40

Chapter 2
A Study of Difficult Daughters and A Married Woman

Conflict is a conspicuous recurring strain that runs through the entire fabric of
Indian writing. Conflict is apparent in all the interwoven threads of Indian novels.
Varying opinions of different generations and opposite gender make the theme lively
and enthusiastic. Manju Kapur presents gender and generational conflict with a sharp
acuity in her debut artifact. Difficult Daughters raises the issues of gender
discrimination and generational conflict. The novel is a daughter‘s (Ida‘s) journey to
know her mother‘s past as a daughter. In the course of her journey she also discovers
the relations between her mother and grandmother. The novel depicts the story of
three generations, focusing on Virmati, the daughter of second generation. Virmati is
torn between her illicit love, her family duty and her aspiration for education. She
remains restless all her life because she fights for her emancipation through her
education. The novel opens with a jolting statement hinting at the conflict between
mother and daughter: ―The one thing I had wanted was not to be like my mother‖
(Difficult Daughters 1).

This opening sentence is spoken by Virmati‘s daughter, Ida. Lack of

understanding between these two generations provides the presence of generational
conflict. She wants to know her mother‘s past and collects vital information about her
past that may give a good understanding of this rebel protagonist. The novel presents
the controversial issues of domineering patriarchal world, which denies woman her
voice and freedom. Virmati is not only a revolutionary who fights for her education
but also one who manages her situation with determination in moments of crisis. The
novel presents parallelism between Indian freedom struggle and the freedom yearned
by a woman of the nation. The story is set in Amritsar. Virmati is a young girl born in
a well-educated family. She is the eldest daughter in the family. When the novel
opens we find that her mother Kasturi is pregnant for the eleventh time. After so many
child births her health is deteriorating. Her body is not ready to bear any more
children. Manju kapur describes her situation: ―How trapped could nature make a
woman? She turned to God, so bountiful with his gifts, and prayed ferociously for the
41

miracle of a miscarriage. Her sandhya started and ended with this plea, that somehow
she should drop the child she was carrying and never conceive again‖ (Difficult
Daughters 7).

Kasturi tries a lot of remedies to abort the child but could not succeed. She
tells mid-wife, after fourth month. ―Let it be, God does not wish it‖ (Difficult
Daughters 8).

Through Kasturi, Manju Kapur wants to show the pathetic condition of

women in Indian society. Virmati‘s mother is traditional believer of virtues that are
requisite for a girl. Kasturi believes that a girl should be skilled in nurturing children
and doing household tasks. Virmati eventually becomes the second mother of her
siblings and could not concentrate on her studies. Her desires to live a free life are
curbed. After childbirth, Kasturi is shifted to Dalhousie to recover her health with her
eldest and youngest daughters. Virmati quickly settles into housekeeping for her
mother. But there is always a conflict between the mother and the daughter.
Sometimes Virmati needs affection from her mother but she rebukes her: ―At times
Virmati yearned for affection, for some sign that she was special. However, when she
put her head next to the youngest baby, feeding in the mother‘s arms, Kasturi would
get irritated and push her away ‖ (Difficult Daughters 6).

This lack of communication and love lead to a bigger generational gap.

Kasturi is never able to acknowledge Virmati‘s aspirations. This gap between the
mother and the daughter later developed into their derangement with each other.
Kasturi wants her daughter to become like her. She was herself brought upon the
conventional approach. For her, marriage is the final goal of Virmati‘s life. Ida
remembers her grandmother‘s life: ―During Kasturi‘s formal schooling it was never
forgotten that marriage was her destiny. After she graduated, her education continued
in the home. Her mother tried to ensure her future happiness by impeccable nature of
her daughter‘s qualifications. She was going to please her in-laws‖ (Difficult
Daughters 62).

But Virmati is a difficult daughter who has her own choices and who wants to
rebel against these traditional norms. Once Virmati has gained expertise in stitching,
42

cooking and reading, her family considers her eligible for marriage. The generational
gap is clearly visible between the two as Ida says, ―The language of feeling had never
flowed between them‖ (Difficult Daughters 12).

The family set up is thoroughly conservative. The new education generates a

new emotion and urge for freedom and exercising own choice in the protagonist. This
is the focal point where the novel takes a dynamic turn. Shakuntala, Virmati‘s cousin,
arrives in Dalhousie to stay with her mother Lajwanti. She is an M.Sc. in Chemistry
and is working in Lahore. She is intelligent, independent, sophisticated and above all
rebellious in nature. She is unmarried and does not believe in marriage. She defies all
traditional norms of Indian society where marriage was considered as the ultimate
goal. About marriage she speaks to Virmati in the following words, ―But women are
still supposed to marry, and do nothing else‖ (Difficult Daughters 17).

She negates the old viewpoint for women to maintain family harmony and
seek happiness in their service. She exercises liberal thinking and expects other
women to question the restricted roles of women. She advises Virmati to lead a life of
free thinking, ―times are changing, and women are moving out of the house, so why
not you? ‖ (Difficult Daughters 18).

Virmati develops the dream of independence which she breeds through

Shakuntala‘s words. She understands the meaning of liberty of woman. Her life in
four walls does not even acknowledge her about the satisfaction of being a liberal
woman. Shakuntala remarks: ―These people don‘t really understand Viru, how much
satisfaction there can be in leading your own life, in being independent‖ (Difficult
Daughters 17).

Manju Kapur portrays Shakuntala as a vibrant and intelligent girl who knows
the value of education in woman‘s life. She is ready to express herself. She has her
own life and has not constrained her life with questions of marriage. Speaking about
her portrayal of women like Shakuntala and Virmati, Manju Kapur admits in an
interview ‗Rendenzvous with Manju Kapur‘: ―I guess because I am a woman, I teach
in a woman‘s college, and I live in a joint family. I have an agenda about women‘s
issues, their freedom, and their constraints and how are they constricted, and how they
43

are constricted by their personal problems, their spaces, their findings of themselves. I
look at that in book after book‖ (112).

Shakutala‘s lively aura attracts Virmati and she gets on the path of education
to survive meaningfully. Education changes her thoughts and living style, too. When
she goes to study, her outlook is totally changed. The way she wears her saree,
jewellery et al. changed. Kasturi does not understand the changes. Virmati realizes the
worth of freedom and dreams to live like Shakuntala. She imagines the days when
education will empower her to act freely and take decisions herself. She thinks that
Amritsar will fulfil her dream in an enthusiastic way and remarks:

Through the ensuing day‘s Virmati followed Shakuntala around. She

watched her ride horses, smoke, play cards and badminton, act without
her mother‘s advice, but anything, she wanted without thinking it is a
waste of money, casually drop in on all the people the family knew.
Above all, she never seemed to question or doubt herself in anything.
(Difficult Daughters 18)

Manju Kapur stresses upon the importance of women education in her

writings. For her only education can liberate a woman. Difficult Daughters shows
Virmati‘s quest for freedom and identity and her desperation to grab a space of her
own. She is shown as a progressive woman who would not forsake her desire to
acquire a higher academic degree in life. To continue her higher studies, she is
prepared to protest against false family obligations. Lahore visit changes her attitude,
life style and her dreams. Inspite of her family‘s opposition, Virmati makes her way to
fulfil her dream of meaningful life. Her parents want her to play the traditional role of
a girl and get married. Through Virmati‘s character, Manju Kapur is describing the
image of a ‗new woman‘. A new woman means a woman who is self-assertive and
who wants to rebel against the gender discrimination. Thanks to the efforts of feminist
writers and political movements that women writers have chosen such women figures
who are capable of becoming independent and self-reliant without patriarchal support.
Virmati falls in love of Professor Harish Chander, who is their tenant. The Professor
admires her yearning for education and encourages her to continue her studies. She
44

knows that her family is against her decision and it is useless looking for a response
within her home. She is more attracted towards education, free life, glamour of the
metropolis and love for the Professor although she did not know what would be the
outcome of her desires. She does not know that she would marry the Professor or not
because he is already married. Her inner turmoil is increasing day by day. She does
not want to marry the groom her family has chosen for her. Inside her house
everybody talked nothing but only about her marriage: ―It seemed to Virmati that her
family could talk of nothing else but her wedding. Every word they said had so little
relation to her inner life that she felt fraudulent even listening to them, passively,
immorally silent‖ (Difficult Daughters 69-70).

Virmati rejects all external pressures and remains self-determined to overcome

patriarchal issues and achieve freedom. Cultural conditioning keeps Virmati
prohibited herself for some time but she could not curb her independent thoughts. She
has to put her liberty at stake for having independent thoughts. She is locked inside
the godown, and at some point of time she feels that there is no use of protesting.
Manju Kapur says: ―But her silence though was locked in the godown and her
younger sister married to Inderjit, ultimately one does bow down towards one‘s fate
or karma and so did Virmati in her newly acquired situation. May be what is
happening to me now is part of it, and there is no use protesting‖ (Difficult Daughters
92).

Virmati loves her family deeply. But she has her ambitions different from the
traditional woman and her mother‘s thinking. Kasturi wants her daughter to be a true
follower of patriarchy and to attain all the essential qualities of a girl of marriageable
age. Kasturi did not like her thoughts because, mothers would like their daughters to
be like them but daughters crave, naturally, for liberty. Mothers would like their
daughter to learn their lessons from the mother‘s experiences but daughters still like
to learn it their own way.

