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Act Two
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Silence! The Court is in Session, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Performance and Self Expression
Women’s Roles in Society
Middle Class Status, Tradition, and Propriety
Guilt and Innocence
Summary
Analysis
Act Three resumes where Act Two let off. Sukhatme and Kashikar, speaking more formally than in the previous acts, usher Benare to the witness box. She will not move. They order Rokde to help, he refuses, and so Mrs. Kashikar pulls Benare to the box where she stands in silent terror.
This scene cements the gathered thespians complete disregard for Benare’s wellbeing. Although she obviously no longer wants to take part in the “game,” their own quest for their twisted version of justice outweighs treating her morally.
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Sukhatme puts on his lawyer gown and urges Kashikar to put on his judge’s robes. As they dress their “gravity and dignity increase.”
Sukhatme orders the assembled men and women to sit. He closes his eyes and prays, noting how “pure” it makes him feel, and how much strength it gives to him. Finished, he insists Benare take an oath. She remains still and silent. Samant urges her to cooperate, as it is “all a game.”
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Mrs. Kashikar places Benare’s hand on the dictionary, and though she still will not speak Mrs. Kashikar argues they should continue. Sukhatme begins to question her although she remains silent. Sukhatme asks her age, and Mrs. Kashikar guesses thirty-two, but Kashikar won’t accept this estimation. When Benare refuses to answer yet again, Kashikar decides she’s “not less than thirty-four.”
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Kashikar gives a short speech about reviving child marriage in order to curb promiscuity. He argues that Agarkar and Dhondo Keshav Karve, two social reformers and women’s welfare activists, have ruined society.
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Sukhatme asks Benare how she has managed to remain unmarried at such a “mature” “advanced” age. She remains silent even as Kashikar yells at her. Sukhatme decides to call a new witness.
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Mrs. Kashikar is called to the stand. Kashikar mocks her for being over eager. Sukhatme asks Mrs. Kashikar why, she thinks, Benare has remained unmarried. Mrs. Kashikar believes it must have been a choice, and Benare could have married if she wanted. She thinks it’s an issue of women earning their own incomes, which leads to promiscuity, which leads to delayed marriage. Mrs. Kashikar observes women can get “everything” they want without being tied down. Sukhatme asks her to elaborate. She clarifies that she means these women can get “everything in life.”
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Sukhatme asks Mrs. Kashikar for proof that Benare has behaved promiscuously. Mrs. Kashikar points to the free way Benare acts around men. She complains about the volume of Benare’s laugh, her singing, and her dancing. Sukhatme is disappointed with this proof.
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Mrs. Kashikar tries another strategy, wondering why Benare needed Damle to walk her home after performances. Sukhatme wonders if Damle was just doing her a favor, as he is a family man. Mrs. Kashikar announces that Benare made a pass at Rokde as well. Samant tries to chime in that he was alone with Benare and she acted appropriately, but he’s cut off.
Sukhatme dismisses Mrs. Kashikar and calls Rokde as a witness again. As the players shift positions he tells Benare that the “game’s really warmed up.”
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Rokde takes the stand. Sukhatme refers to him as Mr. Rokde, but Mrs. Kashikar continues to urge “Balu” to speak. Rokde admits eight days ago Benare held his hand after a performance. He shook her off, arguing it was improper, and she asked him to keep it a secret, threatening him if he spoke out. From the dock, Benare finally speaks, calling out that Rokde is lying, but is ignored.
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Rokde says he slapped Benare after she threatened him and promised to tell someone. Mrs. Kashikar is surprised, as Rokde had told her other details, but not the slapping. Rokde is allowed to leave the witness box.
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Ponkshe asks to be called as witness and swears upon the dictionary. Benare stiffens as he begins to speak. He announces that Benare has a bottle of TIK-20, a poison, in her purse. He knows this because she asked him to meet the previous week, and during their meeting a bottle fell out of her bag.
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Sukhatme prompts Ponkshe to discuss the meeting. Benare shakes her head, asking him not to share, but he ignores her. He says Benare wanted to marry him. She told him she was pregnant and wanted his help. He refused her.
