Athena's Quest for Freedom in Coelho’s The Witch of Portobello
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Faculty of English
Abstract
he Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelhois about the struggle of Athena
against the several problems in the society.The novel intends to establish the
harmonious society by making all the characters a ware that the conflict is prevalent
when there is the combination of the people having different views.The novel has
been analysed through feminist perspective.Feminism advocates political, social, and
economic equality between male and female.There are various movements and
theories that are concerned with the issue of gender difference, talks about the
equality for women, and campaign for women’s rights and interests.In addition,
feminist literary theory interprets a work of art or any intellectual discourse through
the perspective of women and their concerns.According to the theory, men always
establish norms, and women are defined as‘other’ with reference to these norms.
There is little possibility of deviation of such conceptual values.
The novel revolves around a Romanian girl named Athena adopted by a rich
Lebanese family.Her real name is Sherin Khali land she attempts to over come the
patriarchal norms and values. The novel also emphasizes the nature of existence of
women in the male dominated society through the lenses women. This thesis studies
the novel as depicting the condition of Athena who struggles throughout her life to get
freedom, in the society, where women are dominated, discriminated and given bad
names.