Breaking the Code: Women in Small Remedies

Shashi Deshpande, a Sahitya Academy Award winner, is much-celebrated author for the depiction of the society and relationships among the individuals. A close reading of her novels reveals how the women characters are shaped by the situations in which they live. But the individuality of every character reshapes them. The paper attempts to interpret female characters in her novel Small Remedies in terms of their individuality by breaking the code and social context. The paper chooses to analyse these characters in the light of Raymond Williams‟ critical essay „Realism and the Contemporary Novel.‟ The novel throws light on an individual‟s personal experience with society by recreating lives from the real world as observed by Raymond Williams in the mentioned essay. The novel delves into the life of three women - Savitribai Indorekar, who is an ardent music lover, Leela who passionately believes in communism and Madhu, protagonist of the novel. The common strand between first two is that they both quit their familial ties to attain fulfillment in public life. Madhu, the protagonist of the novel, tries to reshape her „self‟ by observing their lives. The novel also proves that the individuals are the fundamental forces of the society. All the characters are depicted with reference to the socio-cultural aspects they encounter. Madhu grows the consciousness by looking around her own life. She cares so that she can gain self-respect and recognition in the wake of repeated failures and despair.