Kumari Anupma
Research
Scholar
P.
G. Dept. of English
V.
K. S. U., Ara
Prof.
R. K. Sinha
Dept.
of English
S.
P. Jain College, Sasaram
Abstract:
The idea of new woman
has a significant theme in modern literature especially in works that explore
changing gender role and female identity. In A Married Woman, Manju Kapur presents
a powerful portrayal of this concept through the character of Astha. The novel
reflects the transformation of woman in contemporary Indian society from
passive, traditional figures into individual seeking identity, autonomy and
emotional for fulfilment.
Manju
Kapur is one of the successful names for the galaxy of Indian woman novelist in
English. She has enriched the Indian English fictional world with her great
creations. Her works reflect the realistic problems in the life of Indian woman
with a sensitive appeal. She is a feminist writer, who gives voice of the
woman's pathetic condition in a traditional and patriarchal Society, where social-cultural
and political circumstances are the obstacles in the way of a new woman. Her
novel A Married Woman deals with the inner turmoil of a new woman, who feels a
lot of difference in her life after marriage but at last she struggles for her
basic rights quality, identity and self- satisfaction. Kapur’ protagonist are
mostly educated, so they are conscious for their individuality woman like
Astha, the protagonist of the novel can be called a new who tackles the
situations of her life without creating any violence but being dutiful towards
her responsibilities in the family. A new woman gets satisfaction by her own way
breaking the norms of traditional Society where male domination is in power.
Manju Kaрur, novelist like Kamala Markandaya, Arundhati Roy, Anita Desai, Shobha
De and so on paved the way for modern new woman's feelings.
She
is well aware of the condition of women in the traditional society, where they
are only sub-servant and submissive and this continuous state of their life
becomes the cause of their psychic and neurotic problem. They never utter a
word against the male-domination. These women are considered to be ideal Indian
wives. But modern era, a woman disapproves the traditional social structure of the
society. She is against unjust norms and tradition and becomes a rebel, rejecting
the ideal image of the new woman is conscious for her rights, identity
independence and personal fulfilment. A woman has no place in a family and in a
society, her opinion or ideas are not considered valuable in spite of her good
education and intellectual calibre. She feels frustration and at last thinks to
achieve he own goal for her own satisfaction or fulfilment. She turns towards lesbian
relationship without thinking about her married life. This is the unique aspect
of a woman who is ready to take any risk to get equal status like men in
society. Her views may seem strange to some people but it is the inner voice of
a new women who wants to enjoy full stretch of her life at any cost.
Keywords:
New Woman,
Female Identity, Indian English Fiction, Feminism, Patriarchal Society
Introduction:-
The
second novel of Manju Kapur, A Married Woman (2002), is set in Delhi against
the backdrop of communal riots on the controversial Ram Janam-Bhumi Babri Masjid.
The novel depicts Astha’s story from her childhood to her forties from hopes to
miseries and recognition to agony. She has been brought up in a patriarchal
atmosphere full of fear and stress. It describes her young, and adulthood life,
she dates with young men for romantic dreams she thinks about a husband guy. In
this prime time of her life, she dates with young men for her satisfaction, she
engaged with Rohan emotionally and physically and realizes her dreams. She surrenders
herself to Rohan in the hope that he will marry
but she was only a thing of
enjoyment for him, maintains a distance from of these relationship she
unwillingly gets marry with a man of her
parent's choice and tries to achieve bliss of happy married life with her
husband, gives birth to children but Unsatisfied from him, maintain distant
from him and struggle to become a Painter. Astha a modern educated woman is conscious
about her inner strength which she achieves through education she wants a
respectful independent life in a male –dominated society.
Jean
Baker Miller observes, “when women begin. to perceive forms of strength based
on their own life experience, rather than believing they should have the
qualities they attribute to men, they often find new definitions of strength.”
Ashta symbolises the middle-class ethics and value, enjoys the harmony in his marital
life but gradually feels something missing her life. she suffers from a sense
of incompleteness. After marriage, she feels entrapped and bored. Her involvement
with the outer world of upheaval and protest provokes her inner pain and
suppression. Her interest in lesbian relationship for temporary relief remains
hallow and unsuccessful.
In
A Married Woman, a feministic voice can be heard, as Astha the protagonist of
the novel, brings the struggle of Virmati in a new battle field. The finding of
researchers tells about the pathetic condition of women due to tradition norms
and socio-economic culture of society. much research has been done on different
aspects of women's condition in male -dominated society and how a modern woman
struggle for the of her rights but still many aspects of a new women’s life are
needed to explore because she is still facing the problems in modern society
which is educated but their mind set is based on traditional norms of society.
The female protagonist of the novel, Astha is the daughter of an educated
father and traditional mother who has earnest desire to get due place in the family.
