Problematic Representation of Woman in Rabindranath Tagore's The Home and The World
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Faculty of English
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
cannot 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.