Voice from Margin Unheard to Center: The Lesbian
Drive of the Female Protagonist in Manju Kapur’s A Married Woman
Sahadev Roy
State Aided College Teacher
Department of English
Dewanhat Mahavidyalaya
Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India
&
Ph. D. Research Scholar
Department of English
O.P.J.S. University
Churu, Rajasthan, India
Abstract:
Out of center-margin dichotomy, in heterosexual society where male value
structure is all dominating, the relationship between male and female is
similar to dominant master and dominated slave. Moreover, in this dichotomy,
man who holds his privileged position is found at the centre holding the rein
of power and authority and female is unjustly pushed to the margin for her
underprivileged position where she is wholly ignored and even unheard. In this
conflict between masculine self and feminine other, female voices for being
other hardly find any scope and opportunity to be expressed. Under the norms of
patriarchy, a female is ever and always expected to remain lifelong covert
within the four walls of domesticity and there is no room for her to be overt
in the public sphere out of domestic bounds. If she ever tries to be bold and
courageous in her action and speech by seeking any other alternative means to
be free from her subaltern status in order to attain her hegemonial position,
the heteronormative norms comes on her way as a barrier and it hardly leaves
any stone unturned to curb her most desired urges and feelings. In this
connection, Manju Kapur’s masterpiece A
Married Woman is true to the core and a very relevant study. The novel
presents the uneven man-woman relationship in conjugal sphere. The common
picture that our society presents is that male is the subjective self and
female is the objective other is evident in this novel. Out of this disparity,
the female protagonist in this novel is driven to take refuge in same sex
relationship. However, she finds no refuge there as the heteronormative
tradition which validates only opposite sex relationship, treats her iron
handedly and takes her alternative same sex relationship as an act of defiance.
Moreover, she is treated, what Julia Kristeva defines, as an abject that is
identified neither with male subjective self nor with female objective other.
Under such circumstances, she faces the threat of malsitic culture to which she
belongs. As a deviant, she is forced to undergo through several corrective
mechanisms as defined by the malistic cultural norms. The present paper is an
exploration of marginalized feminine other waging war against the masculine
self. In this conflict between self and other, the quest of feminine other for
an alternative space what Bhabha says “third space” is an action boldly taken
against the norms is also the part of this study in this paper.
Keywords: Center; Margin; Unheard Voices;
Lesbianism; Subalternity; Gender; Denial; Rebel
Manju Kapur puts for forth traditional concept of marriage prevalent in
Indian society while dealing with man-woman relationship in her popular novel A Married Woman. Astha was in her final
year of college, when the offer of marriage came from Hemant, an American MBA,
working as an assistant in a Bank, and more importantly coming from affluent
family. Astha’s first meeting with Hemant gives approval of her marriage but
she was quite nervous during the meeting. She begins to think about her early
life, particularly her relationship with Rohan. She is muddled whether to tell
Hemant about her relationship with Rohan or not. The engagement was done
immediately after the meeting between Astha and Hemant and marriage was
performed in grand fashion.
After marriage, they went on for honeymoon in
Kashmir. They saw many places and valley and enjoyed each and every moment. But
even during their honeymoon stay in Kashmir Astha couldn’t forget Rohan.
Therefore, she scolds herself. As Hemant takes care of her all the time during
honeymoon, Astha is satisfied with him. She forgets Bunty and Rohan. Now,
Hemant is everything for her. She realizes the importance of him when he is
away from her. Hemant’s presence gives a real pleasure to her and she hopes to
enjoy every moment in the arms of Hemant. She also realizes the importance of
sex and she acknowledges the fact: “Astha had not imagined that sex could be
such a master.” (Kapur 46)
Even though Hemant is extremely contented
with his own life in terms of materialistic fulfillment but Astha, being the
partner in his life, convince him all the time. She tells that money is not
everything and within limitations, one can live with happiness. Astha wants to
become mother after two years of her marriage. It shows that she does not
ignore the concept of womanhood like many women belonging to fashionable and
aristocratic society. She enjoys each and every moment of her pregnancy: “Astha enjoyed every aspect of her
pregnancy. As it advanced, she became more and more bucolic.” (ibid 57)
Hemant too does not ignore Astha during her
pregnancy as most of the husbands ignore their wives during their period of
pregnancy for several reasons. Hemant does not follow them. The love and
affection of Hemant for Astha makes her comfortable during her pregnancy. Still
the traditional fears were always present in her mind. “Astha had heard men were revolted by the way women looked when they
were pregnant but not Hemant.” (ibid 57-58)
Up to now everything is in tune between
Hemant and Astha, but as the days pass, the changes take place and the tension
begins to creep in their relationship. Hemant’s burden increases. He is
bothered by many responsibilities at a time. He has to take care of his
industry, his better half, his baby child, Astha’s mother and his own parents
at the same time. As a result, he spares very little time to spend with Astha.
