Representation Of Women In Waiting For The Barbaerian

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             Representation of women in

          Waiting for the Barbarian

Introduction

                        From the ancient time to the present century women’s position in the society is not equal to man. They are discriminated and considered ‘other’. Writers paint the picture of the women ‘According to this so called society’. If we talked about African women they are double marginalized one as she is ‘African or Black’ & other as ‘she is the women’. Here we are concern with the representation of women in J.M.Coetzee’s novel ‘waiting for the Barbarians’. 
It is an allegorical novel. so let’s discuss  how Coetzee has represented the women in waiting for the barbarians.

                                       The girl is left an Orphan and Magistrate wants to take care of her as an act of redemption for his town‘s cruelty. From this we can
 say that magistrate was guilt and sympathies with her because they have done to Barbarians.

                                Magistrate wants to shield and nurse her. But maybe we can say that magistrate wants to dominate her. Here in the above picture how her body is objectified by magistrate. Magistrate used her by tending her wounds, washing her broken fact legs. Rubbing her body with almost oil. But Barbarian girl does not want help from him through he helps from him through he helps her. It is kind of torture because without her permission he was doing.

If we talked about society women is deprived of gaze, deprived of subjectivity. Here in this novel Barbarian girl is subaltern. Because she was silent. She does not speak anything. May be we can say that she was not silent but voice was not given to her. Without speaking she was tolerate the torture of the magistrate. So we can say she was strong and capable to faced the situation. The barbarian girl’s lack of communication is more significant in the novel.

                           The girl yield silently, but the Magistrate’s mind is disarranged by the brutality of the third Bureau does not simply take her.

Relation between Barbarian Girl & Magistrate.s

Magistrate takes  the Barbarian girl under his wing and brings her back to the quarter. There, though sleep besides eachother and Magistrate messages her and caresses her. Relationship between them hardly becomes more physical. Magistrate gives her job in the kitchen.

                       The relationship between Magistrate and the Barberian girl ‘becomes a metaphor for the Relationship between

                              ‘Colonized & Colonizer’

                             The Magistrate himself is conscious of the dubious motives of his acts of charity towards the girl. HHhhhh

However he cannot let go of her. Unlike the symbolism of the initial act of kneeling on the girl’s side end of the act of offering money to her. It clearly suggests that their relationship is not as ‘Master & Slave’ but as a more dynamic and more ambiguous. Magistrate eager to learn her, encounters her eyes. But her eyes merely reflect him back. The Blackness of her gaze would suggest precisely the opposite namely that

         ‘She does not care if she is watched

           She lives in her own closed world’

                                   Thus from these we can say that she does not care about others. She lives in her own world. The Barbarian girl seems to be a simple, one dimensional character. But here in this novel her simplicity is not so much an indication of the childlike nature of the barbarians. It is comment on the unnatural and self complexity of civilized man.

                               The Barbarian girl is just like an alien in the world of empire, ‘Stranger’ from ‘so remote a kingdom that no one can understand her. The character of the Barbarian girl is presented in ironical way. She is confused and infuriates the congenitally disingenuous affairs of the states. Her nature is mixture, she is complicated yet resilient women who somehow retain her integrity in spite of being uprooted from her culture and severely abused.

                            When Magistrate wants to know about her. She resists both the tortures and magistrate efforts to know her ‘secret’. Perhaps she has no secret. She is simply what she appears tobe. Barbarian girl is not only colonized by empire but she also colonized by Magistrate because he uses her as an object.  So, we can say that Barbarian girl was colonized by empire & than by Magistrate. Thus, we can say women always become object of men’s pleasure. Even if magistrate sympathies with her. There is a reason behind that he was guilt that’s why he was showing sympathy towards her. Barbarian girl fulfills the role of ‘Colonized Women’.

                                         Magistrate tries to understand her but say anything. It also shows that she cannot able to raise voice against injustice. Just like other women she becomes the victim of male dominant society. There are lots of things which she hides behind her silence.

                                 When Magistrate wears dressed of women. It is very symbolical because he has done injustice to the servants of the empire. The servants gave him punishment. It is also shows that become woman are one kind of ‘punishment’.

Conclusion

Thus here in this novel Barbarian girl represented as colonized and objectified by the Man. It is shows that women are inferior to Men. By this way Coetzee has presented African society.  She is Slave inferior & colonized.

Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!