DHOWLI

Every member of a caste is required to marry within their own caste. Any violation of this results to excommunication from one's family and caste.

On becoming a widow...

• she is ostracized in the society
• she has a very low status in the Hindu system and is often blamed for her husband's death
• she is discouraged to remarry unless she belongs in a lower caste

"What does she think? An untouchable, Dusad girl can make a Brahman give her home and food?" (p. 186)

"The young Misra was so fair, his hair softly curled, and his face so lovely. Anyone could tell from his looks that he was of noble birth. And what was Dhowli? Only a Dusad girl, a widow, with a life of deprivation as far back as she could remember." (p.188)

"...she looked at her face in it. A widow was not supposed to see her face in the mirror any more...She saw that her face was beautiful, but a beautiful face was useless for a widow because she could never marry again." (p.189)

• It started when she took the risk with the Misra boy one early afternoon and this strange dream went on for two months. (p.192)

In Into the Woods, nature or the woods was a place where the characters took the risks as well which led to the different endings of the fairytales.

• Nature seemed to agree with Dhowli's misery and misfortune as illustrated on pp. 194 and 205.

Women and Nature

LOVE

In Anne McClintock's essay, the exploitation of women is compared to the exploitation of nature, and vice versa. This is further illustrated through men's exercise of power and authority over these two beings.

The act of falling in love of Dhowli with a Brahman can signify reconciliation of different castes and at the same time resistance to their tradition.

In Dhowli, men's exploitation of women occurred in the forest where women seemed to become weak and helpless to what men promise. The forest became the place of forest idylls like enchanted fairy stories and refuge of illicit lovers.

Nature and Women

The love that Dhowli and Misrilal had was like a whirlwind.

Nature has become Dhowli's refuge.

In the beginning, LOVE gave Dhowli faith and trust.

"I don't want to marry a girl of their choice. It's you I want, Dhowli," he told her in earnest.

"...She gave in." (p. 192)

• The forest kept Dhowli and her mother alive

"Betrayer? No. He left Tahad because his parents made him. They came down so hard on their dearly loved youngest boy; Hanuman Misra of Burudiha threatened them. He wouldn't have left Dhowli unless he was really scared, he who cried like a boy to Dhowli just talking about the possibility that he might be sent away." (p.188)

In the end,

LOVE betrayed Dhowli

"No! He knows very well what is expected of a Brahman's son in this situation. He knows what to do, but he's not doing it.

He's in love with me." (p.187)

• Dhowli became an outcaste in her village
• Misra boy is getting maried with another Brahman girl
• Misra boy's family starved Dhowli's family
• Dhowli's mother lost her job
• Dhowli became a prostitute, then she was separated from her son and mother

• The forest is her place of solitude and peace (pp. 190 & 191)

"Why did you destroy me like this?"

"I loved..."

"I spit on your love. If you had raped me, then I would have received a tenth of an acre as compensation. You are not a man. Your brother is..."

"What I've done I was forced to do. I did not do it of my own wish."

"So you follow others' wishes in marrying, in starting your shop, and you follow your own wish only when it comes to destroying the poor and the helpless. Do you know that because of you even my own peopel are now against me?" (p.199)

• The forest has protected her from social demands and obligations.

• And even the Misra boy has found solitude in the forest. (p.92)

In the end, nature has caused Dhowli's misery

In DHOWLI...

"But it's you I love. Don't you know what love is?"

"No, I don't. I know that there can be bastards between landlord and a Ganju or Dusad girl. That happens all the time. But not love." (p.190)

"Accoding to the village society, all the blame goes to Dhowli. But because of the love aspect of this case, she was now an outcaste to her own people, in her own community."

"Her crime, something nobody was prepared to forgive, was that she gave herself to him of her own accord, out of love." (p.193)

DHOWLI

by Mahasweta Devi

In DHOWLI...

Caste System

• Closed system of stratification
• Limits interaction and behavior with people from another social status
• Four hierarchical castes

Mahasweta Devi

1. Brahmans

2. Kshatriyas

3. Vaishyas

4. Shudras

Summary

Dhowli is a tragic love story between an untouchable widow Dusad girl and the son of a Brahman landlord. Their forbidden love bore a child that needed to be fed but which the Brahmans neglected. This has become Dhowli's weakness and strength as well to continue her life as a prostitute.