Abstract
Sudha Murthy is one of the eminent female writers in India writing in English today, composing on the overwhelming issues related to women in modern India in the age of globalization and their struggle for space in conventional Indian society. Sudha Murthy’s House of Cards is an intricately woven novel that explores and represents the predicament and anguish of women. The novel furnishes mixed and sundry ideas quailing in orthodox Indian society and conscientious of a modern Indian female. Women have suffered silently beneath patriarchal domination for an extended time. But with time they’ve commenced affirming their rights and shield their own dignity in a relationship. The changed perspective of new women is portrayed in her female characters, through this novel she proved that new ladies know the way to keep calm and high-quality familial atmosphere though not on the value of their self-respect. The present study focuses on the roles of man and woman in marriage in traditional Indian society and how these well-defined roles lead to inner conflicts. Her female characters are typical examples that depict how ladies’ emotions and attitudes are delineated in Indian society. These women are real flesh and blood protagonists who make us have a look at them with awe with their relationships to their surroundings, their society, their men, their children, their households, their mental make-ups and themselves.
Keywords: Marriage, trust, love, relationship, trauma
Introduction
House of Cards is the tale of Mridula, a brilliant young lady with stupendous energy for life. Her meeting with Sanjay, a gifted but penurious practitioner was like a bolt from the blue. The couple fell in love with each other, got married and finally got settled in Bangalore. The two of them in the fundamental period of their married life had liberal objectives of placing in some amount of their compensation in assisting people belonging to weaker and backward sections of society. Mridula embraced a new job to improve family pay so that Sanjay can concentrate on his services in Government hospital. Later Sanjay began his own nursing home which brought him unexpected achievement in the field. But union of torment free pay demolished Sanjay and changed him into deceptive clinical expert.
The more Mridula sees of the world, the more she understands the acquisitive and parochial attitude of the people. Regardless, she doesn’t take the high focuses and depressed spots of life to heart, and lives each day with positive essentialness. A line frequently rehashed in the book is the methods by which it showed up the sun climbed for her and the rainbow tones were planned just for her. Sanjay’s conduct and frame of mind changes when cash streams from the nursing home. For quite a while, Mridula does not understand that Sanjay has sold his soul but when reality hits her without a second thought she leaves him.
Gender Stereotypes in House of Cards
The public or private dichotomy is crucial to feminist movement which is expressed in the slogan ‘the non-public is political’. In both private and public spheres we can see women and men in the structure of subordination and dominance. Women are frequently viewed as being naturally subjected to the male members of the society. The private can’t be isolated from the public since the former is a political development made by the latter. The family became a space where women’s roles were clearly defined in terms of marital relations. It enforces the idea that men should provide for the family and go to work while women are supposed to raise children and stay at home. Her capability as a woman is assessed by analyzing her capacity to manage matters indoors and obeying her husband. The male members of the family always enjoy an upper hand in all affairs both inside and outside home. Women are their father’s property till they are married and after which they turn into the assets of their spouses. Carole Pateman who is a feminist and political theorist, states, “The patriarchal construction of the difference between masculinity and femininity is the political difference between freedom and subjection.” Social and cultural conditioning is principally liable for organizing male and female gender roles.
Every husband takes their wife as granted and nobody tries to respect her sensitive feelings. In the words of Sanjay, “She has a good house, servants, plenty of money, a great son and a famous husband.” But still Mridula is not happy. Neither the society nor her husband understands why she is unhappy. Dr. Rao rightly points out the reason for her depression, “…in a male dominated society like ours; all the important decisions are made by man, including choices about her wants. Every woman values her freedom to choose much more than her husband’s money or position” (212). Women are often regarded as being naturally subordinated to the public sphere of male transcendence. This power dynamic sees men as ‘the provider’ operating in the public sphere and women as ‘the caregiver or nurturer’ operating in the private space. The Indian socio-cultural setup is characterized through patriarchy, upholding male dominance and feminine subordination. Girl’s position in choice-making technique remains conspicuously invisible, no matter inheritor being experienced, sturdy-willed and mature.
Sudha Murthy’s House of Cards is a reflection of many Indian women who yearn for affection and love from their family. Money is essential in life, but it often brings unhappiness in relationships. Alex and Anita had immense love for each other till Alex began to amass money through unfair means. He forgot sincere love of Anita and had illicit relationships which led Anita to lose her interest on life. In the words of Anita, “When men get more money than they need, their wife starts looking ugly to them, they think they could have done better, they forget that they were nothing when their wife married them and that she has stayed loyal to them through their ups and downs” (148). The innermost psyche of the protagonists is discovered through their interplay with people who are emotionally associated with them.
