The God of small things as faminist novel :
The God of Small Things portrays the truthful picture of the plight of Indian women, their great suffering, cares and anxieties, their humble submission, persecution and undeserved humiliation in male dominating society. It shows the women’s marathon struggle for seeking the sense of ‘identity’ in a totally averse and envious society. The social structure of an average Indian woman is full of ups and downs, ifs and buts. It can be very clearly seen in some of the women characters like Ammu, Mammachi, Baby kochamma, Rahel and Margaret Kochamma.
Baby Kochamma :
Baby kochamma is the daughter of Reverend E. John Ipe, who is the priest of the Mar Thomas Church. He had seven children but only two of them survived. Baby is one of those survivors, and other is her brother, Benan John Ipe. Her real name is Navomy Ipe but everybody called her baby. She fell in love with a handsome, young Irish monk, Father Mulligan when she was eighteen. The young girl and the intrepid Jesuit both were quacking with unchristian passion. She entered a convent in Madras after becoming a Roman Catholic with special dispensation from the Vatican.
Moreover,She hoped that it would provide her opportunities to be with Father Mulligan. The love affair did not materialize. She was sent abroad for studies and two years later she returned with a diploma in ornamental gardening. She does not however forget Father Mulligan. She takes care of her body and makes a fresh entry in her dairy everyday: ‘I love you I love you’. Moreover she tries to remain in contact with him who too stays in touch with her. He had begun studying Hindu scriptures to denounce them intelligently but the study eventually leads him to a change of faith. He becomes the Vaishnavas and joins an Ashram North of Rishikesh. He writes to her every Diwali and sends greeting card every New Year. Baby preserves those things.
Father Mulligan dies, the death of her beloved does not turn her to a widow like living. Instead she becomes more concentrated about make up takes much interest in lotteries and enjoys watching color TV and she totally discarded gardening. And now she behaves like a teenager at the age of eighty three. After fifty years she abandoned the gardening and fell in love with dish-antennae.
She is snobbish in all sense and pretended that she had great knowledge of literary sense. She strongly believed in theory that a divorced daughter had no position anywhere at all. A divorced daughter from a love marriage was outrageous. A divorced daughter from
an inter community marriage love marriage was simply unbearable to her. That’s why she never tolerated the presence of Ammu and twins in her house.
Baby takes drastic steps of conversion in order to meet man of her choices dislikes Ammu for similar reasons. She allows her brother to have illegal relationship with unfamiliar women but frowns upon Ammu for thwarting the ethical boundaries of the family. This shows Roy does not present her female characters as ideal ones. She is neither exploited by the man nor devasted by the customs in the society.
Mammachi :
Mammachi is the wife of Pappachi, an entomologist. She has been a silent sufferer from the beginning of her marriage life. Though she is not frustrated in love like Baby but she is an unhappy character. She is like a doll in the hands of Pappachi. Her husband has a very poor opinion about her. In the beginning Roy presents a pathetic picture of Mammachi’s life. Roy observes
“Mammachi was almost blind and wore dark glasses when she went out of the house. Her tears tickled down from behind them, trembled down from behind them and tremble along her jaw like raindrops on the edge of a roof”(p:5)
The frustrated and unsatisfied marriage life of Mammachi shows reader a different tale of woe. Her husband is seventeen years older than her. He is a respectable man in society and a notable entomologist. He is a very jealous husband. Mammachi takes lesson in violin when her teacher praises her he becomes sad and abruptly discontinues her lessons. Every night he beats Mammachi with a brass flower vase. One day Pappachi bet Mammachi with brass vase, Chacko had come to Ayemenem for summer vacation and he saw Pappachi beating Mammachi and he strode Pappachi to room and twisted his hand back. This episode created hatred in mind of Pappachi and he never touched or sought any help from Mammachi.
