Conflict Between Tradition and Modernity in Manju Kapur’s ‘A Married Woman’

Abstract

‘A Married Woman’ is a genuine work of Manju Kapur, which tells the story of honest love, set at a time of political and religious upheaval, narrated with an intelligence for anyone who has known life's responsibilities. It shows a sincere feminine confession about her personality cult in the personal allegory of traditional marriage. Manju Kapur has depicted her women characters in the novel as they are leading their life in the patriarchal setup of the society. Manju Kapur has narrated frankly the emergence of not just an essential Indian sensibility but the depiction of cultural displacement in the culture where individualism and protest have often remained separate ideas and marriage and the woman's role at home is a central focus. What happens when the old customs lose their power and the woman no longer believes her life should be determined in this narrow fashion is the underlying theme of Manju Kapur' s absorbing second novel, A Married Woman, in which her protagonist, Astha Vadera, undergoes profound changes against the backdrop of an India that is also evolving. This research paper attempts to show the shift in values and how women have started acknowledging themselves as the co-equals of man.