Revolt and Self respect in R. K. Narayan's Dark Room

Chronologically ‘The Dark Room’ is R.K. Narayan’s third novel. It was published by Macmillan and Co. Ltd. London in 1938 with the approval of Graham Greene. It showcases sharply the conditions of Indian populace during colonial era of British empire. It is the product of the novelist’s obsession, “With a Philosophy of women as opposed to man, her constant oppressor”1. with reference to women’s Lib. movement. This is a specimen of the problem novel in which writer R. K. Narayan describes the life of distress, suffering, humiliation and injustice afflicted upon the Indian women, partly by the Indian customs and partly by the British dominance, in that sense, in colonial era Indian women were doubly marginalized. The novel carries the twin principles of suppression and multiple roles of slavery for the women in the Indian society. However, it is the “experimentation of path in The Dark Room,” Narayan begins with the mood and the quantum of tyranny a women has to undergo and sincerity towards the society. Here, Narayan blames the Indian women for their own plight, miseries of insolence and abuse as their illiteracy and lack of will power leads them to a ‘dark room’ . The Indian women, especially Hindu wives, have the age-old tendency to surrender themselves, without showing any real protest, against the traditional system which allows a secondary position to man.