Quest for Identity: A Woman’s Perspective

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore how the social conditioning of women in a patriarchal
society, hinders the overall development of their personality. By and large, women are supposed
to be confined to the domestic space all the time, bear children, be subservient to the males etc.
This is a major issue in our society which needs to be dealt with. Further, this can only be done
when women themselves, in the first place, take steps to attain their freedom and individual
identity, and secondly, when men change their outlook towards women and allow them the space
to breathe, emerge out, form their opinions and fulfill their desires. This issue has been analyzed
through the novels of eminent women writers- Bharati Mukherjee, Manju Kapur and Monica Ali.
With the help of these works we discover how the social circumstances impel the female
characters to break free from the social norms and discern their own identity. These characters
have their own different ways of gaining the freedom and individuality they desire, and we see
them doing so by relocating to a foreign land, educating themselves, defying conventions etc