Treatment of Neurosis in Anita Desai's Cry the Peacock
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Department of English
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.