Kasturi thinks about her past life, when she herself was going to be married.
The same thing Kasturi wants to do with her daughter. The conflict between mother
and the daughter in the novel is due to generation gap. It is the conflict between
45

traditional patriarchal outlook and the modern thinking-independent outlook.

Traditional values encourage patriarchal rules, constrain upon freedom of women,
limit their power while modern outlook favours self-identity, self-reliance, control
over self and libration from traditional bondages. When two outlooks do not balance
each other a disaster in human relationship can ensue. Virmati‘s self is torn between
these two. On the one hand she wants to break all bondages for becoming her own
master. But when she fails she prefers to commit suicide than marrying a person of
her parents‘ choice. But she is rescued and confined in a storehouse. Kasturi feels that
God has sent Virmati to punish her and she has to bear her. Virmati is adamant and by
acting contrary to mother‘s expectations she leaves to study in Lahore. But in reality
she is compromising with the established values and she enters into an illicit
relationship with Professor. She comes to Lahore to broaden her horizons–of a new
world she has heard for long from Shakuntala. She indulges in a love affair—a love
with less hopes, a doubtful marriage and finally into an unwed pregnancy. Here in the
novel Manju Kapur describes the real face of male dominance where woman is
exploited physically, morally, socially and intellectually. Professor admits his love for
Virmati but he refuses to marry her for the sake of his own reputation. He expresses
his love through beautiful lines of poetry until he gets complete hold of her. Although
a woman‘s right to love and choose her life mate cannot be questioned but here
Virmati has gained nothing but scandalous relationship with the man she loves. The
Professor wants Virmati as a companion to gratify his intellectual and physical needs.
It is physical lust that overpowers them when they are together. Virmati had been
discarded to the secondary role of ‗other.‘

In Difficult Daughters events of Indian freedom movement are framed with

Virmati‘s struggle for independence, self-identity and her rights. The agony of
Virmati starts when she discovers her pregnancy. She hides the fact of her pregnancy
and its termination from her family and learns the lesson of her life. Virmati exerts her
rights but is tainted. She tries to find a solution to the impending danger but in vain.
When the Professor meets her, she discloses the matter and proposed her marriage to
him. But he refuses for the fear of his family reputation. Then Virmati retaliates:
46

I break my engagement because of you, blacken my family‘s name,

am locked up inside my house, get sent to Lahore because no one
knows what to do with me. Here I am in the position of being your
secret wife, full of shame, wondering what people will say if they find
out, not being able to live in peace, study in peace… and why?
(Difficult Daughters 149)

Virmati becomes a pawn in the hands of Professor. After series of vicissitudes

she loses her initial confidence. The initial vigour of self-assertion soon fades away.
She says in helplessness, ―As for me, I know I have failed in my duty and I will be
punished one day. Nobody can escape from their karma. Maybe what is happening to
me is part of it, there is no use protesting‖ (Difficult Daughters 92).

She shares her pain with Swarnalata, her roommate, who is an activist and
takes part in meaningful activities of Indian freedom movement and women liberation
movement. Virmati often remembers Swarnalata‘s statement about Harish‘s
selfishness and dominance of man over woman. Swarnalata had stated, ―Men do take
advantage of women!‖ (Difficult Daughters 149).

She makes an attempt to make Virmati realize how she is wasting her life in a
misplaced relationship and futile love. She highlights many social issues to be taken
care of instead of pursuing hollow love relationship. She says: ―Marriage is not the
only thing in life, Viru. The war—the satyagraha movement-because of these things,
women are coming out of their homes. Taking jobs, fighting, going to jail, Wake up
from your stale dream‖ (Difficult Daughters 151).

Virmati feels a void when she aborts her child. But even after this difficult
phase, she continues trusting the Professor. In fact, she is caught up between her
passions and patriotic feelings. Under influence of Swarnalata she attempts to analyse
the communal tension which prevailed during the Indian freedom struggle. Gur Pyari
Jandial writes:

When, Swarnalata, Virmati attends the Punjab women‘s students‘

conference. Here she sees and hears women who exude confidence
47

and strength. She listens to them as they explain the meaning of the
flag, the importance of freedom for the development of human spirit,
impact of war, human right, strikes, academic freedom, rural
upliftment, language etc. (qtd. in Sree 175)

But Virmati is not able to come out of her inner turmoil. More than anything
else her mind is preoccupied with the Professor. Even after knowing that the Professor
does not stand by her at the crucial moments of her miscarriage, Virmati could not
distract her mind from Professor Harish. Crossing one patriarchal threshold, Virmati
enters into another status of pariah. She wants to give a legal sanction to their relation
by marrying him but he refuses to leave his wife Ganga. Suman Bala and Subhash
Chandra analyzing man-woman relationship rightly argue about Virmati:

But her acceptance of the treatment mated out to her by her lover, the
Professor, totally belies these expectations. The Professor‘s pursuit of
Virmati even after she has been sent to Lahore as a part of punishment
to study in women‘s college, her renewing sexual relations with her
with full ardor, but his reluctance and constant postponing of the
marriage in spite of her frequent entreaties to do so, are instances of the
gratification of the male ‗desire‘. Male ego-centrism blinds men to the
situation of women, who may be placed in agonizing circumstances on
account of their relationship with men. (108)

Although Professor is well educated, he is not able to understand the agony

and suffering of Virmati. She gains self-confidence and self-identity. Virmati
acquaints her mother about her decision. She tells her that she does not want to marry
but Kasturi curses her for this sort of feelings. She recalls her life as she is brought up
only with the thought of pleasing her in-laws. Kasturi thinks education will make her
daughter polite. In case of Virmati, education gives her understanding about real
freedom. She doesn‘t hesitate to follow her passion, her decision to pursue her
education. Even when she is locked in the godown she writes letters to Harish. In fact,
she understands that education has made her to believe that one should not blindly
follow any proven truths. New ideas and thoughts are welcomed as against following
48

a life like prison. Kasturi tries to transform her thinking that her life will be nothing
without home. Virmati‘s vibrant mind doesn‘t accept her false social codes. She
learns from her experiences and adopts her own ways. She develops an affair, gets her
abortion done without telling her parents and later marries Harish despite much
opposition. Virmati wonders about women‘s work in conference and handling home
successfully. She finds the real empowered women. In this dream of empowerment,
Virmati experiences the double standards of society. Morality in society is set
according to sex. If a male remains unmarried for a long time nothing is considered to
be worried about, but the same rule does not apply on females. If any female remains
unmarried after a fixed time it becomes a matter of shame for the family. Various
rumours, discussions spread in society. Even the teachers of Virmati suspect why she
is unmarried. Manju Kapur reflects the attitude of her teachers: ―Virmati cultivated
friendships with some of the teachers, visited their homes in the winding gullies. All
of them wanted to know why she wasn‘t married. Young and pretty, and coming from
a good family-what could be the problem? It bothered them‖ (Difficult Daughters
187).

Virmati stays unmarried for a longer period and this raises questions in
people‘s mind. Tired of her hopeless love, she leaves Lahore and goes to Nahan. Here
on starts the happiest period in her life. She joins as Principal in a school. There also
her education and good background is considered as an apt condition for a principal.
For the first time, she gets her own space-a true room of her own. But she again
entraps herself into the same oppression by secretly meeting with the Professor. She
again loses her liberty and identity, perhaps forever. Again she is trapped into sexual
exploits and her whole reputation is tainted by her misconduct. She herself
contaminates her life of freedom and dignity. Seema Malik comments on her
situation: ―To some extent she even conveys a personal vision of womanhood by
violating current social codes yet she lacks confidence, self control and farsightedness
and is physically imprisoned with an underlying need to be emotionally and
intellectually dependent on a superior force‖ (175).
49

When Professor visits her there also, the management takes it as

unimaginable that some boy comes and stays with a girl. It can spoil their reputation,
the reputation of their institution. The management thinks that people will not accept
the truth in our society. Manju Kapur observes the prevalent social faiths in our
society and remarks:

So when a man stays with you, and that too overnight, there is gossip.
And you know how bad any hint of scandals can be for a school. It is
important to set a good example, particularly because there is much
readiness to suppose that education encourages girls to be independent
and wayward… You know our people are simple. When they do see
something like this, they jump to obvious conclusions. They do not
know what else to believe. And a bad example is set. (Difficult
Daughters 196)

Virmati has to leave the job and returns to Amritsar and finally marries the
Professor. Her parents do not accept her decision. When she goes to her parental
house after marriage, Kasturi scolds her abusively and calls her a shameful girl. She
remains unacceptable at both places. On the contrary, Harish has two wives, one is
fulfilling his material needs and the other is quenching his intellectual thirst. S.
Parsanna Sree describes his position, ―His wife Ganga attends him as a maidservant,
fulfils his everyday needs, keep his house tidy and cloths washed and Virmati satisfies
his academic urge‖ (176).

But Virmati‘s entrance into the married world is not welcomed. For the first
time in her life she comes to know the true meaning of woman. She has to bear the
marginal position in her husband‘s home as everybody treated her as unwanted. The
Professor keeps a deaf ear to her incessant complaints of his family members. Her
marital status brings in much more turbulence in her life. She is not able to enjoy her
married life which she has yearned for so long. She becomes an outsider in the
Professor‘s house-marginalized and the tag of ‗other‘. Her life becomes mundane and
it seems there is no mutual companionship between them. Indira Bhatt describes
Virmati‘s situation: ―Once married she dissolves like a salt doll. Whatever identity
50

she has in her father‘s family, she loses it and is unable to make space for herself on
her own. She remains on the fringe, marginalized, so called companion as boasted by
the husband‖ (192).

