Tagore’s short story “Punishment,” tells the tale of a woman who is exhausted over her husband’s ruling over her. This story’s ethical problem is that women are looked at as inferior beings in comparison to the men. Chidam uses force and harmful language to intimidate his wife so that she obeys him. An example of Bengali women being inferior to men is shown here when Chidam says, “Thakur, If I lose my wife, I can get another, but if my brother is hanged, how I can I replace him” (895)? This shows that the men had little respect for women; they thought they were items that could be replaced and exchanged. They didn’t talk to their wives with mutual respect as they would to other men. The women in this story were oppressed, they were certainly treated unfairly. Chandara’s determination to die rather than be married to Chidam is an indication that she was burdened psychologically.
Assignment 7
October 30, 2015 Written by k.vataj | 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
1 response so far ↓
JMERLE // Oct 31st 2015 at 12:21 pm
Krystal.
Yes, you get at a central issue in this story, and you use a solid quote (one of the more famous quotes in this narrative). You allude to another issue, as well, the fact that the women are exhausted, which would also be interesting to explore, and something that we’ll talk about in class. You need, however, make an explicit connection to the ending.
9/10