The Harsh Blow of Patriarchy on Woman’s Psychology in Shashi Deshpande’s “A Liberated Woman”

Abstract

Shashi Deshpande's work depicts women spiraling down in their duties, responsibilities, and career. Without giving due importance to their desires and emotional wellbeing. The protagonist in the story " A Liberated Woman " is a well-settled doctor going through a stark identity crisis due to her troubled marriage which she presumes to be a result of her success. Shashi vividly shows the agony of an educated woman falling in the frustrating dilemma of following the traditions of patriarchy by continuing an abusive marriage or expressing herself as an individual and boldly protecting both her sanity and her self-respect but choses to reproach herself and her circumstances and accept the situations as it is like most of middle-class women.