Portrayal of the Female Characters in Leavitt's "Red Lotus of Chastity"

The Women of the Red Lotus

As far as women go, there is a concrete list of gender roles that women are automatically expected to fit into to. These roles include caregiver, mother, lover and personal property. Among these terms of misogyny is a common theme that appears regularly in the literary world of the epic. This theme would be the issue of these fictional women constantly finding themselves directly involved or related to the conflict. In several classic narrative epics, the women are represented into two extremes. These extremes would be incredibly submissive or heavily rebellious. In the story of “The Red Lotus of Chastity”, women, more specifically the main character Devasmita, were treated like property and were abused as such. In “The Red Lotus of Chastity”, the women of this literary society are mostly valued for physical intimacy and instant male gratification.

Starting from the beginning of the narrative, “Devasmita” and her husband “Guhasena” were marked by a force greater than themselves. Both lovers had an image of a heart impressed upon their wrists. Furthermore, if either spouse cheated or was considered unfaithful, the image of the heart would disappear and alert the opposite individual. “Devasmita” was subjected to the oppressive nature of ill behaving young men. These men wanted the chastity of “Devasmita” and disregarded her thoughts and feelings. To these men, “Devasmita” was a piece of property that “Guhasena” obviously was not utilizing properly. The harsh reality of this form of oppression became too much of a problem for “Devasmita” to dismiss.

In this society, women are severely punished if they did not remain obedient to the laws put in place by men. In fact, in the story of “The Red Lotus of Chastity”, another woman known as “Yogakarandita” was punished by having her ears and nose severed from her body. Depending on the crimes that these women commit, the intensity of the punishment either increases of decreases. However, the men of the ancient literary world were notorious for going against the laws of man. For the sake of exploration and conquest, these men ignored the pleas of the innocent. These men also ignored the opinions and feelings of their lovers and as a result, these men broke the unity of marriage. Because women were seen as property, they did not have much of a say in how their lives were conducted.

The women of “The Red Lotus of Chastity” were created to represent a new archetype of heroic women. From a general story telling perspective, women do not truly find their inner strength until it is forced to the outer surfaces of their minds. This strength mainly comes from traumatic experiences and revenge oriented plots. However, “Devasmita” is an original example of a woman who took action into her own hands, before she was oppressed. The author of this narrative had quite a few progressive views surrounding women. Essentially, the women of “The Red Lotus of Chastity” showed the public that true strength can come from anywhere. This is even more evident among positively driven women.