Portrayal of human relationship and understanding within Persian ambience: A Study of Gieve Patel's selected plays

Abstract

This paper intends to locate the self-instructed poet cum writer Gieve Patel's outlook as a playwright towards his own born and brought up Parsi community in terms of different terrains of human relationships, bondage and understanding through the notable plays, namely Princess (1970), Savaksa (1982) and Mr. Behram(1988). This secluded community of west coastal areas of India had been neglected in the country's mainstream linear progress all around and even they took a little part to play in making up uprising moments and events of this country since they were put into the brackets of 'colonial elites'. Still, the traditions and cultures of this community with their power of adaptation, negotiation and acceptance hurl back to present themselves as being unique in almost every parts in the society. These plays celebrate the vigorous situation of the then societal structure to which they belonged. The essential journey unveils with discovery of unfathomable psychological relationships and tensions among human beings under uneven facade of circumstances and carries forward through lucid yet critically framed the language - the spoken words, the expression of the characters. The awareness of feudalism-politics, male-centred power structure of the society, the dualism in nature - all these have come to fore through the portrayal of characters.