Aim of the assignment- The main aim of writing this assignment is to analyse

the very famous novel written by Shashi Despande, winner of the

Sahitya Akademi award, ‘That Long Silence’. One more reason that made me a
little more inclined towards this topic is, the feminist approach of the writer.
Novels like these help us to compare the situation of Indian women then and
now. And helps us make a graph of how far we all have come but still there’s a
long way to go.
Critical analysis of “That Long Silence” by Shashi Despande.
Indian feminist author Shashi Deshpande’s fifth novel, That Long Silence (1989),
won the Sahitya Akademi Award, given by the Indian Academy of Arts and Letters
to outstanding works written in any of India’s twenty-four major languages in
1990. During her career, Desphande has also been awarded the Padma Shri for
cultural contributions and been shortlisted for a Hindu Literary Prize for her novel
“Shadow Play”.

Shashi Deshpande presents a sensitive portrayal of Indian Womanhood striding

the entangled path of human mind with a rare gift of sharp psychological insights
into the subtleties of the human female, supported with rich, powerful and
pretentious style. She delicately portrays the swings of mood, the seesaw
moments of joy and despair, the fragments of feelings perceived and suppressed,
heart-wringing anguish of the narrator protagonist Jaya, a housewife and a failed
writer. Her unequivocal feminist stand has got her a distinctive place in the
contemporary Indian English fiction. Her themes are based on lives and problems
of women only. Her novels are in themselves the schools of psyche of those
people whose capacity for rational thought vanishes on being victimized to
traumatic experience. ‘That Long Silence’, (1988) is a novel of woman and her life
and Shashi Deshpande confesses that “only a woman could read my books - they
are written from the inside, as it were.” Her novels are mostly autobiographical in
nature, depicting her own experiences of the educated middle class Indian
women’s difficult and unpleasant situation and they tend to be gender specific.
Her work concentrates on the status of the women in the traditional bound,
male-dominated middle class society of the contemporary India.

The main character of the novel “That Long Silence” is Jaya, a girl born in a
middle-class family. When she was young, Jaya was clever, curious, and bright, all
qualities considered unladylike by the mainstream society. Jaya’s grandmother
encouraged her to act more conventionally so that she can get a husband when
she grows up, explaining her that civilized and cultured girls are skilled at cooking,
cleaning, and household labor. In addition, she tells Jaya to learn to be more
adjusting and to keep quiet when she disagrees. All young women will have to
build good relationships with their in-laws at some point and learning to make a
good impression will go a long way towards helping her do this in her future.
Eventually, Jaya learns to play the part of a subservient woman, while retaining a
sense of individuality. She writes in her free time, though she has failed to
become a successful author. As she grows up, Jaya becomes keenly aware of the
fact that people, in general, do not like it when she expresses herself or her
individuality, and so she learns to hide it. Jaya refers her suffocation as “the long
silence” since it stretched across her life from her childhood to her middle age.
Only Jaya’s father encouraged her in her writing and perceived her as an
individual.
Jaya gets her education and after her college she marries Mohan, a successful
businessman. Jaya and Mohan disagree on many things and their marriage is not
a happy one. There is no place in their relationship for Jaya to express her point of
view, as Mohan expects her to go along with everything he says unquestioningly.
Jaya takes care of the household while Mohan works, feeding him and cleaning up
after him as if he were one of their two teenage children.
When Mohan is suspended from his job due to misconduct, Jaya is compelled to
take account of what her life has become. Jaya and Mohan are forced to move
from their big spacious apartment into a small one, while their children stayed
back with relatives. Jaya begins writing more to supplement the family’s income.
Some of her articles are frank and open about her dissatisfaction, including the
way in which her husband is unable to connect with her or their children. Though
Mohan is not happy with the article, he does not say anything about it to Jaya.
She merely senses from his expression that he does not like her writing and
automatically and unthinkingly seeks to please him.
Mohan faces further disgrace when he is found guilty of counterfeiting at his job
and is later fired. Jaya’s sister Kusum visits her and discusses about her own
husband from whom she has recently separated. Jaya thinks that Kusum’s abusive
husband and her own husband have very different flaws but that they stem from
the same cultural expectations of the way men should treat women. Next, Jaya
meets with her brother Ravi, who speaks harshly about Mohan and when Mohan
discovers about this, he gets angry with Jaya.
It is clear that Mohan needs Jaya’s support and love while he faces a tough
period, but neither of them has ever been comfortable talking about their feelings
and fears with each other. Mohan has no idea how to ask for what he needs, and
Jaya has no idea how to offer it to him. The situation becomes even more serious
when the couple’s son Rahul, runs away from home. Eventually, Mohan leaves
the house.
Thinking about what has led to their separation, Jaya understands that she is
partly to blame for withdrawing from her husband during his tough times. She
recognizes that the long silence has blocked communication and openness in her
family, making it difficult for her to support her husband and vice versa.
Mr. Kamat, an elderly man in her building helps Jaya think through her feelings
about herself as an individual and her relationship towards her husband.
The book ends with Mohan sending a telegram to Jaya saying that he will return
home soon. In addition, his job is willing to take him back. Jaya is ready to accept
Mohan back into her life, and she vows that never again will she let the long
silence separate them emotionally from each other.

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