'Women face sense of loneliness even after achievements'

English professor and theatre person Laxmi Chandrashekar said that women experienced a sense of loneliness, even after enjoying successes in life.

She was speaking at the UGC sponsored national seminar on ‘Applying Feminist Theories in the Teaching of Literary texts in English’, organised by St Philomena’s College in association with department of Women’s Studies, University of Mysore here on Saturday.

Citing an example from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, she said that Lady Macbeth was left suffering from insomnia and loneliness despite achieving what she had strived towards. “Women in general go through this. The society is so male centric that women on top are left feeling lonely at the end of the day,” she added.

She said that Shakespeare had created strong and intelligent women in his plays, but by the end of the play, they would either be seen giving up their successes for their men, or acting “foolishly” . “Portia in the play ‘Merchant of Venice,’ who was termed as a intellectual women, ridiculously marries Bassanio, who was not in her league,” she added.

She said that there was need to sensitise English literature students about the aspects of widespread prejudices against women.