Women’s Quest for Identity in Shashi Deshpande’s Select Fictions

Women’s Quest for Identity in Shashi Deshpande’s Select Fictions

Mr.G.Aravind, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, SreeSevuganAnnamalai College, Devakottai.

Mr.M.Manikandan, M.Phil Scholar, Dept. of English and Foreign Languages, Alagappa University, Karaikudi.

The question of women’s equality has been on the political agenda ever since Independence. Practically every measure to ensure that women are treated at par with men has been tried out, yet perhaps even the champions of the cause do not take them seriously anymore. As a result the problems are assuming unparalleled proportions. Crimes such as eve teasing, rape, dowry deaths, female infanticide, female foeticide, etc., are splashed all over the newspaper so often that the news to this effect does not raise eyebrows anymore. Ironically, as the number of organizations that work for women’s upliftment its increasing, so is the rete of crime against women. Never before in history had one witnessed a heinous crime against a woman being committed while the crowds stood and watched as silent spectators. All this raises very serious questions in our mind. One wonders whether it is the traditional values and a woman’s upbringing, which emphasizes female servility, that prevents her from standing up for her own rights or it is the mass media that gives the stories a titillating colour that makes a woman shy away from seeking help.

            While the parents in the lower socio-economic strata do not come to the forefront, in case of a problem, due to lack of funds, for the middle class it is the fear of social stigma that stands in the way of getting the criminals to the book. Often the women belonging to the higher socio- strata, too do not protest, as for them emotional dependence on the husband is the biggest impediment. Despite various laws and social organizations, rapid increase in crime underlines the fact that either the implementation of the law is faulty or the social stigma is far more dreadful than the crime itself. What the society needs today is the gradual and constant upgrading of values and a change in the position of women. This empowerment could come from education, economic and emotional independence, implementation of the property inheritance law, support of the family and the mass media and above all, the gender sensitized minds of men and women writers towards women.

            Identity crisis results from negation of the sense of identification with the social, cultural and personal surroundings. It has variously being described as the deadening of life, automatization of man, and his alienation from himself, his fellow men and from nature. In the present social sense, identity crisis or the search for identity is no longer confined to the individual but it can also characterize a group, an institution, a class, a profession or even a nation. Regarding different connection of the concept of the search for identity, SudhirKakar makes a very appropriate observation:

                   An individual’s sense of identity is neither completely conscious nor unconscious, although, at times, it appears to be exclusively the one or the other. At some places identity is referred to as a conscious sense of individual uniqueness, at others, to an unconscious, striving for continuity of experience, and at yet other places as a sense of solidarity with a group’s ideal(16).

Quest for identity is a global issue and it encompasses the voice of all those sections of society who are passing their time in the slumber of subjugation, suppression and suffering. It includes economically weaker, socially backward, the victims of gender discriminations and humble and wretched individuals, surviving far away from the new light of cultural development and technical expansions. In the context of Indian English fiction, the issue of identity crisis echoed as a challenge for the writers who were endeavouring to get recognition, space and acknowledgement at global level. C.D.Narasimhaiah while impressed by achievements of Indian writers, feels that they have not been able to create and assert their identity. “Our Writers”, says he, “have perhaps done well by contemporary English standards but not created their own identity. Indeed, they have not seriously probed it all...” (18). Narasimhaiah discusses identity with references to the inwardness’ which a creative literature and its language reflect. He remarks:

One does not, surely mean one ought to deal with literature form the national standpoint... what one has in mind is a shared tradition, a community of interests, and a set of values that a people live by all of which give sense of identity to individual and nations. The individual artist has to ‘discover’ as well ‘create’ his own identity. He does not find it ready-made.

Of course, in the process he discovers and creates his national identity too. Indeed... the two are connected and not mutually exclusive (18).

Shashi Deshpande is prominent among the galaxy of these writers who have followed the pragmatic approach for redressing the balance of middle-class working women. Shashi Deshpande’s novels represent the contemporary modern women’s struggle to define and attain an autonomous selfhood. Her female protagonists are at great pains to free themselves from stultifying, traditional constraints. The social and cultural change in the post-Independence India has made the women conscious of the need to define themselves, their place in society, and their relationship with their surroundings. Shashi Deshpande's concern is to explore the root cause of the fragmentation and the dichotomy of characters and to find out what happens in the psyche of these heroines in the process of individuation. She has created authentic female characters-flesh and blood characters with recognizable credentials. She has successfully delineated their problems and plights, yearnings and aspirations, failures and foibles, dreams and disillusionments.