But she faces domination and discrimination of her married life. Baker
describes the condition of women:
“As wives, mothers,
lovers, as workers, women often feel that other People are demanding too much of
them; and they resent it. Frequently they cannot even allow themselves to admit
that they resent all these excess pressures.”
Astha
compares her life before and after marriage. Now she behaves like a puppet to
maintain the value of traditional family as an ideal woman. Her marriage with
Hemant, does not seem to be based on mutual understanding and co-operation.
Hemant behaves like a typical dominating husband and feels proud to be a
representative of patriarchal society although he is foreign returned. After
her marriage Astha is a dutiful wife and sacrificing mother. She is exploited physically
and mentally. she has no one to share her emotions Being depressed and
frustrated, she leads to lesbian relation, for her emotional discharge.
Manju
Kapur in her novel, A married Woman advocates a self-governing life of the
woman for self-reliance and fulfilment through the life of protagonist Astha who
experience marital relation before and after marriage encourages inter-
religion marriage and female-female relationship challenging the patriarchal
norms of traditional society.
After
married she has to lead a conjugal life with Hemant she feels disintegrated in
her husband's love for her and family. Her mother-in-law wants her to traditional
sacrificing ideal woman, a devoted wife and mother she realizes stress and
suffocation under the burden of her domestic responsibilities to please
everyone in the family. She is "always adjusting to everybody else"
needs"
“A willing body at
night, a willing pair of hands and feet in the day and obedient mouth.”
A
woman is marginalized in her own family by sadistic social atmosphere of
differentiation and inequality:
“Being on the fingers of
the world is nut the best place for someone who instead to recreate it here
again, to be beyond the given, one must be rooted in it.”
Astha
broods overs her sufferings and thinks to free herself from tension, pressure
and depression. The only way out she finds the Job, as father always suggested
her,
“With good job comes
independence".
She
joins as a teacher and remains busy. in school activities, but this job does
not keep her free from distress and trauma of discrimination in social-cultural
system. In Indian society, even in educated cultured family preference is given
to a baby boy than a baby girl. Manju Kapur delineates this harsh reality of Indian
society through this novel.
Astha's
family believes in superstition for a baby boy. When her daughter Anuradha was four,
Astha conceived again, her mother brought a pujari to perform a special puja to
grant a baby boy for Astha. But even after giving birth to Himanshu, a son, she
does not get status in the family. The family member feel “the family as
complete at last”.
A
woman feels degradation in the family for which she sacrifices her desires and
serves till the end of her life. Nobody cares for emotion, freedom and identity.
Astha is shocked at the different behaviour of the family and society at her
daughter's birthday. But she actually receives on appraisal appropriate status
of motherhood after giving birth to son:
“Parenting as an unpaid
occupation outside the world of public power, entails lower status, less Power,
and less control of resources than paid work “.
A
revolution should be brought against traditional norms of society which do not
consider women equal to men:
“Heterosexual marriage,
which usually gives men’s rights in women's sexual reproductive capacity and
formal rights in children organizes. Both together organise and reproduce
gender as an unequal social relation. Now, Astha is in respectable profession
of teaching. But her husband’s unconcern to her emotions fills her mind with pain
and agony. She thinks herself as a futile object of the house, which is not
valuable to anyone. The political, social, economic and cultural stuff of the
society is responsible for woman’s dependent, secondary and subjugated condition.
In
the novel, Astha shows disgust against the conventional thinking of the society
and anchors her personal identity denouncing the traditional thinking for
family. For her husband Satisfaction she rebels against her husband and
challenges the conventional barriers enforced on her she turns to Pipeelika a
Hindu brahmin girl, who is married to Ajiaz Akthar khan, a muslim lecturer in
history.
Astha
encourages Pipeelika’s idea of inter-caste marriage Pipeelika is also a modern
open-minded woman who marries a muslim against her mother's wish and social
norms. She also as a new woman achieves her right to choice on the other hand,
Astha has frustrated and exhausted with burden married life, turns to lesbian
relationship with Pipeelika and defies her husband out of her inner rage:
“The women under the
Pretax to freeing herself from man's oppression makes herself slave of the
personage, she did not want to confine herself in a woman situation, but she imprisons
herself in that of the lesbian"
Pipeelika
is also victim of social upheaval as her husband died into riot and she turns into
a widow of Ajiaz. Astha did not create any scene at the condom-episode because
she had a substitute husband in the form at Pipeelika. She thinks that if her
husband on extra-marital affair, she can also do the same. Here, she wants to
do equally all things like her husband, keeping in her mind the pain of gender
difference and inequality. Astha wants to live a meaningful life as she finds
herself trapped in the traditional, socio-political and cultural system where
her husband never shows any concern to her emotions but only treats her
antagonistic way. On the other Pipeelika gives solace and pleasure her
emotions, which she never gets from her. She is conscious woman of past modern
era, who break the shackles of social codes that restrict her from asserting
her own rights of womanhood.
