Abstract
he great philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau asserts, “Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains”. It is a fact, since the very beginning, humans have always been captives in the hands of their cultures, religions, laws, and norms. These constraints always confine human freedom. . Consequently, these ever injustices with humans pushed the philosophers of the 20th century to raise their voices against such injustices which snatch humans’ freedom. As a result, the Existentialist movement came about and started suggesting humans get freedom from all constraints in society. This research aimed to analyze the dominant perspectives of Existentialism in Bapsi Sidwa’s novel. The researcher had to analytically study existentialism in the novel and to study the contents of the novel under study through the lens of existentialist theory. The method in this study was qualitative in nature. The researcher has referred to the instances from the novel to bring forward the underlying theme in the novel. The text of the novel was taken by the researcher as a sample. The researcher has found that the novel is about the wretched lives of widows in the traditional Brahminical societies in India. Following their beliefs and traditions the traditional Brahminical societies, mal-treat their widows, and snatch their freedom even in modern times. Moreover, in the novel, the researcher discerned, that not only widows, women, but also men are doomed to sufferings, miseries, and traumas in the names of moribund, and obsolete norms and beliefs in such traditional societies.
Highlights
Existentialism is a philosophy that concerns the idea of an individual’s existence, freedom, the choice to live his/her life, and self-responsibility
The major aim of this research is to analyze how in traditional, Brahmanical Indian societies widows, and women are doomed to sufferings, miseries, and traumas. 1.3 Research Questions
Existentialism is a movement in philosophy and literature that concerns the existence, freedom, and choice of an individual
Summary
Existentialism is a philosophy that concerns the idea of an individual’s existence, freedom, the choice to live his/her life, and self-responsibility It asserts that humans must be free to make their own conclusions, and meanings in their lives. Existentialism asserts to allow human thinking and existence to define itself It rejects all the norms, beliefs, cultures, and traditions, it only emphases an individual’s own choice of whatsoever s(he) makes of their life. According to Jean-Paul Sartre, one of the pioneers of existentialism “Existence precedes Essence” This means first humans exist and they try to make meanings of their lives. Humans try to find meaning in their lives by opting to do many things They sometimes follow religions to give meaning to their lives, sometimes, they follow different dogmas, traditions, and norms to make their existence meaningful. The pioneers of the theory of Existentialism were: Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Jaspers, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Husser Franz Kafka, and Fyodor Dostoevsky
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