Literature-Critique

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story of a triangular love-affair. A babu leaves his wife for a widow whose marriage
proposal he rejected some years ago. Thereafter that widow gets proposal for
marriage from that babu’s friend. But finally rejecting both of them, she takes a
pilgrim’s life. Unlike his predecessor Bankim, Tagore recognizes a widow’s right for
love-affair, although however, does not feel necessary to give it a marriage license.
Later Saratchandra Chattopadhyay too was largely influenced by this novel.
His Shesher Kabita (The Last Poem) is an amazing Romantic novel set in the
20 th -century urban background. Most of the characters here, including the
protagonist (Amit), belong to the bourgeois elite class, and their persona is shallow.
They are modern men. The main theme is: as love fades in the dullness of marital
life, a couple decides not to marry each other in order to eternalize their love. Here
the writer places love beyond all monotony and superficiality of conjugal triviality.
Shey (S/he) is a novel out of the mainstream of fictional literature. Here the
author’s way of telling sometimes reminds us of Postmodernist forms of writing.
Tagore’s novels have a general mistake: his characters, irrespective of their
age or academic qualification, appear to be matured enough to talk highly
philosophical words. This fault has to some extent, diminished the worth of his
fictions.
Tagore’s short stories are unique and empathetic; eternal human sorrows and
joys are depicted in these stories and are worthy to be ranked with those of
Maupassant, Chekov and O’ Henry. His short stories are not based on any intricate
themes, rather they tell us of eternal humanistic ideas like father’s affection,
childhood love, the sorrows of a boy who is separated from his mother, a dumb girl’s
mental agonies, women’s sufferings in loveless marital life, one’s love for a tree that
one has seen from childhood etc.
His “Postmaster”, “Khudhita Pashan” (“The Hungry Stones”), “Nastanir” (“The
Spoilt Nest”), “Madhyabartini” (“The Middle Woman”), “Monihara” (“The Lost Jewel”),
“Malyadan” (“Awarding of Garland”), “Guptadhan” (“The Hidden Treasure”), “Balai”,
“Laboratory” – all have eternal appeal in the world of short story.
“Postmaster” is the story of a town man, whose mind has grown up with selfcenteredness
because of urban civilization and who creates an escapist logic to
leave an orphan and helpless village girl who loves him. That man’s escapist moral
is that none belongs to none in this world.
“Khudhita Pashan” is apparently a Gothic horror story but it in fact reveals the
dark history of medieval India’s sexual immorality.
“Nastanir” tells us about the alienation of a married couple. The wife, who
leads a lonely life for her husband’s unconcern, falls in love with her brother-in-law,
which finally leads to the breaking down of their marital life.
“Madhyabartini” tells us how marital life was often devastated by child
marriage and polygamy in the 19 th century. Here the husband and his wife both are
responsible for this family disaster. The wife provokes her husband to marry an
under-aged girl, and after the marriage, they get isolated from each other day by
day. At last the immature girl dies leaving them ashamed, repented and emotionally
detached.