Repression and Resistance of Female Characters in Tagore's Broken Ties

Abstract

The thesis explores the issues of repression and suppression of women of the then Bengali society and their resistance against male domination in Tagore's Broken Ties. The novel is about the revelation of personal redemption, female oppression and female empowerment. In the beginning, Tagore depicts two female characters Nabilala and Damini as passive and submissive characters. Nanibala cannot tolerate the sufferings, domination and exploitation of patriarchal society and commits suicide. But another character Damini resists against the same society. In the beginning, she is presented as an ordinary Hindu woman accepting everything what has been imposed upon her. When time moves on, she gradually discovers herself as an autonomous woman and struggles to claim herself and her right to self-determination beyond cultural constraints. Her experience of physical and emotional pain encourages her to revolt against the ritual that she has undergone. In that period marriage of a widow is an impossible deed but the character does it. She breaks the laws of particular society. Here, her decision against social norms and value shows her resistance against society. The present analysis takes theoretical insights from the Third World Feminism to explore the issues of the repression and resistance of female characters in the novel Broken Ties. The purpose of the research is to analyze how the female body become cause of suffering, how they have been victimized by the patriarchy and their repression and resistance respectively. With the help of the theoretical ideas of Third World Feminism, the research concludes that the female body has been the site of domination and resistance in the novel.