Commodification of women in Kahlil Gibran’s The Broken Wings

Abstract

Kahlil Gibran’s The Broken Wings depicts the sufferings of a woman, who is in love with the worldly ways; but ends up being a commodity of the male world. Selma Keramy, the tragic heroine of the novel, is a beautiful woman trapped in the patriarchal world dominated by male hegemony. She is a mere object for her father, who, in a way, finds her as an instrument to relieve self from the debt which he has taken from the Bishop of the village. On the other hand, the Bishop wants Selma to marry his nephew in return of her father’s loan. Similarly, the narrator is all alone in this world and is in a situation, where his body and soul need a woman to satiate self from his self-imposed agony. He wants to come out of this self-imposed solitary world, and the beautiful Selma becomes his vehicle. As such, in all ways, Selma (female) ends up being a commodity to the male world, either in one or the other way.