Problem in Marital Institution in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

Abstract

Arundhati Roy’sThe God of Small Things presents patriarchal ideology as the problem in marital institution. There are four marriages in the novel but none of them goes smoothly. Ammu, the protagonist of the novel, is a divorcee from her intercommunity love marriage. Her marriage does not last long because of her husband’s behavior. She is compelled to leave him as she refuses to adopt prostitution. The husbands in the novel treat their wives as subhuman being for they beat their wives forno reason. They do not have any respect for the feelings of their wives. By divorcing her husband, Ammu fights against the patriarchal notion prevalent in marital institution. Roy has shown how patriarchal ideology works to destroy and mutilate a woman inside and outside marriage. Roy talks about Indian family in which none of the members are happy within the boundary of marriage. She shows that it is woman who suffers in marriage because of patriarchal ideology dominant in the institution of marriage.