In the beginning, Astha does not mind it. She wants to be close with him but
Hemant seems to be unable to make balance between his wife’s emotional satisfaction
and his business. There seems to be communication gap between them that
oppresses Astha’s mind and resultantly minor quarrel begins.
Astha outwardly seems to be quite happy for
being a teacher and a mother of two kids, but there is always undercurrent of
resentment against being treated as one of the inferior sex. Hemant, her
husband, shares the burden of looking after his first born and is quite liberal
in his views. However, the outer sheen wears off gradually and Hemant proves to
be an autocratic husband. He becomes an all-Indian husband and father. He
begins to behave as the product of Indian patriarchal culture.
“Between
Anuradha’s birth and Himanshu’s, Hemant changed from being an all-American
father to being an all-Indian one.” (ibid 70)
Astha now realizes the meaning of marriage.
It means sacrifice of everything. She becomes the mother of two children. Her
family is complete but there is no domestic satisfaction in her life. She wants
to live her life in her own way. She thinks that she is a woman and a woman is
supposed to do a lot of sacrifices. However, being contemporary, she does not
want to expense her visions, delights as well as autonomy for the sake and name
of family. She is tired of the model of Indian womankind. She wants parity with
her husband. She wants to have the right to complain as Hemant has. She feels
the necessity of having freedom like Hemant to ask him as to where is he going.
However, her husband, Hemant is so commanding that he leaves no space for Astha
to demand parity and lead her own life. It makes her to wonder on his claim and
imagine that “If there would ever be a day when she could feel that same right
to complain that Hemant did.” (ibid
172)
Astha,
the female protagonist, again and again experiences her nowhere existence. Her
voice of protest and rebellion ultimately results in broadening of silences
between Astha and Hemant. The two gradually drift apart. Astha’s profound quest
for identity and for considering her an equal and worthy member of society increases
day by day. She quarrels with Hemant and shouts at mother when she comes to
know that the books of her father have been donated to a library without taking
her into account. She expresses her anger as: “Why did you do that, they were mine as well, I loved them.” (ibid 87)
She experiences the feeling of an outsider in
the house and hence, she asks Hemant who she is. She also asks that is she a
tenant. Astha feels devastated because she is not consulted before taking any
major or minor decisions. Even when Astha’s mother sells her plot and gives the
money to Hemant to manage, Astha feels embarrassed and being treated as weak
and inferior. It aggravates her. In fact, Astha does not want to take man’s
position, she simply wants to be partner in sharing all the happenings and
activities. This further widens the ravine between husband and wife.
As a hubby, Hemant is betrothed in making
love sometimes considerate but it is only when he has to make Astha ready for
his drive. He does not like Astha’s impulses and fantasies and also her being a
painter. He even does not like her working as a teacher. His is a physical love
for Astha and not spiritual love. He seems to be in love with Astha’s body and
not her soul and mind. He wishes to have sex and Astha is fed up of it.
Therefore, she is compelled to respond. “Then
what? Do I have to give it just because you are my husband? Unless I feel close
to you I can’t – I’m not a sex object, you have others for that.” (ibid 224)
The relationship between Astha and Aijaz further
worsens their relationship. She becomes attached towards Aijaz within fifteen
days. She loved looking at him on the stage. She loved his everything,
especially his high spirit approach towards life. His high spirit and free
thinking have highly influenced Astha. His entry in Astha’s life gives birth to
repression and anguish in her life once again Aijaz’s murder shocks Astha
whereas Hemant remains calm and quiet at the death of Aijaz. She realizes the
deepest pain and agony inside her.
