Would you consider Anita Desai’s Fire
on the Mountain a feminist novel? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer: Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain published in 1977 as the
seventh novel in her literary career. In western countries, in the mid of 1970s
a new ‘ism’ originated i.e. Feminism. So there onwards, many theories are coming
up on feminism and it became an important genre in literary criticism,
especially in the western countries. The scholars’ attitude towards women in a
given period reflected the status of women in western society. Along with attitude
of the scholars, the personification of the author’s attitude towards women, feminist
point of view of the early theories or ideologies mainly concerned with the sub-ordinate
status assigned to women in a phallocratic culture.
Women status is set by men and also far from their rights in
a patriarchal society.It means man dictated woman. The woman’s role has restricted
to a dutiful wife and mother. Especially, Indian woman has given prominence to
perform or participate in ritual affairs as well as a dutiful wife or a mother.
The total morality for a woman was laid down by men. She became subordinate to
man. Thus, a woman remained a prisoner within the façade of a secure and
pleasant domestic environment.
The days are changing
and societies have reached to modernity. Many theories are coming up to help the
woman and their status. She fought for freedom to liberate herself from an
incompatible marriage. To some extent, the woman has caught up according to the
time change. Yet, the traditional family structure continues to exert its stranglehold
over her creativity and sensibility. Even though, psychologically woman's position
has not yet changed. It is proved in Marriage affairs. Marriage might become an
antiquate dinstitution and it is nurturing garchaic values.
In Anita Desai’s
novels, the social and psychological aspects of the construction and deconstruction
of the gender of a woman as an entity conditioned by these factors occupy an important
position. She claims that women writers are likely to place their emphasis
differently from men and that their sense of values is likely to differ is
plausible and convincing. She is primarily interested in exploring the complex
psychic depths of her female characters that is trapped within the close
confines of an incompatible marriage. Her women characters live in the isolated
world of existential problems. Solitary and introspective, they show a marked
tendency towards neurotic behaviour. Obsessed with their life of alienation, depression
and loneliness, Desai’s women characters suffer from an inner torment of the
self. They embody the repercussions of belonging to an upper-class affluent
society which is rich in terms of material achievement, but absolutely
impoverished in traditional values. The position of Desai’s women characters in
such an oppressive atmosphere is unenviable. They are victims of alienation,
and in most cases, suffer because of their hypersensitivity.
