A Study of Female Identity Development in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices

This paper scrutinizes the character of Tilo in Chitra Banderjee Divakaruni’s The
Mistress of Spices and evaluates how she develops herself in the course of her life.
Tilo is an ageless wisewoman clothed in an ancient body. After a long apprenticeship
to the “Old One,” who tries to curb Tilo’s arrogance in her own precocious ability,
she becomes a “mistress of spices”. Overcome by her attraction to Raven, Tilo
yields to her own wishes rather than those of the spices. At this  outing of their
rules, the spices themselves rise up against her, demanding that she has to choose
between love and power. Tilo is forced to rethink her role as a healer beyond the
simplistic split between her desire to help others and to help herself. This point
is further explored through the female identity development theory of the famous
feminist critic Carol Gilligan.