Treatment of Neurosis in Anita Desai's Cry the Peacock

Abstract

Cry the Peacockis a story of psychological disintegration of a young wife who murders her husband. Maya, the central character of the novel is an intense young girl obsessed by the childhood prophecy of disaster. According to prophecy either she or her husband will die during the fourth year of their marriage. Maya's suffering emanates from her essential struggle to make her relationship meaningful with her husband and desire to experience life with all pleasure. Because of her failure to establish afulfilling relationship, she inhabits a world full of morbid, fears and turns neurotic. Maya's sensitive nature makes her alienated character in the novel. At last, she kills her husband by proving the prophecy, a true. The titleCry the Peacock symbolically represents the agonized 'cry of Maya' and her desire for life of involvement. In the novel, Anita Desai has been very artistically presented the disturbing portrayal of an individual experiencing life and love.