Women of the 19 century most lived in a state little better than slavery and had no choices. Women had to obey men, because in most cases men held all the resources. On the other hand women always have been seeing as an abstract of a mystery, fairy and love. Though in works ”Punishment” by Rabindranath Tagore and ”La belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats ones can distinguish a woman who is vulnerable and is dependent on man, or a woman who is nubile and innocently seductive fairy. Keats and Tagore assign very different characteristics to the women.

Tagore wrote ”Punishment” based on his cultural experience in India. One significant aspect of the story was the role of women in the family and how they were treated by husbands. Generally, Indian culture discriminates on women. Many examples can be view right from the story. First, the wives both stayed home,clean the house, cooked. In addition, Radha looked after her son. Chandara and Radha were treated like they were not worthy, less important. In other words, husbands let them feel not valuable. An example of this when Dukiram comes home demanding food from his wife. Because it was not ready he kills in anger his “sloppy” wife. To help his brother, Chidam asked his wife Chandara to take the blame. Chandara willingly accepts the husband request to confess the crime. From this episode we can clearly see that he treated her like he was more important than her. She knew that it was no other way and she could only hide a protest inside herself. ‘In her thoughts, Chandara was saying to her husband, “I shall give my youth to the gallows instead of you. My final ties in this life will be with them.”‘ Consequently, this indicates that women back then were inferior to men and treated with no respect and had to follow what men say.

The image of a woman in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by Keats is viewed in a deferent perspective. In his ballad he sees woman as something significant and unrealistic. He falls in love with the Belle Dame instantly and is convinced that she too is in love with him; ”She looked at me as she did love”. The author describes her as “beautiful, a faery’s child”. She appears to us as a magnificent oblique. Furthermore, Keats seeking to withdraw from the duties and responsibilities of the reality into some kind of mysterious pleasure of a dream “And this is why I sojourn here”.  I think the central idea in the Keats writing was risking everything for a pleasure which can be so intoxicating. So, women by Keats shown as a beautiful fairy which can take power of a man because of his weaknesses.

Though both works ”Punishment” and ”La Belle Dame Sans Merci” assign very different characteristics to the women. In ”Punishment”, the woman is submissive, more obedient and passive and a victim of cruelty, whereas La belle Dame in “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” is more powerful than man because of her seductive and fairy image. Compare 19th  century to nowadays we have to take for granted that women have more rights and can speak up for themselves.