Rejection of Silence in Kamala Markandaya's A Silence of Desire
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Department of English
Abstract
The principle characters inA Silence ofDesiresuffers from lack of
communication. Communicationis a way to understand each other and it leads to
discard things which hinder harmonious life. The causes of silence are their different
beliefs attitudes and behaviours. Sarojini worships Tulasi as a Goddess wheras
Dandekar takes it merely a plant. Sarojini believes in faith-healingand power of
Swami as a cure for her womb-tumour. Dandekar doesn't believe on such things and
urges Sarojini to be cured in the hospital. These factors are responsible to invite
disharmony, frustration and distortion in the familial relationship. But gradually, the
protagonists realize the importance of harmonious relationship and reject the factors
responsible for the long prevailing silence or the communication gap between them.
Silence is rejected in words as well as through their different cultural practices
in the beginning. Soon they reject all sorts of silence with their desire to come to term
and respect each other.
In case of the protagonists Dandekar and Sarojini, the distorted conjugal life
enters the phase of harmony and reconciliation through the rejection in words and in
attitudes and behaviours.