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PAPER ID:IJIM/V.II(IV)/249-252/37
AUTHOR: Dr. Seema Gupta
TITLE: THE LITERARY MARRIAGE: SITES OF TENSION AND TRANSFORMATION IN THE DARK ROOM BY R. K. NARAYAN
ABSTRACT: Marriage, as both a social institution and a personal relationship, has long occupied a central place in literature. It serves not only as a plot device but as a symbolic and thematic site where deeper cultural, emotional, and psychological conflicts are played out. The title “The Literary Marriage: Sites of Tension and Transformation” captures this dual function—highlighting how literary representations of marriage reveal the undercurrents of personal disillusionment, societal expectation, and evolving gender dynamics. This paper explores how marriage in literature is seldom static or idealized; rather, it is often marked by tension, negotiation, and change.
By focusing on moments of crisis, miscommunication, and transformation within marital relationships, this research paper examines how authors use marriage as a lens to critique social norms, question patriarchal structures, and explore emotional authenticity. Ultimately, “The Literary Marriage” is not just about unions, but about what those unions reveal—tension as a catalyst for transformation, and transformation as a path to deeper narrative meaning. The Dark Room is the only novel in the whole oeuvre of Narayan’s writings which deal exclusively with the problems of an Indian housewife who is financially dependent on her husband. In the novel Narayan has exhibited his understanding of the socio-economic dimension of marriage. The Dark Room is centered on Savitri’s revolt on this issue from the 1930s women’s movement. The present paper tries to explore how Narayan grounds his novel on the female politics of the time, which reveals the reality of women’s lives in the thirties.
KEYWORDS: Marriage, Tension, Transformation, Identity, liberty, Romanticism