MARRIAGE – THE SUMMUM BONUM OF WOMAN'S LIFE – A STUDY OF MANJU KAPUR'S 'DIFFICULT DAUGHTERS'

Abstract The portrayal of woman in Indian English fiction as the silent sufferer and upholder of the tradition and traditional values of family and society has undergone a tremendous change and is no longer presented as a passive character. Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sehagal, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande and many other women novelists have presented women as an individual rebelling against the traditional role, breaking the silence of suffering, trying to move out of the caged existence and asserting the individual self. This woman is trying to be herself and yet does not wish to break up the family ties. Since Gandhiji helped the woman to cross the threshold of family life and move out into the outer world of freedom struggle and social reform, the woman is presented with varied opportunities not only to-day but also yesterday during freedom movement. Yet writing in 1998, Manju Kapur in Difficult Daughters presents a woman who considers marriage as the journey’s end of her life-marriage and her place in the master bed room