A READING ON THE PORTRAYAL OF THE FEMALE TRAGIC FATE IN MANJU KAPUR’S SELECTED FICTION

Abstract

Manju Kapur in her works, Difficult Daughters, Home, A Married Woman and Immigrant vividly portrays how gender operates within the framework of traditional family disturbing it to its roots. A detailed reading of Kapur’s novels make us aware that through the story of her female protagonists, she projects the view, when an Indian woman, in spite of her education, status and intelligence, tries to marry according to her own choice, is likely to spoil her prospects in both the worlds- the one that she revolts against and the other she embraces. The daring step is severely condemned and rejected. Such marriage is quite likely to prove disastrous dragging the couple to melancholy, depression and despair. The first novel Difficult Daughters, pictures the event during the turbulent years of Indian freedom movement and the partition of the country. It presents the life of Virmati through various ups and downs, with her dreams, desires, longings and aspirations but ultimately ending with a lot of compromises in her life. A Married Woman, traces the life of Astha from her childhood to her forties through various desires and despairs, complements and rejections, and recognitions and frustrations. Nisha in Home quite successfully represent the victimization of female in many joint families behind the veneer of relations. Immigrant focuses on Nina who struggles to break the shackles of the patriarchy and is in a search for the meaning of her life opposing the dogmas of cultural and social critical thinking.