In the Professor‘s house Virmati faces the hostility of Ganga, his wife, and his
mother. His mother considers Virmati responsible for what has happened and she
maltreats her. Difficult Daughters presents the dual standards of society. His first wife
accepts Harish even after such a big deceit but not Virmati. She and her mother-in-
law, both have feelings of disgust against Virmati only, not for Harish. There are
different measures for condemnation and appreciation on any social issue. Every
mistake and ill results are imposed on women. Virmati bears humiliation in a house
which she has entered as a wife. All sanctity of marriage in the house has disappeared.
There is no love for Virmati and she is resented by the family members. All her
dreams of love, respect and happiness with the Professor are shattered. Vandita
Mishra rightly argues:

Kapur never permits Virmati any assertion of power or freedom.

Because, even as she breaks free from old prisons, she is locked into
newer ones. Her relationship with the Professor, for instance, while it
does provide an escape from a loveless marriage; it is itself furtive and
claustrophobic, offering only a stolen togetherness behind curtained
windows. Even years of studying and working alone do not give her
the confidence to strike independent roots and grow. She hovers
uncertainly at the edge of each new world, never entering, lest the
Professor should call and not find her near. Eventually, marriage to the
man of her choice is no triumph either. As second wife, she must fight
social ostracism outside the house, and compete for the kitchen and
conjugal bed with Ganga, the first wife, inside it. (qtd. in Nayak
211-212)

Virmati compromises and faces humiliation in this relationship. Her mother-

in-law, her husband‘s first wife Ganga and their children treat her as an outsider. This
imprisonment ends when she conceives; her mother-in-law pays attention to her
51

health prospectus. Soon miscarriage takes place and her life again reverts to the
forbidden stature. She is not allowed to attend her father‘s funeral. During the
communal riots the Professor sends his mother and his first wife Ganga away from
home. After three years of hard married life Virmati gets her status back-status of a
complete wife of the Professor. Her personal salvation has come at last but after a
very hard toil. In her heart lay the frustration of many years. This frustration has filled
her heart with resentment for Ganga and for everything which belongs to Ganga.
Naturally she shifts and changes everything belonging to Ganga. The novelist writes:
―The first thing she did was shift everything belonging to Ganga to the dressing-room.
Doing this, she felt light-headed, as though she had conquered and won. Now the
dressing-room was Ganga‘s and the main bedroom was hers‖ (Difficult Daughters
273).

Further, she decides to give Ganga‘s clothes in charity. There was a great
desire to erase all signs of Ganga from her memory and from her house. She wants to
retain her identity in Harish‘s life. Virmati has to bear marginality not only in her
home but after marriage also. Harish being a supporter of new thought could not
provide her any substantial position in his home. Marital status also could not give her
due respect and space of her own. She lacks peace of mind and marital dissatisfaction
becomes her fate. She spills out her hate by throwing Ganga‘s clothes. Her disdain is
very strong:

Just seeing those saris made her sick. Each one of them reminded her
of the woman, with her round face, round bindi and black kaajal-lined
eyes staring fixedly at her with loathing.

The child within her womb trembled, as revulsion coursed her body.

She stretched out her hand to pluck the first sari from the pile, a red
thing. Ganga liked wearing red. It was hard for her to touch it. It was
like touching Ganga‘s skin. (Difficult Daughters 276)

The female characters have to undergo patriarchal pressures. Virmati does not
succumb to the false faiths prevalent in society. She challenges the outmoded morality
52

and strives to make her life better and live by her own decision. She does not get her
due status in her husband‘s home. Ganga‘s life is also sacrificed for the sake of child
marriage. She gets married but never gets the company of Harish as a partner. After
reading the novel one wonders what does Virmati get in her life? She is described as
ambitious against the patriarchal values but she was never able to maintain her true
dignity and self-identity she had aspired for. But the very answer lies in the story
itself. It is not important what she has achieved rather she has the courage to defy the
social taboos and forces which are responsible for confinement of women. She fights
for her education although education was not able to win her rights and liberation.
Perhaps what Binod Mishra says in his study is right:

I think the authoress is very much inclined to say that however

educated or innovative an Indian Woman is, her Indian background
and psyche cannot feel satisfied, unless society approves of her
endeavours and her relationship. Virmati‘s tragedy is the tragedy of
ambition, obsession and unacclaimed ovation. (qtd. in Shree 151)

Virmati represents Indian girls whose mindsets are changing towards their life.
Virmati‘s rebellion symbolizes the modern woman who aspires to attain her rights and
ready to introspect and solve the problems of life. Virmati‘s thought about life is
different from traditional faiths. She even rejects the Indian customs about death also.
She expresses her last wish on her death and utters:

I stared again at my mother‘s ashes and wondered what memorial I

could give her. She, who had not wanted to be mourned in any way.

When I die she said to me, I want my body donated. My eyes, my

heart, my kidneys, any organ that can be of use. That way someone
will live me after I have gone.

I glared at her as pain began to gnaw at me.

And, she went on, when I die I want no shor-shaar. I don‘t want a
chauth, I don‘t want an uthala, I want no one called, no one informed.
(Difficult Daughters 1)
53

Virmati‘s struggle in the novel is her struggle for freedom, to carve out a space
for herself and to create a woman identity against the forces of patriarchy, tradition
and social taboos which have stood in our society for centuries. Her story shows
generational conflict—a conflict between mother and daughter; between tradition and
modernity; between urge of servitude and of liberation. Even in her death she does not
want any social drama.

Concentrating on mother-daughter relationship as a variant of generational

gap, all three characters of three generations develop relation of scorn and hatred. It
becomes a difficult relation between Virmati and Kasturi. Being the eldest child
Kasturi leaves all the task of children rearing to Virmati. Due to this Virmati bears all
the oppression and each and every daily chore depends on Virmati. Every child
follows Virmati while Kasturi is unable to rear and control her children. As a result it
fills rage in the mother–daughter relationship. Manju Kapur describes; ―Virmati left
raging. Why anything to her mother so difficult? May be it was best to keep silent‖
(Difficult Daughters 12).

The conflict in their relationship reached such a level that Kasturi blames
Virmati for two deaths in family. Virmati‘s expression of independence keeps her
craving and Kasturi does not entertain her daughter‘s demand. Her enraged behavior
pushed her daughter towards the Professor and Virmati feels more close to him.
Kasturi becomes the voice of patriarchy having great despair for her daughter. She
does not spare the girl even after her attempt to commit suicide. Virmati conceives
and at the same time of partition riots her mother Kasturi also helps her in domestic
task. Both the families come together due to the effects of riots. During the religious
riots, the chasm between mother and daughter decreased. Manju Kapur shows the
turns in familial relations in the time of partition riots. She depicts how the family
comes closer and says:

Virmati‘s mother sent for her. The time demanded from Kasturi that
she carry resentment no further. Virmati shifted to her mother‘s, where
she helped with the cooking along with the other women, because the
need of the hour was to feed the scores of people who passed through
54

their house fleeing from the mobs in Pakistan. No one mentioned the
past. The present was too drastic for such luxury. (Difficult Daughters
274)

Kasturi thinks it as a matter of shame for family and disowns her daughter.
But the same difficult daughter also becomes a difficult mother for her daughter.
Kapur produces the complexity of mother-daughter relationship in Indian scenario.
The generational disagreement in thoughts is loudly voiced in the novel. Kasturi does
not demand a separate identity. Her daughter Virmati rejects the conventional
prescribed roles for female—of marriage, child bearing and doing domestic tasks. She
wants to enter into the world of knowledge and self-assurance. Virmati fights with the
patriarchal society and her own mother to obtain her rights. She does not accept the
slavery destined for women and takes decision of marrying a person of her own
choice. Virmati, after some years of marriage, gains her status at her home and her
own family members also reconcile with her. Thus, it can be symbolically evaluated
as an act of true wisdom. Virmati rejects the traditional aspects associated with
woman and uses her intellect to win the situation to her side. The conflicts between
mother and daughter portray the prevalent approach of the Indian mother. Suman Bala
and Subhash Chanda bring the cause of conflict as:

Conflict between daughter and mother is inevitable and I suppose I

was a difficult daughter. The conflict carried on through generations
because mothers want their daughters to be safe. We want them to
make the right choices – ‗right‘ in the sense they are socially
acceptable. My mother wanted me to be happily married. I want my
daughters to have good job. (107)

Virmati negates the omnipotent patriarchal set-up to gain her freedom and
identity and free herself from shackles of false morals. Her progressive nature to act
against bondages makes her more real and effective. Like an Indian girl, the question
of marriage was discussed in her home many times, but she nurtures the dream to grab
educational opportunities. She strives for that and achieves. Later she turns her
educational opportunities to gain freedom to marry a person of her choice. She is
55

asked to marry as people think that marriage provides security and there will be no
place to rebel after marriage. Her material self denies her relation with Professor
Harish as a married man but her emotional dependence seeks satisfaction in the
company of the Professor. After becoming the second wife Virmati bears social
ostracism and is considered knave. The novel brings the dualism of our society. When
a girl does something according to her likes and dislikes, she finds the path blocked
from both sides. Virmati conquers after beating the odds of life enthusiastically and
moves ahead towards the path of liberty and individuality. Difficult Daughters deals
with the complicated mother-daughter relationship. While tracing the life history of
her mother, Ida develops a new outlook of her mother. She gets aware of the fact that
from her childhood her mother also underwent forced patriarchal responsibilities of a
woman of rearing children. Certain rules are enforced on Virmati by her mother
Kasturi. These norms are considered as pre-requisites for a girl of marriageable age.
Virmati enforces her daughter Ida to abide by her rules and become an ideal daughter.
Their relationship is complicated. Manju Kapur presents a keen description of
mother-daughter relationship having hostility during childhood. If the girl gets
married to a person of her choice, this hostility remains throughout life. As a daughter
Ida has opposite perspective towards her mother, Virmati. Kasturi‘s thought as
regards Virmati seems an integral voice of patriarchy. She rears and tries to nurture
her daughter‘s mental abilities favouring patriarchal domains in domestic arena.
Virmati has totally opposite viewpoint; Kasturi considers it as a failure of her own
viewpoint. She detests Virmati for having rebellious attitude. Ruby Milhoutra brings
forth Kasturi‘s mental inhibition as: ―She holds those values as ideal which patriarchy
has taught her to be so. And when her daughter rebels against such values she takes it
to be a rebellion against her own self‖ (166).

