Patriarchal Conditioning and the Negotiation of Female Identity in Manju Kapur’s A Married Woman

This study focuses on Manju Kapur's representation of women, especially in A Married Woman. Her female characters often struggle between the roles society expects them to perform and their desire for independence, self-respect, and personal happiness. Kapur shows how women gradually become aware of the restrictions placed on them and try to develop their own identities. This study uses feminist literary criticism to examine how patriarchal traditions influence women's lives and how women question, negotiate, and resist these restrictions. The study argues that Kapur's novel presents female identity as a continuous process of self-discovery. It also shows that women's empowerment does not always require them to completely reject family and tradition. Instead, it may begin when they question social expectations and demand the freedom to make their own choices. From this perspective, the novel helps readers understand women's changing position in Indian society and the continuing importance of feminism in Indian English literature.