The Criterion: An International Journal in English

Volume 17, Issue 5 · October 2026 · ISSN 0976-8165

Savitri’s Journey from Submissive Wife to a Feminist Mother: An Investigation of the Novel The Dark Room by R. K. Narayan

Mrs. Tahida Parveen

Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n5.20

The institutions of marriage and motherhood are at the heart of each patriarchal domesticity. These institutions, like marriage and motherhood, deny any individual identity to Indian women. Even after eighty years of independence, women can hardly claim that they belong only to themselves, and not to their father, husband, or son. This paper examines R.K. Narayan's novel The Dark Room to show how Savitri's individuality is undermined by her experiences of traditional Indian family life, marriage, and, most importantly, patriarchal norms of motherhood. The narrative terrain incorporates the theoretical ideas of “matricentric feminism” by Andrea O’Reilly to argue how Savitri is restricted in performing her mothering role freely within patriarchal domesticity, and how her maternal experience controls her emotions, behaviours, and decisions. Moreover, using Andrea O'Reilly's theoretical lens of “feminist mothering,” the article argues that Savitri is a feminist mother who resists patriarchy that limits her mothering capacity.

Parveen, Tahida. “Savitri’s Journey from Submissive Wife to a Feminist Mother: An Investigation of the Novel The Dark Room by R. K. Narayan.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 5, Oct. 2026, pp. 343-66, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n5.20.

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