PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF WOMEN IN ANITA DESAI’S NOVELS 'CRY, THE PEACOCK' AND 'FASTING, FEASTING' (Pages 260-266) by Mrs. M.K. Subashini in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

Anita Desai is one of the most powerful and distinguished Indian English novelists. She has an extraordinary sharpness and penetration of vision. Her writings have drawn world-wide critical attention. Anita Desai has added a new dimension to the Indian English fiction: the exploration of human psyche. She is endowed with searching psychological insight and often peeps into the inner recesses of the psyche, rather than merely presenting the outer spectacle of the world; the creative field of imagination is her unfailing reserve.Cry, the Peacock, Anita Desai's first novel, has been described as a trendsetter in the field of psychoanalytical realism. It explores the inner world of the main protagonist, Maya demonstrates her fear, insecurity and strange behavior. Through her, she depicts a world of alienation, loneliness and suffering. Maya is described as a hysterical character whose impending tragedy is suggestively foreshadowed, time and again. The character in ‘Fasting Feasting’ Uma, hapless, sympathetic lass born to the victim of her own destiny. The character was carefully handled by the author to show the strange unlucky woman whose value is not recognized by the people in the society. The traces of life, her patches of her incidents are unnoticed even during her life time. The author has made the readers peep into the inner thoughts of Uma. Her agony, pain is revealed indirectly by the author. This paper is an effort to portray the psyche of a woman on the verge of insanity and the factors responsible for that. Key Word: Dimension, Recesses, Trendsetter, Explores, Alienation, Foreshadowed, Insanity.