Main Article Content

Abstract

Manju Kapur is an eminent Indian English novelist. Kapur’s examination of women’s freedom and autonomy are deeply deep-rooted in the Indian socio-cultural and economic spaces and paradigms of the country. The protagonists in Manju Kapur’s novels are caught in the constant difference between the personal needs and the institutional and social obligations and responsibilities. They challenge the male domination and patriarchal mechanisms of close watch and control over women’s body. The women in Indian society are trying to be themselves. But they do not wish to break up the family ties. Women are portrayed as an loving mother and devoted wife and servant of their husbands. The female protagonists of the Indian novels are mostly educated, but they are caged within the restrictions of a traditional society. Their education leads them to think independently. They struggle between tradition and modernity. Manju Kapur tried to deal with physical, psychological and emotional conditions of women’s pitiable plight in her novels. In Home, Manju Kapur has attempted to focus from the childhood of the protagonist, Nisha. The journey of the protagonist to get a new identity leads her to the realization of herself. On her parents’ wishes she agrees to the marriage after her marriage also she wants to continue her business. She tried but she could not uphold both family and her business. At the end of the novel, after the birth of twins she realizes herself that as a woman she should take care of family and children. This paper purports to examine how women are portrayed in the traditional joint family and society. It portrays how the novelist makes her characters as bold enough to survive in the male dominated society. The growth of self-confidence and self-assertion is clearly pictured.

Article Details