The Quest for Identity in a Male-Dominated Society: Representations of Women in Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters

Abstract

As a woman writer, Manju Kapur discusses women-centric issues in all her novels. The present article focuses on Kapur’s novel Difficult Daughters (London: Faber & Faber, 1998), and specifically the issue of women seeking a space of their own in a male-dominated society. Women in this patriarchal society are not allowed to speak out, protest against injustice, or challenge accepted customs, superstitious beliefs, or rituals. They are merely held captive by the patriarchal system, which demands that women be meek, obedient, and passive, not asserting their rights as women or as human beings. In order to depict this stereotypical pattern of life in India, Kapur creates her female characters to be fighters against taboos, conventional norms, and family constraints forced on them by patriarchal society. Her female characters speak out against male chauvinism to assert their rights. The portrayal of women’s inner lives and delicate relationships has been a prominent focus in recent Indian women’s writing. In contrast to marital bliss and the duty of women in the home, finding one’s identity and dissent are new ideas in this literature. This article tries to highlight these fascinating aspects of Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters through an analysis of the female characters in the novel and how the patriarchal system oppresses and stifles them.

Keywords:

• social psychology and structure
• tradition
• culture
• boundaries and right to autonomy
• discrimination
• male domination