evil. In Greek mythology, for example, it was a woman,
Pandora, who opened the forbidden box and brought plagues and unhappiness to
mankind. Early Roman law described women as children, forever inferior to men. In
early Christian theology it also says about the St. Jerome, a 14th-century Latin father of
the Christian church, said: "Woman is the gate of the devil, the path of wickedness, the
sting of the serpent, in a word a perilous object." Women got education and rights in
recent times but women doesn’t got full freedom equal to men. Even though they are
educated they are living in home and after their marriage they take care their husband and
children. Men don’t allow them to go for job, they won’t give importance to their feelings
and emotions.
The attitude toward women in the East was favorable. In ancient India, for
of women toward men. Women had to walk behind their husbands. Women could not
have own property, and widows could not remarry. In both East and West, male children
Many retail stores would not issue independent credit cards to married women.
Divorced or single women often found it difficult to obtain credit to purchase a house or a
car. Laws concerned with welfare, crime, prostitution, and abortion also displayed a bias
against women. In the Despande’s novel the character of Shakuntai doesn’t have child, so
her husband move to another woman for children. In possible violation of a woman's right
to privacy, for example, a mother receiving government welfare payments was subject to
frequent investigations in order to verify her welfare claim. Sex discrimination in the
definition of crimes existed in some areas of the United States. Deshpande novel the
character of Mira in same condition. Her husband raped with in her marriage.A woman
who shot and killed her husband would be accused of homicide, but the shooting of a
wife by her husband could be termed a passion shooting. In such situation woman were
suffer a lot.
In the 1980, many women as well as men taught in elementary and high schools.
In higher education, however, women held only about one third of the teaching positions,
concentrated in such fields as education, social service, home economics, nursing, and
library science. A small proportion of Women College and university teachers were in the
physical sciences, engineering, agriculture, and law. The great majority of women who
work are still employed in clerical positions, factory work, retail sales, and service jobs.
Secretaries, bookkeepers, and typists account for a large portion of women clerical
cleaning women, and hairdressers. Only through education women got freedom to survive
in this society.
mother's example that cooking, cleaning, and caring for children was the behavior
expected of her when she grew up. The major reason given was that the girls' own
expectations declined because neither their families nor their teachers expected them to
prepare for a future other than that of marriage and motherhood. This trend has been
changing in recent decades. In Deshpande novels the characters are modern and educated.
In the Indian situation we find that the culture that created a Sita and a Gandhari
law, and a mother/mother-in-law. The Hindu Society has deprived of woman the
as described in Raja Rao'sThe Serpent and the Rope, ‘Women should not be’. Man's
relationship with woman is most often the bond that exists between a master and a slave.
Woman is an object and she is necessary to man because it is in seeking to be made whole
through her that man hopes to attain self-realization., In recent times, it is a culture that
voices of oppose are heard and particularly education and formal education played a very
important role regarding the social status of women. Education is a major avenue of
upward social mobility. Education is the enter that opens the door to life which is socially
essential. The Indian social structure, its strength and stability is clearly and indisputably
vested in the family. For women, the greatest achievement is motherhood. Everything
Gandhi once addressed, "God has blessed woman with the strength of faith in a
measure that is not given to man. So long as we cannot dispel the ignorance which makes
women put male off spring above female, it won't be well with us." Women’s freedom
and liberation from a male supremacy is believable but it will only succeed with the
support and cooperation from the women of the world, which is extremely improbable. In
order for women to obtain freedom and equality, we would have to break our ties with
men. It has been built into us that a man is a essential for a woman’s survival in the
chaotic world.
woman is constantly defined as the Other by man who takes on the role of the Self. As
Beauvoir explains woman is the incidental, the inessential, as opposed to the essential. He
is the Subject, he is the Absolute she is the Other. Beauvoir investigate how radically
to maintain its social power. Modern woman "prides herself on thinking, taking action,
working, creating, on the same terms as men; instead of seeking to disparage them, she
declares herself their equal. In order to ensure woman's equality, Beauvoir advocates such
and legal abortion for women-and perhaps most importantly, woman's economic freedom
and independence from man.As far as marriage is concerned, the nuclear family is
damaging to both partners, especially the woman. Marriage, like any other authentic
choice, must be chosen actively and at all times or else it is a flight from freedom into a
static institution.She demands that women be treated as equal to men and laws, customs
In the novel That Long Silence the character of the Jaya annihilate the original
aspect of her personality to keep Mohan happy. For the happiness of her husband and
family Jaya maintain silence in her life. She devotes herself to the care and fulfilment of
her husband’s and her children’s needs. Thus, obedience and loyalty, which are
oppression. A woman is even expected not to be angry or revolting as stated in the novel
“A woman can never be angry; she can only be neurotic, hysterical, frustrated. There’s …
no room for despair, either. There is only order and routine” (TLS 147-148).
Women were treated cruelly by their husbands; Mohan says that her tolerance of
brutality is the power of women. But Jaya thinks differently as she says “He saw strength
in the woman sitting silently in front of the fire, but I saw despair. I saw despair so great
that it would not voice itself. I saw a struggle so bitter that silence was the only weapon.
of leitmotif in the novel That Long Silence. Woman after woman keeps silent. Mohan’s
mother keeps silent because she has no other choice and Vimala is silent about her
suffering because there is no one to listen in her martial home, and by the time Mohan
and Jaya take her to a doctor for treatment, it is too late, “she sank into a coma and died a
week later, her silence intact” (TLS 39). Through this novel all the characters are suffer
silently due to different problems. Jeeja husband was drunkard and beat his wife, she is
she had started working for me, giving me a hint of what her life was alike.
There had been a days when she had come to work bruised and hurt, rare
days when she had not come at all. But I had never heard her complain.
What had surprised me then, what still surprised me, was that there seemed
She learns that silence is the easiest way out: “I knew his mood was best met with
silence. And I was right. By the time we sat down to dinner, he was in a more agreeable
mood” (TLS 78). Mohan too knows how silence can used as a weapon. Jaya recalls,
I had found myself raging at a silent, blank-faced man. I had ignored his
silence at first, but when it had gone on, not for hours, but for days, it had
unnerved me. It was I who had made the first conciliatory move and only
then, when he had spoken to me, had I realized what my anger had done to
If Mohan’s mother died because of too many pregnancies, his sister Vimala dies
because she cannot have a baby. She is suffering from an ovarian tumour, but suffers
quietly. Mohan was very sad when doctor says it’s too late so she died. Her mother-in-
law says “I had heard of women’s going to hospitals and doctors for such a thing. As if
other women don’t have heavy periods! What a fuss! But these women who’ve never had
Silence is a precious thing in the life of Jaya. She gives up serious writing because
Mohan feels that people will find autobiographical touches in it, “How can you reveal our
lives to the world in this way?” (TLS 144). She keeps silent, instead of explaining that her
fiction is not self-revelatory, it is a transmuting of experience into something different.
(TLS 144).
Deshpande says that all her novels, the women were get married and also suffered
a lot in their marriage institution. The chains of traditional marriage are heavy. In the
absence of any other alternative, wives often seek comfort in obsession or mental slavery
leading to physical decay, disease and death. This unappreciated martyrdom becomes an
essential part of a housewife’s existence. She is expected to subordinate her own needs to
those of her family. She is supposed to bear her development and suffering silently as her
fate. Mohan’s mother and his sister, Vimala, both suffer throughout their lives. But they
never utter a single word of protest. Finally, they die in silent agony without getting any
help from their in-laws. She suffers all these accusations without any exclusion because
Deshpande shows the influence of mother on daughter, father on son inspite of the
generation gap between them. Vimala, Mohan’s sister, follows her mother in suffering
silently as Jaya says “I can see something in common between them, something that links
the destinies of the two … the silence in which they died” (TLS 39). Mohan, like her
father, holds that a wife is a passive creature who can never be angry. When Jaya talks to
him in a daring tone, he retorts, “How could you? I never thought my wife could say such
things to me. You’re my wife … My mother never raised her voice against my father,
In fact, Mohan had seen his mother obeying his father and bearing the insults
understanding and clash of expectations between them. But Jaya has to adapt herself to
has to adapt herself according to his husband’s family rituals and traditions without any
complaint. Jeeja’s husband and her son, Rajaram, represent the male domination in lower
class. The son follows the habit of father drinking and beating his wife. They
demonstrate their manhood by being violent to their wives. Still they feel that the women
intellectual. He treats Jaya as an equal and Jaya gives expression to her real self in
Kamat’s Company. But there is no physical relation between the two. In society, a
married woman cannot be have a friendship with another one. The friendship between
Jaya and Kamat suffers due to this reason. People, including her friends and neighbours
like Mukta, do not approve their relationship. One day when Jaya finds Kamat lying dead
on the floor, she silently leaves the place because of the fear of social disgrace. In such
case woman unable to say their sufferings and struggle to their husband. Instead of
Jaya’s father makes decisions regarding her life. When she wants to listen to film
music sung by Rafi and Lata broadcast from Ceylon Radio, her father decides whose
music she should listen to, “ he had despised addiction to what he called ‘that disgusting
mush,’. He had tried his best to wean from the habit, to make her love Paulushkar and
Fiayaz Khan instead of Rafi and Lata” (TLS 3). As a daughter she is trained from her
When Jaya was a child, her inquisitiveness to question things were restricted by
her grandmother Ajj “I feel sorry for your husband, Jaya, whoever he is,She had said to
her once. What for, Ajji? Look at you- for everything a question, for everything a retort.
