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MAN-WOMAN RELATIONSHIP IN THE NOVELS OF ANITA DESAI WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CRY, THE PEACOCK AND VOICES IN THE CITY

ABSTRACT

Literature is mirror of society. Novelists have depicted since yore the complexity of human relationship. They have brought to the fore the subtleties innate in them especially man-woman relationship. A number of Indian women writers have been projecting the need for self awareness and identification of oneself. Anita Desai is unique among the Indian writers for her acute awareness of female sensibility and the complex problems of women. Her area of interest is the female psyche, and the working of the woman’s mind. Her women characters strive not for better materialistic life but for individual recognition. Her women characters make effort to break stereotypes imposed by the society and escape from suffocating existence. They are aesthetic beings who are unable to compromise with dull drudgery of common place existence. They want to identify their roles in society and live a full existence. The women in her novels are in search of the truth and meaning of their actions and of their relationships in the society. The man-woman relationships depicted in the novels are not fulfilling relationships having happiness of married life but embittered stories of frustrated existence. The present research paper is an attempt to portray man-woman relationships in the novel of Anita Desai with special reference to Cry, the Peacock and Voices in the city.

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