Astha, the protagonist of the novel can be
called a new woman who tackles the situations of her life without creating any
violence but being dutiful towards her responsibilities in the family. The
novel deals with the inner turmoil of a new woman, who feels a lot of difference
in her life after marriage but at last she struggles for her basic rights of
equality, identity and self-satisfaction.
She is reeling under the pressure and
dejection of a married woman who is no better than an unpaid servant. She has
to give pleasure to her husband and for pleasing him; she must be “A willing body at night, a willing pair of
hands and feet in the day and an obedient mouth” (ibid 231) She
is marginalized in her own family by sadistic social atmosphere. This leads to
her quest for self as an individual. At the very outset, Astha’s identity is
established as a girl. Astha is brought up in an orthodox and a protective
atmosphere. She ends up in the stormiest times in search of herself. The
ambiance in which she is brought up is explained as “She was well trained on a diet of mushy novels and thoughts of marriage” (ibid 1). Such nourishment gives her
the annexes to search for a suitable buddy. Her boyfriend, Bunty is the first
boy who is the object of her mash. But Astha’s affair with Bunty ends in
tragedy and leaves a depressed longing in her heart.
Hemant, her husband too, who at first seemed
to be a guy with open outlook, western thoughts and ideologies, turns out to be
a loyal member of chauvinistic Indian male lobby. Thus Astha’s desire of
fulfillment recedes. She feels cold, dreary and distanced from him. Throughout
the day, she has to wait for Hemant and think about him and too long for
Hemant’s company. However, it was never replied positively. Astha’s expectation
and pleasure was being destroyed again and again and Hemant was responsible for
this.
“Her subservient
position struck her. She had no business kneeling, taking of his shoe, pulling
off his shocks, feeling ecstatic about the smell of his feet.” (ibid 50)
Astha’s education gives her the wings to
question such a system and to want to be treated as an equal by her husband.
Astha pleads and begs Hemant to understand that she wishes to be independent.
She wants parity. However, Hemant declines her request forcefully. It makes
Astha aware of her position in the family. She thinks that there are some
basics of a married woman. They are “a
willing body at night, a willing pairs of hands and feet in the day and an
obedient mouth.” (ibid 82)
However, Astha rejects the grinding mill of
patriarchy and tries to forge a new identity. After much resistance from her
husband and in-laws she starts teaching in St. Anthony’s School and now she
plays twin roles as a house maker and a working woman .Also she attempts to
express her identity through her poems, however in that also she is not free as
her poems are scrutinized by Hemant. He callously disrespects Astha’s pouring
of her feelings out in her poems. He refuses to recognize battle in Astha’s
mind which she tries to reflect through her verse. Even when Astha asks him, he
replies in such a way that she is left completely depressed, disheartened and,
therefore, she stops writing poems. She is left only with the option to stop
writing verse and she opts for it. Her thoughts are that if she earns salary
she will be free to spend and will not require asking Hemant for every rupee
she requires to spend. Her thoughts run as: “Her salary meant she did not have to ask Hemant for every little rupee
she spent.” (ibid 72)
After the murder of Aijaz and death of his
troupe member’s while staging a play on Babri Masjid Ram Janmabhoomi
controversy, she joins manch for the cause of communal violence. This is her
first independent decision which marks the turn of her life. She emerges as a
social activist and starts taking part in rallies and staging. Hemant and
Astha’s in-laws did not like Astha’s above decision. So Hemant in an
admonishing tone said: “Please. Keep
to what you know best, the home, children, teaching. All this doesn't suits you.”
(ibid 116)
Hemant does not like Astha’s engrossment with
manch. Therefore, he advises her to pay more attention to her kids and
household duties. He also tells her that her participation in the activities of
manch does not suit her. Her mother-in-law also dislikes it and tells her that
woman is supposed to confine herself into the four walls of the house. She is
not supposed to take part in the politics and the activities on the road. In
spite of her clan’s displeasure, she carries on with her engagements and she
even participates actively in Ayodhya Yatra. It is because of the outrage of
family members, Astha becomes more firm and strong-minded. She is tired of
sacrifices. She feels that she has done many sacrifices in the name of family
and therefore she does not wish to lose anything anymore further. She is also
fed up with the typical Indian married woman values and principles. “She was fed up with the ideal of Indian
womanhood, used to trap and jail.” (ibid 168)
As a result, Astha, the female protagonist,
proclaims herself and does not give up to her hubby’s desires. She proclaims
herself through monetary independence. Monetary independence pushes her to
self-confidence. She knows well the financial side of authority and power of
money. She has now become well aware that Hemant is able to exert his authority
only because he has all the finances under his power. She is not as independent
as Hemant in money matters. This is the truth of maximum Indian females. They
are compelled to live and stand the injustices inflicted on them by their male
companions. It is because they do not have any other source of existence.