Jaya’s grandmother remain silence when she questioned her. When Mohan faces
a crisis in his job, he orders her to move along with him to the Dadar flat and Jaya as a
submissive wife obliges and moves along with him. Though she tries to satisfy his
demands.
Jaya as a mother of two children feels that she has failed in the role of a mother
too, “I had failed at it”.(TLS 50) Jaya who is dominated by patriarchy plays different
roles as an obedient daughter, submissive wife, and sacrificing mother reacts to and copes
with such domination. Her first reaction to domination is silence, which is important
theme of the novel. Jaya realizes silence as a weapon against patriarchy. She declares, “It
was so much simpler to say nothing, so much less complicated” (TLS 99). Jaya’s silence
for the past seventeen years is a way of suppression of the tortures endured by her. But
during her stay in the Dadar flat, she analyses her life with her husband Mohan and in the
Jaya makes her choice by refusing to become a victim of trends and is determined
to break her long silence which has plagued her family. But there are other women who,
like Jaya, belong to the middle class, but unlike her, suffer silently without protest taking
the suffering to be their fate Vanitamami, Kusum, Mukta, Mohan’s Mother and Mohan’s
sister, Vimala .
Though being silent for many years she realizes her own power, “it came as a
shock to her to realize suddenly, that her long suffering silence had been in vain” (TLS
139). She tries to resolve to fight and overcome domination. She reshape her life and the
power to do it transforms her life. Her statement at the end of the novel, “I’m not afraid
any more. The panic has gone,” ( TLS 191)shows the empowerment she had gained. She
reshapes her broken identity by breaking the fetters of a father’s daughter, as Mohan’s
wife and as her children’s mother, to Jaya which means victory. It ends with her resolve
Mohan’s father uses his power over Mohan’s mother by abusing her and torturing
her. He wanted his rice fresh and hot, from a vessel that was untouched. “Once when
there was no fresh chutney, the next moment he picked up his heavy brass plate and threw
it, not at her deliberately at the wall” (TLS 35). Mohan’s mother also resolves to silence
like Jaya. Jaya suppressed herself silently to cope with the social and cultural outlook.
She left with no identity of her own. She says, “Just emptiness and silence"(TLS144).
Woman have a strength as well as weak. But in this novel the character seems to
be opposite.Working class women like Jeeja, Tara and Nayana are physically beaten.
Though Jeeja’s husband beats her and abuses her, she never complains about her plight
and remains silent; her silence is in contrast most restful. “Enduring was part of it and so
she endured all that she had to … there seemed to be no anger behind her silence...” (TLS
51).Jeeja’s silence indicates both a defiance of oppression and a stoic, calm acceptance of
life.
Jeeja’s son behaves in the same way as his father. Her daughter-in-law Tara, who
belongs to the younger generation does not resort to silence, but becomes aggressive.
“Tara had none of Jeeja’s reticence or stoicism. She cursed and reviled her husband and
sobbing loudly, moaned her fate. So many drunkards die, she cried, but this one won’t”
(TLS53). When Tara curses her husband, Jeeja silences her and reduces her to a passive
(Humm293). Though the women characters suffer due to violence they don’t break their
ties with their husbands. They feel secure in the society with their marital status, In That
Long Silence Married women were suffered silently. The novel portrays the middle class
women’s predicament in a dominant society with particular focus on the married women
In the novel The Binding Vine, Mira also one such women who bears the
oppression and sexual assaults of her husband silently. The other woman character in the
novel, Kalpana, the second heroine of the novel, undergoes the rape, but due to poverty,
her mother wishes to hide the mistake. Unlike these women, Urmi journey is not an
excursion into her own past, but the buried life and thoughts of her mother-in-law, Mira
and Kalpana , a poor domestic servant’s daughter, where these women are crumbling
under the weight of their sorrow. In some incidents which sets the tone of this novel The
Binding Vine, it express the tremendous familial and cultural pressures which succeed in
Mira's journals and poetry reveal the pain of a vibrant young woman trapped in an
unhappy arranged marriage, and of a gifted writer whose work, because she is a woman,
must remain shrouded in secrecy and silence. Then there is Kalpana, the survivor of a
brutal rape and a young woman who has also been silenced. As she hovers between life
and death in a hospital ward, Kalpana is watched over by her impoverished mother,
Shakutai, with whom Urmi forms an unlikely bond of mutual comfort. The lives of three
women who are haunted by fears, secrets, and deep grief are bound together by strands of
life and hope a binding vine of love, concern, and connection that spreads across chasms
chooses to remain silent inspite of being aware of her uncle’s advances. It is the day prior
to the death of her sister Sulu that Shakutai learns the truth. Salu breaks her silence about
her husband’s obsession for Kalpana. She immolates herself the following day to a tone
for her husband’s misdeeds. Shukatai who had been blaming her daughter so long is left
to cope with the bitter truth that it is her own blindness and ignorance that have destroyed
her daughter’s life and not Kalpana’s “willfulness and stubbornness” (BV172). The
reason why Sulu remained insecure, frightened and unloved throughout her life was
because she was barren. Through Shakutai has had her own share of problems like her
sister Sulu.
order to provide a condusive atmosphere for her growing children, Vanna never voices
her feelings. She continues to be mute till the end. Considering the fates of Mira,
Kalpana, Shakutai and Salu, Urmila regains confidence. Realizing the importance of
survival and need to cope, Urmila marches forward nourishing the idea that life is worth-
Urmi urges Shakutai to get the case registered as a rape so that the culprit is
arrested and suitably punished, but she fails to convince Shakutai whose immediate
concern is that the rape should remain a secret. Shakutai seems to be more worried about
the scandal that would certainly ruin the family’s name and impair the marriage prospects
of not only Kalpana but also her second daughter Sandhya. The mother’s reaction is,
undoubtly, a reflection of the society governed by patriarchal norms. Shakutai wants her
daughter to suffer in silence, it can cause curiously and lead to a scandal making the
with regard to each other. But the end of the novel shows us Urmi laying down her
armour before her mother. Inni breaks Urmi’s silence about the wrong that she had
suffered at the hands of her husband, Urmi’s papa. Urmi’s father had sent Urmi away to
his own mother at Raindurg as a punishment to Inni for her motherly duties. He had not
changed his mind inspite of his wife’s entreaties and tears. Urmi, who now knows from
her own experience how painful it is for a mother to be deprived of her own child. It can
believe her mother when the latter pleads to her: “I didn’t want you to be sent away to
Raindurg, believe me Urmi. I didn’t want that, Iwanted you with us, I never got used to
the idea of of your being inRaindurg. Iwanted you with me…” (BV 200).
When Sulu comes to know that it is her husband who has committed rape on
Kalpana, breaks her long silence about her huband’s infatuation for Kalpana to her sister
Shakutai and commits suicide. In Despandes’s, women who do not break their silence to
Urmi has freedom at home but feels for others’ suffering- Mira’s, Kalpana’s and
Vanaa’s and suffers silently for the passionate demands of her physique. Mira has neither
freedom at home nor anybody to share her poetic feelings nor freedom to protect her body
from the outrageous, passionate attacks of her husband. Therefore, she suffers from the
sense of solitariness: “It seems appalling to me when I think of the choice of my own life,
of its freedom. Cloistered in a home, living with a man she could not love, surrounded by
people she had nothing in common with- how did she go on?” (BV127).
The death of Anu brings a sense of guilt in her life. She also feels that enjoying
personal happiness without Anu will be a betrayal for her. When her mother Inni makes a
suggestion to put a picture of Anu on the wall, she bursts out. In this she maintain silence
herself.
To put my Anu on the wall, to place my child among the dead, no more a
part of my life, never more part of my world- how dare Inni, how dare she
think such a thing. A white-hot rage explodes in me, blinding me, so that
Inni’s face is blur. Then it comes into focus and I can see her- Karthik
standing by her, holding on to her Sari, the two faces alike in their
In the novel Small Remedies, the protagonist Madhu accepted Chandu’s offer to
write biography, she certainly did not bargain for the silence Savitribai exercises with
respect to Munni. It says “if Munni did not exist. Never existed” (SR 64). In the fourth
United Nations Conference on women held in Beijing, Ms. Hillary Clinton opined: “For
too long the history of women has been a history of silence. However it is now no longer
acceptable for the world to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights” (123).
Madhu expects her husband to be a friend, to understand and share the truth of her
life. But, as Chandru says: “…men and women can never be friends. Men can be
brothers, fathers, lovers, husbands but never friends” (SR 254). Som, an intelligent man
‘Tell me the truth’. Som says, over and over again. He dismisses the truth
of our life together, of our love, our friendship, our life as parents of a
beloved son. What he wants is something separate and distinct from the
And then the lovers became strangers glaring silence at each other:
Som and I locked in a silent, fearful struggle that exhausts us. We are like
speed, on the verge of going out of control, yet unable to stop, unable to
Madhu is filled with helpless anger and turns on him in violent but she also senses
an enormous sad under his suspicion and anger. Madhu no longer replies to him.