Mammachi showed indifferent attitude towards Margaret kochamma. She shows female jealousy for woman whom her son had loved and married. She never met Margaret but looked down upon her. She was unkind towards the workers of the factory paradise pickles and preservers. But she was meek with Chacko. She had a separate entrance built for Chacko’s room, so that the object of his ‘need’ would not have to go traipsing through the house. Mammachi is not crafty as baby kochamma but her mind is hardly less pervert than that of baby kochamma. She subscribes to the logic and ethics of the male chauvinism in Toto. Her conservative turns her inhuman, nasty and brutish.
Margaret Garner :
Margaret is a minor but remarkable character. She is the wife of Chacko and mother of Sophie Mol. Like the other “Mombattis” of the book she also suffers and loses her dreams in male dominated society. After the marriage with Chacko her life becomes more frightful and more insecure than before. She has to undergo unbearable grief and sorrow. A chain of misfortunes make her life sad and gloom.
Margaret was working as a waitress in a café in London when she first met Chacko. Like Ammu, she left the house of her parents ‘for no greater reason than a youthful assertion of independence’ (p: 240). She had an ardent desire to be good and gentle lady with enough money. So she had to face with the real world. One day when Chacko came to café, she all of a sudden drew towards him like how Ammu drew towards Baba. Margaret and Chacko had an affair and they both married without their family consent. But this untraditional rebellious marriage as a bad luck did not prosper in a fruitful way. To crowd the effect, Margaret’s parents refused to see her. Her father disliked Indians as he thought Indians as sly, dishonest people.
He could not believe that his daughter marrying such a man. Moreover Margaret was also fed up with the living of Chacko and she divorced Chacko and married Joe. Though Margaret is a tragic character partly tortured by the powerful character but mostly devasted and harassed by her own fickle mind and incapable conduct.
Ammu :
Ammu is the central character of the novel. Her tragic story, right from the beginning to the end arouses our sense of pity and catharsis. Her tragic tale begins in her childhood. As a little girl Ammu had to endure some unbearable nightmarish experiences. She and her mother Mammachi suffered from the cruelty of her father. Pappachi used to beat Ammu and her mother Mammachi with a brass vase. Ammu was deprived of higher education because according to Pappachi college education is not useful for a girl. This shows the truthful portrayal of the women of the society who find nothing but the step motherly treatment in the male dominated- society. In an atmosphere entirely different she has to feel like captive in a Big Ayemenem house. She has to help her mother in house works and wait for marriage proposals. She has become the victim of frustration due to sudden disruption of education. She wants to fly freely in the sky.
To seek escape from she goes to Calcutta to spend summer with a distant aunt and ends marrying a Bengali Hindu there. She marries him as she does not want to go to Ayemenem. Ammu shows her strength of mind not only in marrying the man of her choice but also in divorcing him when the choice proves eventually wrong. Her husband whom she loved was alcoholic and even made her to smoke. As he neglects his duty, he is threatened with dismissal by his manager, Mr.Hollick and acquiesces in to his proposal to go away for a while and send his wife to his bungalow to be ‘looked after’. Her husband put his proposal before his wife. This extreme humiliation created a sense of great hatred in the heart of Ammu. In a scuffle, she hit her husband with a heavy book and left the place with the twins- Estha and Rahel. She goes to Ayemenem and tells her father the story of the reason for her divorce but her father does not believe her. Her parents were indifferent to her and her children. She was step motherly treated in her own house. She imagined her twins “ like a pair of bewildered frogs engrossed in each other’s company lolloping arm in arm down a high way full of hurtling traffic”(p:43)
Ammu challenges the androcentric notion of the society which avoids the surname after divorce. Estha and Rahel has no surname because Ammu is considering reverting to her maiden name, though she feels that choosing between her husband’s name and her father’s name does not “give a woman much of a choice”. Law does not give a daughter any claim to property. Though Ammu does as much work as Chacko, the latter feels free to declare the factory as his own.
