LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:6 June 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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A Study of Women Characters in Mahesh Dattani’s Plays

Dr. Ekta Sharma, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., UGC NET.

Abstract

The widely accepted view among the public is that man and woman fundamentally differ and that a distinct set of fixed traits characterized archetypal masculinity and femininity. This is a reflected in popular sayings such as ‘Just like a man!’ or ‘Just like a woman!’ and in the kinds of features found in popular magazines along the lines of ‘How manly is your man’, with a list of attributes to be rated or boxes to be ticked. Masculinity and femininity are often treated in the media as polar opposites, with men typically assumed to be rational, practical, and naturally aggressive and women, in contrast, are held to be expressive, nurturing and emotional1.

Mahesh Dattani’s plays offer an excellent study on dialectics of power in society. He has dramatized the whole gamut of relationships where the dynamics of power works. He penetratively, thought provokingly, and skillfully handles the intricacies and workings of human bonding where the patriarchal power desperately tries to dominate the people around. His range and understanding of this phenomenon of human life is so comprehensive that he seems to have left no aspect of this uncovered. In many of his plays he depicts so powerfully the position of the exploiter and the exploited that they tend to touch chords in every human heart and appeal to the audience as realistic and convincing. The roots of this feature of his art and mind can easily be traced in his plays.

Dattani throws light on the impairment of husband wife relations caused by the tendencies of the husbands to dominate wives and to deprive them from their rights. In a family structure, marriage binds man and woman as David Knox says, “Marriage is a social relationship in which two adults of the opposite sex make an emotional and legal commitment to live together.” 2 But the relationship acquires great complexity as the husband assumes patriarchal role and tries to dominate wife, depriving her all common rights and pushing her to under privileged and marginalized section. The woman characters try hard to discover their identity and reject what is patently unjust or unjustifiable, and in this way make a bid to liberate themselves from male oppression by questioning their authority and the result is failure of a relationship. In Bravely Fought the Queen, the playwright highlights the circumstances of women fighting bravely, till the end, against the odds that their husbands have piled against them. The play throws light on the impairment of husband-wife relationship within the family caused by lovelessness. A bleak situation is presented where wives are trapped in loveless marriages with insensitive and inconsiderate husbands, who are reluctant to change for the better. Incompatibility in marriage and violence against housewives has been highlighted in the play. How unhappy and abusive childhood affects social and sexual life of the individuals and leaves ugly scars on their psyche permanently have been clearly depicted. The play is also about play-acting and hypocrisy of modern woman who tries to hide her sorrows in vain and is left to survive in the confined spaces of domesticity.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Ekta Sharma, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., UGC NET.
Assistant Professor in English
Pt. N.R.S. Govt. College (Rohtak)
M.D. University, Rohtak
ekta.sharma26@gmail.com
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