The Palace Of Illusion Analysis

1509 Words7 Pages

17/PELA/034 Self-assertion of Drupadi in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel The Palace of Illusions The famous work The Palace of Illusion is a revision, of the holy epic the Mahabharata which has always fascinated the people of our country as well as the universe. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni with her ingenuity and imagination has once again attempted to make her audience re-live in the era of the Mahabharata. Divakaruni through her story depicts the inner-mind of Panchali, born into a traditional society, intended to change the face of time and the whole era. She, in detail, explains the birth of Draupadi, who was born out of fire, accompanied by the heavenly spirits announcing how the child would change the course of history, and would both embrace and resist it. Divkaruni has shown profoundly how Drupadi is haunted by loneliness and unhappiness because she is less loved by her father, the king Dhupad. Drupadi was completely underestimated by her father who praises her brother Dhri -born first from the same fire that she was born out of- though she is the representative of strong-willingness and determination, and has no interest in spending her life living in the shadows of men. Panchali’s quest begins at a very young age, when she muses on her father’s palace: “Through the long lonely years of my childhood, when my father’s palace seemed to tighten its grip around me until I couldn’t breathe, I would go to my nurse and ask for a story” (The Palace of Illusions 1). The

Open Document