Narratives of Female Agency in Amrita Pritam’s Dr. Dev

Abstract

This article examines the ways that Amrita Pritam’s novel Dr. Dev has redefined women’s lives in the middle-class patriarchal world, focusing on female desire, moral responsibility and emotional courage. Based on close literary criticism and feminist criticism, the essay propose that Pritam disrupts orthodox images of the “ideal woman,” who she’s been taught to select love over pregnancy and motherhood, Even if patriarchal institutions fail to confer formal freedom upon women. In the analysis, male characters — Dr. Dev in particular — act as vessels through which women communicate their agency, guilt and struggle. Ultimately, Dr. Dev represents a multifaceted critique of patriarchy, and its eventual conclusion is not just a undermining of gender roles, but rather an illumination of the price exacted from women’s and men’s domination and rebellion.