Women transcending trauma through positive coping in Dina Mehta's getting away with murder

Abstract EN

This research examines how far Indian women's modern theatre reveals women's experience with different forms of patriarchal abuse triggering their psychological trauma within modern India and how far some women manage to cope.

The paper employs a psychoanalytic approach in analysing the female character, Sonali, in Dina Mehta's Getting away with Murder (1989).

Sonali has been subject to traumatizing physical and emotional domestic violence at the hands of some male and female family members holding patriarchal ideology.

The paper attempts to investigate how far Sonali shows a shift from early negative coping with trauma to an eventual ability to adapt marked by varied signs of positive coping.

She is aided by psychosocial or emotional and social support of trustworthy family members and friends.

Sonali eventually reveals psychosomatic stability symptoms, or physical and respective emotional signs of positive coping as seen in her calmness, self-control, and less or no intrusion of traumatic memories.

Sonali also manifests cognitive signs of positive coping exemplified by acquiring positive self-image and acceptance of giving birth to a girl.

Finally, Sonali's positive coping is traced in her communicative and interpersonal patterns showing better self-expression, especially through abreaction, as well as her socializing and reconnecting with others.