Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terror...

Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terrors: An Insight into Female Psyche

Author Name : Antara Bhattacharya

ABSTRACT

The paper focuses on exploration of the female psyche in Shashi Dehspande’s The Dark Holds No Terrors. This paper contributes in delving deeper into the struggles of modern Indian women such as facing gender discrimination as a child, inequality in a marriage, lack of respect for women in the professional world, and the way this discrimination affects their psyche. The Dark Holds No Terrors is one of the most celebrated novels of Shashi Deshpande whose works have always depicted the plight of women in the patriarchal contemporary Indian society. Shashi Deshpande digs deep into the ‘Female Psyche’ through Sarita’s character and her battle with the tradition-ridden society as well as against the enemies that existed within her own mind. Deshpande depicts various forces like patriarchy, gender discrimination, sexism, male chauvinism etc. which heavily influence the mind of a woman, thus shaping her personality. Furthermore, Shashi Deshpande highlights how such external factors impact one’s psychology and the issues which are thus created, are projected onto one’s actions, decisions and choices. The novel traces various stages of Sarita’s life from her difficult childhood, her college life, her married life with Manohar and her return to her father’s house, where each stage brings in different experiences and thoroughly explores the complexity of human relationships through Sarita’s perspective, showing her journey of self-exploration and her quest for identity.

Keywords: female psyche, patriarchy, quest for identity, self-exploration, tradition-ridden society