Courage to Cross the Bounds to achieve Her Own Refuse: Sarita’s Journey from Darkness to Light in Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terrors | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

The writers of any age always throw light on the darker aspect of life whichact as a voice of change and enlighten the readers mind. Indian women novelists done the same they have turned towards the woman’s world with great authenticity and introspective intensity. They have instigated a voyage within to explore the consciousness of their women characters and to measure them. Shashi Deshpande is one of the most influential woman writers in Indian English literature who has treated the typical Indian themes very sensitively and has portrayed the contemporary middle-class women with rare competence. Her novels explore the plight of women’s lives and literally empower them. Her present novel The Dark Holds No Terrors studies about women’s awareness and also reveals a woman’s capacity to assert her own rights and individuality and become fully aware of her potentials as a human being. The novel discusses on the sensitive concept of ‘bounding and bondage’ which are considered quite vital in understanding women’s situation worldwide. Sarita the protagonist in this novel portrayed as an ordinary middle-class professional woman who articulates her defeats, conflicts, sufferings, struggles, loss and finally found her way out of depths by introspecting herself and achieve her own refuse. Saru always has the quest and emphasize the essentiality of asserting one’s identity as an independent individual.This paper is an attempt to analyze the problems faced by Sarita and how she succeeds in coming out of this in order to achieve her own refuse.