Virmati's Freedom Struggle

Virmati struggles all her life for happiness but fails at every stage. She represents all the Indian women who starved for self-identity and a proper place in the society. The novel explores the idea that though India achieved freedom, Indian women are still struggling for their own independence. The fight for female autonomy and separate identity is still in the process. If a woman tries to go beyond her boundaries, she is cast away from the society. She becomes alienated from her own family. It is sad to note that women still have to face the discrimination in India. The woman has no value apart from her family. Even in her own family, she has to face the subjugation and discrimination. Manju Kapur explores Virmati’s urge for education and …show more content…
Though women get education, they are forced to observe the traditional ethics either by force or by sweet talk. If any woman tries to defy her self-syndrom, she has to suffer a lot in the process. She tells that educated is not enough for a woman to be happy in her life. The money has a tight grip than educational empowerment in the society. Virmati also wants social and economic liberation, which are keys of her independence. However, she suffers a lot in her journey. Though she got economic independence, she cannot get her space in the society. She remained as the typical product of male dominated society. The feminist critic Simone De Beauvoir’s statement about woman’s deviation on the norms of social safety, political consciousness and economic independence is important to quote here. She comments in her book, The Second …show more content…
She is expected to be gentle and obedient child and stick to the household duties. However, Virmati prefers being rebellious rather than obedient. She became bold enough to cross the patriarchal threshold to achieve self-desire. She struggles for self-existence in the male dominated society. Being second mother of her siblings; she denies the concept of early marriage and believes in being independent like her cousin. She fights for her love though it is illicit according to the social norms. Virmati is very devoted to her love and ready to commit suicide to achieve it. An unmarried girl whose marriage is fixed, tires to commit suicide to avoid impending marriage is really a big act in the decade of forty. Virmati struggles and suffers a lot in the journey of self-attainment. Virmati forgets that she lives in male dominated traditional society that rejects the notion of separate identity of a woman beyond the man. It is assumed that woman is like a plant that does not grow and nourish without support of man. It is deep rooted mentally of Indian male dominated society, which does not easily accept the western thoughts where women have equal importance with men. Many Indian women novelists have tried to focus this mentally through their