Psychoanalysis In Skin Deep

DIMENSIONS OF FEMALE PSYCHE IN

NERGIS DALAL’S SKINDEEP

Sk Shakila Bhanu (Assistant Professor, Department S&H, VFSTRU)

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ABSTRACT The study of human universals is in the midst of a distinguished resurrection in linguistics, anthropology, behavioral biology, cognitive science and other fields. Literature is certainly the most eligible tool to discover and evaluate very atmosphere of human mind. Fiction, fasten the most characteristic and powerful form of literary expression today, has acquired an influential portion in the Indo- English literature. As quality literature concentrates on psychological concepts rather than sociological themes, Psychoanalysis becomes both the map and the legend

The novel starts with the awaiting of Yasmin’s visit to Dehradun where Naaz has a beautiful house, ‘something that Yasmin, for all her beauty, has never had’. Dalal depicts the spectacular and stunning dissimilarities of the twin sisters in a heart rending manner that most often the reader sympathizes with Naaz. “Strangers looking at the two of us would exclaim: ‘Are they really twins? They do not; look at all alike’ ” (1) both twins become curious observation of strangers with their different looks. Yasmin is gifted with a sort of beauty that Naaz can only dream of. Naaz is always slighted by Sophie, her English mother who takes pride in Yasmin’s beauty. These all are imprinted on little Naaz’s mind that made, her childhood dreadful and exclaimed whenever she recollects her childhood as: “I have often wondered who coined that idiotic phrase about childhood being the happiest time of one’s life” (72) Recalling childhood is not at all a happiest period of life for Naaz because it only gives pain humiliation and loneliness to

“How proud Sophie and father were. They forgot that, I too was there, sitting beside them, an invisible, forgotten child. I felt a spasm of jealousy so intense, it was almost physical. My heart thudded, my throat was dry and my hands and feet were wet with sweat. If I could have escaped—just turned and run out of hall I would have done so, but the doors were locked and there was nowhere to run.” (76) This shows how Naaz felt when she was ignored by her parents. “A happy childhood imprints itself on the rest of one’s life. Without this people do recover, but scars remain forever. According to Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), an Austrian neurologist, theories point out those adult problems can be traced to unresolved conflicts from certain phases of childhood and adolescence. Naaz’s problems of adult life are rooted in past, yet she is leading a secure and settled life she get frighten by the very idea of Yasmin’s visit. Many times she nostalgically recalls her past life where she was suffered depressed, exploited and jealous filled experiences of her