Self-Deception and Disillusionment of Gender Roles in the Selected Literary Representations of Tiresias

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Dr. Shilpi Bhattacharya, Ms. Anurima Das

Abstract

Gender for a very long time has been dogmatically preached and taught as a binary concept consisting of two parts namely – male and female. But, simultaneously there have been many such individuals who fail to align themselves in one of the two groups and consequently face confusion about their role in society, which has allotted a strict set of duties and expectations to both sides. This feeling of alienation is better known as Disillusionment and it has been widely represented and discussed in Literature and Philosophy. One such figure, that represented this dilemma in all its realistic context was the Greek mythological prophet of Apollo – Tiresias, who is said to have lived life both as a man and woman. Tiresias’ gender ambiguity has been often represented in various works of literature, often in the context of showcasing his disillusionment towards Gender roles. It can furthermore be elaborated by using Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of ‘Bad Faith’ which explains how an individual act in an inauthentic way because of external pressures of the society with the help of ‘Self-Deception’. This paper tries to analyze all the literary representations of Tiresias to study the phenomenon of disillusionment of Gender-Roles.

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