Manju
Kapur has clearly shown that Pathetic condition of the woman in the Patriarchal
society which has deprived woman, prom socio-political economics rights. Woman
are considered inferior to men who are caught in the emotional web family and
society. Baker explores a woman's condition:
“Women are encouraged to
‘transform’ their own needs. This often means that they fail, automatically and
without perceiving it, to recognize their own needs their needs as such. They
come to see their needs as if they were identical to those others-usually, men
children.”
Kapur
focus is on the trouble of women in general and Indian women in particular.
Through Astha's character, she challenges the manmade discrimination and wants
to liberate women from horrific authority. Kapur’ s protagonist Astha is
different from Virmati of Difficult Daughters who also breaks social norms
having married of her choice against the wish of her parents. In a married
woman the novelist shows a protected, non-violent path of rebellion against male
dominated and chauvinistic society. Astha like a courageous and conscious past
modern woman does not shatter herself and become aggressive and violence and
conventional nations of society but she severely attacks on the customs of
socio-cultural set up of patriarchal system by turning into a lesbian
relationship. She defies masculinity of her husband and pleases her womanhood
by keeping her relationship with Pipeelika:
"Slowly Peepilika, put her arms around
her could feel her hands on the narrowness of the back, feeling her back with
the palm they were enclosed in a circle of silence the only sound the sound of
their breathes, close together and mingled.”
Women
are more pulverized by any type of violence in household or in society. After
the death of her husband Pipleeka has lost everything except her heart – Manju Kapur,
like other novelist, women Protagonists struggle for their rights like Astha.
Although
this is the modern age of development, but in Indian society traditional norms
and customs are still woman prevailing which become the cause of Female
suffering, unhappiness and restlessness. Women are not able to gather courage to
voice their husband's distressed painful relationship. A married woman remains
in anxiety because of her husband and in-laws which is the cause her psychic
and neurotic problem. Though women are raising their voice against traditional
restrictions and sexual discrimination, but Indian society is not accepting changes
whole heartedly. Manju Kapur's female protagonist Astha and Pipeelika are
modern women who find out the way of their fulfilment. They are new women who
want to assert their individuality, freedom and equality practically and not
theoretically. They emancipate themselves from traditional codes of
restrictions creating their own ways of contentment. These new women of
postmodern era get empowerment through self-satisfaction. They struggle hard
for absolute freedom, self-reliance and restrains of socio-economic norms.
Astha
becomes a teacher and gets individuality and economic freedom, Pipeelika goes
to USA for pursuing her Ph. D degree. Both try to free themselves from social
restrictions by following the way of empowerment. They went to enjoy their physical
satisfaction and emotional needs.
In
this novel Manju Kapur has shown that change is necessary in the system of patriarchy
to give equal opportunity to women for their individuality freedom rights, so
that they can feel relief and enjoyment in their life like men. Post modern
era's new women cannot bear suppression and subjugation in their life. They want
equal utilization of socio-political and economic rights. Astha, a married
woman seeks freedom denouncing the concept of traditional society in which a
women subservient, meek, ideal, but she remains wants to challenge such
conventions which a woman. A woman is also a human being like men so there should
not be any gender discrimination.
Conclusion:-
Equality
is the solution of all evils, but first of all patriarchal and traditional
rules should be abolished which are trapping, even an educated conscious woman
in cage. Women can no longer remain submission, subjugated and discriminated.
The educated women of the novel as Astha, Aijaz and Pipeelika are open minded. Aijaz
work for a theatre group which awake awareness in society. Manju Kapur presents
extra martial lesbian affairs in the novel boldly. The concept of new woman has
been shown in the novel. An atmosphere of full liberty is required for women
who are the base of humanity, then she will be truly emancipated from
traditional norms and will also achieve equal socio-economic status in life.
Educated woman like Astha are compelled to become rebellious only for their
basic rights of equality, freedom and individuality. Manju Kapur raises the
contemporary issues related to women and believes that education is not only an
important tool to get a suitable match but to enjoy - self-respectful place in
society.
References: -
1.Kapur, Manju, A Married
Woman, New Delhi: Rali Books 2002
2.Mukherjee, Bharati, Wife
3.Kumar, Dr Ashok, Portrayal
of New Woman: A study of Manju Kapur, A Married Woman". Amar Nath Prasad, S.
John
4.Beauvoir, Simone de, The
Second Sex (1949). UK; vintage, 1997
5.London: University of California
Press, 1979 Print.
