When Ramlochan entered the house shortly his brother had killed his sister-in-law, Chidam blamed his wife, Chandara, for the murder in order to save his brother from being hanged. Upon Ramlochan suggesting that Chidam should say Dukhiram killed his wife, Chidam responded that he only has one brother and that he can find another wife if this one dies. Thus, Chidam devalued his wife’s life. In addition, the back story Rabindranath provides us with on page 896, clearly shows that Chidam was not able to control his wife the way he wanted to, and was fearful of her leaving him. When Chidam’s  effort to  restrain her by physical abuse and confinement was ineffective, he wished for her to die so that he can get some peace. Rabindranath also said “human beings can hate each other more than death”(page 896) further implying that Chidam hated his wife so much that he would rather have her dead than alive.

On the other hand, in few instances, Chidam’s love for his wife is proven to be strong and worth more than his own life. While he did frame his wife, he also did not realize the impact it would have on her and their life. As the story reads, “he forgot that a lie can be even more terrible (page 894)” implying that Chidam might find his wife’s life to be more important than he thought at the heat of the moment. After this realization, Chidam asked Ramlochan to help him exonerate his wife. Chidam and Ramlochan created a story to save Chandara from the death penalty. Chidam was considered to be eye candy among the village women, however he only had eyes for his young wife (page 896), so that didn’t matter to him. Towards the end of the story, when Chandara refused to plead not guilty, Chidam told the court that he killed his sister-in-law to save his wife showing that he valued Chandara’s life more than his own.

In conclusion, Rabindranath’s display of Chidam and Chandara’s love story is contradictory. It seems to me that Chidam was never able to make up his mind about whether to love his wife or hate her for being so stubborn and unpredictable.

The short story was adopted as a movie in 2004 in Bangladesh. The following parts of the movie are closely related to the actual story we are reading in class:

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGZR9IuMbt0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYmRG8uhKfU

Unfortunately, the parts do not have subtitles and the dialogues are in Bengali. However, the videos can provide a visualization of what the culture looks like.

Bartleby’s use of the word “prefer” is a powerful choice in this literature. While the meaning of the word is misleading and a source of irritation to his employer and co-workers, Bartleby was stolid and unaffected by their reaction. The dictionary definition of the word “prefer” is, “like (one thing or person) better than another or others; tend to choose” (www.oxforddictionaries.com). Preferring to do something often implies that if one had a choice, one would rather not perform the task, but in the case that one does not  have a choice, s/he will perform the task assigned. However, Bartleby uses “prefer” as a substitute for “no.” The first time Bartleby used his famous phrase, “I would prefer not to,” the narrator could not believe his ears. It took the lawyer a while to realize that Bartleby meant no in a polite manner and he was impervious to reasoning (page 302).  Bartleby chose to be polite yet obdurate in preserving his individuality throughout the course of the story by simply repeating, “I would prefer not to.”  In only one instance, Bartleby said no was when his vision was impaired and he decided not to do any more writing (page 311). His use of the word “prefer” can imply that he used “prefer” when he was physically and mentally capable of participating in examining the papers but he chose not to do so. The fact that he was unable to perform anymore writing because he was physically incapable of doing so, might have been important enough for him to say the word “no.”

Furthermore, involuntarily, everyone else in the office started using “prefer.” Annoyed with Bartleby’s behavior, which was augmented by his sour mood at the time, Turkey derided Bartleby’s use of the word “prefer.” Turkey also stated that he seldom uses the word “prefer,” yet upon asked to quit picking on Bartleby, his response was “Oh certainly, sir, if you prefer that I should” without realizing that he used “prefer” (page 310). I think Melville used “prefer” in his literature to show that a polite yet persistent use of a word can be influential enough for people to question their own individuality. People are bound by societal rules and feel threatened by the few who politely refuse to abide by the rules. Most people follow rules only because they feel they are supposed to, and individuals such as Bartleby implicitly force them to think about why they are doing what they are doing.