Patriarchal Oppression in Shashi Deshpande’s Roots and Shadows

Sakshi Pandey; Soni Tripathi

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i03.80569

Patriarchal Oppression in Shashi Deshpande’s Roots and Shadows

Author(s)	Ms. Sakshi Pandey, Dr. Soni Tripathi
Country	India
Abstract	This paper examines how patriarchal oppression is shown in Shashi Deshpande’s first novel, Roots and Shadows (1983). The central argument is that the novel constructs patriarchy not as overt physical violence but as a self-replicating ideological system sustained through three interlocking mechanisms: enforced silence, the co-optation of women as its own enforcers, and the institution of marriage as a vehicle for transmitting patriarchal ideology from one generation to another. Through close reading of Indu’s return to her ancestral joint family home in Hubli following the death of her aunt Akka, the paper demonstrates how domestic ritual, gendered language, emotional labour, and the architecture of the home, works together to produce female subjectivity as relational rather than autonomous. Based on the Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, Simone de Beauvoir’s framework of women as the “Other,” and Betty Friedan’s critique of domesticity, the paper argues that Deshpande's most original contribution is her argument that education, employment, and personal freedom do not completely free women from the patriarchal values they have learned since childhood. Although many critics have discussed patriarchy and identity in Deshpande’s work, the role of silence has not got much importance. In particular, silence has rarely been examined as both an important theme and a literary device in Roots and Shadows. This paper seeks to fill that gap by exploring how silence contributes to the portrayal of patriarchal oppression and the process of self-discovery in the novel.
Keywords	Feminist Literary Criticism, Patriarchal Oppression, Indian Feminism, Gendered Subjectivity, Domestic Patriarchy, Identity Formation, Silence, Shashi Deshpande, Gender Performativity
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 3, May-June 2026
Published On	2026-06-04
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i03.80569

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Patriarchal Oppression in Shashi Deshpande’s Roots and Shadows

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