Women on The Margins: A Study of Female Characters in the Select Novels of Manju Kapur

Abstract

Manju Kapur is gifted with a fine faculty of artistic perception.  The realistic presentation of life in all novels impresses one and all.  She plays the role of a natural observer in her works.  She attempts to show her concerns at the growing tendency of unrest in our society caused by man’s attempt to exploit man for selfish gains and motives. Through her fictions, she gives fresh insight into the ambivalence of change in woman and man and human nature.  She is convinced that emancipation is closely linked to the eradication of poverty; hence she provides a platform, against the evils of society.  She has drawn the realistic characters and situation to represent the realistic change the world is going through. Manju Kapur’s description of society is graphic and clear.  Social values and sanctions, as they are different from class to class and from society to society, present a panoramic view of Indian society.  Kapur highlights the factors which curbs the freedom of the female to live, grow and actualize herself the way men do.  The manner in which religion, tradition and myth are misused to condition women into an acceptance of their secondary status causing them to lead claustrophobic and circumscribed lives. The female protagonist resist and overcome the ideological suppression and reshape ideals and existing value systems to re-invent themselves in a meaningful way.  In this sense, her novels are a significant contribution towards the realm of Indian English fiction and feminist psychoanalysis in India