Marriage and Divorce over the Decades: An Analysis of the Portrayal of Marital Relationships in Select Indian English Fictions

Abstract

The institution of marriage developed early in human society had its foundations in love, companionship, commitment, and mutual respect. The traditional view of marriage in India saw the institution as a bond for several lives. With exalted status given to men, the institution extended limited agency to women. Divorce became heavily stigmatized and discouraged. The issue of marital conflict is one of the dominant themes in Indian English fiction. Raja Rao, Arun Joshi, Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Bhabani Bhattacharya, Shobhaa De, Anita Desai, and many others frequently have used the theme of marriage and divorce as one of the central motifs in their works. The paper discusses marital strife in The Serpent and the Rope by Raja Rao and The Day in Shadow by Nayantara Sahgal. Raja Rao's novel was published in 1960, and Nayantara Sahgal's book was published in 1971. The paper discusses the theme of marriage and divorce in the two novels published a decade apart to examine whether the approach to marriage and marital differences has changed in a decade as represented in literature.