Feminism in Manju Kapur’s “Difficult Daughters”

M. Sahaya Anish Benit,

I MA English literature,

Holy Cross College,

Nagercoil.

Introduction:

          During the twentieth century there are many women novelists who have enriched the

Indian English Literature. Among them Manju Kapur is the notable writer. She has presented the

problems of the Indian women in the joint family and also in the male dominated society. She

 has given a new vision of Indian women in her fiction. Feminism has been derived from the

Latin word ‘Femina’ which means women. It was used with regard to the issue of equality and

women rights movement. Feminism means a rebellion where the woman struggles to achieve

racial, social, economic and spiritual equality with man. The core idea of Feminism is to have

 same rights, power and opportunity that men have has.  For achieving this equality women are

stepping out of the rigid sex roles assigned to them traditionally.

Feminism in Difficult Daughters:   

          Difficult Daughters highlights the problem of marginalization suffered by Indian women

 whose major concern is maintaining their individuality and dignity. It is the story of Virmati

seen through the eyes of her daughter Ida. Virmati, the heroine of the novel is the eldest daughter

of her family, which follows the old tradition of marrying their daughters at a certain age after

they have received the basic qualification of housekeeping. Virmati is a traditional women and

she was inspired by swami Dayanand’s concept of women’s education but her family members

want her to get marry which was consider as an essential part in every women. Virmati was a

bold and vocal character and aware of the rights for education and economic independence.

Through Virmati, Kapur shows the sufferings of modern women and the problems faced by

them. Virmati is torn between family duty, desire for education and illicit love with the professor

who is already married with two children. She loves her parents, family, education and the

professor. Like a modern woman, she thought that, “study means developing the mind for the

benefit of the family” because “a girl lives for others, not for herself.” Kapur has studied the

problems of Virmati as a socialist feminist for her situation and struggle for identity and self

expression. Her education had traces of her having an independent wish. She wanted to have her

 own space and her own identity. Whereas Shakuntala, her cousin is totally different from her.

 She is a westernized woman. She is working at Lahore. She is an intelligent independent modern

woman who does not believe in the concept of marriage and reacts strongly to the traditional

idea. She speaks to Virmati with the following words “but women are still supposed to marry

and do nothing else.” She suggests Virmati to live like a free bird and said “times are changing

and women are moving out of the house, so why not you?” This shows her attitude towards

marriage. And shakuntala is the one who encourages Virmati to come out of her traditional way

of living and create her identity in the society. Thus, Manju Kapur depicts these women

characters as her own spokesperson and gives importance to freedom and education for Indian

women. Virmati’s parents are not aware of  women education and freedom so they didn’t allow

her daughter to study whereas Harish who is well educated and working as a professor not ready

 to give freedom to his own wife for example when Virmati gave birth to a girl child she named

her daughter as ‘Bharti’ she felt that God had blessed her with the child at the dawn of freedom

of the country. But Harish rejected the name and named his daughter as ‘Ida.’ Over this he

remarked, “let anybody think what they like for us it means a new state and a blank beginning”

with the advent of freedom for the country, it can be easily realized that the man who talks about

freedom, does not provide freedom to his wife even for such a mater like keeping the name of

the newly born child at her choice. Virmati’s problems and conflicts are existential and her struggle for self-assertion leads to self-alienation.

Conclusion:

            Freedom will not be given to women by anyone. Whether the man has aware of women’s

freedom not ready to provide it. So it’s the duty of each woman to step out from their state and

achieve freedom. And woman’s education is an essential one, if a woman study, the whole

family can shine in the society. Through speeches and writing woman couldn’t get the equal

place as a man in the society. Education is the best tool to achieve equal rights as man has. Thus

Kapur had presented feminism in her Difficult Daughters