The Honored Heroine In 'The Thousand Faces Of Night'

Insulted, Amba goes back to Bhishma and pleads with him to marry her only to be snubbed by him. She takes offence and with the burning desire of taking revenge on Bhishma, she goes to the forest to perform penance. Lord Siva pleased with her penance touched her garland and promised her that whoever wore it and fought Bhishma in the battle would be able to kill him. Amba then searches for a king who would wear it but finds none. Dejected, she throws the garland over a pillar in the court of Drupada, goes to the forest and burns herself. But the hatred still lived on and she was reborn as Shikhandi to Drupada. When the Kurukshetra war broke out he strode confidentially forward along the war-field to taste a long awaited victory born of penance.

All the stories and lessons have one moral for Devi and that is how to be a good woman. The Thousand Faces of Night is the story of the emotional alienation of the tormented heroine. Dan, her boyfriend in America, her husband Mahesh and her extra marital affair with Gopal, all men in her life prove to be a failure and cannot fulfill her emotional needs. Hariharan does not raise her voice against the male dominated society. Devi, despite her best education and westernized thinking, is still in confusion and is unable to comprehend her predicament. She cannot adjust herself either to her husband or to her family affairs. Woman is socialized to please and to court male sanction as her highest ambition. The secret fear of rejection and mania for security is enough to prevent her from acting on her own. Devi finally learns about her cravings, her desires, her urges and pursuits-both hidden as well as revealed. To be really a revolutionary, one must step out of the pattern of society. She accepted the fact that a strong, dominant desire never brings peace but builds an imprisoning wall around itself. She spends some time in conflict and alienation like a prisoner within the walls of her own mind, and she decides to go back to her mother with whom she can live a better life. Finally, her happy and cheerful journey from Bangalore to Madras and her confident steps towards her mother indicate her new positive

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