Page 226 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature

Notes negotiate her space in society. Appanna poses her as an adulterous woman whereas he himself
has an illicit relationship with a concubine. He and his hypocritical society questions Rani's chastity
and side-steps the validity of Appanna's principles. This is just a miniscule cross-section of the
patriarchal society that we live in. In Indian myth, a miracle has been mandatory to establish the
purity of a woman, while a man's mere word is taken for the truth; whether it be Sita, Shakuntala
or Rani in this instance.
The author also remarks of the identity of tales in general, about their reality of being and their
continuance only on being passed on. The objectivity leads us to perceive the story as a concept
with its own existence and identity; and to emphasize its individuality it is personified in the form
of a woman. V. Rangan says "A story is born and grows; it has life. Each story has an independent
existence, and a distinctive character. All story tellers are ancient mariners cursed of keep the
story alive." The Story seems to echo that in order to live, a story has to be "told" and "re-told" i.e.
the story has no role without the listener or perceiver. And one cannot help thinking whether the
author is stressing the reader's role in constructing meaning or phenomenology. The reader-
response theory questions the endurance of the author's viewpoint that has no existence without
the reader's perception. Being "told" and "re-told" is nothing but "interpretation" and "re-
interpretation". Therefore, any literary piece is only an object without the reader breathing meaning
into it. So for the story to survive, it must be ultimately "passed on". The backdrop of the flames
emphasizes the idea of 'passing on'.
Otherwise, the flames in the story were attributed with 'not having' the qualities of 'passing on'.
However, this is what they were precisely doing at the outset. Therefore, 'passing on' has wider
ramifications here, than merely physically transmitting.
Again the playwright is a man, and the story is personified as a woman. So does Man create
Woman? However the playwright echoes that the story has an autonomous existence and lives by
virtue of interpretation and re-interpretation. Likewise, a woman has her own existence and lives
by virtue of meaningful procreation. Thus, the gist of the framework of the story runs parallel to
the theme of the main story. As Rani's role gets inverted at the end of the story and Appanna turns
into a mere "instrument to prove her divinity"; likewise roles get reversed as the playwright (a
man who tells stories) "listens" to the Story (a woman).
Appanna as a Split Personality
The playwright gets to the heart of the matter when he asserts at the outset that "The idol is broken
so that the presiding deity of the temple cannot be identified". Appanna is the king of his castle,
a supreme egoist. He is the prototype of Indian masculinity that asserts itself by arresting the
spouse's selfhood within the four walls of the house. Appanna literally cages his wife in his
dwelling as she is subject to unmerited abuses and thwarted intentions. Naga or snake with all its
phallic connotations, typifies the sexual side of Appanna. It is other side of Appanna which he
himself cannot bring to accept for this would require the relegation of his ego, his perspective of
masculinity.
Submitting to his sexual impulses, for him, is being submissive to his wife. Therefore, though
these two aspects are completely disjoint, they are two sides of the same coin .Heads and tails;
heads-the ego and tails -the snake following its instincts. That Naga is Appanna is indubitable
from the very outset, the beginning of Naga's entrance.
Naga: You didn't. I am saying. Did it hurt…the beating this morning.
Naga: Locked up in the house all day. You must be missing your parents.
How does Naga revisit these facts? This offers ample proof that Naga is none other than Appanna,
as Rani cannot and has no scope for communication with outsiders. Naga is Appanna minus his
inhibitions. At night, he stoops to the limit of coaxing Rani for his own instinctual needs.
Coaxing truly: Now smile. Just a bit look, I'll send you to them only if you smile now.

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