Symbolism in Dattani Bravely Fought the Queen
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Symbolism in Bravely Fought the Queen
Mahesh Dattani’s ‘Bravely Fought the Queen’
Mahesh Dattani is considered one of the best Indian playwrights His
plays deal with a wide range of themes and focus on subjects like gender
identity, gender discrimination, the plight of transgender and communal tensions.
His noted plays are ‘Dance Like a Man’, ‘Tara’, ‘Bravely Fought the Queen’ and 'Final Solutions’. The play Bravely Fought the Queen" also like Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar NamedDesire" and Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" explores
issues of gender and sexuality Like these plays, "Bravely Fought the
Queen" also deals with themes of
repression, desire, and societal expectations, and it uses a domestic setting
to explore these issues in a nuanced and complex way
Use of symbols in Mahesh Dattani’s plays
Mahesh Dattani frequently employs symbolism to convey deeper meanings in his plays. In "Tara," the character of Chandan is a symbol of societal expectations and conformity. In "Final Solutions," the character of Jumman is a symbol of communal tensions and violence. In "Dance Like a Man," the dance form of Bharatanatyam is a symbol of tradition and cultural identity. In "Thirty Days in September," the character of Mala is a symbol of trauma and healing.
The present play is ‘Bravely Fought the Queen’
is a thought–provoking domestic tragedy.
‘The play Bravely Fought the Queen’ like ‘Tara’
deals with gender discrimination and exploitation of women. The playwright has
used several symbols throughout the play.
Symbol of mud mask in ‘Bravely Fought the Queen’
we find the reference to the mud mask used by
Dolly on her face, sitting on a sofa and filing her nails abstractedly. This is
nothing, but, concealment of her real identity, in order to clean it up,
which can be effective to increase her beauty. But, because apparently, it seems
that she is applying the mud-mask on her face actually, it symbolizes the
concealment of her tremendous loneliness and deprivation in her personal life,
by engaging herself in the task of beautification. Whereas, Lalitha also uses
the mud mask, which equally symbolizes that she too tries to reconcile with the
boredom of her monotonous life.
Re-Va-Tee as a symbol in Bravely Fought the Queen’
There is another reference to a symbol and that is the masked ball arranged by the men to launch a new product of women's night wears and underwear, known as the Re-Va-Tee. For the publicity of this brand-new, fancy', 'color-coordinated' and at the same time passion-provoking product, dance performers will use masks to conceal their real appearance. Obviously, the product is symbolically suggested to unleash the sexual passion to be excited by the women among the men. About Re-Va-Tee, Sridhar describes, "You've got the model lying invitingly on a bed and the signature is 'Light his fire with Re-Va-Tee'. In the storyline is the video commercial, you have the model looking out of the window and she sees that her husband or her lover has come home. She quickly rushes, opens a box removes the new Ra-Va-Tee bra, panties, and nightie. cut her dress in them. She lets her hair loose, pirouettes, and lies down on the bed, just just as the door opens. Freeze. Signature 'Light his fire with Re-Va-Tee.’
This Re Va Tee at the same time symbolizes how the sophisticated class of people do not just bother about spending a handsome amount of money on such dress materials. It also indicates the masculine notion of decorating their wives with these passion-provoking materials, as Jiten rightly points out "Men would want their women dressed up like that. And they have buying power.” Which actually points out the perverted taste of rich people.
'Thumri' of Naina Devi is the symbol
Again the 'Thumri' of Naina Devi is
the symbol of disdained sexual pleasure by Dolly coming in contact with the
substitute young cook Kanhaiya secretly. This holy song of the Thumri is used
by Dolly to serve the purpose of satisfying her oppressed sexual desire with
Kanhaiya. The Thumri again signifies the combating attitude of Naina Devi,
protesting against the dogmatic and orthodox culture of Indian society which is
full of social hypocrisies, such as, here from time immemorial we are used to
worshiping the 'Devis' or the Goddesses like- 'Durga', 'Kali', 'Laxmi', 'Saraswati'
and praise the intellect of the women like Apala, Lopamudra, Maitrayee, and
Aditi, but, at that time we use to criticize those women, who used to sing and
dance to earn their livelihood as the 'Tawaifs' or the prostitutes.
The Dancing in the Rain by Alka
getting intoxicated is also a kind of mask. It is the spontaneous overflow of
her aggression because of the continuous suppression of her sexual desire and
her protestation against a homosexual husband. And it made this conservative
upper-middle-class housewife addicted to alcohol and she dances like a man
woman excitedly in the rain in order to satisfy her lust.
symbol Bonsai Tree
The bonsai is also a recurring symbol in the play. A bonsai is a
tree kept very small by growing it in a little pot and trimming it in a special
way. In this play, it is a symbol of restricted or stunted growth. The dwarfed
tree serves as the central symbol in the play representing the cruel minimization
of a free spirit, the marginalized status of women in the Indian society, and
their abject subjugation by the patriarchal world. The bonsai is the artificial
product of human will. It is a deformed plant, reflective of the acute dearth
of their independent identities. All the women except Lalitha are equated with
the bonsai. Like the branches of the bonsai, the wings of women are clipped.
The bonsai, with the advance of time, does not grow large in shape. In other
words, their freedom is restricted and they have fallen victims to patriarchal
grooming.
Lalitha points out that the bonsai has
been habituated to its changed ethos and accepts it. Likewise, the women in the
Trivedi family have become reduced to clinging creatures devoid of love, fulfillment
and will of their own. The women are pathetically and socially conditioned by
the male members. Like the bonsai, the female members have been "resigned
to their new shape". They are subject to the torture inflicted upon them by
the men folk just like the bonsai which is constantly clipped. Like the bonsai,
the women are mentally undergrown and underdeveloped. The development of their
independent identities is hindered.
