Women of character in literature

Physical strength has been the criterion that determines the importance of the person in the mankind since the beginning. The power of the intellect was recognised after experiencing many unforeseen and traumatic mishaps and woman has been the worst casualty, because of her physical inequality with the man and the difficulties of humanising the pragmatic mankind, throughout.

The study of the role and importance of woman since the beginning is a complex discipline due to a number of paradoxes in practice and preaching. Sita of Ramayana, the first kavya of India, had to play the second fiddle to Rama; in spite of many re-readings of the same work in modern days including the recapitulation of the entire story from the viewpoint of Sita by KR Srinivasa Iyengar in ‘Sitayana’.

Draupadi of Mahabharatha has been looked at in myriad points of view ranging from a docile housewife to a Yajnaseni, one who was born in a Yajna to fulfill a divine task but she has been more acted on than acted. Vasanthasena in ‘Mrichakatika’ may be arguably the first woman with a strong backbone and her precarious condition of being a harlot that cornered her pitilessly and forced her to be a rebel reflects another vicious dimension of the patriarchy.

But there are some courageous women in the epics of the yore and the most striking among them is Savitri, who was chosen by Sri Aurobindo as a legend and symbol for his mystical epic. The worship of Shakti, the invincible feminine power from whom the entire creation originated has been one of the oldest traditions of India, but it is not powerful enough to provide a prestigious position to the women as patriarchy has been in vogue in every part of the world.

Helen, Cleopatra, Penelope and scores of such strong women of the western classics dominated their male counterparts but they simply exploited some weaknesses of the patriarchy though they could never break the shackles of the tradition. John Ruskin opines that Shakespeare has only heroines but no heroes, but it is true of only his comedies.

The heroines of his comedies, Portia, Viola, Olivia, and Rosalind are undoubtedly charming, however, vital and vibrant they may be when compared with the heroes of his tragedies like Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear they become less archetypal and individualistic.History of mankind consists of many strong women like Razia Sultana, Rudramadevi, Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher of the recent times proved that they were iron women. George Eliot and Virginia Woolf are more courageous than their women characters.

A writer who could create a woman like Mrs Dalloway, an animated mirror of the contemporary times who feels immensely happy when Septimus Warren Smith, a neurotic who can’t tolerate the hypocrisy of the people, commits suicide because he could do something, which she couldn’t do. George Eliot rebelled against the traditional and religious patriarchy and lived on her terms.

Many women characters of modern Telugu literature are conventional and stereotypes and only a few of them are distinguished because of their strong character. Madhuravani in ‘Kanyasulkam’ is a full blooded vital character and as the victim of the hypocritical patriarchy, a nautch girl, a kept woman, she handles all men, who come in contact with her efficiently and judiciously.

Many of the women of Chalam’s fiction are strong but they are all more like ideas or personified abstractions. Buchibabu created many memorable woman characters among whom Moona in ‘Arakuloyalo Koolina Shikharam’ exhibits extraordinary courage and it obviously reflects the prestige that the woman has in the tribal societies.

Vaddera Chandidas’ Githa Devi in ‘Hima jwala’ seems to have emulated the example set by George Eliot but she too becomes an idea, a symbol of the anarchic streak in the human being that craves to violate the laws of the society to fulfill his/her guanine. Moreover like Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina she too gets crushed under the burden of invincible forces.

Unlike Janaki in Ranganayakamma’s ‘Janakivimukthi’, who starts as a typical human being and gets transformed into an idea afterwards, Murali’s Mother in Muralivallamma emerges as a life-sized character as the story has the strength of verisimilitude. All the women characters of the stories of R Vasundharadevi are traditional but they progress and get matured by questing for a truth within the mould forced on them.

The mothers in RM Umamaheswara Rao’s stories ‘Biddalugala Thalli’ and ‘Norugalla Aadadi’ have to be ferocious to fight with monstrous forces of patriarchy but the success that Bangaramma in his other story ‘Ontepamanu’ reflects the pretentiousness of patriarchy.

An upper-middle-class woman in a story, Mukkupulla, (Madhuranthakam Narendra) could not wear a nose ring against the whimsical likening of her husband but her servant maid had a say over her nose ring as it was not merely an ornament but also wealth to her. The women of the lower strata comparatively enjoy equality with men as their importance is based on their physical strength.

The irony is that a “Mathamma” (The cruel system of getting the girl married to a god and then converting her into a harlot) enjoys comparatively more freedom than the housewives though at some phases. In her novel ‘Plans for Departure’, Nayantara Sahgal portrays a couple, who were both members of Parliament in London.

They belong to two political parties and they go to the Parliament in the same car, sit on the two sides of the house, vehemently argue with each other supporting their parties and criticising the other and come back to their home in the same car, live happily loving each other without any animosity. But the million dollar question is, whether it is possible in real life?

The women characters of Sarathchandra Chatterji’s fiction are undoubtedly more distinguished because of their strong character. But Kamala in ‘Shesha Prashna’ is more an idea whereas scores of others, Bharathi in ‘Bharathi’, Savithri in ‘Charithraheen’, Biraj in ‘Biraj Bahu’, etc, prove that they are stronger than their male counterparts.

The girl in his story ‘Brahmanapilla’, Sandhya, finally rejects the proposal of the young man whom she wanted to marry long back affirming that marriage is not the lonely goal of a woman and she would prefer managing her family and looking after her old parents. She is ahead of all modern feminists.