However she understands that her silence, “makes things worse, it’s a bigger barrier
between us than my words had been” (SR256). When Som alienates himself from his
wife, Madhu thinks of going away but she wonders where she could go and how she
could leave her son Adit. Thus Som and Madhu are locked in “silent fearful sruggle that
dangerous speed, on the verge of going out of control, yet unable to stop, unable to help
Madhu who enclosed in fog of bereavement caused by the death of her son Adit,
In the life of one man, never the same time returns, words which had
ominously empty life can be. Thinking of this incident now, Madhu feels
that you can neither undo nor repeat what has happened that the past is
irrevocable, that time moves on rentlessly and you have to go along with
it. (45)
Madhu alienated physically and emotionally from her son as well as her husband
and she says : “It’s so silent that I can hear the two clocks ticking, two separate sounds ,
the time in the two never merging. For me, it is like two different racks on which I am
stretched , each moment, each ticking second, one more since Adit left, one more without
his return”(300).
Lakshmi Holmstorm rightly says that “silence is like a collage of memories” (247)
and this is also quite true that withdrawl from life and being silent cannot erase the
memories of the past. Madhu herself admits: “we need to mourn him together, we need to
face the fact of his death and our continuing life together. Only in this is healing
possible”(323).
According to Nicole Shepherd “I think that many men are afraid of the
feminine qualities within themselves, such as intuition, empathy and caring. They see
them as weaknesses, since they want to belong to their male stereotype. So they shut
down these important qualities and make a virtue of doing so, and keep women out of
the picture of their daily lives. Of course, this has to change if human society is to
come away from the inferior but in some cases the society won’t allow them to come
up. If they breakup the rules they get beat from society so most of the women keep
silence in their life, because they thought silent is the best way to lead life.
Tranquility is the strength of women to face the problems. But in some cases it
will give sufferings for them. Women will keep all the worries in their mind .So men
think it as a weakness and start to torture her. It will give both physical and mental
sufferings for her. The only way to overcome these problems is that the men want to
change their mentality. They want to give proper consideration for women and for
their emotion.
CHAPTER III
In the mythology, the concept of quest serves as a device to find out the ideal
and fiction. It is a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of
quest figure outstandingly in the folklore of every nation and racial culture. According to
George R.R. Martin, “Self-identity is never forget what you are, for surely the world will
not. Make it your power then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it
will never be used to hurt you” (39). Identity crisis or search for identity has received a
thrust in the post-colonial literature. The quest for identity, which involves self-definition,
which is often central theme of contemporary women’s fiction. This process is both
environmental and emotional that breaks upon the path towards female individuation and
From the ancient time women is considered as the goddess in the Indian society.
Though it is also true they are not treated as goddess. They are being mistreated and used
them to fulfil the wishes of men. In view of them goddess is not enough to give them full
cultural, social and economic change. The spread of popular culture, on one hand,
alienates the people from the traditions of society, and on the other hand, links them to the
society.
Simone Beauvoir dissects the gender-based oppression into women’s liberation
Unmodified,” differentiates from Beauvoir’s vision in “The Second Sex,” in that it focuses
on the political sphere rather than the social sphere, there is still an element of unity
structures such as childcare, equal education, contraception, and legal abortion for
from man. A marriage in the nuclear family is damaging both partners, especially the
woman. Marriage, must be chosen actively and it is a flight from freedom into a static
institution. She demands that women be treated as equal to men, laws, customs and
Women play a great role in everyone’s life without woman men cannot imagine
the success of life. Women play a significant roles in our society from their birth till the
end of life. They are the highly responsible for the successful continuation of the life.
Earlier they were considered as only wives and mother who have to cook food, clean
home and take care of the whole family members alone. But, now the condition has been
improved a little bit, they have started taking part in the many activities other than family
and kids. She never demands anything in return of her roles instead she performs her roles
politely without any argue. Government gives a lot of awareness programmes and rules &
regulations in the society but even though her life is more problematical than a man.
Deshpande’snovels shows the theme of quest for self and a new identity. These
novels the protagonists’ genuine search for love and identity as well as their need for
creative expression and freedom to assert their femininity in and outside marriage. Her
approach to the women’s question and her treatment of the condition of woman character
is strongly feminist. R. Mala holds: “Her feminism is not western oriented because it is
born out of typically Indian solutions. For her fiction represents the predicament of the
Indian women placed between family and profession; between culture and nature”
(Mala56).
her character she declares that salvation is hidden in tradition. Unlike western literary
feminism, her female protagonist does not indulge in radical steps to assert their
individuality. Rather, they recreate their individual space with grace and family
deeply concerned with the quest; with the search to define a meaningful identity in an
aggressive, social and domestic climate. This theme has a special significance in these
novels as she wishes to depict women’s internal struggle to untie the enormous
exclusively a search for identity crises that engages women writers in general, but rather
female protagonist. This is obviously seen in Despande’s novel That Long Silence, The
The female protagonist, Jaya in the novel That Long Silence, who is an educated
middle class woman, conforms to the system and constraints of the society. She is not
capable to find out whether she lives for herself or for her family. She is taken for granted
by everyone in the family. That is why she wants to find out her identity. Jaya herself
doesn’t know how she leads her life without identity. She finds herself attentive and lost
in the web of doubts and confusions. When worlds, she recalls the pitiable insanity of
Kusum. She loses her own world. The life with Kusum is like a madness of Hamlet of
Shakespeare.
She is a good wife with adore and fondness for children, respect and sense of duty
for husband and her in-laws. She gives up her life for her family. Nobody in her family
understands her feelings and emotions. Because Jaya doesn’t expose her intention to
anyone. Being husband and wife, she shares friendly relations with Mohan, yet, she is
unable to communicate herself with him in terms of feelings. Her silence is represents
most of the women of the world who are unable to express themselves as individual.
Sometimes she loses her temper because of the subjugated activity of Mohan. But she
doesn’t show it back to him. It shows how the women are dominated by men in our
society.
Nobody is there to encourage her. Because they were grown up in the same
circumstance which gives less priority for a women. So they ignore her, as they remain
engaged in themselves. In this situation the character finds very difficult to fulfill her
desined life and lacks her courage. Moreover, she loses her identity when her name is
who has no equal rights keep the name given by her parent. When a magazine asked for
the bio-data of Jaya after marriage. She accepts her spouse as a superior one and act
accordingly his own wishes. Even change their names given by the Suhashini. In this
case, woman asks her identity in the family life. She could give only a few lines as her
profile.
“Finally when I had sifted out what I had thought were irrelevant facts,
only these had remained: I was born. My father died when I was fifteen. I
got married to Mohan. I have two children and I did not let a third live”.
(TLS 2)
She feels a kind of stagnation when she recalls that her life, seemed so busy and
nothing, but a valueless detection. She is compelled to leave her home after marriage. She
wants to give up her life for her husband’s family. She missed her identity after her
marriage.
ShashiDespande uses first person narrative to open the voiceless story of Jaya.
Jaya, in the very beginning confesses that she is going to disclose her real self. In order to
do so, she alienates herself from her real self that is incidental under the silent attitude of
Jaya. She moves back and forth in time to recollect her subservient and inactive self. Jaya
was born in modern family. Her father had named her Jaya, which means victory. He
wants her daughter to be bold and courageous, but she remained how her needs and
feelings were hidden by her own liberal father. Jaya loved film music, but, her father
wanted her to enjoy the classical music of Paluskar and Faiyaz Khan. “What poor taste
you have, Jaya, I can remember him saying to me once” (TLS 3). To him, film music was
poor and cheap, Jaya as a child did not revolt but kept calm. It was the first blow to her
identity. She experienced and dissappointed a loss of self and began to keep her feelings
and emotions controlled to her. Jaya was unable to express her feeling towards anyone.
She feels that after her marriage she will lead a good life. So she expects a lot
from her husband and it also utter into failure. After marriage, Jaya encountered the
similar prospect from her husband, Mohan. She sacrificed her taste for the sake of male
children. A family somewhat like the one caught and preserved for
posterity by the advertising visuals I so loved. But the reality was only
Jaya fails to find her own place at her parental home and seeks marriage with a
hope to find it at her husband’s home. But there too she fails in providing Jaya’s own
place. Jaya confessed, “Worse than anything else had been the boredom of the
unchanging pattern, the unending monotony” (TLS 4). She needs a change in life. The
strong feelings started speeding up to find a voice. She found a correspondence between
her marriage and “a pair of bullocks yoked together….” (TLS 7). It is because she
believed herself as a bullock and moves in the same direction and same speed to avoid
pain and grief. If she allows her fate to win it make her life in trouble. She bears the
problems of her life in passive. She doesn’t allow her dilemma to overcome the life race.
She also compares herself to Gandhari, who blind folded herself to share the blindness of
her husband. She realized that she had totally transformed and lost herself during the
process of pleasing Mohan. She changed her name, personality and profession according
to Mohan’s will.
The expectation of male over female in the dominated society is nothing but the
passive submission. In this novel, Mohan expects her to change him oppose all his
masculine power on her. But when Mohan left Jaya, she was broken and helpless.
