The Bonds of Matrimony and Portrayal of Its Heroine in the Major Novels of R. K. Narayan

The woman has been always the focus of many literary works in the Indian English Literature. In the age of growing intellectual crisis and more so in a developing nation like India. There has been a conflict between tradition and modernity specially in the portrayal of women. Indian English novelists have along placed their women characters within a tradition. A tradition bound woman is conditioned by conventions and she accepts the responsibility of being the custodian of family. She is one who is prepared to sacrifice her own comfort for the happiness of the others in the family. R. K. Narayan has also highlighted the woman class and sufferings of the emerging class of Indian women. His characters raise many questions regarding the conventional definition of class and marriage.