Themes of Alienation and Isolation in ‘Manju Kapur’s “Difficult daughter”

                           Manju Kapur is one of the best known celebrated post-independence writers exploring sociological and psychological sensitive issues. Difficult Daughters is a novel set in pre partition scenario of India. It’s the story of 20th century Punjabi family. The political and social issues are effectively woven in the story with the issues regarding women, education versus marriage.

                   Kapur tries to explore the insight or human psyche of her protagonist Virmati, which torn between desire for love and duty towards family. Thus conflicting internal and external experiences, pressures and expectation produces anxiety. The essay as an article seeks to explore the perspective of alienation, Isolation and Assimilation from social and psychological viewpoint.

                    We know that man’s life is tight with busy and hectic schedule in this modern era.  Emotion, feeling, understanding each other seems very less compared to ancient era. During Renaissance period ‘MAN’ was at the centre, in the same way today ‘MONEY’ has become the centre in man’s life. The importance of nature, spiritualism has declined as man started approaching towards materialism. The term such as stress, feeling of isolation, alienation, identity and psychology has its crucial effect in present lifestyle. Stress has become part and parcel of man’s life. This stress has its tremendous effect on person’s attitude. People who take stress in positive way can able to come out with good result. But when a person who is unable to come out will become very introvert. And later they would go in depression which will even lead them to commite suicide.

                   Alienation problem can be easily traced in Virmati. Due to her love for professor, she was not willing to marry Inderjit and for this she was locked in ‘kotha’ room. There she felt alienated for the first time away from all her near ones. She even wrote her feeling in letter to professor, “This long period is the first time serves my life I have been left completely to myself. Away from my brothers and sisters, away from household activity, I feel strange.

                   Virmati used to get angry at the kotha room. She felt very abandoned and disturbed. She just had the form of exchanging her feeling with professor through letters. She writes, “Each time I hear the door shut, I burn with anger and humiliation. What have I done? I am just like the sacks of wheat and dal here, without my own life”. Thus no one to understand her in her own house.

                   Even the same condition is reflected in the life of professor. Even though he is married but still he craves for someone with whom he can share his intellectual, which he found in Virmati. He tells Virmati, “What is takes me away from the women I live with? Apart from the planets in the house of marriage, of course! She is a good woman, runs the house to perfection, and looks after my family as though they were her own. Despite all this, I am lonely, lonely, lonely”

                    The tremendous inner conflict in the novel is depicted in Virmati when she was at Lahore. She isolated herself from the place as some past memories with professor made her unable to move forward in life. She came at Lahore but Professor chased her here also and again intimacy grew among them. Though she was getting the love but still she was confused with her own life. At Punjab Women’s Student Conference she was tapped in her own thought about her existence, and the importance she gave in her life. At this point she felt isolated by sitting there, and by listening to Mohini Datta’s speech on how freedom was necessary for the human development of the human spirit, how war especially affected women.

Am I free…I came here to be free, but I am not like these women. They are using their minds, organizing, participating in conferences, politically active, while my time is spent being in love. Wasting it. Well, not wasting time, no, of course not, but then how come I never have a moment for anything else? Swarna does.

                    Even after her marriage the way she was treated at her husband’s home make her feel insecure. She use to think over why can’t she do all her husband’s washing, cooking, clean his books, fill his pen with ink, all work which Ganga supposed to do. Even on the first day in her husband house she felt isolated which made her to give statement, “I should have never married you”

                     In her own house she felt alienated. Thus the small tit-bits between the wives made professor little bit worry. Even Virmati got pregnant but within no time got miscarriage. After her sulk period she was sent to study M.A. here she felt alive again. She didn’t want to face Ganga again. And during the time of partition she accepted to go to her house as she was quite aware of Ganga’s absence. During this time again she was pregnant. Hence after tremendous suffering’ at the end she resolves these stages and gives birth to a baby girl named Ida.

                     At the end of the novel one can see India achieved Freedom and even Virmati too was happy with professor at her home.

                                                                           By,

                                                            B.J. Merina Delfin,