Reading Diary B Week 5: Sita's Imprisonment in Lanka

            The part of this reading section that most struck me was Sita’s capture within Lanka.  While in Lanka, Sita has conversations with both Ravana and Indra.  Through her conversation with Ravana, the audience is shown multiple views of women.  For one, it explains how easily women are seen as property through rape.  Another thing that the audience sees is how fickle minded women are perceived to be.  For example, Ravana tells his demon servants to threaten her softly, use strong words, tell blatant flattery about Ravana, and give her everything she asks for and more.  Ravana believes that by doing this he can sway her to “love” him and sleep with him willingly.  Of course, as the story goes on, the audience understands that Ravana can no longer rape any more women due to a curse.  However, Indra gives us a back-story that explains that Ravana’s curse is due to him raping multiple women and raping one whose husband cursed him. 

            While this section does portray some negative views of women, it does give some positive views.  Through Ravana’s harsh curse, which states that once he rapes another woman all of his ten heads will explode, the Ramayana is stating that the rape of women is wrong.  Possibly by suggesting that all of his heads will explode not only infers that all rapists should be punished harshly, but also that rapists are mentally messed up.  Of course, I am an English major and we overanalyze everything.  While this passage has those redeeming qualities, I feel that at the end Indra’s statement, “‘I think women are more cruel than demons.  Very often they are,’” completely retracts those qualities and paints women in a bad light (Buck 180).  

Ravana and Sita. Source: Wikimedia