Women are just objects of beauty in a male dominated society. This concept is vividly expressed in Shishir’s words. “Amina was so beautiful when she was young. Had she been taller, she could have entered the Miss India pageant.” He even says that if he was in her place he would have pursued modelling as a profession and probably made more money. This remark shows that Shishir looked at Mridula not as a mother but as a contestant in beauty competition.
Most of her heroines have the concept of a glad conjugal existence; however the concept seems to stay most effective a rainbow dream. A girl’s individual identity has not been openly realized in Indian social existence. She is taken without any consideration and this informal mind-set is the cause of her suffering and depressing lifestyles. Neeraja fell in love with her classmate and even after repeated warnings from her parents she married him. But life after marriage was really miserable. Her husband was nice to everyone outside the home but he dominated every aspect of her life — choosing a job, buying a house, having a baby etc. She could never be herself. Sudha Murthy points out how human relationships change according to the conditions and how a woman feels alienated in a male-dominated society. Life is not easy for a woman in a patriarchal world. Another wife character, in the novel, Kantamma, wife of a Principal in a conversation expresses her dissatisfaction on her marriage, “He was the Principal for a long time and was strict at home too. My children never care, but I had to obey him” (188). As Asma Shamail points out, “The Indian system of arranged marriage institutionalizes the lack of fulfillment of feminine desire whereby women become tokens of exchange within the patriarchal economy that reinforces male guardianship of women” (65).
The novel stresses the need to uphold truthfulness, honesty and faithfulness in any relation. All the claims seem to be fortunate once the novel is understood from the point of view of the female protagonist who claims to have all the qualities required for any idealistic Indian lady. The boldness Sanjay shows to love and marry a simple girl like Mridula misses in the course of time and he even fails to recognize the simple needs and requirements of his wife. Mridula realizes that Sanjay has a weakness for beauty and out of infatuation only he marries her to exhibit her as the index of pride. House of Cards is one of the best works by Sudha Murthy which unlocks a chance for an analysis using Indian consciousness in relation to the feminine issues. At the outset the theme of the novel seems to be so simple but it is a strange episode between reality and fantasy experienced by the characters in the novel and readers. The text deconstructs itself through wondering the validity of ethical requirements in extraordinary contexts.
What a girl expects from her husband is pure love. She acknowledged Sanjay as her significant other along with his distortion. At the point when her dad tried to enlighten her about his shorthand, she answered that if Sanjay had met with a mishap that left him disabled after marriage at that point no one would blame him for that. So she don’t have any issue with the alliance if both her parents approve of it. This avowed her conviction that she was not after looks and wealth of the man whom she wants to marry. She wanted a man with plain heart and clear head as her better half.
The writer shares her wisdom about marriages and what men and women expect in a marriage. These themes are brought out well through Sishir and Neha. Sishir, son of Mridula and Sanjay shares his concept of wife, “I want a girl who won’t argue with me and who’ll adjust to any situation. A woman defines the culture and environment at home. But she should be modern outside the house” (224). Even the younger generation count on the women to regulate with the converting own family methods and surroundings, in a wedding, adjustment for the female most effective manner deleting her individuality, herself and her judgment of right and wrong. It influences her complete psyche and behavior which destroys her sensibility and her very self. The idea of an ordinary girl about her better half is clearly elucidated through the words of Neha, the girl with whom Sishir tries to date. “I want a man who respects me as a woman. We must give each other the freedom to grow together and individually, as people. Money doesn’t matter to me. His job doesn’t matter either” (225). She wants a person who treats woman as true and equal partner in life and walk face by face with them. In a patriarchal society, position of women is reduced to good daughters, good wives and good mothers. Earlier simplest the lady became expected to adjust and alternate. However the contemporary international demands that boys change too.
Conclusion
Sudha Murthy belongs to the organization of Indo-English writers who studied in element the actual issues faced with the aid of girls in the domestic, political and cultural spheres. She has defined the results of emotions and sentiments at the behavior of males and females and the way they react to different situations. She has defined in element the internal disturbance of her characters especially the female characters in a very superior manner. In one of the interviews she said, “today’s women are more assertive, have lot more economic power and more vocal.” They’ve suffered silently beneath patriarchal domination for a long time. But with time they have started out affirming their rights and guard their personal dignity. The identified perspective of recent ladies is portrayed in her female characters. They know how to keep calm and great familial ecosystem however not at the cost of their self-respect. The woman characters in her writings draw the attention of a wide variety of readers and social thinkers. Efforts have been made in the present paper to construct the voices of females with the canons of socio economic and socio psychological dimensions of feminine oriented social practices. The paper further looks at the traces and analyses the various contradictions which rather demolish the traditional structures instead of holding them together in a single string.
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