Because she didn’t have the experience of self-motivation and self-decision. She moved
out into unknown streets. She felt the situation insufferable, but it is this crisis that
awakened her to her own identity. She decides to search for her identity and sets on in
quest for her identity. Jaya in her quest reached at a situation of compromise. She agreed
to change herself and hoped for a change in Mohan who had written a message that
announce his arrival. The settlement on the part of woman, as well as man makes Shashi
Despande a liberal writer who does not commit a writing that chooses ultimate freedom
The central character Jaya is a modern predicament and the flood of realization
that ensures out of it is a silent stream of thoughts and feelings. She knows pretty well
that in order to get by in a relationship one has to learn a lot of tricks and “Silence is one
of them ... you never find a woman criticizing her husband, even playfully, in case it
Jaya defeats and surrenders to Mohan without revolting. “She never says yes
when her husband asks her whether he has hurt her. She endures everything, tolerates all
kinds of masculine oppression silently ...in the emotion that governed my behavior to
him, there was still the habit of being wife, of sustaining and supporting him” (TLS 48).
ShashiDespande in her novel That Long Silence exhibits the dominating husband
and anguish wife. The wife does not directly respond to the situation but the reader is
insinuated through the flashback technique used by the author particularly at critical
junctures in the psychic life of wife Jaya: “Lying lonely in her room, her mind shuttles
between the past and the present and thus covers the whole period of her life. Mute and
Jaya has a tendency for being transmuted into an inspired expression. In her inner
creativity end fulfilment but this creative appearance is introverted due to lack of solitude,
of physical space to reproduce. Jaya renamed her name after marriage as a Suhasini, it is
not a loss of identity as Jaya and Suhasini are the two faces of the same coin and these
two collateral names of the Despande protagonist are symbolical in their socio-familial
significance.
Jaya, her premarital name means victory and Suhasini, the post marital name
given by her husband which means “a soft smiling, placid motherly woman. A woman
who lovingly nurtured her family.A woman who coped” (TLS15). Jaya is a woman who
adjusts and accommodates like a socially accepted woman, “forced into the background
by the claims of culture” (TLS 16). She is not the structurally patterned woman of the
traditional Indian society where woman was the follower and man the leader, where
woman was the sufferer and man the ordainer. She does not want to be like a epic story
“Sita following her husband into exile” or a Savitri dogging death to reclaim her
husband” or a “Draupadi stoically sharing her husbands’ travails” (TLS 11). She believes
that there is pain in aggression, and rebellion in anguish and misery. Hence, she adopts a
Now, what I have to do with these mythical women? I can’t fool myself.
pain?. (TLS11-12)
In this way Jaya attempts to expose her actions through the animal imagery of
“two bullocks yoked together” (TLS 7). But she is never safe when yoked. So she
flounders to break out of the yoke: “Stay at home. Look after your babies, keep out the
rest of the world, you are safe. That poor idiotic woman Suhasini believed in this. I know
better, now I know that safety is always unattainable. You are never safe” (TLS 17).
Her past flashback disappointments her mind fading out the realization of her
present plight in the situation. The memories of the past enlighten the present and the
ordinary images, the sparrow story and the myths (like the Ramayana) lend a universal
touch to her tragic corner. The nursery rhymes and the petty scenes though unrelated to
the sequence of the narrative, have a thematic importance. They portray the abandoned
and the lonely Jaya’s flow of thought and her temporary mood captured through the
Take your pain between your teeth, bite on it, and don’t let it escape … (TLS 32)”. Jaya’s
self-questioning attitude comes as a split in the plot. She broods over the metaphor of the
sheltering tree:
equally logically and vulnerable, this followed logically. And so you have
to keep the tree alive and flourishing, even if you have to water it with
deceit and lies. This too followed, equally logically. (TLS 32)
Struggling with the horror of her freedom and her honesty, Jaya dreadfully needs
to protect herself from disputing and reducing in the disintegration world around her. Her
frantic laugh at the silliness of marriage echoes the insane woman’s laughter. It
symbolizes her cousin Kusum’s insanity through which she tries to define herself
negatively. Hence, the self-questionings “Who am I?”She thinks, “Am I going crazy like
Kusum” (125).
Memories play a unique part since the novelist’s aim is to text the flow of human
perception in different directions unaware of its taxing effects on the readers whose
sensibilities have been nurtured on the scientific and modern ideal of reality. An
individual’s exposes of thoughts and emotions rather than well thought responses of her
life. Despande presents the vast and concealed impressions of human life through
digressions. Her protagonists are not her representatives instead they emerge as living
persons who, are similar in some ways, possess personal traits and characteristics that set
them apart from the other characters in her books. The character in the novel That Long
Silence, whose name is “small, sharp and clear, like her face…” (TLS 26).However,
passive, and has silenced and muffled her own voice consciously. She has the potential to
re-define herself.
Towards the end of the novel Jaya consciously acknowledges her writings as a
kind of fiction and quotes Defoe’s description of fiction as a kind of lying, which makes
‘a great hole in the heart’(TLS 191). Hence she decides to plug that hole as said earlier by
speaking and listening and erasing of the silence that symbolizes the statement of her
feminine voice, a voice with hope and promise, a voice that articulates her thoughts. The
novel does not depict Jaya’s life as a totally bleak and hopeless struggle. It suggests hope
and change for the better: “We don’t change overnight. It’s possible that we may not
change even over long periods of time. But we can always hope. Without that life would
herfeminity and write like a male narrative voice. ShashiDespande presents the modern
Indian women who search for these identities in this male dominated society. Her own
suggestive of the struggle to feminist expression that prevails in India in the middle of the
twentieth century. She tries to distance herself from women’s lives and point of view
through the use of a male narrative voice. She deliberated over this practice, in one of her
discussions: “why did I have the male ‘I’? to attain perphaps a distance as well as a
universal stand. She says, “I too had felt that there was something trivial about women’s
concerns, something very limited about their interests and experiences” (TLS 31).
Through her marriage she wishes to her, a separate identity, her self-knowledge
and makes to realise her “awesome power over him” (TLS 82). In India women lives
inside the four falls of their house. Even though they are educated, woman has no
liberation as like men. Women should be a good wife, mother, and daughter but she won’t
In the novel The Binding Vine,Urmi is totally opposite to Jaya. She is violent,
economically independent, takes her own decisions and her feminism prompts harshness
in her equations with others. She is a lecturer in a Bombay College; she lives with her
mother, Inni and her six-year-old son, Kartik. Her love is very match with Kishore, a
former neighbour now working with the Merchant Navy and away from home for long
years. Although she lives with her mother, her representation suggests the strong-willed
single woman. She is a strong and more strident. In that respect, she is like any other of
accepting one’s vulnerability are not weakness but liberation, and that violence is not
ShashiDeshpande. It represents the sense of women world. A man makes the presence by
their power they exercise over the women, especially over their wives and daughters.
Urmi’s unhappiness with her mother was deep- rooted in her separation from the early to
latter age. Right from her childhood day she had been sent to her paternal grandmother,
she had no close relationship with her mother. But Urmi was neither in a position nor in a
mood to find out the cause of her displacement or her mother’s predicament. Inni, had a
early marriage, so she was unable to take care of her child properly, while trying to justify
herself, she explains to her inner conflict to her daughter. She says that her father was an
authoritarian husband; he was the decision maker of the family. Urmi’s mother had to
Urmi has many strengths. At the age of fifteen her independent violent is seen,
when her grandfather attempts suicide, she stays alone with that corpse all over the night.
While Kishore goes to bring some other members of the family. Unlike Mohan in That
Long Silence, Kishore in The Binding Vine is a very supportive and understanding
partner. So, the crisis in her life is not caused by a domestic battle but by the sudden death
The death of Anu is one event that reveals her at her most vulnerable. It is an
incident causes her intense grief. She repeatedly asks, Why me? (TBV15) her distress
sometimes manifests itself in psychomatic attacks of asthma so that she is left for breath.
In other times she explains that it is focused into hurting herself masochistically to
experience pain. The fundamental theme of the five dreams she describes in her narrative
is helplessness and despair, emotions that are a typical of the strong Urmila:
I am running along the sea. There’s someone else with me… I can hear the
footsteps, I can hear the heavy breathing, but I cannot see whoever it is …
I have to keep running ….Now it is becoming difficult; the sand, soft and
Urmila is a strong woman but more aggressive than assertive. Her growth as a
characterized by her evolution towards self-assertion from the opposite end that is
aggressiveness. Urmila’s strength is also very admirable. She stands up for her values and
convictions as a few Indian women. In the centre of family responsibility, She also
supports Kaplana, the rape victim, and Shakuntai, her mother, as household worker.
total freedom and sometimes total surrender to the expectations of their husbands (as in
case of Jaya), they are dissatisfied and unhappy. Therefore, they wish to re-define
themselves. A woman must give expression to her inner space and self; at the same time,
she need not reject the social institution of marriage and family (and the duties that
accompany it) or her fundamental human values. Urmila in The Binding Vine is the
simple looking young woman who wears glasses, and blouses that don’t match her saris.
There are astonishing resemblances among the protagonists – they are basically defiant
and committed to fight oppression. They represent together the, new collective voice of
dynamic young women who are not going to lead constrained lives.
solutions. She took the different choices speak for themselves, the choice to conform or to
break free. Sometimes she seems to be barely deep sentiments of De Beauvoir, who she
admits, has influenced her, and according to whom it is women who have to define,
measure, and domain. Deshpande believes that women have deeply internalized the
dominant society being better artistic than most other Indian women, her protagonists
cannot visualize an independent identity for themselves and so they become submissive.
Urmi at last understand her mother after the death of Mira’s mother.
