Women and Their Behaviour in Anita Desai's Works

Desai's novels present an interesting panorama of human relationships. Most of her characters display neurotic quantities, the origin of which may be traced back to their early lives. Sometimes her characters seem to be aggressive, sometimes they show regressive behaviour, and still at other times they show displayed aggressiveness. Ultimately most of them develop neurotic qualities which prove unfortunate, even fatal, in some cases. The most important aspect of Desai's characterisation is the depiction of the gradual of their neurosis.It is interesting to see her characters talk in the third person narrative and to trace the graph of the slow psycho-physiological changes in their activities affecting their relationships with other human beings.

Anita Desai slots in, in her novels, themes like the agony of existence, the metaphysical void and the fears and trembling of her protagonists. The bond of human relationships goes on changing with changes in moods and circumstances. Each word and action of a person in love reveals the depth of the resounding vale of his heart strengthening, thereby the existing bond of relationship. The existence of unfavourable circumstances results into psychic imbalance and thus retardation; psychological crisis of some characters damage their powers of analysis and reasoning; therefore some characters have to struggle for wholeness and unification. Analysis of such characters will reveal their minds, the reasons of sensitivity, undesirable behaviour and the change in relationships.