A Re-reading of Domestic Violence in “Home to Haven”

Abstract

Home is a multi-dimensional theoretical concept. It has contradictory meanings wherein it may be considered space, place, feelings, practices, and an active state of being in the world. Home is also a gendered space because it has different connotations for man and woman. For woman, it is not a fixed or a stable concept. Most women in India share one crucial displacement. After marriage—be this an arranged marriage or a love marriage—a woman has to leave her parental home and make a living in her marital home. However, some women become the victim of violence in their marital home which ultimately turns into a place of terror and restrictions rather than of repose and equality. A woman prefers to suffer within the walls of her marital home than getting out of a bad marriage. Champa Sharma’s short story “Home to Haven” brings forth the issue of domestic violence against women within the marital home. Through the character of Reshma, the protagonist, Champa Sharma highlights the predicament of women in the hands of an abusive husband and a son. The paper focuses on the traditional constraints imposed on women; the cycle of violence within abusive marital relationship; why women mostly remain in abusive relationships; and the impact of domestic violence on children.