FROM FEAR TO FEARLESSNESS: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF SHASHI DESHPANDE’S THE DARK HOLDS NO TERROR

Abstract

Shashi Deshpande (b.1938) has been publishing her novels since 1980. They explore woman’s quest for her identity. Her characters are   middle class educated women who resort to silence and are denied the freedom to exercise their free will.  Women, albeit endowed with immense potential make little use of it, when compelled to lead a life by stringent patriarchal norms. With no voice of their own, women are expected to carry out the role of a submissive wife, isolating themselves like a cocoon. Even if she becomes a success in her profession, she is not treated on par with her husband as he wants her to be one step below him and thus she becomes a victim of her husband’s inferiority complex. The article attempts to analyse the problems faced by Sarita and how she succeeds in coming out of this in Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terror.