Therefore, if they have to exist they have to bear the injustices. Along with
the injustices of in-laws, Astha has to bear injustice of her mother. She believes
Hemant more than Astha. Therefore, she offers money which she gets from selling
land to Hemant and not to Astha. This act on the part of Astha’s mother affirms
the conventional opinion that female cannot be entrusted in financial matters.
At a point of time, Hemant asks Astha to
leave her job under the pretext of ill health, but it seems quite possible that
he was insecure of Astha’s growing independence. It is not just for money that
she wants to paint but for it gives her life. To her, it represents security,
not perhaps of money, but of her own life, of a place where she could be
herself. Astha in spite of Hemant’s disapproval goes to Ayodhya to plan her
track as a social activist to combat against ancient domination and subdual.
There she meets the participants, Pipeelika and visits various places and
temples with her and begins to like her. Astha’s association with Pipee gives a
new dimension to her quest for identity. Pipee comes to Delhi and spends time
with Astha. In spite of objections from her husband and children, Astha
establishes a commanding lesbian relation with Pipee. She falls in love with
Pipee though she is a woman. In a very few meetings a strong same sex
relationship is established between them. Astha begins to spend more time with
her. She likes her company.
“Afterwards Astha felt strange, making love to a woman took time getting used
to.” (ibid 231)
The conflict between her roles of wife,
mother and that of a lesbian lover continues and she finds herself uncertain
between her desire for freedom and duty towards her household. She realizes
that any relationship, even that be between a woman and another woman in form
of lesbianism, in the course of time turn out to be demanding. Pipee wants
Astha wholly devoted to her but at the same time she wants to float in both
vessels. Astha finds a soul mate in Pipee: “Astha thought that if husband and wife are one person, then Pipee and
she were even more so.” (ibid 243)
Astha proclaims herself by requesting for an
isolated space to paint; this very act of hers outlines her individuality. This
demand of hers is seen as luxury and not a necessity. Having space of one’s own
is certainly the biggest proclamation in the altitudinal sense. Hemant even
remarks the space that she owns would be the cause of jealousy for many women.
That is not all through which Astha defines herself the ultimate identity
marker comes in form of Pipeelika her choice of lesbian beloved. This was the
most gregarious choice to assert one's identity she out does all the societal
norms of heterosexuality by choosing a lesbian partner. She not only had
emotionally satisfying relation but the ultimate physical fantasies were also
realized. She was so satisfied with Pipeelika that sex with Hemant just became
mundane activity. This was same Hemant she longed for, in the initial days of
her conjugal life. With Pipeelika she was her complete self and it even made
her realize many facets of her relationship with Hemant which reflected power
than love. Astha’s slow discovery of her differences with her husband, her
change from tender and hopeful bride to battered wife and her meeting with
Pipeelika makes her realize the other state of woman in their familiar
distress. This is the reason which leads her to a corrupt, rather unethical
guiltiness of lesbian love vindicating her unfashionable decency.
From a feminist point of view the study of
novel reveals Astha’s revolt against age old customs, traditions, one-sided
family values and the institution of marriage. She is the woman who asks a bit
more of life than tradition will automatically give her. She wishes instead of
security, comfort and respectability, her emotions and spiritual needs to be
recognized. She challenges the male domination. According to Nayak, Manju Kapur
through Astha presents, “a frontal
challenge to patriarchal thought, social organizations and control mechanism.”
(Nayak 203)
Works Cited
Kapur, Manju. A Married Woman. New
Delhi: India Ink, 2002. Print.
Nayak,
Bhagwat. “Feminine Assertions in Manju Kapur: A Social Ethical perspective”, The Indian Journal of English Studies,
Vol. XLI, 2003-04, P.203.