Reconstruction of Archetypal Images in Anita Nair’s Mistress

Abstract

The present paper discusses Anita Nair’s feminist approaches to the novel Mistress and examines
how she incorporates traditional goddesses in modern literature. Nair exposes the role of mythology in
limiting women to their confined inner selves. She re-creates a new mythological sense in her protagonist
Radha, thereby aiding her in attaining her identity. Nair’s adequate use of female mythological characters
and her own female character’s constant struggle to break free from the age-old beliefs that restrict her
freedom, gain her a place among feminist archetypal writers. The paper further expounds how Nair
contradicts Jungian theory of Animus and helps the protagonist Radha to attain Individuation