Anita Desai Custody Themes

Abstract: This paper tries to present the thematic problem of man-woman relationship and the importance of love in marriage. Although the theme of husband and wife alienation and marital disharmony is not a new theme in the novels of women writers, but with depth of the writing of Desai it gains new depth and meaning. In Custody, Desai points out the incompatibility of man and woman in carrying out their marriage, love, compatibility due to the predicament of modern world tension and stressful life. Women always shown to long for love and communion of the spirit with their partners who tend to reciprocate their feelings. According to Desai, most marriages prove to be unions of incompatibility. Her women long for love and communion of the spirit which they perceive as the panacea of the ills of the world. The writer primary emphasis is on sights and sounds, on movements and patterns both physical and mental as they impinge on the consciousness.

Key Words: Alienation, stress, incompatibility, communion.

Of all the contemporary Indian English novelists, Anita Desai is indisputable the most powerful women novelist. She has

The reason for it is that he also felt defeated like her and became the victim of his circumstances. In the common problems of post-marital life, he came to understand her predicament also. It is true that Deven leads a very cultured life of a college lecturer grooming under the crushing agonies of poverty. But at the same time there is another aspect of married life, marital relationships. All the time Deven thinks about his wife and son. He wants money not for himself but for his family. He desires to buy gold jewellery for his wife. He says, “I have my job to think of and my wife and son.” Desai’s fiction is symbolic, sensitive and psychological. Her fictional word reflects her concerns with psyche of her characters. Brati Biswas in Perspectives on Anita