Influence Of Rhetorical Communication In Naayantra Sahgal's

INFLUENCE OF SPOUSAL COMMUNICATION ON MARITAL STABILITY IN NAYANTARA SAHGAL’S MAJOR NOVELS

Sahgal has shown her male characters mostly a narrow-minded, ruthless, careless husband’s who make their sensitive wives experience acute sense of loneliness, emptiness and boredom in life. However, exceptionally though, her male characters equally suffer in a wrong marriage, due to isolation or lack of communication. They may not undergo the same kind of agony because man is not dependent in the same way as his wife is on him, but a wrong marriage gives him a lot of torture too. A similar discord can be seen in the married life of Usman and Nadira in A SITUATION IN NEW DELHI (1977). Usman, a vice-chancellor, is over-burdened with the troubles of

Marriage for man means getting all comforts at every level while for woman it means a life a total dedicated service to a master. Ram Swarup inflicts great emotional violence on both the women he marries. He sees every relationship in life in terms of his own advantage and gratification. Despite his two marriages, he is infatuated with Marcella, and falls deeply in love with her. There is no communication between Ram and Rose for four months but to her it seems she has been suffering for years: “Her anguish and rage, fought for an outlet and gathered like a gale inside her without a word said”. Earlier Mona was suffering because of Ram’s love for Rose and now Rose also suffers in the same manner. But like Mona, Rose is equally helpless to do anything and “in the utter stillness the thin sobbing sound of pure grief no one was meant to hear, froze Mona’s tears in Rose’s eyes”. Both of them are wronged by a man for whom age is no barrier for love-affairs. Life for both the women means insecurity and agony, while for Ram it is a profitable arrangement on all the fronts. Zafar, a friend of Ram, remarks, “you have the path to heaven all paved for you with a cocktail party upstairs and a prayer meeting downstairs.” Ram enjoys life fully with both the wives, with Mona looking after the household affairs and the child, and Rose providing

The Rani of Vijaygarh is a class apart. She breaks all boundaries and makes her own rules. She belongs to an age when women were expected to stay behind veil. She remains completely detached and isolated in her family mansion. She meets and faces a very subtle and inhuman form of exploitation. Exhibiting exemplary strength of character the woman behind the veil breaks all ties with her husband, when he marries for the third time. She, like other female protagonists, is expected to conform to the ideals of subdued womanhood but her life lacks continuity and warmth. She feels isolated within her skin. She is a woman, who is living in 1920-30s, is uneducated, rather illiterate, has an apathetic husband, has nothing to look forward to, and yet she dares to shun her husband from her life, when she discovers the man has no respect for her