Her mother is a caretaker as well as decision maker of her family with modest
arise. She was an unassertive woman and always said, “Nothing is in my hands” (TBV
126). Mira’s mother was not happy in her married life likewise Mira also lead an unhappy
married life. As a traditional mother, she had her own world of dreams about her
daughter but Mira’s marriage and her pregnant was very sad moment in her life.
Generally one shares one’s sorrow with near and dear ones, particularly mother. Here
Mira had no doubts or feeling of sorry that she didn’t share her feelings with her mother
since she had felt alienated from her, the intensity of her unhappiness was known to her
mother, “she knew I was not happy, I know she knew it, but her afraid to ask me, afraid I
women writers and thinkers to write about women from woman’s point of view. T.Asoka
Rani comments “ShashiDeshpande desires that women need to offer resistance and
emerge as strong willed individuals to face life resistance and emerge as strong willed
individuals to face life, to share responsibilities and not to escape from it” (17).
The woman’s self-respect grows as she manages her duties as a wife and mother.
Women’s lives within the society takes them towards a new understanding of the
significance of family. The roles do not remain closed and inhibiting. But through them
women gain fulfilment and self-awareness. Creating self-awareness can avoid these
realization of Indian woman in a hostile patriarchal society. She makes an important tool
in the quest for self and projects Savitribai and Munni as failures due to their rejection of
a certain part of their lives. Madhu and Leela accept the facts of their life, to achieve the
success in their quest. In this novel the writer focuses the life and experience of
Savitribai, Munni and Leela. Among them, Madhu alone finds her identity by
shows the unconscious plane of Madhu’s character. It shows the inner sufferings of
Madhu. The past also intrudes into the present causing confusion in Madhu’s married life.
The thoughts of the protagonist Madhu keenly narrated. Her feelings are easily pictured
in the novel. Deshpande explores the innermost recess of the human mind.
SumitraKukreti remarks, “Her introspective and psychological probe makes her second to
none in revealing the unconscious and conscious psyche of her characters”. (192)
In the tradition bound male dominated Indian Society, the Indian women has
struggled to understand herself and preserved her identity as wife, mother and above all a
human being. When Adit does not return for three days after leaving home, Som have
identity himself. It recalled through the thoughts of the protagonist : “They say your
identity is stamped on every cell of your body, your signature is all over it. Did they see
Adit’s name when they collected the limbs and gave them my son’s name?” (SR
302).Madhu is now alienated, both physically and emotionally from her son as well as her
husdand. Violence against women whether physical, mental or emotional is an issue that
crosses all borders and all classes of women. Women in India have been able to claim her
own individuality.
The words which always associate with what consider to be the concept of an
ideal women are self-denial,sacrifice, patience, devotion and silent suffering. A woman
was expected to subordinate every shriek and every desire to someone else apparent, a
husband or a child. But Despande’s protagonists are desirous to revolt against the
stereotyped roles assigned to them by society. Initially victims of self-denial they are at
conflict with their inner selves because they deny their real feelings. As psychologists tell
us the denial does not mean that the feelings cease to exist, they will still influence his
behaviour in various ways even though they are not conscious. Despande’s heroines
move from self-abnegation to self-realization. Her protagonist compel them to struggle
Madhu reconciles herself to the death of her son Adit. It shows great melancholy
in Madhu’s life. She enters her son’s room and it is there that the madness ends for her
and she admits to herself: “I know Adit is dead, I know he will never return” (SR 305).
Then she breaks down and gives way to tears. However she is alone in her grief because:
“If Som hears me sobbing, he doesn’t come to me, he leaves me alone, like I left him to
himself when I heard him sobbing the first night after Adit’s death. I face the grief of our
son’s death alone as he did” (305). Madhu also thinks she might have she might have
born the death of her son better if she had been with him and seen him die. Adit memories
Through Small Remedies, Despande has candidly clamoured for women to realize
that nothing is as great as preserving our identity, our individual rights and our personal
freedom. Men and women are merely the agents and the power to reproduce and shape a
better generation is decidedly woman’s forte. The character Madhu faints herself when
she hears about her son’s death. She has lost a valid identity in the society. Madhu bears
the guilt of Aditya’s death, as he had left home suddenly, unable to bear her estrangement
with Som. However, her estrangement with her husband had begun, much earlier than this
tragedy. One night Madhu had revealed to him a secret, which was buried in the
innermost recesses of her mind. When she was a girl of fifteen she had once slept with a
man who had later committed suicide. She did not want to hide it from Som consciously,
but “had misplaced it in the chaos” (SR 269) of her life after her father’s death. Som is
not able to tolerate the willing participation of his wife in this act. Madhu recalls, “But it’s
the single act of sex that Som holds on to, it’s this fact that he can’t let go of, as if it’s
been welded into his palm. Purity, chasity…these are the things Som is thinking of, these
are the truths that matter” (262). For Madhu, the act alone is irrelevant. In that moment
she outgrown and wants to adapt herself to the challenges life has posited before her.
Madhu analyses her own anger at the unknown forces, which had victimized her
son. In order to escape the memories of the death of Adit, Madhu deserts Som and comes
to Bhavanipur to revive her career as a journalist. Madhu’s realisation dawns her life to be
lived, no matter what happens, even when things look abysmal. That truth comes to
Madhu not abruptly but slowly as she witnesses the lives around her. One such instance is
marked with muted pain and grief. The death of the father had not meant that the
upanayanam could not take place. Life had to go on. Madhu thinks,
So many of us are walking this earth with our pain, our sorrow concaealed
is well, so many of us surviving our loss, our grief. It’s a miracle. (SR
315)
It tells the story of Madhu, Saptarishi whose search for self is linked with the
search for identity of two other women SavitriBaiIndorekar and Leela. It is through their
struggle for identity that Madhu comes to know her own self.
Madhu was a motherless child brought up by her father and a servant, Babu. But
the love and affection she received from them gave her a secure childhood. Her father’s
death shatters the adolescent girl. Her grief with the knowledge of another woman in her
inclination that makes her body respond to the comforting embrace of a friend of her
father. His effort to console her leads to a sexual encounter between the two. But
immediately after the incident Madhu goes to Bombay to see her dying father, and the
sorrow that engulfs her after his death blanks the incident from her memory.
Madhu discovers too late that she ought never to have blured out to Som what had
happened and meaningless in the present context. To her it was not something she had,
deliberately hidden from him. “I was not telling Som, I was sharing something with him,
a thing I’d just discovered myself” (SR 260). Madhu realized the enormity of her act
Madhu whole life changes when she finds herself in a new town and a new
people. Her stay in aunt Leela’s house proves to be a strange experience. In the beginning
she is unable to relate to Leela’s husband, Joe as her uncle and his hostile children, Paula
and Tony as her half cousins. Madhu passes through a phase of complete loss of identity
in her new surroundings amongst strangers. As she lates says “It was not only the
knowledge that I was merely passing through, that I would be going to the hostel in a
Perhaps, Deshpande in her novel tries to explode the educated Indian woman who
is popularly assumed, and liberated. Their education should have given them the freedom
and the courage to do what they believe in. It should have given them the determination
to assert themselves as individuals, to set limits with their partners. However, they fail to
in their childhood via socialization. Thus, Deshpande gives the impression to convey the
idea of emanicipation and to come out from the patriarchal oppression to emerge as
individuals.
Both Madhu and Savitribai in the novel ‘Small Remedies’ gets the freedom to live
their life in their own terms. But strangely, this breaking out of stereotypical moulds, this
assertion of identity and individually does not come without a price. In the novel, women
voice out the gender steretotype in society, and redefine gender stereotype and live their
own life.
Women writers in Indian Writing in English have become more conscious of the
concept of a liberated woman. Deshpande’s literary works of art explore the inner psyche
of middle class educated women. Shashi’s concern in her novels is quest for self-
discovery. Her protagonists strive to find out themselves through the fullness of
experience in their lives because they are trapped between tradition and modernity. They
are haunted by the memories of their past and feel a kind of worthlessness. However, at
the end they realize their selves. Her women protagonists are middle class, educated, who
have become victims of conjugal life and its responsibilities. Though, they appear to be
outwardly, but they seem to lack direction and feel a sense of futility. Her women
Deshpande's novels fit into such a scenario and help women to realize their
potential in a positive manner. In her novel Small Remedies she powerfully narrates the
dominated and tradition-bound society. The theme is delineated in terms of the conflicts
and imbalances between traditional expectations and the new demands on the part of
modern women. In the process of resolving the conflicts, the women in the novel undergo
The women in her novels face sufferings in their marriage. The sufferings are
generally inevitable when a woman refuses to conform to her so called established role as
wife, mother and other stereotyped roles. The cultural changes in India are contrasted
Madhu a woman, who had the courage to walk out on her marriage and family,
she is so frightened to reveal the existence of her child. She wonders how she gave that
child the name Indorekar the name she adopted as a singer not comprising either her
gives an impression that Madhu is endowed with the quality of selfassertion that
Savitribai too had been endowed with. Besides, Savitribai is free from the sense of
The novel explains quest for self-realisation of Indian women, who live in a
hostile patriarchal society. Despande portrays the failures of women too. The failures are
due to their denial of a certain part of their lives. The novelist does this in comparative
terms. The abilities of Madhu and Leela accept the facts of their life and achieves them a
success in their quest. Through these two characters, one understands the novel is one’s
Indian Society continues to live in two worlds, the traditional and the
traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is
traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name” (132). According to Jose Andres,
“The modernity of yesterday is the tradition of today, and the modernity of today will be
analyse the process as well as the quality of social change. All societies have tradition,
but what we describe as ‘traditional societies’ refers to a particular historical part of social
The term ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ are expressions of values which help us in
observing the process of social and cultural alteration in societies as they pass from the
the path and speed of the progress of society. Tradition and modernity is a nonstop
process of change. Sometimes regular transformation and sometimes hurried changes take
These novels deal with the inner world of Indian women. She portrays the
tradition and modernity in relation to women in the middle class society. In her novels,
women in the traditional society are mainly piercing of desires, efforts and failures. Also
it focuses the anguish of middle class women in her novels. They live together with
different age group, classes and gendered roles. It makes them to forget about self-
examination. They have their own inner struggle whether to follow the values or to keep
away from it. Women has problem either to give tone to women are to follow the
traditional rules of society. Family is the power and fault of women. It makes them forget
Modern Indian society cannot absolutely break itself from the old traditions. The
existing tradition offers numerous instances of the spirit of free and critical inquiry of the
highest intellectual order, willpower to pursue truth regardless of where it leads a positive
and secular approach to life and a tradition of abstract thought necessary for the growth of
modern knowledge.