Just as the bonsai is fed meagerly,
the women have to live a miserable life. There is another bonsai seen on
Sridhar's desk in the office, which is described as odd and grotesque which
underscores its unnaturalness. This unnaturalness pinpoints the unnatural
behaviour of Jiten and Nitin. Nitin is a homosexual while Jiten indulges in
debauchery. The women in our society have to accept the diminutive roles as
fixed by the patriarchal society. When Lalitha suggests that Dolly should wear
the costume of a queen at the masked ball, Dolly prefers to play the role of a
tawaif whose sole aim in life is to please men. Like the bonsai, Dolly lives a
life of rigorous restrictions. She is represented as the stereotypical Indian
woman and may be termed the bonsai version of womanhood acquiescing in her
subaltern status. The women in the play are chained by unfavourable
circumstances into which they have been thrust. Unfavourable circumstances pose
stumbling blocks to the complete realization of their inherent abilities or
potentialities. The bonsai highlights the claustrophobic female world and the
exploitation of the women by the men. The potentialities cannot bloom just like
the bonsai.
In the play, the women have to live a
confined domestic life within the four walls of the house. They are devoid of
love and fulfillment of their emotional needs. The bonsai is made an attractive
and expensive object and is taken much care of. Alka, Lalitha and Dolly
resemble the bonsais. Unlike the bonsai, their nurturing needs are not taken
care of. But like the bonsai, the women too reflect on the beauty and class
quotient of their respective husbands. Women are under the domination of a limited patriarchal space. They are stunted in their growth just like the
bonsais. The trimming of the shoots of the bonsai has laid bare the torture
inflicted upon the women by their husbands and hence is suggestive of their
mental and physical sufferings. Again, the shape and look of a bonsai is
artificial but not natural. In this sense, the bonsai is suggestive of the
hypocritical nature of men and the bondage of women in the hands of men.
The title of ‘Bravely Fought the Queen' is also a symbol
The title of ‘Bravely Fought the Queen
‘is also pretty much significant, because it distinctly suggests that a woman
who ought to be the chief female character of the play, fights against the
domination of the dogmatic patriarchal society and the domination done upon her
by her tyrannical husband and a bed-ridden mother-in-law, though Dattani has
portrayed the candidly the sufferings of the three women of the Trivedi family,
i.e., Baa, Dolly, and Alka, at the hands of their adulterous and unfaithful
husbands. In spite of that, though Baa and Alka protest against the torture
done upon them by their husbands,, it is Dolly who fights bravely and
tremendously against all those persecutions done by Jiten and Baa at the end of
the final Act of the play. Here, she tears off the mask of conventional
morality of Jiten in front of everyone by saying- "And you hit me Jitu!
Jitu, you beat me up! I was carrying Daksha and you beat me up." Thus she
drives Jiten, the aggressive oaf to feel guilty of his misdeeds, which is
comparable to the extreme bravery shown by the Queen of Jhansi, Rani LaxmiBai, who had fought the battle of Sepoy Mutiny in the year 1857 against the
British East
Some other symbols in 'Bravely Fought the Queen'
There are other significant symbols
that are skilfully woven into the fabric of the play-the non-existent
Kanhaiya, the beggar-woman, Baa's
wheelchair, Baa's bell, the spastic child Daksha, Baa's room, the bar, the twin
houses and the masked ball. Baa's room symbolizes Baa's psychological hold on
her sons, Jiten and Nitin, and their wives. With the device of light and
darkness in Baa's room, Baa's warped personality and her role in the present
problems of the family are revealed. Her room also signifies the
she-patriarchy'. At the instigation of Baa, Jiten tortured his own wife. The
interpolated story of the non-existent Kanhaiya, the replacement cook,
constitutes the focal point of the play. It serves as a potent symbol that
reveals frustration, hollowness and trauma in the women of the Trivedi family.
Kanhaiya is a mere figment of Dolly's imagination. Dolly's unhappy conjugal
life, and her loveless life devoid of enjoyment and fulfillment are shown through
the symbol of Kanhaiya. Being trapped in a social matrix that hardly provides
Dolly with any relief, her yearning for emancipation is revealed through the
symbol. Dolly defined her sexuality through a fantasy with the non-existent
cook who satisfies her emotional and physical needs.
Baa's wheelchair, never used in the
course of the play, is symptomatic of Baa's own paralytic condition and
dependence and also of the paralytic mental condition and bondage of her
daughter-in-law. The bar in the house is symbolic of modern sophistication.
But to have a bar dominate the living room is suggestive of a lack of taste and the presence of alcoholism and debauchery. The murder of the harmless old beggar
suggests the cruelty of the rich and the acute lack of conscience and the
powerlessness of the poor before the power of the powerful. The old
beggar-woman here also symbolizes all-pervasive hunger and underlines
helplessness. The twin houses far away from the city are symbolic of the
isolation and seclusion of Dolly and Alka.
Baa's bell is symbolic of her
domination and the circumscribed life of Baa's daughters-in-law. Daksha, the
spastic child, is symbolic of the ruthless torture on the women by their husbands
even in rich families in India.
Finally, we can say that the symbols
are used to give the readers and the audiences a panoramic picture of
anything in a compact manner. If the images give a brief and accurate picture
of anything, then the symbols provide the underlying thoughts and feelings
behind the thing symbolized.
Thus, Mahesh Dattani's use of the symbols in
his play ‘Bravely Fought The Queen is apt and suggestive, because they are all
very provocative to think about the social problems that gradually developed in post-colonial India.
Title of Mahesh Dattani Bravely Fought the Queen
