A Circular Vision of Female Identity in The Dark Holds No Terrors

Abstract

The Post-Independence period has brought to the fore front a number of noted women novelists who have enriched Indian English fiction by a creative release of Feminine sensibility. The woman has been the focus of many literary works in this period. Women who were till then treated as second class citizens were assigned their due place in these works. In modern Indian fiction the credit of representing the “silent voice” of woman goes to Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande and Bharati Mukhejee. These writers novels present a picture of the impact of education on women, her new status in the society and her assertion of individuality. Shashi Desphande has created authentic female characters. They are flesh-andblood characters with recognizable credentials. Despande’s maiden novel The Dark Holds No Terrors traces the heroine Saritha’s growth to womanhood through a bitter claustrophobic girlhood, followed by a industrious studentship, idyllic romance, and finally a horrific wifehood.