intermingle of tradition values and the modern spirit. Trapped between tradition and
married life. She states that “she does not believe in a simple opposition of bad bad men
and good good women. I don’t believe the world is like, that at all”. (Holmstrom22)
Shashi in her writings wishes to modernize the culture but she does not search for
stimulation completely from a culture which is not a part of her own tradition. She can
reasonably get it from her past and launch permanence with it. Deshpande does not look
upon all traditions as bad and harmful. To her, traditions have the values of agreement
and co-existence that symbolize the Indian way of life. In her statement, modernity is an
independent individual identity. She seeks solution to the problem by changing mind set
of the men folk towards the women. The human race of men now is in a development of
women thinking. It cannot be changed without changing man’s way of thinking.
thereby reflecting the author’s view that a woman must assert herself
21st Century. She prevails the picture of ancestral relationships and the burning problem
of women’s identity in Indian society. She is very much aware of the significant and
secondary position of the Indian women who have been wedged under the customs and
traditions of the ancient Indian Society. The illiteracy of the women and their weak and
subservient nature and their love and fondness towards their husbands and children have
thrown them into sub-graded status, as they lack strong willingness and courage to fight
against the age old traditions and taboos. Prasanna Sree comments on Indian women thus:
The Indian woman – She is the one who is torn between tradition and
modernity, she is one who is in search of self-identity, she is the one who
(12-19)
Traditions, that teaches women to behave like ideal legendary women. The
character such as Sita, Sakuntala, and Savitri, tempt them to be called ideal, and prohibit
them to come out of the traditional circle. Almost all of novels Deshpande narrates the
story of Indian women who have been facing mental disturbance and confusion for ages.
Shashi’s women at the beginning of the plot remain passive, obedient and
complying with all the requests of their husbands. But progressively glide away from
their spouses due to natural quarrels and conflicts. Deshpande seems to believe the
sentiments of Simon de Beauvoir whom she admits herself inclined and according to
whom it is women, who have to define, deliberate and discover their special province.
present, East and West, tradition and modernity. She rarely writes in seclusion because
she endeavors to create new spaces far away well conservative conventions. While
representing traditions she has tried to break the barriers of tradition which make
women’s lives unhappy. Deshpande presents the tradition and modernity in the
framework of female issues of domestic nature where they are subjected to struggle,
The present investigation deals with three of her novels to find the tradition and
traditions, marital infidelity is still more serious for the woman” (Beauvior 610).
In the novel That Long Silence, Mohan is a traditionalist who wants his wife Jaya
to conform to his prospect. He desires his wife to be modern and educated, but also
expects her to have traditional qualities like obedience and elasticity. As a husband,
Mohan never tries to understand his wife, her emotions and her psychological needs. On
the other hand, Jaya annihilates the creative facet of her personality to keep Mohan
happy. She devotes herself to the care and achievement of her husband’s and her
children’s needs. Thus, obedience and loyalty, which are well thought-out to be the
even expected not to be angry or repulsive as stated in the novel: “A woman can never be
angry; she can only be neurotic, hysterical, frustrated. There’s … no room for despair,
Jaya cannot find cheerfulness and liberty in her married life even she is educated.
She was forever caught in the struggle between the traditional and the modern style of
judgment and the existing traditional system. Jaya the heroine in That Long Silence gets
troubles in marriage with her husband‘Mohan. Jaya, seems to be a writer who has got a
award for her story. But by that story, Mohan felt hurt to face public degradation for
enlightening their personal life. Mohan reflected the disapproval face to Jaya and she then
stop writing. She says, “And looking at his stricken face, I had been convinced. I had
done him wrong. And I had stopped writing after that” (TLS144). In fact Jaya never tried
to make Mohan understand the difference between a fantastic story and the actuality.
Jaya feels autonomous throughout the novel; but she lacks the courage to revolt
against her husband. When her husband caught in the trouble due to the accusation of
corruption, he wants Jaya’s companionship in defeat which she refuses. After a self-
analysis, and probing of her own opinion and approach, Jaya realizes her mistakes.
Finally she understands that to declare her distinctiveness saying, “But it is no longer
possible for me. If I have to plug ‘hole in the heart’ I will have to speak, to listen, I will
have to erase the silence between us” (TLS192). Thus Jaya comes forward and shape out
a new identity for herself. Her traditional role as a wife, in her variants between tradition
and modernity and her disasters destroyed her married life with Mohan and her silent
Jaya is a modern predicament and the shower of consciousness that ensures out of
it is a silent flow of thoughts and feelings. She knows beautiful that in order to get by in a
relationship one has to learn a lot of tricks and “silence is one of them… You never find a
woman criticizing her husband, even playfully, in case it might damage the relationship”.
caught in the catastrophe of a transitional society where the transfer is taking place from
traditional to modern. The Binding Vine is a superb illustration of the tradition and
modernity. Urmi, the female protagonist is a confidentand strong woman who marries
Kishore, a merchant navy officer. She herself works as a lecturer in a college and able to
handle both her professional and household duties very well even in absence of her
husband. However, the death of her one-year-old daughter Anu breaks her heart totally.
She needs the support of her husband at this critical moment of life. On every occasion
she expects her need for emotional breakups. But Kishore responses back her sexually.
He does not understand the strength of her feelings and there arises a crack between them.
Due to the traditional thinking Kishore is unable to differentiate emotional fulfillment and
sex.
Deshpande analyses female psyche at points out the discomfort of her traditional
of endurance and loyalty and a selfless bestower of adore and love. Urmi while mournful
over the failure of her daughter, gets involved and finds relief from her intolerable pain in
the dilemma of two persons, Mira and Kalpana. One already dead and another going
happened to Kalpana happened to Mira too” (63). What binds Mira, Urmi’s mother-in-
law and Kalpana, a poor household servant’s daughter is that both have been the victim of
rape. What Mira suffers is usually not recognized as rape by our society and tradition, but
the genuine right of husband. Considering woman as feeble and dependent, the Indian
tradition had empowered the male members to take control over woman’s life. Mira is
A growing poet and an eager student, Mira loses her right to education because a
man decides to marry her. With a compulsive love, the man plots to get married to her,
leaving her with no choice. Mira’s reluctance to marry and her interest in studies have no
consequence for the man, who nourishes the dream to acquire her. Traditionally, marriage
is the only ambition of a girl’s life. Fearful that, they may not get a better match, Mira’s
parents decide to marry her to a man much older to her in age, instead of letting her
discover her poetic talents or her studies. Her fear of marriage and the right it grants to
Emotionally undeveloped and perceptive at heart, Mira could not recognize her
husband’s love and fascination that was limited only to sex. She fails to accept him as her
master and adoration him. His obligation on her, which he thinks an expression of love,
shatters the sensitive Mira, who creates a wall around herself and reconciles from
establishing an emotional relationship with him. Her powerlessness to manage and his
forced love-making make her to be concerned of a hate for him. She realizes that the
patriarchal Hindu society and its traditions do not recognize a woman’s feelings. Thus,
I give him the facts, nothing more, never my feelings. He knows what I’m
doing and he gets angry with me. I don’t mind his anger, it makes him
leave me to myself, it is bliss when he does that. But he comes back, he is
begins. ‘Please,’ he says, ‘Please, ‘I love you.’ And over and over again
until he has done, ‘I love you.’ Love! How I hate the word. I have learnt to
say ‘no’ at last, but it makes no difference, no difference at all. (BV 67)
The affirmation of her identity in “I am Mira” (BV 101) is her strong qualities and
recent outlook. With the loss of such selfhood women have to endure yet another kind of
brutalization.
