Her short story collection titled It Was the Nightingale and Other Stories was published in 1986 and the cover story of that collection was It Was the Nightingale. Her short stories deal with the problems of women in the society. The primary focus of her works is the world of women, and the struggle of women in the context of modern Indian society. The novels of Shashi Deshpande depict the woman’s search for self, a vivid picture of the female psyche, and the place of females in society. She puts forth the problems which a woman faces in day-to-day life.
Characters of It Was the Nightingale:
Jayu is the main character of the story. She is a young married housewife living with her husband. While her in-laws and her husband expect her to become a mother, Jayu avoids becoming a mother because she is ambitious and wishes to explore ways to improve the family’s financial situation. She decides to work in any one of the foreign countries to get a high salary. For that, she has to leave her family in India. Jayu’s husband is a traditional calm guy who is not violent and doesn’t impose his will over Jayu. Jayu loves her husband but her will and ambition to attain better financial status is stronger than her husband’s. While Jayu expects assistance and support from her husband in her decision to leave the family for the job for two years, her husband doesn’t support her emotionally and calls her stubborn and obstinate. Jayu’s mother-in-law is a traditional woman who spent her life taking care of her husband and son. Jayu’s mother too is a traditional woman who sacrificed her ambitions just to take care of her family and kids. Jayu is tom between her ambition and love for her husband. She sacrifices her conjugal bliss to preserve her identity.
Summary of It Was the Nightingale:
The story highlights the dilemma of working women in the middle class of India. Jayu, the protagonist of the story, is confined to the household work. Presently she has to accomplish the economic problem faced by her family and this crisis cannot be taken over by one person’s income. She acclimatizes to give big hands to eradicate this problem. Hence, she decides to work in any one of the foreign countries to get a high salary. For that, she leaves her family in India. In order to indulge her identity in her family, she has to acquire a job with a decent salary. She feels that securing a job is a way of gaining respect from others too. However, it is very difficult to carry out both the responsibilities at home and at the job, especially for mothers of young children.
Jayu is an educated working woman. She decides to search for a job but finds it difficult to get any job with a good enough salary for which she may give away her comforts as a housewife. Then she gets an opportunity to go abroad and get skilled training for two years that will allow her to secure a nice high salary paying job in India. Jayu is in two minds. While she is expected to be with her husband and be a mother, she wishes to have a better financial status.
She discusses with her husband who doesn’t support her openly but does not oppose her too. He leaves the decision to herself. She thinks about her mother. Her mother was a scapegoat. She hid all her desires for the ingratitude family and vehemently felt for the loss of her identity. Her life was dilapidated for her family and finally outraged for not having an ambition in her life. By now, Jayu frankly expresses her disgust to pursue her mother’s life. She feels that her stay with her husband is a pleasure to her and that she should sacrifice in order to attain a better future.
Her husband suggests that if she decides to go, he will call his mother, or Jayu’s mother-in-law to live with him during those two years. While Jayu loves her husband and enjoys living with him, she doesn’t share those warm feelings with her in-laws. As she hears that her mother-in-law is about to arrive, she decides that she is going abroad for her career for two years. She has to get a bigger salary for her family on her return.
Her husband argues that they should think of developing a family but she shows such a revolt against her husband, “Now the child will have to wait. We will not let it born yet.” She has to fight against her family members to bring out her identity. The next day, Jayu goes to the firm for an interview and to offer her application for going abroad. She feels guilty of her decision and she sees her husband waiting for her arrival. When she reaches her home, her husband has prepared food for both which they eat together and go to bed. The whole night they keep on talking about practical deals, business matters, and different things. Jayu loves her husband very much. She is unwilling to leave her husband. Her love for her husband makes her feel that he should not have accepted her request to work in a foreign country.
Her husband sorrowfully hurries her to prepare for her journey. She hesitates to separate her husband and reluctantly reaches the airport along with her husband. She immediately requests her husband to forgive her leaving her husband alone in India. Her husband returns to their home alone. During the flight, she remembers how she neglected to meet her relatives (Sumi, Jayu’s sister) who came to send her off. She rather chose to have her privacy with her husband to fight and discuss before her departure. She will have with her all the memories from the house. Even she carries bundles of guilt and walks towards the life of a professional woman.
During those two years, she really struggles hard to put away her longing and even puts off her pregnancy for the sake of working in a sector to earn more money. She thinks that her life will be pleasant after returning to her husband after two years. Consequently, she cannot share her experience with her husband during those two years. This becomes a barrier between the couple. She is exhausted by the office work and returning home late, as usual, due to her bundle of work. Uncompromisingly, she struggles with her inner desires and regains her stamina. By this, she cannot sleep. She feels guilty of her decision and she sees her husband waiting for her arrival.
Jayu alleviates to be independent and to contribute to the family expenses. By earning, she almost enriches her family with the needed repository. Ultimately, she surrenders her marital happiness for the sake of preserving her identity. She bestows her energy on the family by indulging them in the unruffled life. But she has failed to receive love and care from her husband and is also betrayed. She repeatedly and happily imagines that her husband affectionately calls her Jayu. She might be struck by this unforgettable incident. On sticking with the prestigious career, she leaves her husband and relatives in India. She assumes that her husband does not encourage her constant decisions. She also feels that he is not a perfect match for her, and she puts it in her own words that he is “understanding but not caring”
The adamant and determined attitude of Jayu has formed a gap between herself and her husband without having quarrels among them. It remains an unbreakable wall and smashes the marriage. She will be away for two years and she will have to live alone but with those experiences. She inquires in pain to have aspersion from society, “Can we stand two years of separateness?”
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
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