Research Paper—English
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN SHASHI
DESHPANDE'S 'THE DARK
HOLDS NO TERRORS'
* Sangita Gandhi,
March, 2011
* Dev Bhoomi Institute of Technology for women, Dehradun
ABSTRACT
* Asst, Prof, Dev Bhoomi Institute of Technology for Women, Dehradun.
The status of woman all over the world, particularly in India, has been undergoing a rapid change in the recent decades. This phenomenon therefore has drawn the attention of literary artist, the artist and sociologists. The image of woman in Indo-English novel is based on the traditional ancient literature of India, which showed woman as a devoted wife or a devoted mother.
Introduction
The imaginative and creative responses of the writers are related to the changing world view and the questioning attitude thereby developed by it. The attitude to women has changed in recent times. Their writings are based not only on observations of external behavior but also on the internal journey in the psychological realm of the feminine sensibilities. A few women novelists like Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande make straight journey into the psyche of their women characters that are torn on account of the tensions generated by the discord between the individual and the surroundings. They have started trying to understand
Indian women and portray her in their novels.
This is the story of Saru who feels like a trapped animal, trapped by her own guilty feelings.
The story that unfolds is the guilty she bears for her brother Dhruva's death, along with guilt of abandoning her parents, guilt about her mother's death which she learns about accidently, which in turn permeates her entire life, her feelings about herself, her career as a physician, her marriage, her feelings towards her husband Manu and the kids. Throughout her life she remains trapped by her need to succeed at any cost.
In one of her interviews Shashi