Difficult Daughters is perhaps the tragedy of Virmati and her fight for the
cause of individuality. The novelist recounts her story through Ida, her daughter. But
it seems that her story disappears against the backdrop of greater tragedy of partition.
The novelist raises the gender issues and shows the generational conflict between
Virmati and Kasturi and between Virmati and her whole family. Manju Kapur also
portrays gender discrimination against women. The story of Virmati is told by Ida, her
56

daughter. Dora Dales Salvador says about Virmati‘s struggle: ―In Difficult Daughters
we do not listen to Virmati‘s voice. She could not speak out, being certainly situated
at the juncture of two oppressions; colonialism and patriarchy. What we have is her
daughter‘s reconstruction and representation‖ (qtd. in Sinha 164).

Manju Kapur presents the clash of women characters with men characters in
the form of gender conflict. But these women also face generational conflict with
other male or female characters. In a way, clash between tradition and modernity
gives birth to both types of conflict. The three generations of this novel are
significantly different from each other. Virmati, the representative of second
generation has defiance towards male dominance and towards her mother‘s wishes.
Ida, the third generation woman disagrees with her mother‘s opinion and revolts in a
much more aggressive manner. Ida is pressurised by Virmati to become an ideal in all
the things whatever her mother Virmati expects from her. Virmati comes in the role of
Kasturi in her expectations towards her daughter. Things changed as Kasturi being a
traditionalist wants her daughter to be a skilled housewife and Virmati having higher
education, expects her daughter to become perfect in modern ethics, Ida says:

I grew up struggling to be the model daughter. Pressure, pressure to

perform day and night. My father liked me looking pretty, neat, and
well- dressed, with kaajal and a little touch of oil in my sleeked-back
hair. But the right appearance was not enough. I had to do well in
school, learn classical music, take dance lesson so that I could convert
my clumsiness into grace, read all the classical literature, discuss them
intelligently with him, and then exhibit my accomplishments
graciously before his assembled guests at parties. (Difficult Daughters
279)

Thus the protagonist who fights against traditions is counted as traditionalist

as her daughter considers her more vulnerable and tradition bound, she doesn‘t want
to remain in her mother‘s aura. She creates her own identity and takes her decision.

Manju Kapur, through a flashback technique, spills out the emotion of a young
girl of pre-independence era. Virmati‘s conflict to live her life by her own ideals
57

strengthens her to protest against the traditions. Ida visits all the places and collects
relevant information about her mother. Ida goes to the college where her father was
the principal and gets to know that in particular classroom her father and mother used
to interact each other while teaching. Ida relives her mother‘s past in order to
understand the trouble of their relationship. Ida uses present day perspective using
Independence movement as background and reconstructs her mother‘s past. The
narrator of the novel represents the third generation in the novel. Just as the story of
Kasturi shows generational conflict between first generation and second generation,
Virmati and Ida present generational gap between second and third generation. It is
Ida, through whom we hear the story of her mother Virmati. She reconstitutes the past
of her mother through her memory and by collecting facts from other people. Through
Virmati‘s story Ida wants to create her own identity and search for her own self. The
novel deals with a daughter‘s reorganization of her fragmented and fractured past
through her mother‘s story. Throughout the novel there is an echo that she does not
want to become like her mother. So she has to recreate her mother because she herself
feels vulnerable. Virmati is not the only difficult daughter, but like her, Ida is also a
difficult daughter in the novel. In fact, the novel presents not only Virmati‘s quest for
identity but also Ida‘s search for her own self. Ida undergoes the same torment as
Virmati suffers due to Kasturi. After being a mother, Virmati expects her daughter to
lead a disciplined life but Ida becomes a difficult daughter as Virmati had proved to
be a difficult daughter for Kasturi. Maneeta Kahlon observes the similarity between
these three generations and remarks: ―Ida becomes the typical daughter of a ‗difficult
daughter‘ Virmati. She could not develop an understanding with her mother during
her lifetime and after Virmati‘s death this realization engulfs her with guilt‖ (3).
Ida‘s character is in contradiction with her mother Virmati. It is actually Ida‘s
determination to live against all odds of life that represents the real optimistic urge of
the modern woman. She is shown as a divorcee whose life never came into terms with
her mother. She breaks all relationship with her husband Prabhakar who forces her for
abortion of their child. She tells her agony by saying, ―I knew, Mother, what it was
like to have an abortion. Prabhakar had insisted I have one. In denying that incipient
58

little thing in my belly, he sowed the seeds of our break up‖ (Difficult Daughters
156).

Ida is not like her mother Virmati who had earlier undergone an abortion. She
is courageous and rebellious. She has the power to oppose the patriarchal
discrimination. She has even the determination to oppose her husband and break her
relationship with her. Ida reconstructs her mother‘s past and identifies her mother‘s
conflicts and strains. She discovers the bitterness in mother-daughter relationship. Ida
has different manifestations towards this relationship. Virmati undergoes abortion
wilfuly but Ida could not forgive Prabhakar for her forced abortion. She doesn‘t
express her grief to Virmati as her mother admires Prabhakar. She knew that her
mother will never be able to understand her daughter‘s real dynamics of their
relationship. Virmati was never able to understand the trauma and endurance of Ida.
Like Virmati and Kasturi, there was also a communication gap between Ida and her
mother Virmati. Ida describes her father‘s stature, mother‘s happiness and appraisal
towards Prabhakar in following words:

He was what you respected, a successful academic, a writer of books,

a connoisseur of culture, a dissemination of knowledge. Like my
father.

How many times had you declared that I would be lucky if I found a
husband like my father? I had agreed with you. My father was on a
pedestal so high that to breathe that rarefied atmosphere was an
honour. (Difficult Daughters 157)

The concluding lines of the novel show a daughter‘s (Ida) attempt to know her
mother‘s real self in order to help her mother to regain the identity and peace for
which she strived hard all through her life. Through Ida, Virmati wanted to achieve all
that she had herself dreamt about. But in doing so a feeling of alienation develops
between Virmati and Ida. Ida revolts against her mother Virmati to have her own
individuality. By reconstructing her mother‘s story Ida tries to evade a part of her
mother which haunts her throughout her life and it also helps her to make a
reconnection with her mother as Ida says in the end of novel:
59

In searching for a woman I could know, I have pieced together

material from memories that were muddled, partial and contradictory.
The places I visited, the stuff I read tantalized me with fragments that I
knew I would not be able fully to reconstruct. Instead, I imagined
histories, rejecting the material that didn‘t fit, ruthlessly the material
that did. All through, I felt the excitement of discovery the pleasure of
fitting narratives into a discernible inheritance. This book weaves a
connection between my mother and me, each word a brick in a
mansion I made with my head and my heart. Now live in it, Mama,
and leave me be. Do not haunt me anymore. (Difficult Daughters 280)

Thus, through the story of Virmati, a difficult daughter, as well as a difficult

mother, Ida is able to free herself from her mother‘s dominance. Through Virmati‘s
identity, Ida is able to create her own separate identity. It is eminently the sense of
opposition between the daughter and mother. Kasturi, Virmati and Ida are
representatives of three different generations. Ida‘s life reveals more exercise of
freedom while Kasturi, a totally opposite, a follower of patriarchy. Virmati does not
accept this oppression and protests. Virmati‘s struggle starts from her home and with
the outer world to deal with the social norms. Virmati nourishes her dream
consciously and confronts all the problems in her path effectively. She pays a heavy
price in the course of her struggle and finally compromises to prove her worth.
Virmati was born and brought up in colonized India, had the impact of patriarchy and
colonialism in her personality. Ida is born and brought up in liberal Indian
atmosphere. One can clearly observe the difference of freedom in their nature through
their life histories. Gur Pyari Jandial assesses Virmati‘s step towards freedom as
appropriate as an initial attempt in that era and says, ―What is necessary is to break
the patriarchal mould and for Virmati to have tried to do in that in the forties was a
great achievement‖ (110).

