A Jest Of God Rachel Cameron Analysis

Rachel is thirty four years old unmarried woman. She is a teacher with lot of self-esteem. She is in desperate need of confidence which neither her education nor her profession have given her. Rachel is a muted being. Rachel Cameron is not simply just an individual literary character but Laurence have brought the psychological portrayal of women in Rachel’s time and inclination. The very first line of the novel tells us everything basic to Rachel’s mind, her temperament and her situation. “The wind blows low, the wind blows high

The snow comes falling from the sky

Rachel Cameron says she’ll die

For the want of the golden city

She is handsome, she is pretty

She is the queen of the golden city” (JOG 7)

Rachel’s gap between her dream self ‘The

Rachel Cameron and Mac Aindra are sisters. Rachel’s resolution of silence is a struggle to bring out her which is deafened by the society. Stacey on the other hand revolves between the present and the memory. Throughout A Jest of God, Rachel Cameron chastifies herself. When Rachel moves from the fantasy of masturbation to the action, she resists her desire and feels as though she needs to justify her need for pleasure and also for the escape. Rachel’s gap is much evident in the novel where she wants a different way to exist in the world. When the novel opens, she sees her deep potential to become a bordering figure.

“… Stupid thought. Morbid I mustn’t give houseroom in my skull to that sort of thing. It’s dangerous to let yourself. I know that…whenever I find myself thinking in a brooding way, I must simply turn it off and think of something else. God forbid I should turn into eccentric. This isn’t just imagination. I’ve seen it happen. Not only teachers, of course, and only woman who haven’t been married. Widows can become extremely odd as well, but at least they have the excuse of grief”. (JOG,

Rachel knocks in the roles of a teacher, daughter, hostess, sister, mother, virgin, lover, friend, fool and an unconventional. Rachel is not comfortable in any of these roles and lives in a constant conflict within her. This is the same conflict which Deshpande brought out through her protagonists in all of her novels.

Racheal is very fearful at the beginning of the novel. She says, “God forbid that I should turn into an eccentric” (JOG, 8) - becomes at the end of the novel, acceptance and anticipation. She further says “I may become, in time, slightly more eccentric all the time.. I will ask myself if I am going mad, but if I do, I won’t know it.” (JOG, 209) Rachel no longer fears to be an eccentric but looks forward to be a liberated being. Rachel questions the sound of her voice and the traces of her mother in her voice. She seeks to discover her father and erases all the traces of her mother in her identity. She says,

“Oh God. I don’t mean to be condescending. How can it happen, still, this echo of my mother’s voice? My navy wool dress is three years old and much longer than they’re being worn now. I haven’t had the energy to take up the hem. Now it seems like sack cloth, flapping around my knees. And the ashes, where are they? I dramatize myself. I always did. No one would ever know it from the outside, where I’m too quiet. (JOG