Representations of the Archetypal Indian Women in the Female Characters of K.S. Maniam’s “The Return”

Abstract

The existence of religion and its practices or beliefs do rely greatly on myths. This study attempts to analyse the subconscious of myth through the archetypal and mythical approach by studying the woman characters in the text “The Return” by K.S.Maniam. The women characters in the text represent the image of Hindu Goddesses such as Parvathi and Durga. For the purpose of this article, I have used mythical and archetypal approaches in classifying the characters. I have used Guerin’s (1999) classification of archetypal images of women such as the good mother, the terrible mother and the soul mate. This analysis reveals the representation of the mother as the good mother, the grandmother as the soulmate and the stepmother as the terrible mother. The mother and grandmother represent the image of Goddess Parvathi and the stepmother who is the terrible mother however does also carries the positive aspects of mother, therefore she represents both the Goddess Parvathi and Durga.