Conflict between Societal Norms and Self-Empathy on Women Characters in Anita Nair’s ‘Ladies Coupe’

Abstract

Anita Nair is popular writer in English. She through this novel ‘Ladies Coupe’ talks about the various problems faced by the women in the patriarchal society. It depicts the conflict between the societal norms and self- empathy on women characters in various complexities of life. This paper is a study of Anita Nair’s second novel where all her major and minor characters undergo physical, psychological and situational constraints set by the society. It centrals around the protagonist, Akilandeswari, a forty five year old spinster who travels in the ladies compartment of a train. There she meets her co-passengers in the Ladies coupe who shares their real stories of their life. Eldest of all is Janaki, Margret Paulraj is a school teacher, Prabhavathi a perfect home maker, Marikolunthu the abused lady of innocence, Karpagam a revolutionary widow and a schoolmate of Akhila, etc.,. Each one is from different from one another in their social status, economical stability, age, community and also in their experiences of life. It also elaborates about how they fight back successfully balancing the norms of the society and revelation of self.