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Ponkshe offers to give a full account of the conversation. Benare stands and shouts “No!” but Kashikar silences her, insisting this is a “matter of social importance” and must be brought to light. Ponkshe hesitates, knowing Benare has asked him to keep their conversation secret, but Kashikar argues that what Benare, the accused, wants is irrelevant and inadmissible in court.
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Benare comes towards Ponkshe but Mrs. Kashikar, at Kashikar’s urging, takes her back to the dock. At Mr. Kashikar and Mrs. Kashikar’s urging Rokde helps guard Benare. Mrs. Kashikar tells Benare “discipline means discipline.”
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Ponkshe resumes his story. He recounts how Benare mocked the members of their theatre troop calling Sukhatme’s practice unsuccessful and speculating Kashikar mistreats Rokde because he thinks that Rokde and Mrs. Kashikar are having an affair. Mrs. Kashikar is offended. Karnik is offended that Benare did not say anything against him.
Ponkshe continues. He explains Benare asked him if he was interested in getting married, hypothetically. He was not, explaining he only wanted a mature partner. Benare wondered if he believed that maturity came from experience, and experience from age. Benare also wondered if maturity necessarily came with the burden of pain from life lived. She then revealed she had a partner for Ponkshe in mind: a woman who just suffered heartbreak and was now pregnant, but wants to raise the child, and believes the best way to protect her child is to get married.
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Benare, still talking about her “friend,” explained that for this woman “it’s the baby that comes first.” She said the “friend” worshiped the baby’s father’s mind, but he only wanted her body. In the courtroom, Ponkshe slips and reveals the child’s father was Professor Damle. He says he swore not to say the name, but Sukhatme absolves him, arguing it’s not a sin to break an oath inadvertently in court.
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Ponkshe continues his story, recounting that Benare begged him to marry her “friend,” but he told her he’s insulted she thinks he’s so worthless as to marry a pregnant woman. Benare then stood up and pretended it was all a joke, and left, though he suspected, from her tears, it was not.
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Sukhatme dismisses Ponkshe. He suspects that after failing to convince Ponkshe to marry her, Benare turned to Rokde. Karnik asks to be called to the stand. He reveals that he saw Benare and Rokde’s interaction and knows that Rokde did not slap her. Instead, she asked him if he had decided, and Rokde responded he was unable to act without Mrs. Kashikar’s permission. Rokde was afraid that people would mock and insult him if he married Benare while she was pregnant. Then he threated to tell Mrs. Kashikar, at which point Benare slapped him.
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Karnik has more evidence to share. He knows one of Benare’s cousins, who revealed that Benare had attempted suicide in the past. She fell in love with her uncle, and when the relationship ended, she tried to end her life. Sukhatme is shocked by the revelation of this “immoral relationship,” and takes it as proof that Benare’s past is “smeared in sin.” Kashikar calls it “one step away from total depravity.”
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Benare attempts to stand and leave but Mrs. Kashikar pulls her back. Kashikar reveals that, although he is the judge he also has a piece of evidence that, because the case has such “great social significance” must be shared. Sukhatme, too, agrees tradition should and can be broken.
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Kashikar begins to give his evidence. First he insults Benare, calling her and “grown-up unmarried girls” like her “a sinful canker on the body of society.” Sukhatme rebukes him for sharing his opinion unasked, but Kashikar is unashamed.
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Kashikar reveals he recently visited the home of Nanasaheb Shinde, the local Chairman of Education. When Kashikar arrived, he overheard a phone conversation. Nanasheb was discussing an unmarried pregnant teacher, who was going to be fired, but was fighting her termination. On the phone, Nanasheb argued the woman had sinned, and that she was morally unfit to teach. Kashikar assumes the teacher was Benare. Benare is shocked by this revelation.
Kashikar is sure Benare was the subject of the phone call, although he has no evidence. Benare, in the dock, brings a bottle to her lips but Karnik bats it away. Ponkshe picks it up, and sees it is TIK-20. Sukhatme rests the prosecution. Kashikar calls the counsel for the accused. Sukhatme, playing both the prosecution and the defense, becomes suddenly tired and overwhelmed. He calls Professor Damle as witness, then Nanasaheb Shinde, then Mr. Rawte, who are all absent. Sukhatme then asks to cross-examine the witness for the prosecution. Kashikar denies his request, and Sukhatme rests his case.
