Spaces of Wrath

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to study the impact of marital rape or intimate partner violence in Shashi Deshpande's The Dark Holds No Terrors (1980) and how it leads to the mutilation of physical and sexual autonomy of the female protagonist Saru. The focus will be on her journey from subjugation to assertion. Deshpande portrays women trapped in varying degrees within the threshold of middle-class Indian life, resulting in fractured identities and violated bodies. Marriage and family are the sites of patriarchal machinations that for women like Saru become spaces of wrath. Such structures coerce women into the system through appropriation of archetypes/stereotypes. The disproportionate power dynamics within marriage and motherhood dictate the distribution of gender roles. Her female protagonist smothers her protests, anger, and defiance in a ‘long' practiced silence. The burden of wifehood subsumes Saru's identity, despite the fact that she is a successful doctor.