Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s the Forest of Enchantments: A Chronicle of Commitment, Disloyalty, Probity and Glory

Abstract

Sita has been stereotyped as an idol lady and a silent victim in Indian mythology, yet she has never been recognised as a woman of unstoppable power.“Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Forest of Enchantments” tells the epic Ramayana through the eyes of Sita, one of Indian literature's most famous female characters. The poem emphasises on Sita's spiritual being as well as her identity as a woman through a plethora of references to her.Sita is not merely a character in the narrative; she is also a powerful concept of freedom and a lady who bestows the characteristic of courage. Sita explored the new existence of muliebrity by changing her ductile image into a symbol of emancipation as part of her self-discovery process. This work is also worth studying since it examines Sita's enormous courage and humanises her trip through the unknown and scary forest. The purpose of this research is to look into Sita's relationship with nature, as the forest is an important source of empowerment in this story.Sita finds courage in her exile in the wilderness and her terrible camaraderie.Sita challenges and criticises the black-and-white distinction between right and wrong, stating that perspective is a differentiator. The purpose of this paper is to look into “Sita's relationship with the environment in the same way that the cultural ecofeminist current that dominated at the time justified women's interest in environmental preservation or well-being in terms of their inherent caring or nurturing nature and their common subjugation to patriarchal systems justified women's interest in environmental preservation or well-being”.To battle patriarchal society, the author provides her with powerful weapons such as a "quill" and "questioning." She consistently challenged the norms and convictions of traditional society by destroying the image of a feeble mind and a docile lady.As a result, this is timely research because it tries to investigate Sita's agency throughout the story's various stages.As we all know, the literary scene in the twenty-first century is fuelled by experimentation with new and diverse genres including speculative or dystopian fiction, fan fiction, and revisiting mythologies through retellings of epics and fairy tales.