Tagore's Ambivalence towards Women: A Study of His Selected Short Stories

Abstract

Third World feminism is one of the critical tools for representing women’s issues of the Third World developing countries because the Western Anglo- American feminism cannot represent the distinct experiences and problems of the non- Anglo- American women. The issues of the color and South Asian women’s issues are much distinct than the issues of the so-called First World women. Female characters of Rabindranath Tagore’s stories, being set in the Third World, undergo many distinct issues such as complexities of widowhood, ingrained Kulinism, early marriages and its repercussions, dowry and dowry related violence, age-old traditions and customs, and the issue of sexuality. Tagore’s ambivalence is noticeable in his representation of these female characters in his short stories. On the one hand, they seem submissive, emotional, docile, and the sheer victim of patriarchy. And, at the same time, they are represented as inspiring heroines.