Urdu drama take the mantle of middle class respectability and carry it forward to the 21st century. Just as Mansfield Park rooted for British middle class values in the face of a changing world and hearkened back towards the good old days of English domesticity, similarly Urdu drama carry on this crusade for middle class virtue. One of the pillars of this middle class virtue is the representation of the ideal female,i.e, one of a domestic goddess. One who is flourishes in the domestic sphere, is not at all worldly, i.e, dunya gari nahi janti, in fact the naiver she is the better. This virtuous female is defined by the male in her life and cannot venture outside the house without her man, as seen in Mansfield Park, Fanny rarely traveled beyond the cocoon of the estate and the one time she did she was plagued by thoughts of her home. similarly, in Humsafar, Khirad is a small town girl, who had before marriage been a complete homebody, refusing even to go to to her aunts house and being content to stay indoors.
She remain as content to reside in the domestic sphere after marriage, despite the fact that she was alone for half the day while everybody was at work and should have been in reality bored out of her mind. It was only to please her man did she venture out of the house, a clear case of how she was defined by the man, and by doing so she faced the repercussions.
While the ideal female is same in both the genres, their counterparts are too. while Fanny was distinguished by comparing to Maria Crawford who was a threat to the prevailing mindset due to her frenchesque conceptions of sexual liberation and the ease with which she interacted with men, she was not defined by any man and remained at large ungoverned with no strong guardian. similarly, Sara offered a threat to middle class values, representing the values of the immoral west. She wore western clothes throughout, spoke in English and did not shy away from the private sphere, regarding herself as equal to men and entitled to her passions. This image makes up the nightmares of conservative Pakistanis everywhere, coupled with the fact that she was ungoverned by a man and was vocal about her love instead of relying on her diminutive manners, she had her just deserves and by her end she signaled he success of the domestic goddess and middle class virtues.
She remain as content to reside in the domestic sphere after marriage, despite the fact that she was alone for half the day while everybody was at work and should have been in reality bored out of her mind. It was only to please her man did she venture out of the house, a clear case of how she was defined by the man, and by doing so she faced the repercussions.
While the ideal female is same in both the genres, their counterparts are too. while Fanny was distinguished by comparing to Maria Crawford who was a threat to the prevailing mindset due to her frenchesque conceptions of sexual liberation and the ease with which she interacted with men, she was not defined by any man and remained at large ungoverned with no strong guardian. similarly, Sara offered a threat to middle class values, representing the values of the immoral west. She wore western clothes throughout, spoke in English and did not shy away from the private sphere, regarding herself as equal to men and entitled to her passions. This image makes up the nightmares of conservative Pakistanis everywhere, coupled with the fact that she was ungoverned by a man and was vocal about her love instead of relying on her diminutive manners, she had her just deserves and by her end she signaled he success of the domestic goddess and middle class virtues.
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