Quest for Identity: A Study of Manju Kapur’s "A Married Woman"

Abstract

This paper tends to analyze the quest of middle class woman’s eagerness and passion to survive and her need to create a niche, an identity for herself in this patriarchal society. Even in her submissiveness she shows a trait of rebelliousness and silent protests. Manju Kapur’s novel A Married Woman explores the complex terrain of the Indian patriarchal family and makes us wonder in amazement at the various issues  that are deep rooted in  any Indian middle class family– the revolt against the age-old traditions, quest for identity, the problems of marriage; and lastly the women’s struggle for her survival and to create a separate identity for herself , apart from her role as a wife , mother, daughter, daughter –in –law, the mistress of the house. She not only portrays the vulnerable condition of women in the Indian society but also delineates how they are being kept ignorant about education and emancipation.