Between Prescription and Resistance: Women's Agency Negotiations in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Palace of Illusions

Abstract

Background: In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions, the epic story of Mahabharata is told from Draupadi’s perspective through first-person narration, which enables one to hear what the women think about, aspire for, and deal with.

Objectives: This study aims to examine the presentation of gender conventions that have been prescribed for women and to investigate how Draupadi negotiates her agency within such prescriptions. Her limitations of agency will be explored instead of thinking of women’s empowerment as absolute.

Methods: Selected textual passages will be qualitatively analyzed. Thematic framework of education, femininity, marriage, voice, law, politics, and agency limitations will be adopted. Feminist analysis of the novel by recent scholars will be taken into account.

Results: From the above analysis, it is evident that the agency of Draupadi comes about due to the reasons of questioning, learning, discussion, strategy, legal knowledge, political activity, and creation of spaces for other women. However, her choices still remain bound by family dominance, gender norms, marriage, patriarchal laws, and dynasty. Hence, in essence, the agency of Draupadi is one of negotiation and subordination than empowerment.

Conclusion: In this novel, agency of women has been shown as a struggle and action against something that is out of their control. Draupadi is not completely powerless and free woman. Her story shows us that there could be a mixture of struggle and compromise, dependence and frustration, and concession and loss.

Novelty: From a general assertion regarding Draupadi being a strong and empowered woman or a feminist, the present analysis focuses on how does she act in what ways her agency fails during different phases of her life.