A Feminist Reading of Shashi Deshpande’s The Binding Vine: Sisterhood, Identity Quest and Resurrection of the Self in the Indian Bourgeoise Society

Abstract

Shashi Deshpande is considered one of the eminent figures among the contemporary women novelists who concern themselves with the female predicament and their quest for identity and individuality. Especially, she has concentrated on the theme of marginalized status of women and their struggle to survive in tradition-oriented institutions. Shashi Deshpande’s The Binding Vine delves deep into the problems of how the traditional Indian society is dominated by patriarchy. A society ruled by patriarchy never considers women as intellectually equal to men. The narrator of the novel Urmila is a middle class educated lady who tries to bind those women who are victims of patriarchy. This paper primarily seeks to focus on the psychological exploration of the inner mind of the female characters in the novel. Deshpande provides centrality on the theme of marriage, the oldest institution of Indian society that considers marriage as a social discipline and a sense of security. But in Deshpande’s novel, it comes under the microscope of critical scrutiny and she shows us its weak spots. The present study also attempts to focus on how women characters become silent on social taboos like marital rape (in the case of Mira) and sexually abused rape (in the case of Kalpana). The Binding Vine tries to reconstruct the aspects of women’s experience and attempts to give voice to the muted ideologies. The title of the novel suggests many bonds in the life of the heroine Urmila. They are, her bond of familial ties of parents, husband and children; her bond of love for Mira’s poems; her bond of sympathy for the wrongs done to Kalpana. So, sisterhood and humanity are the binding tools for the characters in the novel.