“Punishment” and “Hedda Gabler” written by Rabindranath Tagore and Henrik Ibsen, respectively, are similarly realistic in style. In both texts readers can easily see that death seems to be the prominent theme of literary realism. Whereas Ibsen ends his story with the protagonist Hedda “shooting herself in the temple”, Tagore applies a different approach as he starts off by describing the death of Dukhiram’s wife. The extent to which death is described in “Punishment” is more horrifying than it is in “Hedda Gabler”.
“What? He roared, like a furious tiger and then, without thinking, plunged his knife into her head. Radha collapsed into her sister-in-law’s lap, and in minutes she was dead.” (Tagore 894)
In this scene Tagore describes thoroughly the struggle between Dukhiram and his wife Radha, which paves ways for Radha’s petrifying death. On the other hand, the realistic presence in “Hedda Gabler” is subdued as Hedda died beautifully and peacefully with a shot in the temple. More important, through these characteristics of realism literature, both authors are able to reflect the image of women living in the late 19th century. Hedda and Chandara come from two different societies, one is American capitalism and the other is the Hindu socialism. Chandara symbolizes the conventionality of Hindu society whereas Hedda embodies the liberal Western women. In “Punishment” Chandara repeatedly admitted she killed her sister-in-law in her first and second time facing the police, despite the fact that she was innocent. Had it not been for her husband’s suggestion and Chandara’s endless love for him, she would never have had to die. “To hell with him”, said she before the hanging – this manifested not only Chandara’s love for her husband as a wife but also the magnitude of her unselfishness as a woman. On the other hand, in spite of her wealthy background, Hedda obviously let her pride, selfishness and jealousy take over her happiness. As a result, even though Chandara died in jail and suffered great pains, her death is unquestionably beautiful as her admirable scarification shines through.
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Skylar, I agree with you that there are interesting points of connection between Hedda Gabler and Chandara. While both texts have characters who die, I don’t think that I would necessarily say that death is a major theme of literary realism; that just happens to be true of the texts we’ve read over the last few weeks! Hedda is in 19th C Norway, not America, but you are right that, culturally, she seems to be very different from Chandara, who lives in colonial Bengal (not socialist at all!) Both characters choose death rather than continue in a situation that they find to be intolerable. We will discuss Chandara’s death in class; I certainly don’t see it as a “beautiful” death. Also, she is not simply doing what her husband wants, as you suggest. He wants her to try to get the punishment removed or lessened, but she refuses to do as he advises her. Why? And why does she say “to hell with him!” as she prepares to go to her death?