Feminist Perspective in Shashi Deshpande's “That Long Silence”

Abstract

Man has always tried to determine and tamper with the image of women and especially her identity is manipulated and orchestrated. Whenever a woman is spoken of, it is always in the relation to a man; she is presented as a wife, mother, daughter and even as a lover but never as a woman a human being- a separate entity. Her entire life is idealized and her fundamental rights and especially her behaviour is engineered by the adherents of patriarchal society. Commenting on the Man-woman relationship in a marital bond Simone de Beauvoir wrote in her epoch-making book entitled The Second Sex(1949): "It has been said that marriage diminishes man,  which is often true, but almost always it annihilates women". The feminist movement advocates equal rights and equal opportunities for women. The true spirit of feminism is to look at women and men as human beings. There should not be gender bias or discrimination in familial and social life. To secure gender justice and gender equity is the key aspects of the feminist movement. In India, women writers have come forward to voice their feminist approach to life and the patriarchal family setup. They believe that the very notion of gender is not only a biotic and biological episode but it has a social construction.