As a mother, Ammu loves her children. She is concerned about their innocence which makes them willingly to love people who do not love them. She not only wants to impart them bookish knowledge but also cares to teach them correct manners too. The rebel in Ammu does not permit her to remain contented with motherhood and divorcee hood. So she proceeds to reclaim her body. The other factor which stir her is the dream of the one armed man, suggests her that it is no use seeking perfection in life, the small and powerless peoples like her can satisfy themselves with the little time provides them. The preferential treatment shown towards Chacko’s ex-wife and their daughter is openly displayed in front of all and sundry, throwing Ammu and her twins in complete isolation. This is too severe a blow for Ammu to bear. The arrival of Margaret kochamma proves Ammu’s sexual desires.
The real tragedy in life of Ammu starts when she comes in contact with Velutha, a Parayan. Ammu loves Velutha from childhood not for his exceptional talents but for his fiery spirit of protest. Velutha’s return after many years makes her take a fatal decision to “love by night the man her children loved by day” (p: 77). The secret love goes for thirteen days until it is reported to Mammachi by Velutha’s father and compounded by the accidental death of Sophie Mol. When the relationship was revealed she was tricked into her bedroom and locked. Velutha is implicated in false cases of attempted rape. Kidnapping of children and murder of Sophie Mol. After Sophie’s funeral Ammu goes to police station to set the case right. After four days of the funeral, Chacko assumes the role of a defender of morality and asks Ammu to pack up and leave. The punishment is unjust as it ruins three lives for the supposed offence of one.
Ammu is separated from her children as Estha is returned to her father and Rahel alone was permitted to live in Ayemenem but Ammu is not allowed to visit her frequently. Desperately wanting to have a good job that enables her to bring her children with her she tries a number of job and dies alone in the Bharat lodge in Aleppy where she has gone for a job interview. After her death the church refused to bury her on several counts. So Chacko hired a van to transport the body to the electric crematorium.
Ammu is such a tragic character that even het last rite is not done properly with traditional rituals. Ammu, the tragic character tortured and abused by police, family and politics. It is not only the men folk alone responsible for her tragic plight but mostly the women characters like Mammachi and baby kochamma who may be called the real culprit to engender sufferings in Ammu’s life.
Rahel:
Ammu’s daughter Rahel too deserves our attention. The story deals with her life only to the age of thirty-one and most of the stories belong to her childhood. She was deserted by father, separated from mother, neglected by her maternal uncle, grandmother and grand aunt. The neglect has accidentally resulted in a “release of the spirit”. She has grown independent, daring and capable of thinking initiative.
After finishing schooling, she gets herself admitted into a college of Architecture in Delhi. The decision is taken not out of interest in Architecture but because she wanted to stay away from Ayemenem where she is unwanted. During her stay at the school of Architecture she meets Larry McCaslin in Delhi and marries him. The decision of marriage was hers, it is not taken under ideal conditions because she knew that there is no one to arrange marriage and pay dowry for her. Her marriage was also like that of her mother and uncle is outside her community. Larry is an American research scholar. Larry is not a male chauvinistic but the marriage proves prosaic. He values her but fails to understand her.
Rahel refuses to continue her relationship with him. To her marriage is not a yoke so she breaks it soon. She does not feel shame or moral weakness for the divorce. The divorce does not leave her depressed she works as a waitress in an Indian restaurant in New York. And then she serves as a night clerk in bullet—proof cabin at a gas station outside Washington.
Rahel has a great sense of responsibility for her brother Estha, who is the part of her own self to her. As soon as she received letter from Baby Kochamma that Estha has returned, she leaves her job and goes to ayemenem. Unlike her divorce mother she has no burden of children with her. But she has to look after her brother, Estha whom traumatic experiences of life have turned speechless. She because of mental and psychological tortures, has become an abnormal character; that even creates a breach in her merry and jocund marriage life; that makes her a rebel student during her school days; that makes her so mad that in a fit of sexual passion, she even goes to the extent of making an illicit or incestuous relation with her own brother Estha.
