ImpactofMetropolitan CultureonMarriage:A StudyonDé’s Select Texts

Shobhaa Dé, an advocate of Feminism in her writing, portrays her female protagonists assertively, utilizing thenarrativetounderscoreherargumentthatthepersonalrealmtranscendsmereprivacyandholdspoliticalsignificance.Thesecentralcharactersinherliteraryworksemergeasoutspokencriticschallengingsocietalnormsandregulations.Theydeviatefromtheconventionalmoldofwomenwhotolerateabusive,unsatisfactory,ordiscomfortingrelationshipsacross various dimensions, be it male dominance, objectification, sexual discontent, passion, or other facets. Breakingthe silence surrounding these issues, they reject the notion of it being a taboo. In contrast, Dé refrains from depictingmale characters as outright villains; instead, she subtly reveals that they are shaped by the patriarchal constructs evidentin the storyline. The gender issues exploredin her works extend beyond the realm of female oppression within domesticviolencescenarios.Rather,theydelveintotheunspokenvoidofsexualdissatisfactionexperiencedbyallfemalecharacters.Whilemalecharacterstraditionallybearrolesassociatedwithsexualprowess,power,andadistinctself-identity, the female figures in Dé’s narratives defy these stereotypical molds. They serve as representations of women,assertingtheiragencybyexpressingsexualdesires,wieldingpower,andyearningforasenseofself-identity.Consequently, this research centers on Shobhaa Dé’snovels, namelySocialite Evenings(1989),Sisters(1992),StarryNights(1991),andSecondThoughts(1996),allofwhichgrapplewithgender-relatedthemes.Thestudynotonlyscrutinizes the challenges and issues presented but also illuminates the struggles faced by the protagonists in their questfor self-identity.