the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

2.2.2.4. Ira retalns some of her mother's cherrshed rdeais
and relects others
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She emulates certaln ldeals of a
femlnrne mother rlght from her childhood, playlng the role
of a surrogate - mother to her younger brothers Rukmani's
motherly advice to Ira on the eve of her weddlng. "Thls
home, your brothers, are all you have known so far, but when
you have your own home and your own chlldren, you w ~ll not
m1ss these" (NS 361 remalns wrth her long after her
marriage, but when she 1s shunned by her husband, she 1s
forced to recurn to her parents' home
2.2.2.5. The trauma of an Illegltlmate mother In a
patriarchal society 1s also explored by Markandaya
Though
barren durlng her marital l~fe, ~ronrcally, Ira becomes the
mother of a child as a result of prostltutlng herself, the
~dentlty of whose father 1s unknown
The hope and
txpectatlon wlth whlch the birth of Rukmanl's chlldren was
awalted 1s now replaced by an unknown fear, the rlsk of
bearlng an ~liegrtimate chlld
reconcile herself to the fact
Rukmanl crles hard to
"perhaps her love for
chlldren swamped every other feellng She was meant to have
chlldren I had always known that
It was a cruel twlst of
Fate that gave them to her thls way" INS 1151 Although
the chrld 1s an alblno, Ira 1s overwhelmed at hls arrlval
At this, Nathan comments "She has lost her reason She
does not see her child as he IS, but as she would have hlm