Shashi Deshpande’s Female Characters: The Rebels of Patriarchy

Abstract

Shashi Deshpande (1938) is a feminist writer with a strong zeal to uproot the patriarchal norms and values prevalent in the contemporary Indian society. So in her novels The Dark Holds No Terrors (1980), That Long Silence (1989), and The Binding Vine (2002), she has demonstrated issues and problems faced by the middle class and the lower class women in the contemporary society. Through her novels and characters Deshpande has created a strong inspiration for women to raise voice against the violence on them. Her female characters are nonconformist ones who do not mutely accept the traditional practices of patriarchy. They are seen to rebel in different ways against gender violence that often deprives them of their freedom and self identity in the society.