महादेवी वर्मा के रेखाचित्र में निम्नवर्गीय स्त्रियों की स्थिति (『स्मृति की रेखाएँ』के विशेष संदर्भ में)

Abstract

Mahadevi Verma made initial efforts to understand and explain the life of women in Indian contexts. She did not only recognize ‘The Second Sex’ by her sketches but also discussed the reasons of the ‘subjection of women’ in details. Basically female discourse is more about the ‘identifying crisis’ than the ‘crisis of identity’. Mahadevi Verma raised most of the questions on the female discourse and expressed her theoretical-ideological thought in her literature. The Lines of Memory is a creative culmination on the female question which is still relevant to Indian society. She has portrayed sadness, misery and oppression in the women's life through the sketches of words. These sketches are also related to Mahadevi's own life. Needless to say that female characters of The Lines of Memory represent the perspective of Mahadevi on women. Bhaktin, Bibiya and Gungiya are lower class female characters in The Lines of Memory who are victims of exploitation in this social system. Although these female characters are not so weak, but being a woman itself in this system is their biggest misfortune. By studying the condition of women through the lower class female characters of Mahadevi’s sketches in The Lines of Memory, this paper has made an attempt to examine some of the causes of her tragic life. There are many social, economic and cultural reasons for the creation of such situations in Mahadevi's sketches, especially of lower class women. It will not be unreasonable to project the lack of economic freedom, men-women relations: marriage and legalism and social prejudice in which the woman is guilty, as the main reason for women’s miserable condition in Indian society. For these main reasons, the lower class female characters of Mahadevi have been victims of physical and mental abuse in the society throughout their lives and their negative image of being a woman has always remained in their entire life. However, there is a limitation of these sketches that only the lower or lower middle-class women are depicted in them. Depictions of middle-class or upper-class women are rarely seen in her literary works.