Repression and Identity Crisis: As a Thematic Study of the Novel Difficult Daughters by Manju Kapur

Abstract

Indian patriarchal social system nurtures women in the way that they suffer from distressing thoughts, emotions, desires, and memories. Their social conditioning plays pivotal role to suppress their feelings and choices. These unfulfilled dreams and desire unconsciously stay in their minds. The present research paper is an attempt to study those unconscious repressed emotions those endanger the identity of Indian –middle class women in the patriarchal society. The turmoil between internal feelings and external societal expectation shapes their identity. There is no space for individuality in the life of middle - class women. Their roles as daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers leave no space for their individual self. The patriarchal society not only encroaches the identity of women but restrict their space and agency in the society