Critique of Traditional Gender Roles in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland

Abstract

This research paper explores Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland as a novel that interrogates traditional gender roles. Unlike traditional roles of a loving and caring mother, Gauri, the mother, is projected as a very rebellious and dynamic character who fights against the ideology of patriarchal society. Furthermore, her extramarital affair, involvement in homosexuality, her challenge to social taboos, and her appetite for studying philosophy are some of the examples of how she questions the traditional gender roles. The paper establishes how traditional gender roles are being transformed and reversed. For this, the paper has employed the concept of ''performative gender'' as discussed by Butler in her book The Gender Trouble. Many critics have examined the novel from gender perspectives but the paper focuses on the performative nature of gender. Moreover, this paper also questions Lahiri's choice to make Gauri as a mother uninterested in nurturing and who in turn is obsessed with philosophy. Even if Lahiri has shown Gauri a bold and courageous character that is capable of crossing the boundary of patriarchal society, she also has portrayed the family is shattered and consequences of such transgression as the characters suffer from essential isolation.