Manju Kapur has dealt with the subject of gender discrimination and
generational conflict deftly through the story of Virmati in the patriarchal set up. The
novelist, in this novel, shows the quest for identity not only of Virmati but also of Ida
60

and other women characters. Shakuntala and Swarnalata are presented as strong
characters who live their life according to their own wishes and who become a source
of inspiration for other women. Then there is Ganga who is meek and submissive and
represents the docile nature of woman. She is illiterate and lacks the power to protest
against patriarchal world. Virmati and Ida, revolted against the system and are marked
as difficult daughters. Difficult Daughters, undeniably, has autobiographical element
in it as Sumita Pal rightly points out:

Like, Virmati, Manju Kapur was born in Amritsar and teaches in

college. Her family was victims of partition and was Arya Samaj like
Virmati‘s family. Manju Kapur‘s father too was a Professor, like
Virmati‘s Husband. Manju Kapur admits that she herself had been a
Difficult Daughter for the mother whose priority was marriage and
she, in turn wants her daughter to have good jobs. (137)

The contemporary events make the theme of search for identity more
significant. Virmati has to pay a big price to obtain her identity. She has to bear
imprisonment, abuses, second wife-hood and also hatred of family members and
society. These incidents may not be considered justified as today‘s world
acknowledges the woman‘s identity while for woman in the times of partition it was
considered a sinful act. In the pre-independence era, Indian women were not given
much liberty. To choose a boy of her own choice was socially forbidden for a girl.
Still modern people of India consider marriage as the sole destiny for a girl. Virmati
presents a different vision towards womanhood. She violates contemporary social
codes and tries to control her life through her own efforts. Her emotional and
intellectual force brings confidence in her efforts to survive. She makes her move
cautiously and bravely to encounter patriarchal throbs. Though she does not indulge
in socialist movements or freedom struggle but her fight for autonomy makes her a
protagonist of worth. Women of Ida‘s generation have a different perspective towards
those socio-political events. But Virmati‘s efforts bring significant change in
contemporary women‘s lives. Her effort to gain her freedom and identity makes the
61

novel an important book on feminist discourse and brings forth a new vision of Indian
feminism.

Women of India have to traverse a far longer journey to achieve rights in real
terms. The independent position of women has somehow solved the problem of
inequality to some extent but the changes are not visible enough on grass root level.
Though Manju Kapur has dealt with a stale subject and the fight for freedom in the
novel remains an unfinished battle, she has raised the issues of gender conflict very
naturally, authentically and convincingly.

Manju Kapur highlights the new generation of women in her second novel A
Married Woman. It shows a split in women‘s personalities. They are highly educated
and are curious to experiment something unusual to satisfy their suppressed ego and
in their venture to do so, they often fall prey to false temptations. These temptations
distance them from their practical responsibilities. Manju Kapur in this novel projects
the changing image of a woman. A Married Woman discusses the conflicts of middle
class working women Astha and Pipeelika. According to Alka Singh:

Manju Kapur in her latest novel A Married Woman brings forth those
hard facts that will go a long way in demystifying marriage. Through
her protagonist, she exposes those half truths, the traps, the losses, the
hard realities, the anxieties, the depression and the dangers associated
with it. The experience as women and the experience as people form
the basis of conflict of these two divergent states. Through the
personal private lives of these characters Manju Kapur exposes the
existing tension and the oscillation of the self between the two states of
mind. (164)

The novel examines the repressive forces that weaken women and their
journey towards freedom. It also examines how women, the central nerve of each
family, are subjugated and marginalized. The gender constructions and power
structures that operate within the family are also discussed. Astha is the protagonist of
the novel whose marriage becomes a liberating movement for her. An Indian girl feels
62

happy because marriage will provide her liberty to take decisions in her life. The
novelist tells:

On the plane to Srinagar Hemant held Astha‘s hand, while she looked
shyly out of the window at the mountains they were flying over. A
deep seed of happiness settled in the pit of her stomach, she was
married, she didn‘t have to be the focus of her parents‘ anxieties any
longer. She was now a homemaker in her own right, a grown woman,
experiencing her first plane ride. (A Married Woman 37)

Soon Astha‘s dreams are shattered as Hemant gets involved in his routine
business and starts neglecting Astha. Astha used to wait for him for long hours.
―Astha‘s desire receded. She felt cold, dreary, and distanced from him. She had been
waiting for him all day, thinking of their being together, but nothing of this was
reciprocated. He was a criminal, destroying her anticipation, ruining her happiness‖
(A Married Woman 50).

Her intimacy with Pipeelika makes her more courageous and she joins the path
of protest, participates in rallies for deceased Aijaz and as well against the
indifference of society towards women and their liberty. It has been really a very
tough and continuous fight to come out from all middle-class set social standards. Her
traditional upbringing and dominant patriarchal set-up tries to restrain her feelings of
autonomy. As a married woman, her secondary status and self-negation keeps her in
conflict. These conflicts later made her a new woman.

Like a traditional husband Hemant doesn‘t admire Astha‘s involvement in so

many social activities. He tries to control her by instilling in her various fears and
warns her about the dangers prevalent in this sort of yatras. He makes her realize that
she was ignoring her responsibilities towards children, husband, her own mother and
mother-in-law. When Hemant objects her travel to Ayodhya she readily answers, ―But
it is important for everyone to do what they can, to make things better, you have to
try, whether ultimately it makes a difference is not in your hands‖ (A Married Woman
212). Her intimate relation with Pipeelika is also an answer to patriarchy. She depicts
63

that she can find her own happiness and togetherness by own self, condemning the
society and conventions. Her challenging patriarchal modes pave the path of
independence and she ends her monotonous life by actively participating in social
activities. She gives outlet to her feelings through painting. The novelist does not
produce the protagonist as the meek creature confined, depressed and repressed but as
a significant incarnation. The novel seems producing ways to come out and ask for
their rights and challenges dominant power strategies.

Astha‘s rediscovery of lost self recognizes her effort and rationalizes her
outmoded morality. She does accept her relation with Pipee but at the same time does
not forget her family for being a married woman. In spite of Pipee‘s constant demand,
she found herself divided into two selves. This tender and hopeful bride changes into
an eminent, acknowledged and self-dependent woman. Manju Kapur explores the
various roles of a married woman and her discovery of self. According to Padmini
Mongia:

However, the most interesting feature about Astha is not her paintings
(which are conceptually tiresome), but her headaches. I wish her
author had been able to explore them further and go the length of the
difficult journey they demand. How does the middleclass woman,
raised to be selfless and good, begin to explore her independent
selfhood? How does this woman, when she develops an artist self,
balance the conflicting claims of the artist, the wife, the social activist,
and the mother? Had Kapur actually dared to take on these issues, her
novel would've disturbed us. Instead, we have a great deal of rich raw
material, undaringly spun. (n.p.)

Astha‘s upbringing in her natal home nurtured an intellect in her to counter

this gendered society. Astha‘s father believed in empowerment of women, while her
mother believed in nourishing her mind with patriarchal conventions. Astha‘s father
encouraged his daughter to escape from the clutches of tradition through education
and ambition: ―His daughter‘s future lay in her own hands, and these hands were to be
strengthened by the number of books that passed through them‖ (A Married Woman
64

2). He wanted to bring up his daughter as an independent woman; a woman who can
take charge of her destiny, instead of being submissive to the men in her family.
However, despite having an emancipated and liberal father on her side, Astha fails
initially to become the independent woman that her father envisioned. This is a result
of an opposing oppressive force within her family in the form of her mother. Astha‘s
mother acted as an agent of patriarchy through her control of Astha‘s relationships
with the opposite sex. She intercepted Bunty‘s letters to Astha and violated her
privacy by reading her diary. The mother rationalizes her acts as a way to protect
Astha from making a mistake: ―You are too young to be indulging in such goings-on‖
(A Married Woman 12). The mother used ageism as a defense against her imposed
restrictions on Astha. She nourishes Astha‘s mind with marriage as the only goal:
―Astha was brought up properly, as befits a woman‖ (A Married Woman 1). Her
mother constantly reminded Astha of her duties. Sudarshan Sharma observes in this
regard: ―Manju Kapur is one of the women writers from India whose protagonists are
women trying to maintain a balance all the time. Their suffering has made them
strong and they are struggling to set themselves free from the shackles of tradition and
various prejudices‖ (45).

Astha entered into a secret lesbian relationship with Pipeelika and very soon
realizes that every relationship becomes fruitless after sometime. Astha could not
remain committed to Pipeelika as she did not want to leave her children and her
husband. Astha‘s dilemma keeps her dangling between tradition and safety of her
home and children on one side and personal freedom on the other. Yet she finds some
degree of fulfilment in her relation with Pipeelika. Manju Kapur beautifully captures
her fulfillment in these words and comments: ―Astha thought that if husband and wife
are one person, then Pipee and she were even more so. She had shared parts of herself
she had never shared before. She felt complete with her‖ (A Married Woman 243).

