ISSN 2249-4529

Lapis Lazuli -An International Literary Journal (LLILJ)

Scratching the Labels:

Manjari Shukla

Abstract:
Short story as a genre in itself came to be seen on the literary horizon, somewhere during the
Pre-independence period. Women writers from the Indian subcontinent realized the potential of
this form and with the power of their knowledge started portraying the Indian life, with all its
different hues. This form was more suited to the women writers because it was less painstaking
like the novels, and this allowed them to write and express their thought processes during their
free time from the household chores.
The works of Shashi Deshpande, one of the prominent short story writers, are written by
keeping in frame the socio-literary themes and institutions such as family, home, society of
middle classes in India. Gender is central to all her writings. A change in the current scenario of

Lapis Lazuli -An International Literary Journal (LLILJ) ISSN 2249-4529

Vol.4/ NO.1/Spring 2014

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things is seen to be required but the thrust is never to reject any social structures or institutions.
A desired transformation is wished for in her works, with the accommodation of interests and
welfare of women along with men. My attempt in this paper will be to talk about a handful of her
stories, there by trying to show how women characters are in the clutches of patriarchy in one or
the other way, but each one of them makes their Identity known by trying to break free from
patriarchal shackles. The feminist theoretical practices intervene in the writings of Deshpande
thereby projecting the idea of being a woman in a common middle-class family set up. The
characters of Deshpande’s works are common individuals. They are pretty identifiable, and
undergo identifiable situations, like we do in our daily lives. The special thing to note in her
writings is that she remains on the grass root level, but the elevation her characters experience
through their actions makes the reading a pleasurable and self-evaluating experience. On both
the thematic and stylistic levels, her stories reach a high watermark.

Keywords : Short Story, Gender, Patriarchy, Identity

As a genre, short story appeared on the literary horizon, somewhere during the Pre- independence
period. However, its complete emergence, as a dominant mode of writing is only after the 1960s.
Women writers from the Indian subcontinent realized the potential of this form and with the
power of their knowledge started portraying the variety of Indian life, with all its different hues.
This form suited them because it was less painstaking like the novels, and this allowed them to
write and express their thought processes during their free time from the household chores.
The short story writings of Shashi Deshpande are written by keeping in frame the socio-
literary themes and institutions such as home, family, society of Indian middle classes. A change
in the current scenario of things is seen to be required but the thrust is never to re ject any social
structure or institutions. Deshpande makes gender central to her writings. Her works deal not
only with ordinary, urban situations, but stem from a firm belief that our lives are to a great
extent governed by gender. A desired transformatio n is wished for in her works, with the
accommodation of interests and welfare of women along with men. The revolution is not
iconoclastic every time, but it is surely visible; the tone of her stories appears to be
reconciliatory. She did not write with a specific reader in mind, nor are her works slanted to an

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A Feminist Reading of Shashi Deshpande’s Select Short Stories

International market place. Her writing has an ease and a lack of self-consciousness because her
intent is not to present India or Indians. She writes about people and the reality of their lives.

Her stories can be categorized as those which mirror the reality examining the subjugated
position of woman in Indian society. They are an attempt to mend the situation depicting the
woman’s positive reaffirmation of herself. But in all the short stories, Des hpande hardly allows
her women to move away from the traditional norms of the society. Her stories are primarily
centered on family relationships— the relationship between husband and wife, mother and
daughter. The conflicts faced by a woman as a wife, a mother and a daughter are given
importance. Talking about the importance of human relationships, she says that being a wife or a
mother is not an imposition. According to her it becomes an imposition only when the woman is
laid rigid rules of how she should behave. She says, it becomes necessary for a woman to live
within relationships. But if the rules are rigidly laid for her that, as a wife or a mother , that she
should do this and no further, then unhappiness and uneasiness dawns for a woman, who finds
herself in a new set up after marriage. This is what she has tried to conveying through her
writing.
My attempt in this paper will be to talk about a handful of her stories there by trying to
show how women characters in her short stories ultimately emerge as a being, independent and
powerful. No doubt they are in the clutches of patriarchy in one or the other way, but each one of
them has the potential to break the shackles, thereby emerging as a free spirit altogether. They
are adept enough to scratch the labels which they are forced to have due to societal pressures and
demands. All the characters of Shashi Deshpande’s work are individuals who belong to the
common folk. They are pretty identifiable, and undergo identifiable situations, in which all of us
are a part, some or the other day. The special thing to note in her writings is that she remains on
the grass root level, but the elevation her characters experience through their actions makes the
reading a pleasurable experience. In agreement to Deshpande’s opinion, the view of Elaine
Showalter appears to be correct, when she articulates that, “Thus each generation of women
writers has found itself, in a sense, without a history, forced to rediscover the past anew, forging
again and again the consciousness of their sex.” (Showalter 11-12)