Sophie Mol :
sophie mol is a pivotal character in the novel. sophie’s character comes through the way in which particularly estha and rahel perceive her. she is the half-english, half-indian daughter of chacko and margaret kochamma. the twins does not particularly like her because she makes them feel inferior. other members of the family, particularly baby kochamma, constantly compare them to sophie in ways that makes her seem better. rahel and estha dislike her based on the preconceptions about her rather than really she is. sophie actually wants to be friend with twins, and that she’s the one who feels left out. she tries to win them over the best way she knows. she gathers up presents and gives them. she also tries to win the heart of the twins like insulting chacko and baby kochamma. she also begs to tag along with them when they decide to run away. this decision proves to be a fatal for her. she at the immature age of nine, dies by drowning in river. at the end we see a very human, sensitive and fundamentally lonely little girl in sophie mol.
Roy’s The God of Small Things is feminine creation of unique nature. The novel clearly shows the untold miseries and the undeserved sufferings of women who have to bear the brunt of male domination silently and meekly. She transcends the ordinary concept of feminism. The novel examines the feminist jealousy between the woman and woman, the plight of woman in male dominated framework. Roy shows how a woman in patriarchal set up yearns for pleasure and happiness and a life far from the shackles and constraints. She is like a free bird that wants to fly freely in the open skies. But all of a sudden, her wings are cut down by the callous society and thus she is pulled down to this earth where she has to ‘grovel in the lowly dust.’
Nagmandala as faminist play :
Girish Karnad in this play portrays the
character of a married woman, Rani from an unconventional point of view to demonstrate that the society is terribly puritanical, patriarchal and prejudicial to women. Rani represents the common submissive Indian rural girl who becomes the victim of the unfair social order through the institution of Marriage. Her parents decide her marriage without even asking for her choice thinking that she is incapable of taking her own decision. She is asked to marry a person named Appanna, literally means ‘any man’. So it is a not just the story of Rani and Appanna
but that of any man and woman united in a wed-lock. Marriage is the age-old institution that has always been unfair to women.
Women are exploited physically, mentally,emotionally, socially and intellectually. Her father thinks Appanna a suitable groom for Rani from the perspective of economical criteria. He was rich and wealthy. Therefore
her father thinks him suitable for Rani.
Ironically, Appana is adulterous and not at all suitable for a simple girl like Rani. Rani mirrors the image of a common woman who comes to her husband’s house with sweet dreams and desires of happy domestic life. But she has to face another side of reality. Besides Rani, Appanna has a mistress whom he visits every night and comes to Rani only
at noon. His treatment with Rani is
monstrous and animalistic. He keeps her
locked up inside the house so that she cannot express her grievance to anyone. Her sexual desires are neglected. She is frequently beaten. Her emotions are crushed mercilessly. And socially, she is not allowed to communicate with anyone outside the house.
Rani’s dreams and desires are shattered. She turns voiceless and choice less.
She does not find emotional, social or sexual satisfaction from the institution of marriage. Appanna’s inhuman treatment is witnessed on the first day of their marriage when instead of being with Rani, Appanna goes to meet his mistress and locks Rani up in the house.Rani is always locked by Appana in the house. This lock and key is the symbolical representation of the patriarchal cage man has prepared for
women.Rani has to stay alone for the whole day and night. She feels scared being alone in the house obsessed by the feelings of fear and insecurity. When she is unable to fulfill her sexual,emotional, social and psychological desires,she suppresses her desires. In the midst of all the tyrannies and the sense of uncertainty, Kurudava, a blind and aged woman, seems to be her ray of hope.
Blind Kurudava feels Rani’s superb beauty with her fingers and exclaims, “Ayyo! How beautiful you are. Ears like hibiscus. Skin like young mango leaves. Lips like rolls of silk. How can.that Appanna gallivant around leaving such
loveliness wasting away at home.”She gives Rani a magical root, a remedy to win back her husband from the clutches of his mistress. She asks Rani to make it into paste and add into a curry. She advises Rani to feed it to her husband and watch the result.
