Question- What do you mean by the title of the novel 'That Long Silence'?

or
Describe the Feminist Outlook in That Long Silence by Shashi Deshpande.

Answer - 

Shashi Deshpande is a renowned novelist of Indian writing in English. She has the edit of writing well known novels namely; The Dark Holds No Terrors'; 'Roots and Shadows', and 'That Long Silence'. "That Long Silence' was her fifth novel which was recognized with 'Sahitya Akademi Award' in 1990. Shashi Deshpande's works primarily deals with the problems of women in the present social context. Deshpande's quest for identity and freedom has become dominant themes in literature. She unfolds the problems of women in the patriarchal society in a very positive way. According to her, women has every right to live her life, to develop her qualities, to take her decisions, to be independent and to take charge of her destiny.

"That Long Silence' is one of the unique works of Shashi Deshpande which signifies the pathetic condition of Indian woman. It is a reflection of sufferings at an indian woman in the dogmatic social milieu i.e. famaily. It also reflects how woman suffers deeply and end-up life silently baring molestations of male. The sacrifice made by women counterpart hardly noticed by the male dominated society. The writer wants such women who suffer to break their silence in the wake of feminist movement. The novel illustrates the image of women in the middle class family and the way she is sandwiched between the tradition and modernity.

The title of the novel depicts the intention of the novelist in order to reveal the female psyche during the quest of Jaya, the protagonist for self. She is the protagonist of 'That Long Silence' who is an intelligent woman with graduation in English, a writer and a columnist had a bright career. Unfortunately none of these attributes would provide her a respectable position in the eyes of her husband Mohan, who had socialization in a typical traditional environment. He perceived his wife on par with Seeta, Savitri and Draupadi. His mother and sister Vimala were very much submissive to father. The decisions relating to familiar and financial matters were taken by the male members of the family. So he wanted his wife to be submissive like them as a homemaker.

In a male dominated society, a woman has no space to be independent. She is dependent on men either on father, husband or son. They are hardly given freedom and independence. Slavery to man makes them suffer from dual roles of child bearing and domestic chores. She has no freedom regarding the selection of her life partner and marriage. Marriage becomes their destiny as Jaya thinks:

"........As we grew into young women,
we realized it was not love,
but marriage that was the destiny
waiting for us.
and so, with young man,
there was the excitement of
thinking will this man be my husband?
........ it had been
our parents who had taken vague desires of
ours and
translated them into hard facts.
It was like the game we
had played as children on our buttons tinker tailor,
Soldier, Sailor ..........."
[That Long Silence]

Jaya's parents and Vanita Mami go on hammering onto her that 'husband is like a sheltering tree' women should be dependent on the male member of the family in order to be safe and protected. In other words, a woman is undermined ignoring the fact that she is equal to man in all the spheres of life. Her abilities and strengths are undermined. However, she is inferior to men in patriarchal society. This is rightly painted out by Deshpende as :

"...............A sheltering tree, without
the tree you're dangerously
unprotected and vulnerable This...... followed logically;
and so you have keep the tree alive and flourishing.
even if you have to water it with deceit and lles
(That Long Silence : 32)

The author clearly depicts the image of marriage institution and familiar relations in India. Husband and wife hardly speak openly about their sexual life. It is treated as sinful and immoral. Jaya had dreamt about her marital life that she would love her husband first and then sex. A mechanical relationship and artificial love were the consequence of her marriage. It was a total failure. She had lost interest and tired of with the acts of sex. Unfortunately, with Mohan she had only sex but not love either before or after marriage. In other words, she hardly enjoyed marital relationship with her husband. She had no freedom to express or share her desires with Mohan. Her feelings of love and sex are suppressed as she say:

"In any cost, whatever my
feelings had been then, I had
never spoken of them to him. In fact, we had never
Spoken of sex at all. It had been as if the experience was
erased each time after it happened, it never existed in
words. The only words between us had
been his question,
'Did I hurt you!" and my answer, 'No'
(That Long Silence 95)

Jaya was introduced to her neighbour Kamat who motivate her to -think and act independently and admiring. He inspires and cheers her to get serious, to be real and true to herself. This made her regain her helf - confidence which had been lost. He further makes her to speak frankly about sex. What she could not speak with Mohan, was able to speak to Kamat it makes her realize her 'self'. In this way, kamat enables her to break 'long silence' Jaya now resolves to assert her individuality by breaking that long silence', putting down on paper that in her entire seventeen years of silence. she had suppressed her desires :

"This man........ it had been a
revelation to me that two
people a man and woman could talk this
way with this
Man I had not been a woman. I had been
just myself.
Jaya. There had been ease in our
relationship, I had
never known in any other. There had been nothing I
could not say to him
(That Long Silence) (P.153)

The companionship of Kamat made Jaya get her identity. However, she was not strong enough to challenge the traditional value system at the society. At the end of a novel Jaya's husband loses his confidence, his position as an engineer. In the urban and global society, her husband becomes the victim of corruption. During the 17 years of their marriage Mohan never asks her opinion on any matter but when an inquiry has been set up against him, he holds Jaya's hand and asks her to support the family through her career as a writer. But Jaya remains silent without knowing what to say. This is a kind of protest against her long silence, which makes her strong at the end of the novel.

Femint movement has a great deal in this regard. The feminist writings of Indian literature probe into the pathetic situation of women in the male dominated society in general and in the institution of family in particular. In order to establish social harmony, the harmony in the family needs to be established. There has to be an end to the discriminations on women based on the gender. No gender is superior in this world. Gender equity, justice and equality have a bearing on attaining gender development in order to have peace harmony and love in the family relationship.

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