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In the opinion of Shashi Deshpande, Western feminism is entirely different from that of
Indian feminism. For her, Feminism is not a matter of theory. She feels that the Western
Feminist theories cannot be applied to the real life situation in India. It is because the societal set
up, the way of life and the traditions of the Western lands are very different from that of Indian
subcontinent. Feminism in fact is more of a misnomer in the context of narratives of women. The
reason for the same is that, it is a representative of a specific ideology which presumes a change
in existing system and at the same time formulates politically alternative structures of equality
and autonomy. Deshpande believes in the fact that Indians have a wrong notion of feminism, and
clearly argues that walking away from tradition, and throwing tantrums do not constitute
feminism in the real sense of the term. She says that many women have feminism in their lives
without knowing that they actually possess it. Hence they should have a c lear idea of what
feminism is in their lives and what it is not. For Deshpande, feminism is using the stamina to
endure the anguishes for the betterment of life and this is what she tries bringing out through her
short stories. She strongly believes and propounds that, it is difficult to apply Kate Millet or
Simone de Beauvoir or any other Feminist writer to the reality of our daily lives in India. And
then there are such terrible misconceptions about feminism by people here. They often think it is
about burning bras and walking out on your husband, children or about not being married, not
having children etc. Deshpande tries making this point very clear through her writings that
Feminism is much more than rebellion and it is actually a realization of self a nd a respect for that
self. For her feminism is translating what is used up in endurance into something positive: a real
strength. Like any other woman writer, Shashi Deshpande’s focus is on women. But the
difference lies in the way she looks at them as human beings and not as mere women and also
writes about the various problems they face, both at personal and social level.
Being an obedient daughter, a devoted wife and a caring and loving mother are the three
ideals of womanhood in Hindu society. Shashi Deshpande confronts the reader with a set of
situations in which living up to this ideal is far more important than women’s personal rights.
The wife’s duty is to fulfill her husband’s expectations, allowing herself to be modeled by him,
even if it is at the cost of losing her own self and personality (The Stone Woman). Becoming a
devoted wife means submitting to the wishes of a husband, who is very often a total stranger for
a young bride, and who will take her regardless of her fears and emotions (The Intrusion). A
woman who has a successful profession career must be willing to give it up in favor of her

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husband’s and this sacrifice is taken as a matter of fact (A Wall is Safer). In such a context the
decision to get on at work implies doubts, remorse, and a deep sense of guilt (It Was the
Nightingale). A Hindu wife may even sacrifice her sexual life if her husband’s ideals require it
(The First Lady).
We find that since ancient times, women have been segregated, codified and victimized
on the basis of their sex. Their sex has been a site over which patriarchy is relentlessly playing
out its game of discrimination and discernment. Chandra Nisha Singh refers to this idea in
Radical Feminism and Women’s Writing, where she is expressing Manu’s thought regarding
marriage:
The institution of marriage is the most glorified and sacrosanct pattern of existence
socially, religiously and sexually; hence, it is treated as an ideal form for a civilized
social organization and for the propagation of the species. But it is also, significantly, the
patriarchal weapon that finalizes the complete subversion and social obliteration of
woman and although constructed as the apotheosis of fulfillment for both man and
woman, it acquires centrality in woman’s life only and contains both her space and her
identity. The phallocentric hold on the institution determines her code of behavior and the
boundaries of her space, exclusion and invisibility become strategic devices for
patriarchy to foreground the image of ideal feminin ity. Patriarchy permits no alternatives
to marriage and holds in pity and contempt those who attempt to thwart it. (49)
Marriage becomes an important event in a girl’s life where her groom is chosen according to her
family members irrespective of her saying regarding the same. It is presented as trap from which
liberation is difficult with the end result as a collapse in the entire system. The female characters
are alienated in their own private worlds, where their husbands take them for granted.
Deshpande’s “I Want” and “The Intrusion” are two stories advocating this very ideology
of getting trapped in an arranged marriage. Alka in “I Want” and the unnamed protagonist in the
“The Intrusion” undergo almost similar fate, where their lives take a drastic turn once they are
married off to strangers, in real sense of the word. Women bound in traditional male oriented
society and who inevitably suffer from loneliness and a sense of guilt and failure. Shashi
Deshpande is not a feminist writer and has no intention o f becoming the spokeswoman of the
predicament of the middle class Indian woman. Her short stories portray social reality the way it

