Problematic Representation of Woman in Rabindranath Tagore's The Home and the World

Abstract

The research has analyzed Tagore's problematic representation of woman in his novel The Home and the World. At one level Tagore seems empowering women by subverting the female stereotypes in the context of Hindu patriarchal society. Raising the voice of equality and freedom through the novel he rejects the traditional values and expectation associated with women in the patriarchal society. Bimala, the protagonist of the novel, comes out of the traditional domestic world into the outside world where she involves in social and political activities as a man does. On another level, Tagore is not totally free from patriarchal norms and values while representing women characters in his novel. The novel also reinforces the beliefs and values of traditional patriarchal society by showing women characters as inherently inferior and vulnerable as if a woman tries to cross the boundaries of home, welcomes disasters. Similarly, if she tries to defy the assigned role, she will be destroyed at last. Woman can not survive in the outer world. It is the home which safeguards women. Thus, the failure of female character like Bimala in the novel shows the deep rooted concept of female inferiority in masculine writing particular and society in general.