Group 4- Tagore, “Punishment”

As the story suggests, there was extensive mistreatment and dehumanization both with male and female characters in the story by Tagore. However, I noticed that Chandara Rui was the one who suffered the most which reminds me of Du Tenth from Feng Menglong’s story in a way that even though other characters in that story such as Li Jia had gone through ups and downs of life too, such as choosing between his family and the love of his life, Du tenth was the one who was caste aside twice, first by her family and then Li Jia. Similarly, I observed that Chandara was the one who had to suffer betrayal by her own love, in fact, for a sin she did not even commit. This represents how the two characters from both the stories had to go through unfortunate circumstances at a degree higher than other characters. Another problem that I have observed in the two stories is the issue of inequality between males and females in the sense of replaceability.  I have come to this conclusion based on facts such as when young Master Li was convinced by Sun Fu that he should let go off Du Mei as his father will not accept her and that how he should focus on going back home in a good style to impress and make up to his father; on the other hand, in “Punishment”, when Chidam says, “Thakur, if I lose my wife I can get another, but if my brother is hanged, how can I replace?” These evidences interprets how females of the family (or regardless) were accepted to be caste aside or replaced but males were not. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure inequality was not that big of a deal back in the day in respect to either texts. Furthermore, I think that Chandara confessed for a crime she did not even have a hand in because of helplessness as she knew that without even knowing, everybody including the magistrate, police, and people of village have believed perfectly that she is the one to kill Radha. Whereas, Du Tenth eventually commits suicide as she realizes that there will never be any freedom, love, or respect in her life no matter what. Overall, both stories depict stereotypical issues of the early decades such as inequality, discrimination, and dehumanization majorly against females which were surely widespread throughout the world.