A relation any other than man- woman is always considered unnatural because
it is a threat to normal heterosexual relations. In this regard S. Robert Gnanamony
remarks:
65

In this binarily opposed mindset, lesbians have no place and they will
never be tolerated as they are seen increasingly defying the definition
of man and the grammar of man-woman relationship. Astha‘s taking
the stance as a lesbian is vociferously against heterosexuality, and its
normativity and institutionalization. (114)

Astha retains her identity and individuality and the notion to retain the same
after married life brings the conflicts. Hemant transforms after marriage and reacts as
a typical patriarch. But Astha doesn‘t succumb to the prescribed role for a woman to
satisfy her in-laws and rear children. For a while she finds herself lost in the
patriarchal walls. Hemant‘s indifferent attitude makes her problem more penetrative.
Her isolation and dejection leads her to various social activities and Hemant‘s
continuous neglect makes her condition more traumatic. This continuous neglect
gives her wings to search her roots. Shalini R. Sinha brings forward the independent
aspect of Astha‘s nature to spread her wings instead of various conflicts and
obligations. Sinha very acutely observes:

The roots of tradition, living up to the benchmark of the ideal Indian

woman, sacrificing for family, putting self behind, devaluing herself,
being content to live in the safety and security of husband, home and
family – continually come in conflict with her postmodern sensibilities
that lend her wings—wings to question established norms to search for
her identity, to long for a soul mate, to develop, to enter socially
forbidden relationship. (206)

Hemant doesn‘t consider Astha‘s job of teaching as something meaningful

which requires any effort. He advises her to follow the rituals which her mother starts
for want of a boy child. Hemant suddenly starts thinking in an orthodox manner .One
can easily notice that Hemant doesn‘t count Astha‘s job as a laborious job. Her
educated husband who earlier desires for baby girl now asks his wife to participate in
pujas which may yield her a boy. He says: ―If you do feel it is important, all the more
reason not to mind if Mummy does some puja. Who knows it may yield good
results?‖ (A Married Woman 68).
66

The transformation in Hemant‘s personality from marriage to Himanshu‘s

birth recognizes the hidden shades of patriarchy in him. Even the general talk of
society communicates the importance of man. Astha kept silent for the duration and
followed her daily routine to avoid further conflicts. The novelist tells:

But Astha did get worked up, she couldn‘t help it. She tried to stay
calm for the baby‘s sake, she took to meditation, she concentrated on
peaceful thoughts. But she was not allowed to forget that everybody,
her colleagues, her in-laws, her husband‘s friends‘ wives, her mother,
the cook, the gardener and the part- time help all had an opinion about
her baby‘s gender, and that almost universal opinion was that it would
be a son and heir. (A Married Woman 68)

She has been repeatedly reminded to bear a son. Astha‘s existence as a mother
becomes valuable after the birth of her male progeny. Manju Kapur as a writer refutes
the notion of a woman as an object to be used or abused. Her novels are concerned
with women‘s strife to gain autonomy in male dominated world. The novels explore
female psyche and presents the understanding of the characters to solve the
mysteries of life. The victimized and marginalized self is portrayed as a necessary part
of modern woman‘s identity. Gender conflict can be significantly observed again and
again as Hemant constantly reminds Astha of her responsibilities. She reveals:

Then he started. And went on and on. I was running off on a wild
goose chase, neglecting my family and burdening his poor mother with
my responsibilities. I had no sense of what was fitting for a woman, I
hadn‘t bothered to ask him whether it was appropriate or convenient.
Ever since Aijaz had died, and I had started being exploited by the
Manch, and gone to Ayodhya and met Pipeelika Khan, I had no sense
of home, duty, wifehood or motherhood. (A Married Woman 248)

Hemant considers it his right to express his anger on her any time so that she
may only tread the prescribed path for a woman. Manju Kapur has dealt with the
theme of middle class existence very dexterously. Astha accepts the arranged
67

marriage and the system of patriarchy. In her initial married life she played her role
very sincerely. Manju Kapur describes her new life and says:

Back in Delhi, Astha submerged herself in the role of daughter-in-law

and wife. The time spent in the kitchen experimenting with new dishes
was time spent in the service of love and marriage. Hemant‘s clothes
she treated with reverence … with her mother-in-law she visited and
shopped in the moorings, the memory of the night past, and the
expectation of the night to come insulating her from any tedium she
might otherwise have felt. (A Married Woman 43)

Astha is treated as an inferior sex. ―Her subservient position struck her. She
had no business kneeling, taking off his shoes, pulling off his socks, feeling ecstatic
about the smell of his feet‖ (A Married Woman 50). Her liberal thinking makes her
realize to oppose this set pattern and many instances of her life make her feel to be
counted as a lesser human being. Manju Kapur clearly depicts this maturity in her
character; she not only revolts against deep-rooted false values but also focuses on the
marriage institution. Astha in a very befitting manner comes out of this marginalized
status and sociological pressures and carves a niche for her own.

The novelist presents the daring protagonist rear her children and clear her
path of independence side by side. She criticizes the present scenario of prescribed
womanhood and generates her values of life by her own standards. She segregates the
individual desires of womanhood from imposed motherhood. S. Robert Gnanamony
admits Astha as a rediscovery of female independence out of her domestic arena and
observes:

Manju Kapur in her second novel A Married Woman, like a few other
contemporary Indian author, attempts to re-imagine femininity. Astha,
the protagonist, while living the life of a conventional wife to her
husband, Himanshu and a typical Indian mother to her daughter
Anuradha, is steering a path of independence, which under normal
circumstances an Indian mother wouldn‘t dare to do. In order to escape
68

from the tedium of married life, she tries to search clumsily for a
heightened sensational experience of life. (99)

Manju Kapur brings the disheartening fact of Indian social structure that
women‘s role is restricted only to rearing and bearing. As if her sole role remains
confined to bearing children and carry forth the family line and nurture them with
great care. Her desiring nature is neither projected in ancient fable nor in mythology.
In this regard Anwesha Roy Chaudhury and Joydeep Banerjee objectively remark:

She wants to canonize and commemorate her feminine sensibilities.

Pressure at home, silent disapproval of her in-laws, demands of
growing children & attitude of an unresponsive husband Astha recluses
in writings that echoes the deep embedded feelings, her consciousness,
her plight, fears, dilemmas struggling against gender discrimination,
her existential angst to find a day of final peace & tranquility. (28-29)

Astha is in conflict with ethics of patriarchal society. Many times she

cross-questions this patriarchy prevalent in Indian society, whether it may be the case
of an inattentive husband, or a father not providing liberty to her mother. When her
mother hands over all the decision making power to her husband, Astha questions her
dead father and says: ―If her mother was at fault, so was her father, for managing the
money, and teaching his wife that this was the normal behaviour, so was her
mother-in-law for bringing up Hemant to never regard women as being to be
consulted in their own lives…‖ (A Married Woman 98). There are many instances
when Hemant neither gives her the status of an educated girl nor he treats her as an
equal partner of his life. Manju Kapur describes Astha‘s mental condition:

Astha sat stunned. What kind of fool had she been to expect Hemant to
understand? She had a good life, but it was good because nothing was
questioned. This boat could not be rocked. She could paint that on a
canvas and put it up on the wall, and stare it day and night, so that its
message burnt its way through brain into her heart. This boat cannot be
rocked. (A Married Woman 99)
69

Astha feels that her marital life has completely curbed her identity and self.
For self-assertion, she turns to Pipeelika. They find different alternatives and reshape
their future as they understand the requirement of different path in the traditional
society. Astha‘s longing for her space makes her a new woman. The novelist
beautifully depicts the status of an earning woman in India. She can earn money for
everybody but she cannot spend money on herself. In fact, this is the status of an
educated woman in patriarchy. Wakde Balasaheb Ishwar indicates women‘s declining
status and remarks: ―Though Astha earns, she cannot enjoy the financial freedom. She
cannot spend the money in buying the things which she desires to have without taking
consent of the men in the family specially her husband. She realizes that the spending
of money is decided by men in the family not by woman‖ (6).

Astha‘s request for a car shows the Indian social structure where a woman has
to remain dependent on man from smaller to greater needs. She is not liberated
enough to take her decisions. Astha has to convince Hemant many times for her need
of car as if her requirements are of no worth. Astha asks recurrently, but Hemant
repeatedly turns down her proposal. It makes Astha shout:

But why? The car is there for you whenever you want it.‘

‗Please, Hemant. I am thirty- six. I need to be independent

I am always adjusting to everybody else‘s needs.‘ (A Married Woman

227)

Manju Kapur shows that Astha‘s inborn desires and longings took the path of
expression in her paintings as well as in poetry. Women‘s stature is dictated by the
patriarchy and men claim to be observing the established norms and show cruelty
towards women which has resulted in the weakened rights and diminishing to a
woman limited only up to propagator of family line. But Astha doesn‘t endorse the
idea of imposed patriarchy and opts for painting as a tool to exercise her desires. Soon
her conflict turns her into an artist. Manju Kapur describes: ―As her brush moved
carefully over the canvas, her hand grew sure, her back straightened, she sat firmer on
her stool, her gaze became more concentrated, her mind more focussed. A calmness
70

settled over her, tenuous, fragile, but calmness nevertheless. She thought of her name.
Faith. Faith in herself. It was all she had‖ (A Married Woman 299).

The story further reveals various transformations but then also she always
remains struggling with male centric prevalent phenomena. Astha no longer carries
the burden of false family honour, relationship and forced morality. She fights with
her own self and feels entangled. The novelist reveals:

How could she make him understand? Work was the only place she
could forget everything, where she could become her mind, her hand,
and the vision inside her head. At any rate she was sleeping badly, only
by working hours every morning before the demands of the house took
over did she know some peace. All this was not explainable.
(A Married Woman 301)

On one hand, Astha‘s place is set within the boundaries of home and
domesticity, on the other, she is denied freedom of thought even within those
boundaries since it is not a ―woman‘s place‖. Astha finds herself trapped in a
suffocating tradition bound society. This saga of Astha fighting with patriarchy shows
various instances where the female protagonist is struggling with her own society and
family. Hemant himself emphasizes the conservative rituals though he is an educated
person. He remarks: ―You seem to forget that your place as a decent family woman is
in the home, and not on the streets. You also forget that this is New Year‘s Eve, and
we are going out‖ (A Married Woman 172).

