ETHICAL SUBJUGATION: A MALISON FOR MAYA IN 'SECOND THOUGHT' (Pages 01-07) by in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Since aeons ago, society has been taking the sapor of striking transmutation, affecting its complexion and ideas. Over the last four to five decagon, cardinal diversifications have been caught the drift in almost all walks of life, taxing the basic assumptions and viewpoint and fetching under pitiless scrutiny age-old faiths and theories. With the aim of moving forward, literature keeps parallel with the progress of a country, society and time as no literature can ever achieve the credential of prominence unless it reflects the real pictures of society. Retaining its own magnitude, each thread is blessed with a cardinal place in a creative work so with the different narrative techniques of literature. Literature, with thousands threads of different genres, fabricates the legitimate picture of life. In thick of these narrative techniques, realism, in literature, is an avenue that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity, and is an endeavor to delineate man and society as complete entities instead of presenting simply one or the other aspects. The contemporary socio-political situation, in every age, in every society, blossoms the buds of writing novels on communal and political issues which eventually become a hindmost apparatus of socio-political coup in the hands of cognizant readers who read and act according to the need of the hour. The contemporary novels of present era are no more culture – based only, but also cast a new picture of socio-political thought to the modern man. The realistic portrayal of life has been the primary concern in the writings of many socially dedicated writers like Manju Kapur, Shashi Despande, Shashi Tharoor, Amitav Ghosh, V.S. Naipaul, Shobha De, Arundhati Roy, Kamala Markandaya, Arvind Adiga, Chetan Bhagat,and many more. In Indian ethnicity, the marriage is put on a pedestal of the most sanctified institution. Though in present scenario, this institution is abutting of breaching down. The Fiction of Shobha De, the best seller novelist, let drops the devout and ethical collapse of nuptial relations and marriage institution. The present paper brings into line the rift of matrimony system, the psychic- cum-societal ramifications of man woman kinship leading to frustration, conflict and loneliness with special reference to her novel Second Thought. Keywords: Marriage, hollowness, subjugation, curse.