Monthly Archives: November 2018

Our story unfolds in a rural village of modern-day Bangladesh. It follows two brother’s Dukhiram and Chidam, who are hardworking farmers, while their wives Radha and Chandra stay at home and take care of the house. Long story short, Dukhiram kills his wife because he was frustrated with working hard all day and coming home to unhappy and dissatisfied life. He freaked out and didn’t know what to do. His brother stepped him and blamed everything on his wife Radha and told her he would save her somehow. However, Radha still having her pride refused to be treated as pawns to her husband and confessed to everything.

Looking at it from a western perspective this story might seem far-fetched from reality but this not as uncommon in India. County in which in most households’ men are the ones earning living and women are expected to stay at home and do what is expected of her. Taking care of the house, bearing children and cooking. They are not granted as much freedom that men enjoy. Thus, the issues described in this story are still a cause on concern in today’s world.

Since I grew up in India, I have first-hand witnessed this discrimination towards women, especially in the household. They are not given voice and their opinions don’t carry any weight. There was also this custom that women would have to cover their head and face in the company of other men. So, they would literally disappear from society. This says a lot about this culture that is designed by men to oppress women. Although, Tagore was taking about this time period in late 19^thcentury, we san presume that in other parts of the world such problems still exist.

Rabindranath Tagore was an extremely influential public figure in the early 1900s. He was a poet, musician, and artist all at the same time. He has made thousands of works which have been respected for decades, and was seen as an influential advocate for many issues such as womens rights.  One of his early works focuses on that very issue. Punishment is a story that was written to attempt to gain some acknowledgment for rising issues in rural Bengal. The story revolves around the lives of 2 couples, Dukhiram Rui and Chidam Rui (brothers), who live in a rural village in India and Radha and Chandara. The men do the hard work and earn money for the house while the women are assigned to do domestic duties.

One day, Dukhiram discoveres that his wife had not cooked anything for him and she is sarcastic to him, so he decides to kill her. However, his brother blames Chandara as he would rather lose his wife than his brother. She proceeds to confess and take blame for a murder that she did not commit.  Tagore touches on a lot of sensitive issues such as women’s rights, empowerment, and oppression.

I find these issues still to be relevant now, and many productions and tv shows have attempted educate the audience about them. One example is Riverdale, a new tv drama that shows on Netflix. One of the characters, Veronica Lodge and her mother fall trap into doing her fathers work for him, as well as taking the blame for certain crimes. Their loyalty to him is extremely strong, but he treats them as if they were expendable. The mother justifies her fathers murders, schemes, crimes, etc, while the daughter, eager to join the family company fails to fully grasp how to justify their actions as a family. As one of the main leading characters of the film, Veronica often rebels against her fathers wishes and refuses to take part in criminal activity. The mother has yet to reform. This is much like Punishment, where the man of the house does all the work while the mother stays at home and does jobs with “less responsibility”. The father uses his wife in many situations to trade, threaten, and blackmail in order to get what he wants, but in his words, for the family. Similarly, in these situations the women are given minimal descriptions and are minimized to a very stereotypical, basic character. Although she doesn’t die, she does struggle with the very same issues as Chandara had to face. Be loyal, or to be honest. The balance of power does not exist in these two realms, and only due to the gender of the person they are treated differently. The men’s need for control will not tolerate any defiance from the women, which put the women in a situation where they feel like they owe it to their husband to keep them content. However, in a case of crimes, blind loyalty can cause issues as we have seen with both Riverdale and Punishment.

Overall, even after 200 years of humans developing, we still face the same problems that rural Bengal had to face. What does that say about humans? Although we have evolved and women do indeed have more rights than before, they are still being treated differently in the workplace equality has not been reached yet. This is saddening, but over time humans will come to their senses and realize that we are all equal, and no race or gender should impact how we treat each other.

–How does justice work in the world of “Punishment”?  What happens when one tells the truth? What happens when one lies?

–What do we make of Chandara’s choice to take responsibility for the death of her sister-in-law? Do you see her as a hero or as a victim?

–Explain the significance of the details Tagore offers about the marriage between Chandara and Chidam.  How do they help us understand the events of the story?

–How do you understand the title of the story?

–As she approaches death, Chandara both says, “to hell with him,” and maintains that she loves her husband.  How do you reconcile these two apparently contradictory statements?

1. Why do you think Tolstoy begins his story with the announcement of Ivan Ilyich’s death, rather than organizing it chronologically?
2. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is full of French words. What purpose do they serve?
3. How does Ivan Ilyich’s family react to his illness? What do their reactions tell us about them?
4. On his deathbed, Ivan asks, “Why, and for what purpose, is there all this horror?” Does the text provide an answer to this weighty question?
5. Compare the attitude toward death we see in Ivan Ilyich’s family and social milieu to that of our own society. How do we treat illness and death?