Relationship
venture and Self Discovery in Anita Desai’s Novel Cry the Peacock
Dr. G. Aruna
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Dr. N.G.P. Arts and Science College,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Abstract:
Anita Desai has carved out a niche for
herself among Indian writers such as Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawar Jhabvala,
Nayantara Sahgal, Shashi Deshpande, Shobhaa De, and Kamala Das. Markandaya
places a greater emphasis on the rural setting. In Jhabvala's fiction, the
characters that play the various roles are less essential than their social
backgrounds. Kamala Das moves between man-woman relationships while Sahgal
focuses on social and political consciousness. Shobhaa De seems to be more
concerned with physical necessities and social structure, whereas Shashi Deshpande
simply follows Desai to a point. However, in Desai's works, the study of
perception, the inner workings of the mind, takes precedence and is unrivalled.
She deftly unravels the secrets of her characters' inner lives.
Keywords: Marriage; Male-Female Conflict;
Reality; Tradition
Introduction
Literature is a great medium for representing
the oppressed voice. Fiction, as a powerful genre, expresses social concern and
situation, and thus serves as a useful weapon for social criticism. Seema Suneel
remarks that: The novel is considered the most socially-oriented because it
depicts human relationships in its varied aspects. In other words, the novel
may be considered a document of social criticism. It tends to reflect the contingent
reality in an artistic fashion (Seema 198).
The post-war period in Indian English
literature is notable for the emergence of a prominent group of female
novelists whose impact on contemporary Indian society is amazing in its
uniqueness. The expanding presence of female novelists in the fictional setting
is significant, especially in light of increased awareness of shifting patterns
of household relationships in women, particularly with males. The literary
works of postmodern writers try to project the essence of women in the context
of developing social circumstances, as this expedites the transition from
marginalised to central position.
Anita Desai's works are about family in a
post-colonial transitional culture, with female characters as the key focus.
Desai's main focus is on researching the marriage dilemma, with all of its
dangers and complications. Desai's humanistic interest is evident in her
attempt to project communication issues, such as male-female conflict deriving
primarily from temperamental differences and emotional deprivation. The
unsuitable marriages serve as a projection of her characters' existential
predicaments.
Man-Woman
Relationship
In Desai's works, the protagonist's conflict
with illusion and reality, tradition and modernization, is brilliantly
portrayed through the institution of marriage. The concept of marriage is
extremely important in Indian culture. Since the dawn of time, marriage has
been considered auspicious institution requiring a certain level of piety. Marriage
binds equal cooperation and union between one male and a female in human
interactions. However, in the great fictional writings of postcolonial women
writers, this bond has been portrayed as a significant contemporary concern,
and the human situation takes universal significance. The post-war era is
marked by the emergence of new patterns in married relationships.
A crisis in relationships and the concept of
marriage is predicted by those entrapped in the combination of tradition and
modernity. Desai investigates a shattered married relationship. In Desai's home
novels, human connections, particularly husband-wife interactions, are not
close, and turmoil in familial ties is natural. Anita Desai's women-oriented
novels depict a widening chasm between couples that leads to marriage's demise.
All of the relationships are physically sound, but the couples face different
inconsistencies on the inside that undermine their efforts to actualize the
concept of a peaceful married existence.
The link between Gautama and Maya in Cry, the Peacock depicts the discordant
portrayal of a broken marriage. Maya, the heroine, is unquestionably a victim
of a bad marriage and patriarchal domination. The relationship between Maya and
Gautama in Cry, the Peacock dramatizes
a careful examination of man-woman relationships. Marriage, as the ultimate
form of human relationship, is expected to be founded on husband and wife's
mutual collaboration and mental adjustment.
Desai has attempted to emphasise the issue of
women's unhappiness in marital relationships, which are intended to be built on
trust and reciprocal commitment, through the connections in her novels. Despite
the fact that arranged marriage is still regarded as a blessing, Desai's novels
show that it does not always result in a happy marriage. In the majority of
cases, there is no adjustment. Maya and Gautama’s wedding as married couple is
much more of an enforced and economic transaction, than basis of mutual
commitment. Maya fantasises with the dreams and goals of a good marriage
existence in the familial connection, as do all women. When she learns that her
marriage is in trouble, however, reality shows her a different picture.
Traditional
role of a woman
The majority of Indian society is
phallocentric. The patriarchal seed is so deeply embedded in males that they
appear to be not only the controllers of their lives, but also the deciders of
women's fate. The women in Desai's works are put in such a bad situation
because they're not members of society, but they are mostly female. Women's
conditions, as portrayed by Virginia Woolf in A Room of One's Own, remain unchanged:
She pervades poetry from cover to cover: she
is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors
in fiction, in fact she was the slave of anybody whose parents forced a ring
upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound
thoughts in literature fail from her lips. In real life she could hardly read,
could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband (Woolf 41).
