Portraits of Motherhood: Strength, Trust, Loyalty, Guidance and Multitasking in Divakaruni's Narratives

  • Unique Paper ID: 190771
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 8
  • PageNo: 5085-5099
  • Abstract:
  • This study analyses the personation of motherhood in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novels— The Forest of Enchantments, The Palace of Illusions, and The Last Queen—through the thematic lens of strength, trust, multitasking, guidance, and loyalty. The research explores how Divakaruni’s female protagonists embody these characteristics in various sociocultural and historical contexts, offering a subtle understanding of maternal agency. By examining characters of Sita, Draupadi, Kunti, Jindan Kaur, and others, the study accentuates how motherhood extends beyond biological roles to include resilience, sacrifice, and moral leadership. The analysis reveals that strength in motherhood manifests through endurance and defiance, trust is embedded in self-sacrifice and wisdom, multitasking is crucial in balancing familial and societal responsibilities, guidance is reflected in shaping future generations, and loyalty is expressed through unwavering commitment to children and values. Through a qualitative thematic analysis, this paper underscores the complexity of maternal figures in Divakaruni’s works, challenging conventional representations of motherhood. The findings contribute to feminist literary discourse by illustrating how Divakaruni redefines maternal strength in both mythical and historical narratives, bridging past and present perspectives on women’s roles. This study enhances the understanding of motherhood as a dynamic and multifaceted force in literature.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{190771,
        author = {Sharad Meshram and Harbhajan Kaur Khanooja},
        title = {Portraits of Motherhood: Strength, Trust, Loyalty, Guidance and Multitasking in Divakaruni's Narratives},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {8},
        pages = {5085-5099},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=190771},
        abstract = {This study analyses the personation of motherhood in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novels— The Forest of Enchantments, The Palace of Illusions, and The Last Queen—through the thematic lens of strength, trust, multitasking, guidance, and loyalty. The research explores how Divakaruni’s female protagonists embody these characteristics in various sociocultural and historical contexts, offering a subtle understanding of maternal agency. By examining characters of Sita, Draupadi, Kunti, Jindan Kaur, and others, the study accentuates how motherhood extends beyond biological roles to include resilience, sacrifice, and moral leadership. The analysis reveals that strength in motherhood manifests through endurance and defiance, trust is embedded in self-sacrifice and wisdom, multitasking is crucial in balancing familial and societal responsibilities, guidance is reflected in shaping future generations, and loyalty is expressed through unwavering commitment to children and values. Through a qualitative thematic analysis, this paper underscores the complexity of maternal figures in Divakaruni’s works, challenging conventional representations of motherhood. The findings contribute to feminist literary discourse by illustrating how Divakaruni redefines maternal strength in both mythical and historical narratives, bridging past and present perspectives on women’s roles. This study enhances the understanding of motherhood as a dynamic and multifaceted force in literature.},
        keywords = {Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Guidance, Loyalty, Motherhood, Multitasking, Strength, The Forest of Enchantments, The Palace of Illusions, and The Last Queen, Trust.},
        month = {January},
        }

Cite This Article

  • ISSN: 2349-6002
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 8
  • PageNo: 5085-5099

Portraits of Motherhood: Strength, Trust, Loyalty, Guidance and Multitasking in Divakaruni's Narratives

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