A Married Woman’s Dilemma– A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence

Abstract

Shashi Despandeis a creative post-colonial writer.She has wonderfully presented the problems,issues,and challenges of a middle-class married woman of modern India. In her novel ‘That Long Silence’ she has portrayed educated middle-class Indian women who get entangled in marriage and traditions. Jaya is the name of the main character presented by Shashi Despande. Jaya gets married to Mohan who is an educated man working as an engineer in a company. Jaya and Mohan are married for seventeen years and have two children Rahul and Rati. Jaya is not happy in her married life due to the patriarchial role of her husband Mohan. But in these seventeen years,they do not grow close to one another in married life, rather a long silence grew between them.Jaya is in despair in a male-dominated family. Mohan is a man who plays a dominant and leading role in the family. Jaya is dependent on him as a married lady, wife, and mother.Mohan controls her personal and professional life decisions. He limits her freedom of writing and expression as a writer and wants Jaya to write according to his choice. This paper discusses the dilemmas of a married woman living in anguish and hopelessness. In her loneliness, Jaya goes through a self-evaluation of her life. It’s in this fragmented state of the trauma she realizes that her silence can not solve her marriage.So she decides to break her silence and speak with her husband Mohan with the hope to find a solution and restore their marriage.