Princess Batcheat Gender Roles

Society has always put a lot of pressure on women to act or look a certain way and confines women to certain roles to fit the stereotype of what a woman should be like. In his novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories, author Salman Rushdie challenges these ideals. He does this through the use of two female characters- Princess Batcheat, who represents what society would expect a woman to be like and Blabbermouth, who challenges society’s traditionally gender-specific roles and shows how women can be intelligent, strong, and independent.

Princess Batcheat exemplifies society’s idea that women are useless in the novel. One of the ways this is shown is in her characterization as a “damsel in distress”. She is portrayed this way the first time she is

This is very possessive of him, so much so that one might say it could be conveyed that he is referring to her as his personal property. He also uses words like “seized” and “purloined” that portray her more as an object that has been stolen rather than a person. This would lead the reader to believe that she is completely and totally helpless and has to rely on somebody to come save her. The way he objectifies her only adds to the argument that she falls into the “damsel in distress” archetype. She is also depicted as stupid whenever her kidnapping is discussed, saying that she was asking to be captured by traveling close to the Chattergy’s invisible wall. Towards the end of the novel, the narrator states that “everyone decided to forget how incredibly idiotic Batcheat had been to get herself captured in the first place” (Rushdie 192). The crowd blatantly describes her as “incredibly idiotic” for being curious and wanting to go near the twilight strip, though earlier in the novel it is stated that “the young people of Gup do go into the Twilight

Though she must hide her identity and disguise herself as a boy in order to serve as a Page in General Kitab’s army, her secret is quickly found out by Haroun on their way to his sleeping quarters. When Haroun knocks her cap off of her head revealing that she is a girl, she attacks him, saying “You think it’s easy for a girl to get a job like this? Don’t you know girls have to fool people every day of their lives if they want to get anywhere?” (Rushdie 107). He then replies, “You mean that just because you’re a girl you aren’t allowed to be a Page?” (Rushdie 107-108) She immediately gets very defensive with Haroun because she is angry that he has found her out. He doesn’t quite understand why she can’t be a Page if they know that she’s a girl, but she assumes that he will be just as sexist about it as others have been. She says that all girls “have to fool people every day” if they want to be able to further themselves in life. This speaks volumes about the misogynistic society she lives in- she has to go to great lengths to do what she wants for no reason other than the fact that she is female. She moves on from this incident and continues on with her disguise until she is found out once again. When her secret is exposed again, this time after saving of Prince Bolo, General Kitab and