Silence! The Court is in Session: Act Three Summary & Analysis

By overestimating Benare’s age, which is likely 32, Kashikar and Sukhatme attempt to insult and devalue her. In a society that doesn’t value older, unmarried women, by suggesting she is older than she is they suggest she is less worthy of respect.

Kashikar genuinely believes the moral problems in society come from women having independence. However, if they marry young, by his logic, they won’t be independent and won’t pollute society.

Sukhatme continues to equate Benare’s singleness with an immoral lifestyle, and further tries to insult her by calling her unflatteringly old.

Kashikar cannot let an opportunity to mock his wife and assert his dominance pass him by. Unfortunately, although also a woman, Mrs. Kashikar feels no sympathy for or solidarity with Benare. Like her husband, Mrs. Kashikar believes unmarried women are inherently promiscuous and immoral. The trial allows her a chance to more publicly share her views.

Once again, Mrs. Kashikar uses the trial to call out aspects of Benare’s behavior that she dislikes, accusing her of being immoral for simply living her life in a way that Mrs. Kashikar personally disapproves of.

Mrs. Kashikar suggests, as others did in Act 2, that the fact that Benare is sometimes alone with men means she is definitely doing something nefarious, a sexist assumption that women and men cannot be trusted. Ironically, although Benare likely has been capable of being alone with men with no ulterior motives, because of her pregnancy, she has been using one on one time to find a husband.

Once again, the traumatic trial is framed as a game—a game whose objective seems to be to destroy and embarrass Benare.

Even in this important moment for Rokde, who has always wanted to be a witness, Mrs. Kashikar feels the need to take him down and make sure he knows his place. Still, Rokde is able to deliver evidence in the form of a real interaction he had with Benare.

Rokde alters the truth — he didn’t slap Benare, she slapped him—likely in order to make himself look more dominant. The context of the trial allows him to pretend to be what he is not.

Ponkshe, like others before him and more after, will use this part of the trial to reveal personal details of Benare’s life that would have otherwise been inappropriate to share. The presence of the poison adds more tension to the scene and suggests the depth of Benare’s despair—making her colleagues’ treatment of her all the more cruel.

Ponkshe clearly cares more about the appearance of piety—refusing to help someone pregnant out of wedlock—than actual piety, which would entail helping a pregnant woman in need.

Once again, the performance of continuing for the good of society comes up against actually caring for a member of the troop. The idea that this trial is socially important, when there is literally no audience, is laughable.

Mrs. Kashikar has expressed her disapproval of Benare’s behavior. “Discipline means discipline” refers both to her behavior in the courtroom at this moment and her independent behavior more generally.

This aspect of Ponkshe’s story isn’t necessarily true. It might be an addition to make Benare look worse and to allow Ponkshe to subtly insult his colleagues. However, Benare has made similar points earlier in the play.

Benare understands that women of a certain age are no longer seen as viable wives. Therefore, she has done her best to spin her age and experience as a virtue and an asset. Additionally, she tries to appeal to Ponkshe’s sense of charity, explaining how he would be helping a woman in need (an argument that does not convince him, further underscoring the shallowness of the troop’s desire to encourage moral good).

Benare frequently laments that her body works against her—in this case enchanting Damle so much he failed to notice her mind—and therefore doesn’t feel quite like her own. Indeed, the society in which she lives would like to control her body. Once again, Ponkshe reveals he cares only about the performance of virtue, and not protecting a vulnerable friend.

Ponkshe, although acting offended, takes the wrong message from Benare’s request. She doesn’t think he’s pathetic; she’d hoped he would be empathetic.

Karnik’s disclosure reveals several things. Firstly, it reveals that Rokde was attempting to make himself seem more dominant in his telling of the story. Additionally, he reveals just how subservient Rokde is to the Kashikars, especially Mrs. Kashikar. As opposed to Ponkshe, who was uninterested in helping Benare and saw her request as an insult, Rokde is worried about falling even further down the social ladder.

