Man-Woman Relationship in Poile Sengupta's Alipha: A Study

Abstract

Poile Sengupta's play Alipha offers a realistic picture of man-woman relationship in a traditional Indian society where women, in spite of all their efforts to acquire education and self-reliance, remain on the margin. They may be good teachers, but they are made to learn bitter lessons of life by the patriarchy that is still in no mood to accord them equal status. In spite of all the progress that our society has made, women are still subservient to men and their life is, by and large, governed by the male members of the family and society. Man-woman relationship is marked by inequality. It is premised on the binary of subject/object, superior/inferior and colonizer/colonized. Women, in the play, are objects of male pleasure and gaze. They exist for men. They have no rights and autonomy.  Their body is the battlefield where Male Ego violates Women's chastity and honour and, having lost them to men, they naturally become their trophy. Their relationship is like a game whose rules are framed to favour men. In the play, the Woman, her aunty and her disciple, Devi are all caught up in the web of patriarchy from which their coming out is impossible. The present study seeks to discuss Man-woman relationship in the play, Alipha, stressing the fact that as long as women are dependent on men, their misery will not be over. Their emancipation lies in their education and self-reliance. But it is a long battle which will require many sacrifices and if they are ready to make sacrifices, they will surely win it.