Representation Of Women In Short Story Analysis

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This article explores representation of women in short stories written by women writers from the state of Karnataka, India. The seven different stories selected for analysis are – (1) The Two Paintings (2) Mother, (3) Second Marriage, (4) Roowariya Lakshmi, (5) Dog’s Tail, (6) The Third Eye, and (7) The One Who Left Forever. Each of these stories represents women who play different roles that were archetypal of the social milieu of the times. The authors were preoccupied with women’s suffering, status, sexuality, obligations, the psychological experiences when women fall in love outside of their marriages, and emancipation from societal and familial constraints. Keywords: Women’s suffering, obligations, sexuality, love, constraints Introduction…show more content…
The stories were originally written in Kannada and then translated to English by Lakshmi and T.V. Subramanyam. The women in these stories play different roles such as housewives with modern ideas, an old fashioned ideology of staying home to serve her husband, an artist’s wife, a young woman married to an elderly man who is twice her age, a mother who has to decided between tradition and her attachment to her son, a woman who experiences attraction outside marriage, and a woman’s dilemma to marry a man older because he is wealthy. Women Writers The following section is a brief description of the women writers from the state of Karnataka. Vani Vani was born in 1912 in Srirangapatna near Mysore. Her novels including Shubhamangala, Eradu Kanasu, and Hosa Belaku were made into movies. Her short stories, Chinnada Panjara, Mane Magalu, etc.She received the Karnataka Sahitya Award in 1962 and the coveted Sahitya Academy Award in 1972. H.V. Savitramma H.V.Savithramma was born in Bengaluru in 1913. Her short collections include Nirashsrithe, Marumaduve, Sarida Beralu, etc. She has received the Indo-Soviet award and has translated Rabindranath Tagore’s Naukhaghata and Gora. H.V.S has also received the prestigious Karnataka Sahitya Academy…show more content…
Vani’s depiction of Seethamma’s plight evokes pity in the readers. A young girl, merely 16 years old is widowed with a child to raise him on her own. The suicide motif that would have been a plausible solution does not work in Vani’s character because Seethamma is left with a child that depended on her, “Had she no attachment for the child, she would probably have chosen to end her life, jumping into the village pond or a well” (p. 26). This story revolves around Seethamma’s preoccupation with her son’s well being and later the disappointments that came with a mismatch between the mother-in-law and the new daughter-in-law. Seethamma grew up in a village with minimum things; whereas, the daughter-in-law came from an affluent family. Seethamma’s decision to leave her son at a crucial moment is atypical in Indian

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