EDUCATION VERSUS MARRIAGE: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN MANJU KAPOOR’S DIFFICULT DAUGHTERS

Abstract

Manju Kapoor is the most outstanding and eminent woman feminist novelist of the present day in India. She wanted women to be modernized through education so as to play main role in the transmission of those values and ethics in the public domain. In her novels she expresses overtly the gender bigotry which is still customary in the field of education. Women are still barred from achieving higher education, while education was reserved for men. Women were denied to own property, to study, or to participate in public life. The present paper studies the significance of education in women’s life. Education is a means of women empowerment as it equips them to respond to challenges and face obstacles which they confront in their life, it is the key to understand the difference between right and wrong, standing up against tyranny and gender discrimination. In Difficult Daughters, Virmati, with the help of education fights against the patriarchal society that incarcerates women in the four walls. Manju Kapoor strongly believes that education is a weapon to fight against social crimes and evils against women. To maintain their individuality and dignity education plays a pivotal role in the life of women.