LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:5 May 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Portrayal of Matriarchal Perception in Manju Kapur’s
Difficult Daughters

V. M. Manju, M.A., Dr. C. Govindaraj and R. Lissy, M.A., M.Phil., M.Ed.

Difficult Daughters

Abstract

Indian Society is bound by duties and responsibilities which are a part and parcel of the country’s culture. As India is a place of different cultures, there are certain traditions which are followed by Indians in an astute manner. Manju Kapur, in her novel Difficult Daughters, has portrayed the traditional women of India. Here, she has presented women belonging to three generations. Kasturi follows the tradition by marrying and bearing eleven children and she expects the same from her first daughter Virmati. But Virmati prefers the road which is less traveled. She begins to value education and higher things in life against her parent’s wish. The novel is also successful in presenting clearly the abuse that the women face at the hands of society. She wishes to pursue education for herself for which she pays a high price by falling in love with the professor. She finds no meaning in following the tradition or culture that she was born in. She struggles to get what she wants. Though she breaks Indian values in her time, she also follows tradition with her daughter Ida’s arrival. She follows the same interfering in Ida’s life just as her mother Kasturi had insisted she must do certain things in her life. But Ida goes a step further. She divorces her husband and is determined to remain single. Thus, in the novel all the women characters want to change their daughters’ lives by asking them to follow age old traditions.

Key words: Manju Kapur’s novels, Traditional Women, Difficult Daughters

Tradition and Culture

Tradition and culture are the expressions of the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation, including beliefs, customs, practices, and values. In Indian culture and tradition, and concepts of rituals, there have been often alien ideas as far as women are concerned. Indian women are considered as the moral nucleus of the family, and yet one can see how the traditions also contrived to demean the women, making them the downtrodden ones, abused by the patriarchal society.

Manju Kapur’s Depiction of Indian Thoughts and Traditions

Indian English creative writers describe the Indian traditional values in their works. Among them Manju Kapur is excellent in her special depiction of Indian thoughts and traditions. The people of the present century also follow most of the conventions and customs. The real impact of Indian social-cultural traditions is echoed in the religious spiritual ideas that are portrayed as part and parcel of the life of Indian women. The novel Difficult Daughters explores the dark reality of tradition, prevailing customs particularly close to the Indian women who follow the age-old rotten ideas and traditions in their day to day lives.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


V. M. Manju, M.A.
PG & Research Department of English
Sri Vidya Mandir Arts & Science College
Katteri, Uthangarai – 636902
Krishnagiri District
Tamilnadu
India
manjuvm92@gmail.com


Dr. C. Govindaraj, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor & Head of the Undergraduate Section
PG & Research Department of English
Sri Vidya Mandir Arts & Science College
Katteri, Uthangarai – 636902
Krishnagiri District, Tamilnadu, India
govindlissy@gmail.com


R. Lissy, M.A., M.Phil., M.Ed., Ph.D. Candidate
Assistant Professor
PG & Research Department of English
Sri Vidya Mandir Arts & Science College
Katteri, Uthangarai – 636902
Krishnagiri District, Tamilnadu, India
govindlissy@gmail.com
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