The agony of marginalization and victimization keeps her in continuous

mental and physical conflicts. By and by differences start affecting her health. She
develops debilitating migraines. Continuous pressure of household problems, keeping
everybody happy and managing the demands of growing children makes her
condition worse. To come out of all these issues, Astha starts writing poetry and
painting. In a way she finds a means to fight with her dilemmas. Though her sketches
and her poems comprised her anguish and alienated yet she felt relieved in doing so.
She starts writing and sketching in order to fight her growing loneliness. She says:
71

―Writing alleviated the heaviness within her, a heaviness she found hard to deal with.
Discussing her feelings with Hemant usually led to argument, distance, and greater
misery. In the struggle to express herself she found temporary relief‖ (A Married
Woman 79).

When she asks for a separate room for her own she is denied the use of the
vacant room of her sister-in-law. Thus, angry Astha finds next path, ―Finally she
steeled herself, she shut the door, and if disturbed too often locked it. In this way a
certain uneasy privacy was granted her‖ (A Married Woman 157). Somehow she sorts
out the issue of individuality for herself in her own way. Now she starts fulfilling her
desires. Besides, she is also sick of her continuous sacrifices for family welfare but
now ―She didn‘t want to be pushed around in the name of family. She was fed up with
the ideal of Indian womanhood, used to trap and jail‖ (A Married Woman 168).
Against all odds Astha tries to build a path of her own as she does not tread on the
footsteps of her mother. Rather she chooses freedom and liberty. She straight away
answers Pipeelika that she can‘t think of leaving her family and explains to her: ―I
love you, you know how much you mean to me, I try and prove it every moment we
have together, but I can‘t abandon my family. I can‘t…‖ (A Married Woman 242).

If Astha becomes the victim of male passion, Pipeelika becomes the victim of
communal riots and for wrongs committed in history. In their feminine habits they
forget their personal anguish and agony in dedication, thinking that their identities as
individuals are threatened under the guise of mother, wife, and daughter and they
become a property, and the purity of their bodies comes at a premium. Astha‘s new
vision towards womanhood provokes her to violate old social codes of society. She
flashes new moralities and exhibits her own concerns. She knew that she has been
doing injustice with her relation with Hemant but her conscience accepts this to
satisfy her inner self and utters: ―When she was with Hemant she felt like a woman of
straw, her inner life dead, with a man who noticed, nothing… She accepted the misery
of this dislocation as her due for being faithless wife‖ (A Married Woman 287).

Facing all the traumas of married life, Astha wants to free herself from all sort
of dependency and she steps forward in her journey to attain liberty. She wants to
72

remove all the shackles which impede her movement towards freedom. In this regard
Ashok Kumar asserts:

Astha likes to have a break from dependence on others and proceeds

on the path of full human status that poses in threat to Hemant and his
male superiority. Although she finds herself trapped between the
pressures of the modern developing society and shackles of ancient
biases she sets out on her quest for a more meaningful life in her
lesbian relationship. (134)

Manju Kapur unveils the displaced self of a woman commonly felt in the
traditional institution of marriage and family. Some women suffer throughout their
life whereas a few raise their voice against the discrimination. Astha is one such
woman, right from her childhood she protested against the niche of traditional
trappings of social customs and values which proved as shackles in her growth. She
never imbibed in her the values of her mother. As an intellectual she formed her own
ideas rather than copy her society and her mother.

After her father‘s death, Astha remains much concerned for her mother. She
requests her mother to stay with her. Astha‘s mother resists staying with her daughter
as shashtras will consider this act as a matter of shame to ancestors. She resides alone
at home and later in the ashram in her old age but not with her daughter. When she
repeatedly requests her mother for it, her mother says, ―It doesn‘t look nice‖
(A Married Woman 85). Astha replied with a grieving heart to her mother: ―I wish
you wouldn‘t be so stick-in-the-mud, Ma. Why didn‘t you have a son to look after
you when you were old, if you cannot take anything from a daughter? Why did you
stop with me?‖ (A Married Woman 85).

Astha envied Hemant, his straight forward relationship with his parents.
When they go to Goa, although the air tickets for the trip are bought with the money
earned from the sale of her paintings, she is not allowed to buy an antique silver box
worth rupees five thousand because Hemant considers it to be a waste of money.
Astha‘s job is considered irrelevant but her earning is spent on household things. It is
73

not that Astha wants to take the position of man; she accepts her duty at home and
wants to share all the undertakings and management. These aspirations make her a
new woman who wants to carve an identity other than just being a wife or mother.
Her statement testifies it when she says, ―Really Ma, don‘t you think women can be
responsible for their own investments?‖ (A Married Woman 97).

She accepts her duties happily but desires an equal treatment in all walks of
life. In Astha we find a true reflection of contemporary Indian woman who is satisfied
not only with the right to franchise but also wants to be treated as being equal to man
in society, equal in sharing the hardships of life and in decision-making powers, and
equal at her home, her in-laws or at her workplace. Astha knows the attitude of
society towards women and she chooses to be a rebel. She no longer remains a silent
rebel but emerges out as a bold and action-oriented woman. She knows that she
cannot depend on others to sort out her domestic problems and proceeds to handle it
on her own. She feels nobody understands her, neither her husband nor her mother.
She feels suffocated in the entire set-up. She does not want to live as a shadow to her
husband but to stand out as a separate individual. To come out of the set-image of
woman, Astha cross-questions her husband, her mother and others. But still we
cannot say that Astha has blossomed into a new woman in the real sense. However,
Chaudhari Minaben Jesangbhai has a different approach towards Astha and considers
this protagonist as a medium to discover herself. Minaben comments:

The present novel is a feminocentric protest against the phallocentric

patriarchal culture. The male world imposes unlimited controls on
women. Kapur however in this novel empowers her protagonist Astha
to give a strong resistance to patriarchy by denouncing the prescribed
norms of a society. Astha, resorting to a strange way of life, thus
protested against her subordination under patriarchy. By choosing this
uncommon path, she survives and discovers herself. (538)

Astha‘s deprived self dictates woman‘s desire for affection and equality in
life. She seeks her space and wants to pursue her wishes. Mere provision of bread and
74

cloth fails to justify her prominence in life. In the same way Suguna R. also favours
Astha who protests against her present status. She comments:

Astha breaks the laws of nature and even society, in her relationship
with Pipeelika. In these ways, her extroverted activities do not imply
that she wanted to be superior to man, but she longed for the equality
and something beyond that in order to fulfil her duties at home and in
all the undertakings. Such thoughts act as an aspiration for her to
evolve into a new woman of revolting nature. (133)

Yet her lesbian relationship is an outcome of her conflicts that she has been
facing within heterosexual relationship. She is on the verge of losing her own identity
when once Aijaz acknowledges her creative strength and again when Pipeelika pours
her emotional instability out. Subhash Chandra also agrees to this viewpoint and
remarks:

At best she wants to straddle both the worlds—and paradoxically the

heterosexual world becomes one of choice and the lesbian world an
incidental happening, which she enjoys but which she is not prepared
to acknowledge to the world by 'coming out,' nor is she prepared to
give up on her children and husband and home. She is not a woman
whose sexual desire is focused on another woman. Astha's bonding
with Pipee is not a choice exercised by a woman who would take the
initiative to start and sustain a lesbian relationship. It could be
interpreted, in a certain sense, as an act stemming from resentment of
her particular situation. (n.p.)

Astha feels her life a series of conflicts as long as she lives with Hemant—he
pays no attention to her. She feels that she has become an object to be used for various
purposes. 'When she was with Hemant she felt like a woman of straw, her inner life
dead, with a man who noticed nothing‘ (A Married Woman 287). Her free spirit paves
her path to cross patriarchal threshold but she finds herself entangled in new
problematic waves of patriarchy. The layout of an ideal woman comes as if she is to
75

be an obedient and willing person at the hands of man. Astha realizes what a man
wants from his wife. Therefore she feels, ―A willing body at night, a willing pair of
hands and feet in the day and an obedient mouth were the necessary prerequisites of
Hemant‘s wife‖ (A Married Woman 231).

Astha‘s loneliness and sense of duty makes her sick of all that is happening
around her. She feels herself in the constraints of duties, always chained in this or that
social obligation which she only has to bear and obey. She has to be an obedient
daughter-in-law, good wife as well as a caring mother adjusting with her job also.
Various sociological pressures make a woman adjustable with society but her own
self remains unsatisfied. Her own desires remain unfulfilled. Societal conventions
teach her to resist all the ill-wills of her family members and describe a periphery for
her. Silence and submission should be her ornaments. Meenakshi Thapan aptly
remarks: ―Both within and outside the family, women engage in the twin process of
compliance and resistance, submission and rebellion, silence and speech, to assert
their identities as women in what they clearly and assertively recognize as oppressive
contexts and situation‖ (170).

