Reclaiming the Female Voice: Myth and Identity in Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night

Abstract

Githa Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night explores the struggles of women
within traditional Indian society. The novel questions patriarchal values that expect women to
accept marriage, sacrifice, and family responsibilities without protest. This paper examines
how Hariharan uses myth, memory, and storytelling to present women’s experiences and
their search for identity. The stories of Gandhari, Amba, Damayanti, and other mythical
women become closely connected with Devi’s own life. Through her grandmother’s stories,
Devi learns about different forms of womanhood, suffering, courage, and resistance.
However, she does not accept these traditional stories passively. She questions them,
reinterprets them, and connects them with the lives of contemporary women. The experiences
of Devi, Sita, Mayamma, and other women reveal the conflict between tradition and
modernity. Devi’s unhappy marriage, emotional isolation, and search for freedom gradually
lead her towards self-awareness. The paper argues that Hariharan reworks traditional myths
from a feminist perspective and uses them to give women a voice of their own. Myth
therefore becomes not only a link with the past but also a means of questioning patriarchy
and creating new possibilities for female identity. The study concludes that Devi’s journey
from dependence and confusion towards self-realisation represents the larger struggle of
women to reclaim their voices, question social expectations, and define their identities on
their own terms.