Silence! The Court is in Session Essay Questions

What is the "Prime Objective" of the group's program, and how is it ironic?

Benare jokes to Samant about Kashikar being obsessed with a "Prime Objective," but she is also explaining that the troupe believes that they carry out their performances in order to perform a necessary societal function. They are there to instruct, chasten, and inspire; they feel that they must take on issues of social significance because they are a part of the middle class and thus feel that the lower classes need their guidance. For the audience, this worldview is paternalistic and eye-rollingly ironic once we realize just how flawed, cruel, and hypocritical most of the players are.

Why does having a "woman in the dock" mean that "the case...has a different complexion" (38)?

After deciding that Benare will be the accused for their mock trial, Sukhatme utters the above line. On the surface, especially as they do not mention anything further about their intentions or what the crime will be, this might just be a rather benign, albeit stereotypical and demeaning, indication that women on the stand are different than men in that they might be more emotional, or the jury might be more inclined to be sympathetic to them, or that their status as wife/mother/daughter might give them special treatment. However, this is not the "different complexion" we see with Benare's trial: this woman endures the vitriol, hatred, and censure of the patriarchy, and she is deprived of nearly all due process. The trial is certainly different, but it is different in the most hellish way imaginable.

What is the broader narrative significance of the pan-spitting moment?

Before the trial really gets going, there is a humorous and absurd discussion of how long is an appropriate amount of time to go outside and spit out one's pan. This provides a bit of levity to the proceedings, and might perhaps indicate that, despite the serious charge of infanticide, this will be a game and nothing more. However, careful readers/listeners will note that the time given to spit out the pan—ten seconds—is the same amount of time that Benare is given to defend herself at the end. Spitting out chewed food, therefore, is seen as equally important to a condemned and persecuted woman defending herself after being deprived of fair counsel, witnesses, and all other forms of due process.

What is the meaning behind the title of the play?

At first, the title seems to be a familiar phrase that one often hears in the courtroom, with the judge shushing rowdy audience members. While it does function as an indicator of the play's setting, it is more than that: it is also the warning issued multiple times at Benare, the simple reminder that she, as a woman, has no real standing in this mock trial or, by extension, in society at large. Benare is decidedly a person who does not like to be silent, delighting in songs, poems, laughter, and teasing; however, as the trial proceeds, she falls more and more silent, her literal voice being taken away just as her selfhood is being diminished.

Why did Benare slap Rodke?

Benare seems to slap the petulant and immature Rodke not only because he offensively indicates that he would be ashamed to be with her since she is pregnant, but also because she is fed-up with his mealy-mouthed vacillating, his inability to stand up to the Kashikars and to advocate for himself. She is not angry at his actual rejection (it is laughable to think that Rodke would be a good partner for her, though it is sobering that she feels reduced to appeal to someone like him because society deems it necessary that she have a husband and a father for her child) but rather because he is yet another disappointing man, imbued with societal power even though he lacks all strength of character.