Mira’s diary reveals how Venu, a poet, cleverly snubs her for attempting to write
poetry. Here Mira is represented as a woman of past generation who does not have the
bravery to revolt against the male domination due to her traditional nurture. She tried to
understand her own ‘self’ through her writing. She is a talented poet but she does not
allow to develop her poetic talent because of her gender. When Mira gives Venu some of
her poems to read, he says, “Why do you need to write poetry? It is enough for a young
woman like you to give birth to children. That is your poetry. Leave the other poetry to us
men” (BV127). It is insightful of the handicaps that women writers frequently face in a
male-dominated society
of motherhood. She does not have hope of anything beyond her wifely and motherly
roles. In the novel Urmi motherhood caused by the sudden death of her baby daughter
Anu; Urmirealationship with as a surrogate daughter through the reading of her poems
and Urmi close understanding of the mother-daughter bond between Kalpana and
Shakutai. The mother of Mira, who is traditionally adopted and accepted her role as
mother and had her own world of thoughts about her daughter and, hence, she remains
satisfied with seeing Mira married and pregnant. Mira stands against her mother’s
assertion on the straight role of daughter-in-law is understood that she neither wants to
become a sufferer of the trap in which women are being caught in their lives, nor does she
want to be forced by her mother into same trap which her mother, willingly or
unwillingly, had been caught. Her mother has a secret hope that her daughter’s destiny
Urmi is grieving the loss of her eighteen-month-old daughter Anu, a grief and
emptiness that cannot be filled till she experiences a connectedness with her mother and
identification with her child, she experiences herself as a cared for child…
given that she was a female child, and that identification with her mother
and mothering are so bound up with her being a woman, we might expect
Mira’s unfortunate death in child-birth ends her protected existence with a man
she could not love and people she had nothing in common with. But the innumerable
experiences of her life discovered in her poems. Urmi who identifies Mira’s story with
that of Kalpana, a lower middle class rape victim.Kalpana, a young and gorgeous girl
becomes the prey of her uncle, Prabhakar. Urmi meets Kalpana and her mother Shakutai
in a hospital and becomes aware of the censorship and ill-treatment of women in the
lower strata of society. In spite of her hopeless marriage, Shakutai life turn scatter when
husband leaves her at a young age. It reveals the duality of society which expects a
woman to keep her marriage even if the husband is good for nothing whereas allows a
Shakutai and Kalpana. Shakutai is a typical, protective and affectionate mother, who had
nurtured fear in her heart since her daughters grew up physically; she hates her daughter
being dressed up in a stylish manner or her using makeup. She feels that it would
unreasonably attract male attention, “If you paint and flaunt yourself, do you think they’ll
leave you alone?”(BV146). But Kalpana’s ideas of life are different from those of her
mother. She was on the entrance of her youth and had her own income. She loved to dress
dictates. And when she struggles between life and death, she holds her mother
responsible for what has happened to her. Shakutai, being a depressed and frustrated
woman, fails to understand her daughter’s sense of freedom, who had dreamt of living an
autonomous life of her own, different from the domineering and overpowering life of her
mother and aunt. She even resented becoming their shadow and never wanted any of her
Urmila’s contribution with Shakutai, her sister and daughter brings to light the
way in which the rubber trample of the traditional culture is working in her sexual
disparities between men and women of the lower class. Kalpana had been brutally raped
and in the process she was physically and mentally injured. On seeing her daughter
Shakutai is shocked but due to the fear of social stigma she cries, “don’t tell anyone, I’ll
never be able to hold up my head again, who’ll marry the girl, we’re decent people” (BV
58). But Urmila tries to explain to Shakutai that Kalpana is not at blunder. Though Urmila
is a modern educated woman, she does not reveal any fundamental attitude towards her
own marriage. When Dr.Bhaskar declares that he is in love with Urmi and proposes to her
indirectly, she is surprised and refuses to abandon her good quality because he believes in
traditions are the values of agreement and co-existence that symbolize the Indian way of
life and modernity is the affirmation of independent individual identity. A sudden jump to
modernity may be harmful to the Indian women because of the culture and society which
basically differ from that of the western people. Keeping in view, the long standing
traditions of Indian society, seek solution for the problem of changing mind-set of males
towards the females. Though the protagonists in her novel achieve selfhood, they don’t
contradict the family or society. Deshpande shows hatred neither to tradition nor to
modernity rather she believes in the understanding of the old and new, of the tradition and
modernity.
broaden the range where the wife and husband live together happily and adequately. She
also likes to maintain a balance between old values of life and modern fashions coupled
Deshpande, may be harmful to the Indian women because of the deep-rooted culture and
for men and other for women. The novelist presents a miserable picture of the patriarchal
model through her characters Som who marriages Madhu and later separated. Madhu, an
educated and modern woman suffers a lot at the hands of her husband who always tries to
overpower her. In the seventeen years after their marriage Madhu discloses to her
husband a secret that she had interaction with a man who was a close friend of her father
when she was fifteen and after that the man commited suicide. Som, her husband who
spends a wonderful married life with her wife, at the same second changed person with
his representative male psychology holds on this single act of sex, the willing
membership of his wife in this act forgetting the reality that he himself has had a full-
fledged relation with a married woman before marriage. Here ShashiDeshpande shows
the clear picture of traditional society where the mind of a man is set that he has freedom
to fulfill his desire by having many love affairs before marriage and a woman has to bond
to maintain her virginity before marriage. Men expect that the women should follow
Chasity. But the whole society is least bother about men. Women will surrender their
entire life for the society and for their own family. In traditional society pre-marital sex
In the novel Small Remedies, Som is totally distressed and considered as faithless
This is what I’m speaking to Som, this is what I’m sharing with him. But
it’s the single act of sex that Som holds on to, it’s this fact that he can’t let
go of, as if it’s been welded into his palm. Purity, chastity, an intact hymen
these are the things Som is thinking of, these are the truths that matter.
(SR262)
ShashiDeshpande appears to believe that by not argumentative and presenting
conflict, the women have to blame themselves for their own discrimination. She,
therefore, suggests that they themselves have to break the chains that have surrounded
them. They have to revolution against the social set-up and free themselves from the
Madhu, as a writer by profession, to get rid her conjugal tension and for her
persistence of Chandu. Writing gives her scope to get away from the tension in her
marriage and to make out herself. She holds the enclosure and admits,
I can take over bai’s life and make what I can trap her into an image I
create, seal her into an identity I make for her. The power of the writer is
the power of the creator. Yes, I can do much. I can make Bai the rebel who
rejected the conventions of her times. The feminist who lived her life on
her terms.The great artist who struggled and sacrificed everything in the
SavitraBai comes from a prosperous and orthodox Brahmin family. She loves
music and dancing. The traditional society doesnot accept girl’s talents. The society
considers the art of music and dances are morally wrong to women. It is after her
marriage. She learns, her father-in-law’s love for music. His support gives her self-
confidence and desire of him let her learn music. Breaking away the chains of tradition, a
female coach was arranged for Bai, very soon a Muslim tabla player came to join the
group.
The family was angry but Bai’s purpose to achieve her goal, gave her enough
bravery to face the anger of her family members and the society. Once again, she revolts
against the tradition, in search of her identity and to finish her dreams elopes to Bombay
with her tabla player, Ghulam Saab. Bai was very sure in her single pursuit of ambition,
peripheral all the other things. Here novelist presents a clear picture of traditional society
that for a man to pamper in his love of music and even to have a singer as a mistress was
not an offence. But for a daughter in law to be learning music is going to be a disgraceful
task. This is the mind-set of the society who categorizes women as wicked on the slightest
divergence of her path while men remain free from any kind of hatred and mockery if he
does something unusual. “A woman who’d left her husband’s home what morals would
she has, any way! Bai was obviously damned by everyone” (SR 223).
She faces number of hardships and humiliation and even gives birth to a daughter
out of marriage vows. And again in order to be the pupil of Pundit KashinathBuwa, she
faces difficulties, progressively all her effort starts to accept the fruits, ultimately making
her into a professional singer and then became the great artist in classical singing world of
music. James Gerein points out that, “Leela and Savitri present prototypical Indian
feminists, generation ahead of their time and successful in their chosen careers. Both of
them sacrifice more than they should have done in and achieved what they want” (James
Gerein, 804). Even towards the end of her life, Bai struggles to find her identity by
ignoring a great part of her life. But to Madhu, the real Bai remains strange even to her
own self. Hasina’s words are a indication of her going back to her faith. She says, “It
began after her first stroke. Suddenly, overnight, she became an orthodox Brahmin”
(SR74).
difficulties from the existing society. She was a confident and a rebel woman in her own
ways and well aware of her needs. Right from her childhood days. Her favours towards
studies reveals that she does not show any interest in the household responsibilities. Her
grandmother’s punishments turned out to be a blessing, for her husband he encourages
her to study and she passes her matric assessment. But the fate decides her husband be
suffered from T.B, and died at an early age. Her husband’s death strengthened her to be
independent and answer her challengers in life. It gave her a definite direction and
purpose, as she has to support her young brother-in-law and her suffering mother-in-law.
She feels them as her responsibility, and hence refuses to return to her parent’s
house. Her assessment of staying in her husband’s house cuts her relations with her own
family, it is only her strength of mind and power wakes her successfully, she takes up a
teaching career and supports her-in-laws. The novelist gives a new element or ambition,
which leads to revolt against tradition. She stresses that confirmation means not reduction
The character Leela, a strong celebrity, who is aware of her needs and the goals,
she had been aspiring for. She fight against all odds and boundaries to achieve the
freedom. She was a social worker and nursed T.B patients. She even takes part into the
1942 Quit India movement during the freedom struggle and is jailed a number of times.
Madhu expresses surprise when she questions the courageous nature of her aunt. She
writes, “Is it true that, while underground, she was responsible deeds? And that, while she
had narrow escapes, she was never caught, but came out only after an amnesty was
After independence she remonstrated against the price hikes. All her life Leela
fulfils the requirements of her true self irrespective of the borders of traditions. The
author informs about the traditional concept of Indian family. The relational term used for
family members and their duties towards other members of the family and prearranged.
