International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9 October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848

Female Psyche and Empowerment o f Jane Austen and Lakshmi’s Select Novels Dr. V. Asokkumar, M.A., M.Phil, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, E.R.K.Arts & Science College, Erumaiyampatti – 636 905 Pappireddipatti (Tk), Dharmapuri (Dt) INDIA. Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT cultures. A nostalgic representative of the th This article aims at analyzing the classical 18 century, Jane Austen was occidental and oriental works of literary poised more in reason rather than art with special reference to the select emotion. Jane Austen wrote about what novels of Jane Austen and Lakshmi. she had experienced in her life. Hers is a Women novelists have a strong foundation world of the country middle class people. of social awareness and concentration on She deals with various aspects of love and family welfare. This article interprets Jane marriage and views them calmly and Austen’s three novels - Sense and dispassionately. She distrusts emotion and Sensibility Pride and Prejudice and describes it only by implication. Mansfield park and two of Lakshmi’s Lakshmi from Tamilnadu is a novels - Penn Manam and Oru Kaveriyai strong flavour of Tamil literature and Pola. This study except the first and the culture in her novels. She has a strong last are significantly titled implying the perception regarding the treatment of different strategies of female predicaments women in the Tamil society and is very amidst which Jane Austen and Lakshmi bold in portraying their emotions have set afloat their women characters kaleidoscopically. Irrespective of their there by justifying the dichotomy of the education, women don’t have equitable women psyche and empowerment of their rights on a par wit their male counterparts life. These two novelists have proved and in the society. The core theme of the novels predicted the female psyche to be of the of Lakshmi centers round the problems of same mould despite belonging to varied women and their rights in the society. Woman is the backbone of the family in

P a g e | 1276 International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9 October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 turn which is the quintets entail unit of the comparative study of the select novels of society. She intented to promote the role of Jane Austen and Lakshmi. These two women in the society. She tries to portray novelists portrait the female predicaments the feuds in the family and woman’s tender and their empowerment to prove to have a heartedness in the backdrop of Tamil universal appeal. tradition and Indian Culture. The empowering attitude of This review is based on the women of Jane Austen heroines Elizabeth hypothesis that the characters depicted by Bennett, Elinor Dashwood, Marianne, and Jane Austen and Lakshmi are always in fanny price. It makes a comparative the process of development. They undergo sociological study of these characters with the process of self-delusion, Lakshmi’s two novels and the disillusionment, reconciliation, awakening predominant female characters Chandra, and empowerment. This gradual process Ambujam, Hemalatha in Penmanam and of empowerment and female predicaments Kaveri in Oru Kaveriyai Pola. All the prove their obsession with the ‘is’ thinking women characters involved in the five process involving women with the novels and highlights their struggle for imperative that women should not resort to social status in terms of love and marriage. teleological thinking. It also elevates how women get transformed and activated by the display Introduction of their psyche. The women characters The world is in a state of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and flux, and the need for a unifying force is Prejudice, Marianne and Elinor in Sense gaining importance. Comparative literature and Sensibility, Fanny Price in Mansfield is one such force which goes beyond man- park and Chandra, in Lakshmi’s Pen made barriers. It establishes that human Manam and Kaveri in Oru Kaveriyai nature remains the same everywhere Pola have been compared, contrasted and comparative study of literatures across paralleled in order to derive at a cultures is only an extension and universalisation of the female psyche. intensification of healthy critical The social issues in the Occidental procedures adopted by sensitive readers of and Oriental world, interpreting their literature in all periods and cultures. It is variations in terms of Poverty, Love and on the basis of these concepts that the Marriage. All the heroines in all the five present attempt proposes to make a novels find themselves suffering under

P a g e | 1277 International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9 October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 overlapping disadvantages pertaining to women from emotional and social tangles. material, family, social and personal In Lakshmi’s novel’s, it is her women’s categories. In Sense and Sensibility the psychology that dispels the forces of the Id familial bonds are inadequate. In Pride and shows traces of the domination of the and Prejudice poverty is a future menace, Super Ego. However, in the evolution of and inevitability is again the cause. In her women, we notice that they are never Mansfield park , Fanny Price is a radically off balance. They prove themselves to be insecure and traumatized personality. In the embodiments of the reality principle in Lakshmi’s Penn Manam the blend of life to maintain balance and averting egoistic principles constitute their extremes, the sure signs of despair.

