Feminism In Shashi Deshpande

Shashi Deshpande sidetracks into a bit of philosophizing on human life, grief, happiness, pain, man's aloneness and so on, and these digressions make the novel a bit too wordy. She never leaves anything unsaid to evoke rich suggestions. Some Indian elements like the son's importance in the family, girls getting importance only during haldi-kumkums, a woman possessed by Devi, find a natural place in the novel that deals with a woman's status and the dichotomy within her personality. The initial experiences in her girlhood days influenced Saru heavily that she wanted to become a powerful dominant person in her life. This made her realize that she can fulfill her ambitions through education. After her school years she aspired for college education. …show more content…
The novel also transcends feminine constraints and raises issues, which the human beings in general encounter in their lives. The novelist’s objective is to show that one should take refuge in the self which means here that woman should assert and ascertain herself so that she can overcome or thrash the suppressing forces. She makes Saritha consciousness to be touched by her experience as a doctor. Saritha realizes that one has to be sufficient within oneself because there is no other refuge elsewhere, puts an end to her problems. She realizes that “we come into this world alone and go out of it alone. The period in between is short.Our society is full of paradoxes and contradictions. Here a female is considered a peripheral member of the family, both in her parent's house as well as husbands. Throughout Saru’s lifetime, she is unable to decide her roots and this leads to her insecurity. As the daughter is closest to the mother, this insecurity is rubbed on to her also. Saritha in confronts reality and, at the end, realizes that the dark no longer holds any terrors to her. She empowers herself to be survive in a male dominated world that offers no easy outs to women. She neither surrenders to nor does escape from the problems but with great strength accept the challenges to face them …show more content…
She thinks. She analyses all the dark corners of her soul. She introspects and judges life, relationships and chooses her way of living that she will live in the present circumstances only by making herself courageous enough to fight against the unwanted situation. Saru carries within her the sad effects of gender discrimination but her feminism springs out as a reaction to this discriminatory psychological set up of society and her parents in particular. It is to be noted that Saru, at the end of the novel, has come to realize that her profession as a doctor is her own and she will decide what to do with it. "My life is my own." She will no longer be a puppet. She wants to take her own decision. She longs to live a life as she desires to live without having any interference in her personal way of life. Thus she becomes fully vigorous to face what may come to