International Indexed & Referred Research Journal, April, 2012. ISSN- 0974-2832, RNI-RAJBIL 2009/29954; VoL.

IV * ISSUE-39

Research Paper - English

Feministic Issues in Shashi Despande's 'That Long Silence'

* Satdev Verma ** Krishan Lal
A B S T R A C T
Shashi Despande occupies a coveted place in the annals of contemporary women novelists, who concern themselves with the problems of women and their quest for identity. Most of her women characters are able to transcend their identity crisis by analyzing their childhood and the process of upbringing. She explores conflict between the tradition and modernity in relation to women in the middle class society. Shashi Despande's remarkable achievement That Long Silence is an expression of the silence of modern Indian middle class house wife. Most of the writers turned women into non-entities and created unreal sentimental romances and finally succumbed to the temptation of feminist ideology. But with the help of That Long Silence Shashi Deshpande got success in her representation of real life experiences.

April , 2012

* Assistant Professor of English, Ladwa College of Education, Ladwa, Kurukshetra, Haryana ** Assistant Professor of English, C.R.M. Jat College, Hisar, Haryana.

Introduction Women writers of Indian English fiction have significantly contributed to enrich contemporary Indian English fiction. Eminent Feminist critics and writers like Kate Miller, Simone de Beauvoir, Toril Moi, Taslima Nasrin, Anita Desai, Virginia Woolf, Elaine Showalter and Shashi Despande etc. have made a remarkable contribution to the literature of feminism. Shashi Despande is also one of the remarkable figures in Indian English Literature, who used a realistic approach to unravel various issues related to socio-economic condition of women in India. Shashi Despande was conferred with Sahitya Akademi Award for That Long Silence in 1990 and Padam Shri Award in the year of 2009. Feminism has become in literary creation, a recognized genre and in literary criticism, a recognized discipline. The main concern of feminism envisages seeking emancipation of women from the male dominance in the patriarchal society. In a male dominant society, woman is supposed to be an ideal wife, a mother and an excellent home maker with multifarious role in family-folds. Service, sacrifice, submissiveness and tolerance are her required attributes. Excessive endurance and series of adjustments make her an adaptable cog in the family. Her individual self has very little recognition in the patriarchal society. In the context of above paragraph, Manusmrit was the earliest dealt with the social philosophy to perpetuate a dependent role for women. Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the male of their families her father protects her in her childhood; her husband protects in her youth and her son protects her in old age; A women is never fit for independence! (Manu 9/3) In the words of Mary and Ferguson,

In every age woman has been seen primarily as mother, wife, mistress and a sex object-their role in relation to man. In the "Second Sex" Simone de Beauvior presents the definition of woman's identity. She believes that it is formulation by European tradition.Humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself, but as relative to him, she is not regarded as an autonomous beingfor him she is sex, absolute sex, no less He is the absoluteshe is the other. Woman is seen only as a sexual entity and this limits the position of woman. One critic remarks: Women have gained only what Men have been willing to grant, they have taken nothing, they have only received. Shashi Despande's That Long Silence explores conflict between tradition and modernity in relation to women in the middle class society. Her depiction of women world is authentic, realistic and credible. Most of the writers treated women as non-entities and created unreal sentimental romances and finally succumbed to the temptation of feminist ideology. Here, Ellen Showalter in Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness says that "the feminist approach is to be more effective, it must be more structured to compete with the antifeminist approach". But with the help of That Long Silence Shashi Deshpande got success in her representation of real life experience. She realistically depicts the inner conflict through her major character i.e. Jaya who suffered from the first to last craving for the quest of the self and identity. Jaya realized the frustration, alienation and overall emotional trauma, she had undergone with several of her adolescent dreams being irretrievably shattered. Initially, after her marriage, she is apparently a satisfied house wife married to a responsible man of social status. For some time all went well and Jaya

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International Indexed & Referred Research Journal, April, 2012. ISSN- 0974-2832, RNI-RAJBIL 2009/29954; VoL. IV * ISSUE-39

adjusted herself in new environment according to the wishes of her husband. She had absorbed herself in the family-folds completely and was no more aggressive and inquisitive but now, she was a docile, meek, passive, nervous and dependent upon her husband for sustenance and existence. Mohan was a man of orthodox view and he gave her not much freedom. In the novel, there lies the smell of frustration in married life of the protagonist, who failed to be closer to her husband mentally and emotionally. Despite her marriage to Mohan, she suffered from isolation and subsequently becoming a mother of two children. Her husband could not understand her emotional self. Jaya leads the life of silent indignation over the rough and irascible attitude of her husband towards her. He is always finding fault with her accusing of being indifferent to him in that hours of crisis. She felt desperate and disappointment in the 17 years of her old martial life that began to tease her. She suffered a lot of traumatic spell when Mohan, in a fit of anger left her. Shashi Deshpande uses an appropriate image of a crawling worm into the hole, to describe the state of Jaya, a budding writer, doomed to dwindle into a stereotyped Indian house wife: Oh God! I had thought I can't take any more, even a worm has a hole it can crawl into. It is obvious that husband and wife drifting far apart due to a loveless marriage life have been crushed as her marriage is based on compromise rather than on affection and understanding in which Mohan assumes the image of "a sheltering tree", while Jaya mostly plunges into the tragic silence due to lack of

communication and companionship. The novel traces how Jaya gradually emerges as a confident individual fully in control of herself and refuses to be led by noose. The protagonist of the novel rejects the image of traditional women like Sita, Savitri and Draupadi and instead prefers the image of a pair of the bullock to describe a married couple. Jaya says: No, what have I to do with these mythical women? I can't fool myself, the truth is similar. A stereotyped house wife initially nervous and seeking masculine support all the time and understands that she also has contributed to her victimization and that she has to fight her own battle and work out her own destiny. It also shows how with this new confidence Jaya becomes emancipated without rejecting outrightly the cultural and social background. Jaya gives the new image to the Indian woman who now tries to stand on her legs and seeks to break the age old silence by refusing to dance to the tune of her husband. With Jaya the assertion of life that 'Long Silence' is threatened to be broken with her decision to "Plug the whole in the heart". The novelist has unleashed a scathing blow to the patriarchal set up and ushered a novel chapter of women liberation in any sphere of life. It has been vehemently emphasized that it is not the circumstances that contribute to the negation of women right but has also highlighted the fact that even their own women folk are polarizing their dig at the emancipation of women. The novel seeks to probe deeper those subaltern tendencies which eat into the vital of our society.

R E F E R E N C E
1.Shashi Deshpande, 'That Long Silence', Published by Penguin Group, New Delhi, 1989. 2.Sathupati Prasanna Sree, "Woman in the Novels of Shashi Despande: A Study", published by Prabat Kumar Sharma for Sarup & Sons Publishers, New Delhi, 2003. 3.T.M.J. Indira Mohan, "Shashi Despande: A Critical Spectrum", published by Atlantic Publishers and Distributers, New Delhi, 2004. 4.Siddhartha Sharma, "Shashi Despande's Novel: A Feminist Study", published by Atlantic Publishers and Distributers, New Delhi, 2005. 5.Anita Myles, "Feminism and the post-modern Indian Women Novelist in English", published by Prabat Kumar Sharma for Sarup & Sons Publishers, New Delhi, 2006. 6.Binod Mishra, "Critical Responses to Feminism", Prabat Kumar Sharma for Sarup & Sons Publishers, New Delhi, 2006.

SHODH, SAMIKSHA

AUR

MULYANKAN

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