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is, without any explicit critical claim on the way it ought to be. None of her female characters put
the stability of family unity in danger, even though they suffer from the deep feeling of isolation
and frustration.
Failure in obtaining security, identity and social status that otherwise marriage provides is
very well taken up by Shashi Deshpande in her short story “The Inne r Rooms”. This is a story of
a legendary woman Amba from the Mahabharata. Caught in the rigmarole of man’s world, she
loses her identity. Having been denied the identity, which in a patriarchal set up is only through
the institution of marriage, she decides to end up her life. Marriage as depicted by Shashi
Deshpande is an important social and economic institution of the family in which a woman finds
her security and identity, but at the same time, the irony of the situation is that her individual
needs and desires become secondary in getting this primary motive fulfilled. Marital rape is
again something on which Shashi Deshpande ponders upon, and “The Intrusion” gives us an
example of it. Woven around the experiencing of a honeymooning couple, the story is about the
emotional and physical shock which the female protagonist has to undergo, when her husband
sexually assaults her. She finds to her agony that her body has been intruded in the process. “A
Liberated Woman” is another story demarcating the physical abuse in marital relationships. The
title itself is ironical, because here the wife even lacks this freedom to earn more than her
husband. “Love making for her becomes an exercise in sadism”.
“An Antidote to Boredom” shows another dimension of a marriage where a married
woman is seen to be alienated from her husband who loves being in love with his rigid schedule
of work. She gets involved in a new relationship, but remains doubtful about its various pros and
cons. For all these reasons she checks her emo tions, stifles her longing for adventure, and finally
settles back as a docile wife for fear of disturbing the calm tenor of her life.
Kate Fullbrook remarks in this context that “Women are born into social structures which
they did not make, but from which they nevertheless benefit or suffer, and which place
boundaries around them making it hard to alter who and what they are, what they can say, what it
is possible to think and do, or how they perceive ethical decisions.” (309)
Sexuality has become one of the most contentious and contested concepts of both
academic interest and socio-political movements because it has become a site of strife and
struggle over which major political battles are fought between the repressive ideologies of the
state or fundamentalist groups and the creative forces of Nature and human life. Women’s

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writings bear the authentic signatures of their experience, open before us a new vista, and where
in one can find how societies and traditions have played a subversive role in relega ting a woman
to a secondary position. The short stories taken up in this paper depict home as microcosm of
society, that how it becomes the nucleus around which the female protagonists revolve; at times
willingly, at times unwillingly, at other times, unwilling; sometimes out of compulsion and at
other times, out of helplessness. Role of mother can also be rife with conflicts and problems that
are not too different from those of any western woman. Deshpande portrays mothers, who due to
a strong feeling of self-devaluation consider themselves intruders in their own family and
strangers to their own daughters (Why a Robin?). They are perceived as warning signals by their
daughters, who will try to break away from their model (Can You Hear Silence?). Shashi
Deshpande’s female characters are women with a rich inner world which seems to be of no
interest for their husbands, and children. Nevertheless they do not rebel or protest against it and
would rather choose self-sacrifice so that their familiar structures remain intact. The conflict
between duty to the family and personal fulfillment will always resolve itself through self-
sacrifice and submission to the patterns of society. The author does not intend to suggest any
solutions. She prefers to act like a camera, recording emotions and situations with realism and
sensitivity. The picture shows the fact that tradition is deeply engrained in the society, and for
those women who have a mind of their own and a clear perception of the disadvantages of their
position, one way to come to terms with the surrounding realty is the acceptance of loneliness, as
a factual part of their existence.
In conclusion, we can very well say that all these women are not always happy and
contented, but they succumb to pressures, some internal and some societal. Jasbir Jain’s
observation can also be taken up here while concluding the paper and that is, she explicates,
“stepping outside the given” has not been easy, especially in a society which believes in giving
with one hand and taking back from the other. She holds the opinion that women writers in India
only add new dimensions to conventionally accepted relationships, seeking not a reinterpretation,
but making an attempt to make those relationships more comfortable for the woman. Though
Jain feels the need of drastic change, still is aware of the fact that, the change cannot be thrust
from outside, but must be from within. What we can observe through all these stories of
Deshpande is that the holy triad of home, family and society beco me for women in the Katyayani

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model, a source of their nemesis as well as an agent of catharsis. Through her writings, Shashi
Deshpande has been able to show women characters constructing their own subjectivity by
reworking on their sexuality, which emerges as a vital and foundational to understanding of
one’s identity. One more interesting thing to note in the short stories of Deshpande is that she has
shown patriarchy operating not only through males but also through the economic conditions,
which force the women characters to abide to it. There is a sense of monotony and even though
the female characters remain in the system trying not to make things fall apart, still they are able
to scratch the labels which society has put on them, through her stories Deshpande makes us
know the characters as who they are as individual, and not under the societal labels. By
scratching the labels, which are forcibly put on a woman in Indian society, Deshpande displays a
feminist stance in a new unseen light. This attempt is conspicuous because it helps in a new
understanding of woman as a being in Indian context. The western feminist lenses are kept apart,
but the feminist ideology is taken up by Deshpande to be explored and ascertained in a novel
manner.
Works Cited

Chakravarty, Radha. Feminism and Contemporary Women Writers: Rethinking Subjectivity.

Delhi: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2008. Print.

Deshpande, Shashi. Collected Stories: Volume I. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2003. Print.

Jain, Jasbir. Problems of Postcolonial Literature and Other Essays. Jaipur: Printwell, 1991.

Print.

Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Brontë to Lessing.

Princeton: Princeton UP, 1997. Print.

New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors (P) Ltd., 2007. Print.

Waugh, Patricia. Literary Theory and Criticism. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Print.

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About the Author:

Manjari Shukla is a PhD Research Scholar in the Department of English, Banaras Hindu
University. Her email is [email protected]

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