Performance and Self Expression
Silence! The Court is in Session is a play within a play, as a group of amateur theatre actors (known as “Sonar Moti Tenement (Bombay) Progressive Association’s Mock Lawcourt”) assemble to present a mock-trial of “social importance” in order to spread “enlightenment.” On the day Silence! takes place, instead of presenting a pre-planned case, they decide to improvise, accusing one of their own, Leela Benare, of infanticide. Through this performance, a play-acted court…
read analysis of Performance and Self ExpressionWomen’s Roles in Society
Silence! The Court is in Session takes place in India during the mid 1900s, a time when women were entering the workforce but many people, men and women alike, still held traditional views of gender roles—men earned money and were allowed to move and behave independently, while women were relegated to domestic tasks like child-rearing. Silence! contains just two named female characters, Leela Benare, a single (but pregnant) teacher and independent spirit, and Mrs.…
read analysis of Women’s Roles in SocietyMiddle Class Status, Tradition, and Propriety
The characters that make up the cast of Silence! The Court is in Session are primarily middle-class working men and women. Although living comfortably, they are nonetheless obsessed with status, and much of the play involves the cast subtly fighting for superiority. This infighting is depicted as petty, and status as less important than solid values and a sense of right and wrong. Middle-class society is shown to be a restrictive trap. While it provides…
read analysis of Middle Class Status, Tradition, and ProprietyGuilt and Innocence
The play is centered on a mock-trial, which, although ostensibly fictional, ends up prosecuting one of the actors, Benare, for a real “crime”—being an unwed mother. However, although the members of the mock-trial’s cast claim to be investigating a fabricated crime, they are genuinely concerned with law and order. The point of their mock-trial, which tours the countryside and generally is based on historical cases, is to bring causes of “social significance” to the…
read analysis of Guilt and Innocence