Rabindranath Tagore’s Punishment is a story about one of the brothers, Dukhiram, murdering the elder wife, Radha, over a small complication in their conversation. Instead of owning up to his mistakes, Chandara, the younger wife, was asked to take the blame, “He reassured her: ‘Don’t worry—if you do what i tell you, you’ll be quite safe.’ But whatever his words, his throat was dry and his face was pale” (895). Even though Chidam asked Chandara to take the blame, it was evident that she had absolutely no say in this decision even if she did not want to. This kind of treatment reminded me of what Harriet Jacobs said in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, “I had never wished for freedom till then. But though my life in slavery was comparatively devoid of hardships, God pity the woman who is compelled to lead such a life!” Even though Chandara and Radha were not a slaves, the fact that they both had to endure the unfair mistreatments from their husbands with no escape, and no sort of freedom whatsoever was no different than what Harriet Jacobs had to endure during her enslavement.

Another text that is similar to Punishment is Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindications of the Rights of Women because Wollstonecraft says, “He then proceeds to prove that woman ought to be weak and passive, because she has less bodily strength than man; and hence infers, that she was formed to please and to be subject to him; and that it is her duty to render herself agreeable to her master — this being the grand end of her existence”. This ultimately means that the sole purpose of a woman’s life is to please the man because men are superior and she must agree to whatever is demanded of her. This relates to Chandara’s situation because she was told to take the blame for Dukhiram’s mistakes and was told what to say in court even though she is family. To Chidam, a wife is replaceable but a brother is not, which basically supports the idea that men are superior to women.