Palace Of Illusions Analysis

Abstract

Mythologies can be used to look into reality in new contexts and give them new kinds of meanings. Indian epics like the Ramayna and the Mahabharata have influenced the Indian cultural tradition immensely. The stories of these epics revolve around the heroes and their acts of heroism. Myths have always been a source of collective male fantasy. The writers of these great epics have mythologized the women characters. But recently, many women writers have chosen to challenge the well-established myth structures. They have retold these stories from feminist perspective keeping women characters in the centre of the stories. The self-respect for a woman is important to be identified as an independent individual in the society.There is always a different side to the mythological stories, and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s noted novel The Palace of Illusions is the representation of Draupadi’s side of the story. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni who found the tale of Mahabharata an irresistible target of revision, wrote The Palace of Illusionfrom Draupadi’s point of view which raises very pertinent questions, especially about the patriarchal practices,

Divakaruni uses mythology to reciprocate the feminist desire and show their worth through Draupadi’s narration. Meenakshi Mukherjee in her essay “Myth as Technique” explains that there are two ways in which myth as technique has been used in fiction, one is “digressional technique” and other is using “structural parallels” (Mukherjee 1971: 136). Divakaruni, more or less, uses the technique of “structural parallel” where the plot of the novel, as a whole, runs parallel to the plot of the Mahabharata.For instance in the epic Mahabharata we come to know about Draupadi and story of her birth when Pandavas go for her Swayamvara in Panchhal, but in the novel,The Palace of Illusions,the story starts with the birth of Draupadi and progresses with events happening in her life along with the events which are part of the