Analysis of Punishment by Rabindranath Tagore

 

Punishment by Rabindranath Tagore is a beautifully written dark satire portraying the pitiful state of society in the 20^th century India. The short story revolves around the concept of betrayal and late realization causing the deaths of both of the female characters. The story subtly highlights the big issues of gender discrimination and economic disparity. It doesn’t take long for a reader to realize Thakur’s satirical representation of women as suppressed, expendable, and dehumanized objects.

The story starts with an ecstatic representation of the scene by the author, and the female leads are painted as quarrelsome and aggressive which leads the reader to realize the crux of the story. Sooner, rather than later the first wife is killed off, depicting the insignificance of females in the patriarchal society of the 20^th century. Another interpretation of the scene could be the clear power imbalance shown between a man and a woman, where the woman is shown shouting at the man for not providing food, and the man instead of replying striking her off with a knife resulting in her instant death. This barbarous act clearly shows the disregard for the already sub-represented gender.

Another example of snubbing off of women follows soon. When the elder wife, Radha, is killed off, Chandara’s husband presses his hand over her mouth. This scene admirably delineates the suppression of the females of the society, who aren’t let to voice their opinion to the outside world. One more specimen of this bigotry can easily be felt by checking when the female characters are named. The story starts off by naming both the male characters, but it is not until the 5^th paragraph, we get to know the names of the two wives, painting an image of insignificance and invisibility of women in the society and portraying them as the household and kitchen keepers, their sole responsibility being bearing children and making food. This subtle yet pinch-perfect representation of the status of women is what separates Rabindranath Thakur from other writers.

Then comes the description of both the women and it is not long before we see Tagore’s satirical objectification of Chandara, comparing her to a young boat, meaning to present the trend of women’s objectification in the society which even prevails to date. Chandara’s husband Chidam is also seen calling her wife as replaceable and his brother as irreplaceable which can be interpreted as a gender superiority depiction, although this point of view may split the readers’ opinion as he can be considered right that his “real” brother cannot be ever replaced. The character of Ramlochan symbolized the author’s perspective into the story by indirectly telling Chidam to tell the truth to the officials instead of lying, and save his wife, who was indeed innocent. This may be considered as the ideal follow-up of the situation if the betrayal didn’t happen. Another instant of gender-bias is seen when Chandara is considered guilty even if the men confessed the crimes, illustrating the gender-based biased judgemental procedure taken up by society.

After the wife is told to confess for a crime she didn’t commit, we see a totally different representation of women. Bold, purposeful, and fierce Chandara didn’t want to be freed and voiced her opinion of demanding equality and respect without uttering a word. She totally opposed the notion of being quarrelsome and petty, as she was painted earlier in the story, and wanted her husband to suffer for the betrayal throughout his life by blaming himself for her death. In the end, the author shows the true reason for writing such a story and we can’t do anything but feel guilty for apparently just reading it.