predicaments over which women have no A few heroines in fiction evoke our control. In Oru Kaviriyai Pola the interest and we feel much for them, love heroine is an embodiment of superego and them and transpose ourselves in their the social and familial milieu constitute the place. This happens in the case of Kaviri. determinants to her emancipation as a Wit, Womanliness, lovely grace, sprightly woman. The conflict between the superego frankness, delicate sense, swift and keen and the socio-familial milieu both in the intellect are the distinctive characteristics Oriental east and Occidental west have of the heroines of both Jane Austen and been examined vividly. Lakshmi. But these are not combinatorially present in them. They COMPARE AND CONTRAST IN stand dispersed and noticeable in them. JANE AUSTEN AND LAKSHMI Apart from these traits, there is one trait HEROINES which stands out very distinctively in the women of Lakshmi. That is unassailable One conspicuous feature in Jane firmness and determination. Chandra and Austen’s novels is that her heroines are Kaviri excel in these traits. surrounded by manifold characters whereas in Lakshmi’s novels, it is not so. Jane Austen’s characters come It is isolation because of ideals that makes with in a wide range Lakshmi’s characters Lakshmi’s women stand aloof. This tells fall with in a narrow range in semi-rural of the difference between English social locations. Lakshmi and Jane Austen draw life and that of India. Jane Austen through the characters from their personal the portrayal of social life untethers her experience. The middle class novel of the

P a g e | 1278 International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9 October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 eighteenth century in England trough out strictness and deceit of her younger sister- the middle class values and look, in-law, ideal affection of her elder sister- Lakshmi’s novels deal with the regional in-law and Damodaran. Fanny Price and middle class, especially women and their Anne Eliot and victions of men and dilemma particularly that which is fortune. So is Kaviri. The proposed generated due to the circumstantial marriage of Kaviri with one Mohan gets compulsion that makes them come into annulled owing to the letter’s fancy for contact with wealthy men deformed in marrying another women of large fortunes. character. Lakshmi like Jane Austen takes This is the starting point of her iron to deal with the manners of her times in resolve to stand against oddities in life. the Tamil middle class society dominated For the reason of suffering from men and by males. fortune, Fanny Price and Anne Eliot appeal more to our emotion than intellect. FEMALE PSYCHE AND But in the case of Kaviri, the appeal is EMPOWERMENT OF THE both to our emotion and intellect, the JANE AUSTEN AND LAKSHMI former because of her sufferings at home HEROINES and in India and the latter because she,

The heroine of Lakshmi’s Oru despite all trammels stands to self- Kaviriyai Pola bears a close resemble to overcome and transforms into a super Jane Austen’s fanny price in Mansfield woman. Park. Fanny price is meek and modest. Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Kaviri is modest and assertive. The Sensibility bears close resemblence to modesty of Fanny pervades throughout the chandra in Lakshmi’s Penn Manam. novel and pertains to Crawford. But in Both of them are obsessed with a moral Oru Kaviriya Pola, Kaviri’s modesty centre of feeling. What they want is pervades but it has its reach to her brother honour and life attached to that. But and sisters–in–law, her profession as a Elinor commits herself to emotional nurse and her male, much to her liking involvement which is absent in Chandra. Damodaran. Yet her emotion is not dilating because she

Just as Anne who improves upon controls her feelings for the sake of her the characters in Fanny Price, Kaviri mother and sisters and to situation turns improves is her personality because of the dramatic. But Chandra’s circumstances also are dramatic, for she is sought after by