Astha is representative of modern educated women who undergoes various

conflicts and this psychological burden presents the harsh truths. The modern woman
has to suffer between courage and negligence. Usha Bhatt and Mihir Dave comment
at Manju Kapur‘s craft of presenting the mirror of modern society and women‘s
status:

Her second novel A Married Woman too is a glaring example of

psychological conflict of a married woman who spends her whole life
for her husband, children and family but at last what does she receive
in return, nothing except negligence. This novel brings forward those
hard facts that will go a long way to demystifying marriage. The
novelist exposes those half-truths, traps, hard realities, anxieties of
Astha, the protagonist who is associated with it. All these problems
and sufferings are not of Astha only but are of contemporary, modern,
educated women who have the ability to do and to think on their own
76

but due to their husbands‘ negligence, they become the victim of our
so-called coherent societal set-up. (88)

Through the personal private lives, Manju Kapur exposes the existing tension
and the swinging of the self between the two states of mind. In our society marriage
comes along with many other things in life for men while for women it is the only
way. In Indian society, women have to fight not only against discrimination but also
for emancipation and liberation from all forms of oppression. Whenever a woman
protests against injustice and exploitation, she is labeled as a rebel or deviant. In fact
she has been fighting for her own rights which should be naturally given to her. But
she has to fight a long way. On the contrary these rights are already given to males by
birth. To seek freedom she has to struggle a lot. She has to wrestle with various
gender based impediments in her path.

Manju Kapur has boldly advocated woman‘s financial, psychological, social

as well as emotional self-dependence to decide what can be the role of her marriage
and her identity in seeking her goal in the journey of self-realization. Her women try
to withstand the pressure of inner and outer conflict. Causing a turmoil in the life of
her women characters, Manju Kapur has, indeed, hinted at a greater stability which
only woman decides to bring in her life. Reena Sanasam aptly remarks that the
present novel concentrates on Indian womanhood and its challenges. She comments:
“A Married Woman concerns with the Indian woman who strives to gain space in life
and socio-cultural domains. The female protagonist Astha is a middleclass educated
married woman who is in search of her identity against the existing patriarchal set up
and appears as an independent woman‖ (2).

Her mother remains worried about her daughter‘s future and settlement in a
sound family. She reminds her husband as they are getting older, they should perform
their duty soon. She suggests:

There is a time for everything,‘ went on the mother. ‗The girl is

blossoming now. When the fruit is ripe it has to be picked. Later she
might get into the wrong company and we will be left wringing our
77

hands. If she marries at this age, she will have no problems adjusting.
We too are not so young that we can afford to wait. (A Married
Woman 20)

Astha‘s mother compares a girl‘s life with a flower. She will lose her worth
after a particular duration. Generational conflict comes to fore when Astha‘s mother
calls a suitor without consulting her. Astha, being a new woman of her own thoughts
does not appreciate this idea and shuts the door of bathroom and was not ready to
meet any stranger. Astha‘s thinking does not match with her mother‘s. In this,
generational conflict can be well observed. Manju Kapur describes this as: ―Astha
collapsed against the bathroom door, tears falling, crying, crying for Bunty, crying for
the lack of love in her barren life, crying because she did not want to see a dull stolid
man in the drawing room who advertised for a wife and asked about sports‖ (A
Married Woman 21). Her mother becomes terribly upset at this. Both have different
wavelength. Astha stays in the bathroom long after the suitor has left. Astha‘s
marriage is frequently discussed in her parental home. Her mother reminds her father
to find a suitor for her daughter. Every time her mother reacts in a traditional manner
as if their religion also condemns them for their incomplete duties. The
mother-daughter talk also indicates the presence of generational gap. The mother and
daughter have variant opinions. Generational conflict appears when her mother
declared, ―When you are married, our responsibilities will be over. Do you know the
shashtras say if parents die without getting their daughter married, they will be
condemned to perpetual rebirth?‖ (A Married Woman 1). To which Astha sharply
replied: ―I don‘t believe in all that stuff, and I think, as an educated person, neither
should you‖ (A Married Woman 1).

Astha‘s mother keeps a check on her growing daughter‘s movements. She

does not allow her to talk to any friend or to write any letter. When Astha and Bunty
write letters to each other and her mother objects: ―Why is he writing so much to
you?‖ (A Married Woman 12).

Later, after Astha‘s marriage her mother asks her daughter to take care of her
husband‘s health. She blames Astha for Hemant‘s ill health. The women of her
78

generation believe that it is the job of a wife to do all domestic chores and also
monitor her husband‘s health. Astha‘s mother who is a votary of patriarchy counts
woman‘s responsibility is to take care of her husband, too. She says: ―Poor Hemant
needs a break from all these troubles. You do not give him enough attention.
Remember men have to bear the burdens of the outside world, home is their refuge‖
(A Married Woman 270).

Astha‘s mother-in-law is not portrayed in main perspective. Yet she plays her
traditional role and expresses her concern towards her grandchildren and son
neglecting her expectations. She considers Astha‘s act of organizing campaigns futile.
She further advises her to follow elders‘ routine and resents her spoiling her life in
wandering here and there for any such cause. One can observe generational conflict in
the conversation between Astha and her mother-in-law when Astha tries to come out
of patriarchal shackles. Astha‘s mother-in-law says:

You know I never interfere in whatever you decide to do. Today

young people feel that they must live their own lives. But there are
times when it is necessary to listen to the advice of elders. What is the
need to leave your family, and roam about like a homeless woman on
the streets of some strange city? (A Married Woman 186)

Variations in the thoughts of different generations can be observed clearly in

case of Pipeelika also. Pipeelika‘s marriage shows differences in the opinion of two
generations. Her mother does not admire her decision of marrying Aijaz. Pipeelika
disapproves of her mother‘s view point and discards the issue of religion. Her mother
tries to convince her that inter religious marriage will not be successful. Pipeelika‘s
mother tries to change her opinion for Aijaz on religious basis and remarks:

‗You can‘t do this,‘ she told her daughter, [Pipee].

‗Why not? You‘re the one who is always going on

about me getting married.‘

‗But not to a Muslim.‘

79

‗He‘s sweet. So what if he‘s a Muslim?‘

Her mother clicked her tongue. ‗They marry four

times.‘

‗How do you know?‘

‗It‘s part of their religion.‘ (A Married Woman 117)

Whereas Pipeelika represents the new generation and her mother remains
stuck to old ideology. Their differences can be well observed. Manju Kapur gives a
prominent description of the marriage without their own family members and
remarks;

The bride and groom paid for their own wedding, the whole thing
came to five hundred rupees. No relatives were present from either
side, a colleague of Aijaz‘s and Neeraj acted as witnesses, while the
theater crowd, a few of Aijaz‘s colleages, and the staff of Ujala , later
gathered at Karim‘s to complete the celebratory aspects. (A Married
Woman 127)

Aijaz even does not disclose about his marriage to his parents. It indicates total
conflict ridden situation at his home as regards his marriage. V. R. Mirgane and Mrs.
T. M. Inamdar describe Manju Kapur‘s women as a product of transition phase and
comment:

Throughout Kapur's writing we come across to the transitional phase of

women who changes their lives for the sake of themselves and become
independent, educated, self-reliant by denying the patriarchal rules.
Though they suffer, they fight for separate identity in a controversial
situation and make room for their self, their determination; strong will
to live an independent life makes them bold and revolutionary. They
become rebellious and change their lives. (124)
80

Manju Kapur depicts through her protagonist that meaningful change in

woman‘s life can be brought only from strong will and self-reliance. However,
Astha‘s courage to face the male dominated phenomena was questioned by the social
norms but she desires to break from dependence syndrome and thereby posing a
threat to male superiority and trapped between the pressure of the modern
developing society and shackles of ancient biases , she searches for more meaningful
life in her lesbian relationship.

The idea of protest and individualism for a woman is still considered absurd in
patriarchal societies and adherence to long established conventions for leading a
homely life becomes the central concern. But the cultural change depicts the
emergence of new trends and growing mental status on equality issue. The great
strength of the novel lies in its rich social context that expresses the author‘s concern
for a girl who, uprooted from the familiar environment of her childhood, girlhood and
youth, leaves behind the most formative part of her life, and moulds herself anew in a
completely strange environment, with a completely new set of rules and regards it as
the only permanent fact of her existence. Her brave encounter with her own emotional
and social conflicts makes her a remarkable protagonist and a woman of zest.

The novelist carefully brings out the harsh facts of Indian society and seems to
give biased observation towards women. When woman acknowledges the hard truths,
her revolt for space and liberty makes her life more complicated. Astha‘s intellectual
self doesn‘t let her enjoy freely her vacations abroad when she hears about the turmoil
in Ayodhya. She wants to reach India as soon as possible. She observes the alarming
situation and assimilates the horror of Hindu-Muslim riots. Astha is the typical victim
of time and space - wants to seek space for a woman and time for her intellectual self.
It is not the story of Astha but the voice of many educated girls who want equality in
terms of possessing their space in married life also and pursuing the same spirit of
opposing marginalization. Manju Kapur depicts the fast changing world and
specifically women who are getting more aware about their rights, challenging
marginalization and opting for unorthodox path in their search for identity. Women
of this era try to associate themselves with social activities, don‘t count their
81

frustrations meaningless and decline the traditional concept of society where women
have a limited role to play.

Through these two novels Manju Kapur presents the journey of women from
pre-independence era to post-independence era. The protagonist of her debut novel
struggles to get her rights fighting with her social faiths and old values of previous
generations hurled on her. The protagonist of her second novel struggles to fulfil her
dream of liberty by putting her marital life at stake. The present chapter has brought
forward the protagonists‘ energetic attempts to overcome gender and generational
conflict successfully.
82

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