The reaction to Karnik’s revelation is more shocking than the revelation itself. Although Benare was groomed and abused by a child predator, the court can only see her immoral behavior, and not the crime committed by her trusted uncle who coerced and seduced her.

Yet again, “social significance” trumps all traditional order and reason. Although Kashikar is the judge his evidence is deemed so important that he must disrupt the order of the court.

Kashikar uses the court to legitimize his personal opinions. Even when Sukhatme pushes back, he does so gently, and Kashikar is unfazed.

Yet again, the behavior or unmarried women is assumed to be immoral, and this immorality assumed to be contagious. Although it is not logical to assume that having sex out of marriage would disqualify someone from being a teacher, many in the play suffer from this belief.

Benare, more and more convinced her life is over, and so humiliated he doesn’t want to go on, believes killing herself is the best way forwards. Unfortunately, instead of helping her or acknowledging her despair, the members of the court merely abort her attempt and force her to continue to stand trial.

Sukhatme continues to argue that Benare has acted immorally by becoming pregnant outside of marriage, which has disqualified her from being a good mother. He goes on to argue that mothers are essential to keeping society moral, and that mothers are therefore contractually bound to act in a way (he, personally) finds moral. Once again, Sukhatme uses the court to legitimize his own sexist opinions.

Because Sukhatme believes women must uphold the values of society, those that don’t, according to his logic, are actively contributing to the collapse of morality. Because he sees Benare as one of those women, and because he has the platform, Sukhatme calls for her punishment.

Even as her defense lawyer, Sukhatme cannot let go of his personal belief that Benare has committed an unforgivable crime that deserves punishment.

This is a rare moment in which the theatricality of the play itself, not just that of the fictitious trial, is emphasized. Although Benare cannot speak during the trial itself, her inner thoughts are dramatized for the audience, allowing her an opportunity to plead her case to them.  She makes a comprehensive rebuttal to the case made against her.

Repeatedly accused of passing her immorality on to her students, Benare makes it clear that she kept her private life separate from them and remained an upstanding educator. The realism of the play is suspended further through the sounds of the classroom. This reference to Benare’s career underscores its importance in her life and the unfairness of her persecution, given that she had been a good, devoted teacher.

Benare has internalized what she’s been told—that being in love with her uncle was sinful, although in fact she was the victim of an elder authority figure’s advances. This is an example of how morality and justice can be perverted and harmful. Instead of getting help or counseling, Benare was left with shame.

As Ponkshe reported Benare saying earlier in the act, Benare has disliked her body, which she felt attracted attention she didn’t want, and distracted men she did. Now, ironically, an unwanted pregnancy has allowed her to take her body back—she feels it has a purpose.

After a lifetime of hating, resenting, and being punished for her body, Benare has finally come to terms with it, as she has found a good purpose for it. Though the men in the troop view motherhood has further means to control women, Benare sees it, in part, as empowering.

In the final moments of the trial Kashikar uses his power as a (play-acted) judge to make a judgment on Benare. He has decided that her personal immorality is less important than the impact her behavior could have on the next generation. Although, ironically, the trial started as one for infanticide, now the punishment itself is the death of a (unborn) child. This again suggests that the men’s obsession with motherhood and being a good role model for the next generation is more about controlling women than it is about those children themselves. 

Although Sukhatme and others repeatedly insisted to Benare the case was “just a game,” now that its over Sukhatme can admit it felt real, both to him, and presumably, Benare. However, his empathy stops there, and he is unable to see how Benare might feel devastated. 

Although they have caused Benare’s meltdown, both by forcing her to sit through the trial and by refusing to help her in the days and weeks before when she reached out, Benare’s colleagues now suddenly seem concerned, insisting the whole thing was a game. This seems like a lie to assuage their own guilt at their mistreatment of Benare.

Benare’s voiceover sings the same song from earlier in the play, this time in full. The song repeats the events of Benare’s life in allegory; her nest—that is, her future—has been stolen from her, and only a parrot (Samant) seems to care at all. The crows (her fellow thespians) don’t care about her troubles and are only interesting in performing morality without charity.