P a g e | 1279 International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9 October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 a won for her beauty, intelligence, bearing combinatorially present in the prime and reservedness. At times Elinor dilates, protagonist of Penn Manam. This apart, but chandra stands stubborn, a quality that one finds that chandra is uneasily as a transforms itself to one of resolve to win, determiner. Elizabeth Bennet’s prejudice particularly after the marriage with against Darcy is present in chandra with Jaganathan for whom she has no liking. her detest for Jagannathan’s efforts to But her inherent obduracy fortifies her entangle her in the marital bond. However psychologically amidst the distance her in- Jane Austen with her inventive technique laws maintain at Jaganathan’s fraud. Her prolongs Elizabeth’s gradual intimacy with sense of belonging is thus awakened. Darcy. It undergoes various vicissiitudes Between Elinor and Chandra, we find the until the last when his pride and her sense of belonging which is familial. prejudice dilute and wane into nothing. Elinor’s sister Marianne’s happiness is on Comparatively, when we look at the par with Chandra’s friend Ambujam’s.The happenings in Penn Manam, we find that latter is one with a blank mind, believing Chandra’s pride and prejudice undergo the as good whichever appears good, in her process of reasoning and there stems self- case, her husband himself. After learning respect which dominates in Chandra’s of his affairs with a women before his undertaking to resuscitate her husband’s marriage with her, she is beset and it is lost reputation. She strives towards its chandra like Elinor who becomes her revival. In Pride and Prejudice, it is a mentor. This, despite Chandra’s journey towards casement whereas in predicament of bearing the slur of her Penn Manam, it is an exhibitionof self – husband. When challenge comes, chandra over coming from the abysmal depths of counters it with iron resolve. This is despondency of the protagonist. While is chandra’s empowerment. But Elinor’s Pride and Prejudice, the protagonist’s empowerment rests on her heart’s development is gradual, it is empowerment tranquility which corroborates with her of resolve in Penn Manam. acceptance of Edward. CONCLUSION

Considered as a whole, we find that Penn Manam of Lakshmi is Jane Austen’s women are slow in their another Pride and prejudice. Darcy’s development which is purely sociological. pride and Elizabeth Bennet’s prejudice are It is their id of the genuine kind that

P a g e | 1280 International Journal of Research (IJR) Vol-1, Issue-9 October 2014 ISSN 2348-6848 propels their motives, actions and female characters and have ultimately adjustments. They are not stubborn proved women to be in their home lands psychologically speaking contrastively inspite of the space being antagonistic and Lakshmi’s women are natured even at the their peace often seems to be ephemeral. outset and they proceed about in their Both the novelists have universalized the punsuits in a resolute way. But chandra female predicaments where the appears an exception. Even though she psychological views of the women lacks any ideal, it is her resolution and environment have simultaneously played a independence that makes her encounter predominant role in which they struggle life’s ironies with a will to surmount. The for empowerment and ultimately succeed. society is friendly to Jane Austen’s Works cited - Primary women. But this is quite opposite in sources Lakshmi. All women suffer of the ternary Jane Austen Novels : Sense and of the society. Hence her women are Sensibility, Pride and prejudice, and projected as embodiments of Mans field park Lakshmi Novels : psychological strength. Jane Austen’s Penmanam and Oru Kaveriyai Pola women dilate in situations whereas Secondary sources Lakshmi’s women do not. They provide [1] Gifford Henry – Comparative succuor to even to their friends. Ambujam Literature (London : Routleadge and Hemalatha in Penn Manam are and Kegan Paul, 1969 – P-2 examples. The subsidiary women [2] Introduction to the study of characters in Oru Kaviriyai Pola give Comparative Literature, Ed.by added inner courage to Kaviri when she is TEES publications, Madurai – stranded physically and bankrupt 1997 spiritually. Estimated comparatively, the [3] The Cambridge companion to Jane women of Jane Austen rare specimans of Austen : Ed:by Edward Copeland social realities. Whereas lakshmi’s women and Juliet mc master – Cambridge are incurnations of the will to will and university press – 1997 there by empower themselves to stand [4] Laseeles, May, Jane Austen and firm. Her Art, Clarendon Press, Oxford Jane Austen and Lakshmi though 1939 they belong to different sociological [5] Southam B.C Jane Austen, Sense landscape have vividly viewed their and Sensibility, Pride and

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prejudice, and Mansfield Park (case book serious) macmillan London 1976 [6] Wright, Andrew H, Jane Austen Novels : A study instructure pelican books, Harmonds worth, 1972 [7] M.Ramalingam – Literature in Novel – Tamil Book stall first Ed 1972 – Chennai (Tamil version) [8] K.Kailasapathy – Tamil Novels in Literature – Kumaran publishers, Chennai – 25, 1984 (Tamil version) [9] S.Lakshmi @ Tiripurusundari - Lakshmi’s Biography – Poongodi publishers – 1985 (Tamil Version) [10] S.Valavan : Women writers writings (Tamil version) [11] Internet Essays (Portal) : mhtml : File / E :\4546 mht

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