Tragedies of Women Characters Anita Desai’s, Fire on the Mountain, is a tragic novel which mainly deals with being lonely and isolated away from the busy world. It shows the sufferings of people in silence and isolation. This essay will discuss the tragedy of the three women in Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain. The essay will unfold in three parts. The first part will discuss Nanda Kaul’s, second part will discuss Ila Das’s and the third part will discuss Raka’s tragedies in this novel. In Anita Desai’s, Fire on the Mountain, Nanda Kaul is an old woman. She is a widow of an ex Vice Chancellor of Punjab University and plays a wife’s role dutifully. The reality is revealed in the novel later on when the readers learn the relationship of her husband to another woman, Miss David. This shows how a woman is oppressed by husband and also by another woman. Nanda Kaul carried on with her duties although she did not get warmth and understanding. She was obliged to her husband and her children. Nanda Kaul was not loved by her husband as a wife. Her husband treated her as an object who efficiently managed the running of his household. Nanda Kaul led her life as her husband wanted her to live in sense of duty. Her life was full of …show more content…
Nanda Kaul suffers at the hands of her husband, his extra marital relationship and her children who were all alien to her nature. Raka suffers at the hands of her parents’ brutal behavior and loveless childhood experiences with her parents. The duo did not accept seclusion by choice but were forced to because of the ill treatment or negligence of the family members. Ila Das suffers to the relationship of humankind and feminity. She lost her job and was raped and murdered because she was successful to stop a child marriage. All the three female characters have faced tragedies in their lives by people around