From Silence to Speech: A Study of Jaya’s Transformation in That Long Silence

Abstract

The paper examines the patriarchal bent of society in which Jaya lives and how this male oriented system creates ideological beliefs whereby, women are flung to marginalized positions of those social structures whose centers are constituted by males. The paper brings to the surface the inner dissatisfaction and maladjustment that Jaya suffers but about which she remains silent. Jaya as a subordinate character, a subject, seems to have internalized the code of conduct which the society has framed for her, considering it to be a natural order for most of her life, thereby, imparting on her a kind of perpetual silence about her desires, needs and ideas. Deshpande has tried to define this silence as a full-fledged character who accompanies Jaya like a shadow almost throughout the novel. The ideology that Jaya stands for doesn’t find a soil to flourish; instead she is made to surrender in every aspect of her life and furnish sacrifice after sacrifice to effectuate her role as a dutiful daughter, wife and mother. The paper, however, also gives an insight into the emerging consciousness in Jaya which enables her to understand that a balanced life is happier and more successful than a life of subordination and obligation.