This is one of the very strong examples where individual reality and social reality go in
opposite direction:
This is Baba. He is the father. He goes out to work. This is Aai. She is the
mother.She looks after the home and children. This is Dada, the oldest brother.He
helps first father. This is Akka, the oldest sister. And so on.Each one is paying
the serious and the responsible oldest brother. The eldest sister…(133)
tradition on the one side and modernity on the other side. She develops the quest for self-
It reveals her deep insight into the dilemma of Indian women, who feel suffocated
for the benefit of women. She has presented the silent and obedient women maltreated by
social conditioning, trained to fit to the mythological ideal women role models. The silent
problems of women from their unknown regions of minds are clearly portrayed in her
novels. Her deep insight into woman psyche and perfect understanding of Indian society
brought her global gratitude and created a place for herself in the literary world by writing
She describes her women characters in the light of their wishes, horror, ambitions
and disappointments. They are aware of their strengths and limitations, but find
Deshpande brings to light their inferior position and consequent humiliation in a male-
dominated society
ShashiDesbpande rightly points out the conflicts between tradition and modernity,
through her novels. Her young female protagonists Jaya, Sarita, Sumi rebel against the
traditional way of life and patriarchal values and perceive the structuring of men and
women in gendered roles, restricting their human potentiality and fullness. They struggle
to surpass the restrictive roles so they rebel, reject and seek freedom from the traditional
generations presents the world of women divided into the traditional and modern. Most of
her themes in her novels are the relationship between human, her novels chiefly focuses
who are rebellion. The novels depict the clear picture of the new woman in the Indian
context and the relationship of that modern woman with other traditional women, and also
with other men as father, husband and friend. Thus the human relationships find an
The new woman redefines her relationship with other women in the family as a
mother and daughter, as a friend and direct in the society. She attempts to emphasize the
Though the Indian organization has declared the equal rights for women that are not
applied in reality. Most of the Indian women are modern but they are conservative in their
thinking and position to the foundation. The traditional believes rules are based on the
Deshpande focuses on the issues regarding women struggles, rights and victories.
Her new women dare to question and challenge the age-old traditions. Her individual aim
is to complement the man-woman relationship as equal partners. Her heroines are often
bolder, self-reliant and rebellious. At that end they realize that ‘walking out’ does not
solve their problems. Deshpande has specially concentrated on the theme of lack of
The age old tradition of subordinating women to men is fore stranded as a stigma
in the society. Performing a balancing act between tradition and modernity with varying
out the complexities of leaving traditional archetypes behind them and attempting to live
their life according to the new norms of liberation. In the words of Veena Noble Dass “
The Indian woman caught in the instability of tradition and modernity bearing the burden
of the past and the aspirations of the future is the crux of feminism in India” (Dass 11).
Traditions and beliefs can put its impact on relationships between parents and
children, brother and sister, husband and wife. Here ShashiDeshpande wonderfully
explores the journey of the protagonist from rejection of traditions and modernity to her
acceptance of both at the balanced level. And all their transformations affect the concept
of family. But it shows how the concept of family exist in the battle between tradition and
modernity.
Traditions are predictable part of human history which is given to the next
generations but at the same time by observing the past, we can find that by the time each
tradition changes its face sometimes gradually or sometimes rapid change occurs. The
whole development of the novel shows four stage as revolt against tradition, frustrations,
highlights love-hate relationships symbolize the conflict between tradition and modernity.
Looking at the man-woman relationship neutrally, the novelist does not censure
Traditional and modernization are good for human being to follow some ethics
and moral values. Traditional values allow the human to live with morality. But in some
cases it makes the women to struggle physically and mentally. Also it forces the women
CONCLUSION
Chapter V
Conclusion
A close study of ShashiDeshpande’s novels reveals her deep insight into the plight
society. She highlights inferior position and the subsequent degradation in a male
dominated society. Deshpande’s women characters are the victims of prevalent gross
gender discrimination, first as daughters and later as wives. They are conscious of the
social inequality and injustice towards them and struggle against the oppressive.The
unequal nature of the social norms and rules limits their capability and existence as
feminine roles.
In the novel That Long Silence, Jaya bears troubles in marriage from her husband
towards any deviation from her role of a subservient wife. When threatened with charges
of corruption, he expects her to go into hiding with him; when she refuses to obey, he is
greatly enraged and walks out of the house. Jaya is miserable as she followed her
Vanitamami’s advice that a husband is like a sheltering tree, which kept alive without it,
the family becomes unsheltered and vulnerable. She does but finds herself and the
ShashiDeshpande raises the issue of marital rape in her novel Binding Wine.
Women like Mira, Urmi’s mother-in-law, have to bear the sexual assault by their husband
silently. Despande portrays other women in this novel Shakutai and her sisterSulu also the
victim of this brutality.Shakutai’s husband is a drunkard and a waste fellow, who leaves
his wife and children and marries another woman. Kalpana, daughter of Shakutai is
brutally raped by a sadist Prabhakar, Sulu’s husband. The central character of this novel
Urmi takes up cudgels on Kalpana’s behalf and the culprit is caught. Urmi’s husband is in
navy and during his long absence she craves for some physical gratification. Her
friendship with Dr.Bhaskar provides her ample opportunity, but she never oversteps the
intertwined with the family bondage and suppress their sexuality and desires.
The other novel Small Remedies, is narrated by the SavitribaiIndoreker, She leads
the most unconventional of lives, but undergoes great mental trauma because of the
double standards practiced in society. Right from her childhood she had sensed the gross
gender discrimination in the society that had one set of laws for men and another for
women. Madhu, too, is a victim of double standards of society. She gets alienated by her
husband Som after she discloses to him about her single act of physical intercourse before
marriage, though Som has himself had a full-fledged physical relation with another
In all these novels the characters are not only educated, creative and liberated but
also mature and compassionate enough to reach out to others who are at the bottom of the
socio-economic ladder. In The Binding VineShakutai finds her own voice through Urmi’s
sympathy and guidance. Jaya in That Long Silencehelps the crazy Kusum against
everyone’s wishes, later helps Jeeja when her son met with an accident. In Small
characters go on unquestioningly until they are shaken out of the run by something
catastrophic or disastrous.
insight into the female psyche, focusing on the marital relation. She seeks to expose the
tradition by which a woman is trained to play her subservient role in the family. Her
novels reveal the man-made patriarchal tradition and uneasiness of the modern Indian
woman being a part of them. ShashiDeshpande uses the present social reality as it is
experienced by women. Her young heroines rebel against the traditional way of life and
patriarchal values. She also examines the causes that debilitate the development of a
wholesome personality like sex, sadism and authoritarianism in the present day India. She
discusses female inabilities, their problems and their failure to achieve things in life.
In her novel, That Long Silence traces a woman who is confused by doubts and
fears towards her affirmation. The novelist does not blame entirely the men for the
subjugation of women butthe man-woman relationship in general. She sees how both men
and women find it difficult to grow the images and roles assigned to them by the society.
Woman is a hapless member both in the family and the society. Women suffer while
trying to achieve individuation and autonomy either from the state or the family. She
clearly satirizes and exposes the clichés and sterotypes of gender roles that we frequently
Deshpande’s women are the role models of the new society whose thirst for
modernity, elevation and upgradation is appreciated. Her modern characters are assertive
in nature who tries for their individuality and quest for self identity in the male
centeredsociety. Most of her characterssearch for their individuality within their married
life. Deshpande does not regard all traditions as bad and harmful. To her, traditions have
the values of harmony and co-existence that symbolize the Indian way of life. Modernity
in her is the assertion of independent identity. Traditions of Indian society, she seeks the
solution to the problem by changing mind set of the men folk towards the women. The
changing man’s way of thinking. The unbalanced relationship of man to woman is the
integrate herself with the family and society. She enables as a traditional roles of daughter, sister, wife and
mother, she emerges as an individual in her own right. In this process, men play crucial roles. Major role
as husband or significantly supportive roles as lover, friend and even father, they acts as catalysts
propelling her to a comprehension of her life forcing her into a gradual process of introspection and self-
realization. Women have to put up a great fight to assert their identity. They realize that their quest will be
Deshpande’s novels That Long silence, In the Binding Vine, Small Remedies
Portray the sufferings of women. Every woman has a destiny but do not spend too much
for achieving it. The society plays a vital role in the life of women. It gives certain
restriction for them. So they struggle silently and lead an unsatisfied life. In
ShashiDeshpande’s novels, the conflict which is at the origin of the being for others isnot
stretched to the extreme, for her, women still find room for sustaining man-woman
relationship, as Jaya says at the end of the novel, “that life has always to be made
patriarchal context. She suggests the women to avoid confined man -woman relationship
Deshpande not only presents a feminist insight into patriarchal values but also
working philosophy for the present day woman. Deshpandeinsists her woman to realize
herself that the woman must be true to her own self. A woman must venture out of the
familial framework in order to realize her potential as an individual and give expression
to her inner space and self not by rejecting her marriage or family in the process.
Deshpande’s novels promote the women to come out from their suppressed roles.
Deshpande has been successful in creating strong women protagonists who despite so
many conflicts in their lives, refuse to get crushed under the weight of their personal
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