Gender, power, and social realities: The representation of women in Rohinton Mistry’s novels

Rohinton Mistry’s novels - Such a Long Journey (1991), A Fine Balance (1995) and Family Matters (2002) - provide layered depictions of Indian society across class, community, and historical upheavals. While critics often foreground his portrayals of male suffering and political critique, Mistry’s female characters are equally crucial as sites where gender, power relations, and broader social realities intersect. This paper examines how Mistry represents women’s agency, vulnerability, resistance, and social marginalization across his major novels. Using feminist and socio-cultural theoretical frameworks, the study analyzes primary female figures (Dilnavaz, Miss Kutpitia, Dina Dalal, and Roxana/Coomy), situating their personal struggles within Parsi community decline, caste-class hierarchies, urban poverty, and patriarchal structures. The analysis contends that Mistry’s women are neither monolithic victims nor triumphant heroines; instead, they often negotiate constrained agency, whereby domestic responsibilities, social stigma, and structural violence limit autonomy while also producing forms of endurance and subtle resistance. The paper concludes that Mistry’s representation complicates simple feminist binaries: his women reveal both the limits of individual agency under structural oppression and the ethical demands such realities place on readers and society.