This process is supposed to make Appanna fall in love with Rani and he won’t go to his mistress. But when Rani adds the paste, the curry turns into red –blood red. Out of fear, Rani pours the blood-red curry in the ant-hill where the cobra lives. Affected by the magic of the root mixed in curry, Naga falls in love
with Rani. Naga visits her every night
assuming the form of Appana. He praises her long hair and talks a lot about her parents, besides listening to her attentively.
Naga gradually breaks her frigidity and hesitancy, and dispels feelings of fear and insecurity with the help of “honeyed words” (25). Rani also falls in love with Naga in the guise of Appanna. However, Rani fails to comprehend how the
brutal husband who comes to her only
midday for lunch has been transformed into a sensuous lover at night. Cobra visits her every night and makes love with her in the guise of Appanna. She finds a lot of difference between two visitors--mid-day Appanna and night Appanna. She gets confused as the
Appanna (Naga) at night is caring, loving and sensual where as Appanna at midday is as usual cruel and harsh. The Naga, who visits to her during nights, disguised as Appanna, is the sexual self of Appanna.
The woman in her might have experienced the diversity between the love of Naga and dominence of Appanna. But nobody allows her to question –Naga because of his profound love for her and Appanna for hi egocentric, male chauvinistic governance. Rani speaks at one point:
"Yes, I shall. Don’t ask questions. Do as I
tell you. Don’t ask questions. Do as I tell
you. No, I won’t ask questions. I shall do
what you tell me. Scowls in the day.
Embraces at night. The face in the
morning unrelated to the touch at night.
But day or night, one motto does not
change: Don’t ask questions. Do as I tell
you." (32)
Rani, thinking that she has not committed any crime, swears to him
about her innocence, “I swear to you I
haven't done anything wrong” (33) But Appanna reports the matter to the village elders who pass orders that she must undergo chastity test either by putting red hot iron on her palm or putting hands into the hole of cobra. This incident reminds the fire test Sita had to undergo to prove her chastity in the Ramayana. It is ironical to see that she has to undergo the chastity test to
prove her purity whereas nobody expects any such chastity test from Appanna who has a mistress outside. Naga tells her to take Cobra trial and speak truth and nothing else. Rani accepts the cobra trial and puts
her hands into the ant-hill, takes out cobra and vows, “Since coming to this village. Cobra, and I have held my husband hand instead of biting her, makes an umbrella with his hood over her head and moves over her shoulder to make a garland. The irony of Rani's successful cobra ordeal ridicules the She is designated as the incarnation of goddess and her husband Appanna accepts her and the child in her womb.
She is proclaimed to be a goddess.
classic Hindu mythic chastity test. She is designated as the incarnation of goddess and her husband Appanna accepts her and the child in her womb. Appanna seeks her pardon and lives happily with her and says: “Forgive me. I am sinner. I was blind…” Rani gets everything she wished for, a devoted husband and a
happy life. She even got a permanent servant to draw water for her house. Appanna’s keep was present at trial. When she witnessed. Rani’s grandeur, she felt embarrassed of her immoral life and volunteered to do menial work in Rani’s house. Rani gives birth to a baby boy in due course of time. Rani gets a
stable and happy life ever with her husband,son and servant.
Rani suffers from the hands of both the
society and her husband. Her husband
tortures her and villagers insist her to take either the snake-ordeal or the fire-ordeal. She doesn’t get happiness and dignity from anyone in the society. Even her parents got her married to a monstrous man without asking for her wish. Ironically she gets love and dignity from a reptile in the form of man
(Naga) who helps her to get the status of
goddess. This is how Karnad has reflected the fact that humankind has failed to elevate their own race. As a mother, Rani is seen, in the last part to the story, to be in authority of the family, with some weight and decision making power. Rani now turns to be an active member of the family who confidently performs her role and asserts her
thoughts in decision making. In the alternate end to the play, Naga, who finds Rani merrily sleeping in the arms of her husband, strangles himself in her hair. It is here that one of the following lames demands a happier ending.
Work cited :
1. K.Sheebha. Feminism in Arundhati Roy's The God of small things. Research Article. 2017.
2. A feminism study of Girish Karnad's Nagamandala. IJAR.