Maya is unable to find a way out of her
predicament. Marriage appears to offer women with satisfaction and a sense of
security. Maya, on the other hand, sees marriage as a confining situation in
which she must play the traditional role of a woman, putting aside all of her
hopes and aspirations while having no opportunity to ask her place in the
family. Marriage necessitates a certain level of maturity on both parties'
parts. It is built on a firm basis of equal participation and mutual understanding.
Maya's development was hampered by Raisahib's blind affection for his child and
his incapacity to offer a natural environment, forcing her to take the role of
a respectable wife. Maya looks for a father surrogate because she seems unable
to control her life.
Maya's demand for her father's participation
disrupts the family's connection, limiting the couple's seclusion. Her wedding
to Gautama serves as a loving father for her, enabling her to subconsciously
interact with her father. In regarding physical, emotional, and psychological
traits, a woman differs from a male. In marital partnerships, self-fulfillment
is measured by the real relationship, which strengthens the tie between the
spouses. Maya's romantic ambitions were too great for Gautama, who was
realistic and rational, to react to and fulfill. “Sex is not only a deeply and
intrinsically delightful sensation, but it may also operate as a rejuvenating
factor in the otherwise sterile life," says Sigmund Freud (Waheed 101).
Maya, a sensitive person, goes nuts when her sexual urges aren't met. Defeat on
this front simply fuels her desire for a neurotic fix. Freud observes that:
Experience shows…. that women, who, as being
the actual vehicle of the sexual interests of mankind, are only endowed in a
small measure, with the gift of sublimating their instincts, and who … when
they are subjected to the disillusionments of marriage, fall ill of severe
neuroses which permanently darken their lives (Freud 47).
Maya may have had a good relationship if she
had been given a degree of emotional security, warmth, and emotional love. This
would have stopped her mentality from deteriorating further. Gautama's
intransigence, on the other hand, widens the chasm between them. The
procreation process, which is carried out through the sexual relationship,
provides a woman with fulfillment in marriage. Childlessness, on the other
hand, aggravates Maya's troubled psyche. Maya's inability to have children is
due to Gautama's refusal to meet Maya's desire for physical lust. Gautama
overlooks the concept of Kama, which is anchored in Dharma and the cornerstone
of a successful marital life, when he negates it. Maya is frequently
disillusioned, even on a physical level.
The novel's different parts emphasise her
unsatisfied life and her intense in need of Gautama, which she ignores in their
physical love union. Maya's unmet sexual desire drives her to say something: It
was not only for his presence, his love that I longed, but mainly for the life
that would permit me to hold and tighten my hold on him. (CTP 88)
Quest
for Identity
As a result, it's important to plot Maya's
tragedy because the character is chased away not just from parental affection,
and even from her own flesh. Maya emerges as a fighting spirit as a result of
her traumatic life experiences, rebelling against cultural obstacles but
ultimately losing her identity. A meaningful existence can be achieved with a
basic understanding and earnest effort on behalf of both parties. In the voyage
of a conjugal partnership, a husband and wife link is enhanced by appreciating
each other's perspectives, interests, and opinions. However, Gautama's apathy
to Maya's agonising albino prophecy predicament, as well as her childlessness
sorrow, heightens the sensation of marital dissonance.
Maya's most basic desires and interests are
overlooked by Gautama, who is too preoccupied with his professional affairs to
give more attention toward what she expects. Maya and Gautama's relationship is
clearly tainted by temperamental incompatibility, as well as their
unwillingness to adjust to each other's fiercely conflicting egos and
unyielding views. Maya's emotional and passionate needs clash with Gautama's
pragmatic and rationalistic worldview. Maya becomes a misfit and drifts into
estrangement as a result of his practical struggle. Though Maya bemoans
Gautama's nonconformist temperament, she is to some extent responsible for her
own tragedy.
Maya's oversensitive and possessive
disposition obstructs household life, preventing her from having a meaningful
relationship with her spouse. Maya's extreme sensual involvement has turned her
previous amorous life into an obsession. Her quest for greatness is
inextricably linked to her feeling of triumph and self-identity. This
compulsive urge stems from the realisation that, while she appears to be in a
relationship with her family, friends, and society, she is actually alone. Maya
reverts backwards in such a predicament, seeking comfort and pride in her young
age. D. H. Lawrence describes the situation as follows: When the encloser of
such ego is final and when men live a hermetically sealed life, insulated from
all experience, they lose the sense of harmony within and without (Bande 48).
