The process of self identification: a study of shashi deshpande’s the dark holds no terrors

The paper intends to explore the theme of self discovery and identity in Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terrors. For a woman, the need for self fulfillment, autonomy, self realization, independence and individual actualization are important and this quest triggered off by some crisis in their lives make them strive heroically to overcome their cultural conditioning and barriers created by society in matter of tradition and manners. The study also attempts an enquiry into the Indian womanhood that has got estranged from self and others due to reasons varying from personality traits to societal expectations and their changed consciousness as presented in The Dark Holds No Terrors.