            Woman occupies a central place in Shashi Deshpande's novels. The novelist presents a subtle analysis of conflicting phases underlying reason, and to some extent, to suggest a way out of it. Her earnest aim is to analyze the image of woman in her novels and also in her short stories. Woman today plays diverse roles both indoors and outdoors. She participates in all the hither to male-dominated shares. Consequently she faces the fact of tossing between tradition and modernity. Her novels have like those of Jane Austen's a narrow range. They are more of less a fictionalization of personal experiences. Most of the novels present a typical, middle class housewife's life. Deshpande's main concern is the urge to find oneself, to create space for oneself to grow on one's own. One striking thing about her novels is the recurrence of certain themes in them. But the predicament of women- especially those who are educated and belong to the middle class- has been most prominently dealt with. Many of her characters are persons who are frustrated either sexually or professionally. Her novels generally centre on family relationship- particularly the relationship between husband and wife and the latter's dilemmas and conflicts. Deshpande told an interviewer:

                        “Human relationship is what a writer is involved. Person to person and persons to                 society relationship- these are two primary concerns of a creative writer, and, to one,                        the former is of immense importance. My preoccupation is with interpersonal                            relationships and human emotions (Indian Communicator 11).

            Female quest for identity has been a pet theme for many a woman novelist. Shashi Deshpande has also been one such writer and she makes an earnest effort to understand the inner dimensions of the female characters. For her portrayal of the predicament of middle-class educated Indian women, their inner conflict and quest for identity, issues pertaining to parent-child relationship, marriage and sex, and their exploitation and disillusionment, Deshpande has been called a 'feminist'. The publication of That Long Silence by the virago press, London, made its own contribution to this belief. Deshpande's apparently contradictory remarks to her interviewers lent further support to it. Asked whether she would like to call herself a feminist, she replied to Geeta Gangadharan:

            Yes I would, I’m a feminist in the sense that, I think we need to know a world which we should recognize as a place for all of us human beings. There is no superior and inferior, we are two halves of one species. I fully agree with Simone de Beauvoir that “the fact that we are human; is much more important than our being men or women.” I think that’s my idea of feminism (Indian Communicator 11).

                Shashi Deshpande was determined in her conviction that a woman can't be absolutely free sacrificing the innate urges of womanhood. The involvement in professional life and economic independence can bring a partial contentment in the life of a woman but it can't be the ultimate reality. This argument has strongly been projected through the ventures of the life of Saru in the novel The Dark Holds No Terrors. Saru, being a victim of gender bias in her parental home, nurtures the dream of 'happiness ‘in her parental home, in her professional success. However, Saru with her experience in her parental home, in her professional life and her relationship with her husband comes to the realization of truth that she has to survive as a marginalized human being and her identity is to be recognized only within the periphery of male desires. Saru's childhood was not happy. She recalls the memories how her mother used to accuse her for her very birth. She develops a feeling of rebellion against her mother and as a revolt she discarded all the limitations imposed by her. She went to Bombay to make her own space as a successful doctor. Manohar who was a poet, responds to the feelings of Saru. Finally, the relationship converted into matrimonial ties. In the new role of a wife and a successful doctor, she forgets her painful past.

            This temporary phase in the life of Saru was only a diversion. As she gets successful as a doctor, there begins a gulf of differences between Saru and Manohar finds it difficult to compromise with the success, independence, economic stability and recognition of a wife. The nervousness and envy of Monohar transmutes into violence and her silently begins abusing the femininity of Saru. It was intolerable for Saru and her personality starts to disintegrate. Once again she tries to retreat to her past. When she receives the news of her mother's death she tries to escaper from her husband's house and returns to her native home to take care of her father. However, after this returns she realizes that merely shifting between her husband's and father's home will not provide her freedom. She finds herself perplexed to find out the solution of the problem. If in Manoher's home, she was like a trapped animal, in her father home also there was no consolation. She finds a futility depending on, parent's home after unsuccessful marriage and such other relationships. She decides to lead her life as an independence individual, cutting the traditional bonds of and home. However, in the last scene when she was almost in a state of nervous breakdown there was a call for a patient. She was forced to attend to him and gave a lease of life to him. However, along with her awareness of her ability as a doctor she could not resist her desires to welcome Manohar. As soon as there was a knock at the door, she hastily opens the door in the hope of the presence of Manu. It is unconscious manifestation o of her desire to seek a consolation in the company beyond the illusion of self-identity as a doctor.

Shashi Deshpande establishes that the innate quest of feminity is more true to the real female experiences. It is, therefore, the single side efforts to seek a fulfilment in the creative self only stem a greater futility and nothingness. In this respect, the idea of the quest for identity instead of probing an affirmative force results in a balancing act.

Works Cited

Iyengar, K.R.Srinevasa. Indo-Anglian Literature, Bombay: The All India P.E.N. Centre,1943.Print.

Indian Communicator, 20^th November, 1994.

Kakar, Sudhir. The Psychological Origins, Seminar 387, Nov.1991.

NaRasimhaiah, C.D. The swan and the Eagle. Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1969.     Print.

...- “How Major is Our Literature of the Past Fifty Years?” Indian Literature of the Past Fifty Years 1917-67. Mysore: University of Mysore, 1970. Print.