The Submissive Wife: A Study of Stockholm Syndrome and Abuse- Cycle in Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You Or, A Portrait Of The Writer As A Young Wife

Abstract

Stockholm syndrome refers to a psychological phenomenon observed in situations where individuals, typically hostages or victims, develop a deep bond or compassion for their captors or abusers. Scholars describe Stockholm syndrome as a complex emotional response where victims, despite being held against their will, start feeling positive emotions or sympathy for their captors. This paradoxical phenomenon involves hostages expressing admiration or praise for their captors, seemingly irrational given the danger they face. Victims may form emotional attachments and bonds as survival strategies fostering a connection that contradicts the apparent threat posed by their captors. The main aims of the present study are twofold. The first aim is to examine the depiction of submissive wives in the novel When I Hit You: Or A Portrait of a Writer as a Young Wife(2018) written by Meena Kandasamy; and the second, analyzing the wife’s submissiveness and acceptance of her spouse’s abuse through relating it to Stockholm syndrome and through the lens of abuse cycle theory suggested by Lenore Walker's concept of Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS), which encompasses various psychological and behavioral symptoms. The research argues that the acceptance of violence by abused victims, particularly submissive wives, should not be attributed solely to their actions, as there are numerous underlying reasons, social and psychological, for their submissiveness which will be explored thoroughly in this study.