7. Dr. Prabhavathi Y

Abstract 07: Dr. Prabhavathi Y.

The Woman’s Voice: Dissent or Acquiescence?  Quest for Love, Freedom and Harmony as Depicted in Tagore’s Chitra and Volga’s Swecha

The paper explores the woman’s quest for love, freedom and harmony through Rabindranath Tagore’s one act play Chitra and a Telugu novel, Swecha, written by Volga (pen name of Popuri Lalitha Kumari). The focus is on the constant struggle of the woman to find a point of convergence between tradition and modernity even as she tries to assert herself as an individual who thinks independently and does not limit herself to the role of a daughter/sister/wife/mother.

Tagore’s lyrical play written in early 20^th century (1914) is seen as an unobtrusive assault on established social norms inimical to the progress of women. Volga’s novel written in late 20^th century (1987) kicked up a huge controversy by challenging the establishment through a bold portrayal of women who are not simplistic but complex, with many layers to their personalities. These two works are juxtaposed to bring out the fact that love is not just an emotion but a strong motivating force that shapes a woman’s life. In both the works the protagonist’s love is not for the person that the man represents, but for the affirmation of her own self as one equal to his in all respects; it is her search for love that goes beyond the physical and emotional bonds of need/gratitude and enters a higher plane.

The strong and unorthodox characters of Chitra, Uma and Aruna show the woman’s ability to endure. The woman neither submits nor transforms herself; she stands erect; she bends but does not break as she transcends her limitations and ultimately discovers her true potential and asserts herself as an intelligent and courageous person. The paper focuses on how these two works depict the falsifications that a woman is forced to succumb to, as well as the social conditioning that circumscribes her existence while she endeavors to cross the limits set by patriarchy.

The paper expresses the belief that the woman’s voice is neither of dissent nor of acquiescence; rather it expresses her innate desire to protect and preserve her Self. The woman’s voice reflects her deep urge to strike a note of harmony in the cacophony of strife, conflict, deprivation and disillusionment. The woman’s quest for freedom can be aptly summed up in Tagore’s words: “True modernism is freedom of mind, not slavery of taste. It is independence of thought and action…”