Woman By Women By Anita Desai Analysis
The readers find it difficult to fix her within the framework of an Indian stereotypical woman. There are other traits in Maya’s character which transcends the idea of “femininity” inseparable from males. She is in search of a new vista for a woman’s world- a space where she is at par with man. Desai writes “for woman, about woman by woman” - a genre where woman is not depicted in two versions- one in the temporal consciousness where she is “weak, meek and submissive”, ideally ABLA dependent on man related to her as her father or husband or son. The other image of her is in the religious and spiritual consciousness where she is depicted as “SHAKTI” with ten arms, power to destroy all evils. Apparently, Maya’s world is full with attachments,
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She too is a rebellious, non-conformist woman, disgusted by and trying to liberate herself from the patriarchal norms. A new woman she too is seething in discontentment with her being enclosed within the “four walls” of her house with the expected behavior of an ideal “mother” and “wife”. In protest she curves a niche of her own, escapes to her desired island of “MANORI” in search of an “independent female” status separated from the “male” liberated from patriarchal bondage, wanting to be a woman as an independent existential being. She is incommensurate in the house of her husband but that is not to say that she is financially challenged of is mal treated. But the feminist woman in her makes her dismissive of her status. When she was heavily pregnant by her fifth child, she was unhappy, apprehensive at the thought of losing its innocence in this world where nothing except “food, sex and money matters” Her escaping to “Manori” is identical to Maya’s garden. Maya’s hankering for her father’s garden and Sita’s return to the island are important significant gestures, not hysteric reactions of mad women but attempts to let out their pent-up frustration, to restore their selves. With this fear firmly seated in her mind, she turns towards discovering an escape route in the island, to confer in her a kind of
She too is a rebellious, non-conformist woman, disgusted by and trying to liberate herself from the patriarchal norms. A new woman she too is seething in discontentment with her being enclosed within the “four walls” of her house with the expected behavior of an ideal “mother” and “wife”. In protest she curves a niche of her own, escapes to her desired island of “MANORI” in search of an “independent female” status separated from the “male” liberated from patriarchal bondage, wanting to be a woman as an independent existential being. She is incommensurate in the house of her husband but that is not to say that she is financially challenged of is mal treated. But the feminist woman in her makes her dismissive of her status. When she was heavily pregnant by her fifth child, she was unhappy, apprehensive at the thought of losing its innocence in this world where nothing except “food, sex and money matters” Her escaping to “Manori” is identical to Maya’s garden. Maya’s hankering for her father’s garden and Sita’s return to the island are important significant gestures, not hysteric reactions of mad women but attempts to let out their pent-up frustration, to restore their selves. With this fear firmly seated in her mind, she turns towards discovering an escape route in the island, to confer in her a kind of