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Kashikar asks the counsel for the prosecution to plead his case. Sukhatme, reenergized as the prosecution, jumps up begins. Kashikar tells him to be brief. He is not. Sukhatme accuses Benare of having made a “heinous blot on the sacred brow of motherhood,” and calls her “public enemy number one.” He argues that if others followed in her “socially destructive” footsteps society itself would collapse.
Sukhatme argues Benare’s greatest crime is not infanticide, but unwed motherhood, and her intention to be a single parent. Sukhatme believes women are responsible for building up society’s values, and worries Benare, and those like her will lead to society-wide immorality. He ends his plea with a call for a harsh punishment for Benare.
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Sukhatme changes his demeanor, becoming the downcast defense lawyer. He gives a brief statement. As the defense Sukhatme admits the crime is serious but asks for mercy for Benare.
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Kashikar asks Benare if she wishes to speak. He gives her ten seconds. Before Benare speaks music bings to play, the light changes, and the assembled court freezes in time. Benare stands and delivers a speech. She explains she’s spent years silencing herself, and so has a lot to say. She explains how her life felt burdensome to her, but after her failed suicide attempt she realized “the value of living,” and appreciated the world anew. Still, she now feels “life is drudgery” and “life is a fraud.”
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Benare then begins to think of her own employment status, how good she was at her job and how cruelly she was fired. Although she “swallowed … poison” herself she didn’t pass it along to her students, instead teaching them beauty and purity. Benare, suddenly playing the role of teacher, leaves the dock. Lights illuminate the faces in the court and she addresses them as children. Then a school bell rings, and children chatter, before fading to silence. Benare becomes frightened, feeling intensely alone.
Benare admits she “did commit a sin,” falling in love with her uncle at fourteen. Her parents were strict, and he was kind to her. At the time, she explains, she didn’t understand what sin was. She wanted to marry her uncle and live openly, but her mother and her uncle opposed her. Benare was so angry at her uncle’s betrayal she tried to kill herself but failed.
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As an adult, Benare fell in love again. She assumed it would be different than when she loved her uncle. She loved Damle for his intelligence, but he was only interested in her body. She believes “the body is a traitor,” and both loves and hates it. Although her body distracted Damle from her mind, now she is grateful for her body because it holds her child within it.
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Benare finishes her speech. She explains she wants her body for her baby. She wants her baby to have a mother, and a father, and “a good name.” The court unfreezes. Kashikar announces time is up, and that Benare has no statement.
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Kashikar has Rokde retrieve his wig and puts it on before delivering the verdict. He announces that Benare will not be forgiven, for the sake of society and social customs. However, he thinks her biggest crime is her arrogance, and the risk of her passing her immorality on to her students. He is glad that she has been fired. He wants to ensure she does not pass her sin on to future generations, and so her punishment will be an abortion. Benare screams and sobs, coming to the center of the room, collapsing in grief. The court remains silent.
As Benare cries, someone unlocks the door from the outside. A townsperson peeks in, and wonders if The Living Courtroom has begun. The people of the court shake themselves and “return … to normal.” Samant tells the villagers the show will begin soon. The men discuss how late it is, and how the time got away from him. Sukhatme exclaims that they had fun, and that he felt like he was “fighting a real case.”
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The group turns to Benare, who is motionless on the ground. Mrs. Kashikar comments on how sensitive Benare is, and Kashikar, Sukhatme, and Ponkshe reassert that the whole thing was just a game. Mrs. Kashikar shakes Benare to try and get her to respond. Ponkshe sends Samant to get tea for Benare. Kashikar notices the bottle of TIK-20, still on the judge’s table. He pauses, then urges the others to follow him into the next room and prepare for the show.
Benare and Samant are remain onstage. Samant goes to collect the cloth parrot he brought with him. He hesitates before leaving and sets the parrot down respectfully near Benare. Although she remains silent and still, her voice begins to sing from speakers in the theatre. The speakers play a song from earlier in which a parrot asks a sparrow why she’s crying, and she says her nest has been stolen. They ask a crow if he’s seen where it went, but he hasn’t, and asks “what are you troubles to do with me?” The light changes, illuminating only Benare. The curtain falls.
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