“HYPOCRISY OF MARRIAGE”- IN THE NOVELS OF ANITA DESAI

When man lived a life of a settler he started getting emotionally attached within the group. The most basic instinct of companionship was felt as the societies grew and gave rise to the institution known as ‘marriage’. Marriage in Hinduism is a sacred relationship for leading a conjugal life and the purpose was not only to beget children or sexual fulfillment, but also to perform holy ceremonies with the better half of man, called ‘Ardhangini’. The concept of marriage changes from culture to culture but the bond remains lifelong. In the Indian male dominated society the women’s identity was not realized and accepted as mentioned in the holy texts. It was the woman who was expected to adopt the husband’s family culture, traditions and attitudes. Anita Desai has dealt with problems of love, marriage and sex in her novels in a very realistic and convincing way. She writes the truth without any social fears. Unable to with stand the rationality, detachment and the torture of the husbands the protagonist in Anita Desai’s novels encounters with the psychological disorders and moves towards self-destruction. The aim of the research paper is to study the factors especially the coordinating factors that create the discord and disharmony in the married life through the life of her protagonists in her novels Cry, the Peacock, Where Shall We Go This Summer, Voices in the City and Fire on the Mountain. Thus she brings to light the hypocrisy of marriage in India