Ancient or modern, the society is always male oriented and views women as objects for pleasure. Even when the government advocates policies to protect women, their safety, integrity and honour are consistently being questioned and violated. The problem lies in the collective psyche of the society, which includes both men and women. The sensibility is fashioned according to the male norms and thus the females in our society either witness or participate in their own subjugation process. This article tries to analyse the questions of female subjugation in M.Sajida’s Matsyagandhi and Snehalatha Reddy’s Sita. It attempts a comparative critiquing of these plays to find how the myth of subjectivity is challenged and redefined by the playwrights.
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The celebration of womanhood by epitomising the mythical or legendary Indian women like Sati, Sita or Savitri is common in the society. Women are expected to be passive or submissive. If they have to show resilience it is supposed to be for a noble cause, of which the “nobility” is defined by the dominant patriarchal perspective.In mythology, Sita is seen as the ideal woman. There is a long tradition of the Indian girls being advised to be Sita or Savitri who were the examples of “pativrata”(the one who is devoted to her husband). Grandmothers were successfully accomplishing the task of inculcating the “woman like” qualities in the girl in their families through stories which celebrate the purity and chastity these mythical women embody. In the process of making a Sita, the society silently colonizes the woman’s mind and her body. The rules and regulations for her to think, to behave and to believe are defined and she unconsciously follows them. Today, the mainstream modern women reject the notion of being an embodiment of the so-called feminine virtues exemplified through the Sati, Savitri, Sita stories. However, the majority of Indians still resides on the traditional pattern of role definitions. This article tries to analyze two literary/ theatrical attempts to reconstruct the myths of passive women who were obedient to their
The celebration of womanhood by epitomising the mythical or legendary Indian women like Sati, Sita or Savitri is common in the society. Women are expected to be passive or submissive. If they have to show resilience it is supposed to be for a noble cause, of which the “nobility” is defined by the dominant patriarchal perspective.In mythology, Sita is seen as the ideal woman. There is a long tradition of the Indian girls being advised to be Sita or Savitri who were the examples of “pativrata”(the one who is devoted to her husband). Grandmothers were successfully accomplishing the task of inculcating the “woman like” qualities in the girl in their families through stories which celebrate the purity and chastity these mythical women embody. In the process of making a Sita, the society silently colonizes the woman’s mind and her body. The rules and regulations for her to think, to behave and to believe are defined and she unconsciously follows them. Today, the mainstream modern women reject the notion of being an embodiment of the so-called feminine virtues exemplified through the Sati, Savitri, Sita stories. However, the majority of Indians still resides on the traditional pattern of role definitions. This article tries to analyze two literary/ theatrical attempts to reconstruct the myths of passive women who were obedient to their