Maya's logical self-hate is an explosion of
the tension between her pride and her true self. Maya's self-hatred causes a
battle between her delicate intellect and her neurotic powers. Maya's character
is ultimately defined by her ability to comprehend her torn and divided
personality. Her inability to find more life leads to her obsessive desire to
kill Gautama, causing the boundary between the two worlds to be broken. Maya
appears to be more affected by marital discord than Gautama. Maya pulls herself
into total darkness of the world, bringing a logical conclusion to her life,
burdened by shame, self-hate, and tortured by self-contempt.
Marriage
Expectations
Marriage brings with it expectations, and
expectations bring with it challenges. Women are more likely than men to face
dangers and disputes. The authoritarian behaviour of spouses and the resulting
marital inconsistencies not only bring psychological agony to the women, but
they also build a hatred for their husbands, leading to protests against the
situation. The patriarchal authority's minority status has instilled in women a
sense of self-hatred and ego of life. Maya's anger shows in her neurotic wish
to kill Gautama and put a rational end to her life by attempting suicide as a
result of life's negativity and passivity.
Women's plight and suffering throughout Indian
society have been a driving force for socially conscious Indian novelists. The
dangers and conflicts that exist in the life of married women become critical
in assessing their situation. As a result, the writings of contemporary women
writers are indeed a reflection of the writers' awareness of the phenomena that
surround them. The goal of feminist writers is to pinpoint women's true
situation in a hetero normative society. Feminism is thus primarily concerned
with two characteristics of women in society: individualism and self-fulfillment.
Paulina Palmer makes the following observation in this regard:
In treating in fictional form themes related
to the topic of femininity and its construction, writers draw on two main
strands of theoretical research. The first investigates, generally in
sociological terms, the topic of gender role stereotyping… They drew attention
to the oppressive effects of stereotypical representation of women as sex
object, wife and mother…The second strand of research which has influenced
women’s fiction in philosophical and psychoanalytical (Palmer 14).
Maya and Monisha, Desai's heroines, lack the
ability to compromise, and are unable to save their interests or negotiate with
problems. Desai's heroines become aware of reality as a result of their
sufferings. It would be accurate to say that Desai's heroes aren't bogged down
by everyday problems. They were caught in their own self-doubt, frustration,
and depression, non-conformists embarking on a soul-searching odyssey. Desai's heroines
are more mature and experienced than her previous sensitive and emotional
heroines, such as Sita in Where Shall We
Go This Summer? and Nanda Kaul in Fire
on the Mountain. However, when this comes to marital issues, their issues
are not dissimilar. They, like Maya, have experienced the same pain and anguish
in their marriages.
The dangers in relationships can sometimes be
ascribed to the husbands' excessive consumerism rather than the establishment
of a conjugal bond based on trust and psychological rapport. Gautama Desai
tackles a topic that is extremely relevant in today's materialistic culture.
Down - to - earth, Gautama is so preoccupied with his work that he has little
time to satisfy Maya's desires. Both Gautama and Maya are unconcerned about the
sensitive and delicate world of Maya, preferring the practicalities of
existence. Marriage expands a man's scope of growth at every level, whereas it
is utter servitude to her husband and obedience to his master for a woman.
Desai's fictional writings provide a specific
voice to the oppression and misery of women of all ages. The basic essentials
of life, such as food, clothing, and shelter, are unimportant to them. What
they really want is to be accepted as a respected family member who is treated
equally. In women's writing, the situation of women in a fetishist society is a
hot topic. According to Kate Millet,
Even in patriarchal societies where they are
granted legal citizenship, women tend to be ruled through the family alone and
have little or no formal relation to the state (Millet 33).
Women appear to have a large role in
literature, but in actuality, the picture is rather dissatisfying. In both
economic and social sectors, patriarchal domination has driven women to be
completely obedient to the male dominant culture. In the genuine sense, freedom
for Indian women meant freedom from male dominance and patriarchy's restraints.
However, in Desai's works, the question of how far women are liberated from
male dominance and patriarchal influence inside the marriage connection arises.
Works Cited
Bande, Usha. The Novels of Anita Desai. New Delhi: Prestige, 2000. Print.
Desai, Anita. Cry, the Peacock. New Delhi: Orient Paperbacks, 1980. Print.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilized Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness. Trans.
JamesStrachey, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985. Print.
Millet, Kate. Sexual Politics. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press,
2000.Print.
Palmer, Paulina. Contemporary Women’s Fiction: Narrative Practice and Feminist Theory.
London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989. Print.
Suneel, Seema. Man-Woman Relationship in Indian Fiction. New Delhi:
PrestigePublishers, 1995. Print.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1972.
Print.