About Robert

Robert browning was a Victorian novelist and poet. The two

monologues present powerful and strong women who get killed
by jealous and insecure men. Browning’s poems were part of a
protest against the oppression of women by the patriarchal
society. Some of his poetry is a call for the suffrage movement and
he is known as a proto- feminist.

THE LAST DUCHESS

Summary
This poem is loosely based on historical events involving Alfonso, the Duke of Ferrara,
who lived in the 16th century. The Duke is the speaker of the poem, and tells us he is
entertaining an emissary who has come to negotiate the Duke’s marriage (he has recently
been widowed) to the daughter of another powerful family. As he shows the visitor
through his palace, he stops before a portrait of the late Duchess, apparently a young and
lovely girl. The Duke begins reminiscing about the portrait sessions, then about the
Duchess herself. His musings give way to a diatribe on her disgraceful behaviour: he
claims she flirted with everyone and did not appreciate his “gift of a nine-hundred-years-
old name.” As his monologue continues, the reader realizes with ever-more chilling
certainty that the Duke in fact caused the Duchess’s early demise: when her behavior
escalated, “[he] gave comman. Then all smiles stopped together.” Having made this
disclosure, the Duke returns to the business at hand: arranging for another marriage, with
another young girl. As the Duke and the emissary walk leave the painting behind, the
Duke points out other notable artworks in his collection.
Form
“My Last Duchess” comprises rhyming pentameter lines. the use of the word "last" in the
title implies that there are several others, perhaps with curtain-covered paintings along
the same hallway where this one stands. In the same way that the age of his name gives
it credence, so does he seems fit with a life of repeated gestures, one of which he is
ready to make again with the count's daughter. The lines do not employ end-stops; rather,
they use enjambment—that is, sentences and other grammatical units do not necessarily
conclude at the end of lines. Consequently, the rhymes do not create a sense of closure
when they come, but rather remain a subtle driving force behind the Duke’s compulsive
revelations. The Duke is quite a performer: he mimics others’ voices, creates hypothetical
situations, and uses the force of his personality to make horrifying information seem
merely colourful. Indeed, the poem provides a classic example of a dramatic monologue:
the speaker is clearly distinct from the poet; an audience is suggested but never appears
in the poem; and the revelation of the Duke’s character is the poem’s primary aim.

Commentary

A remarkably amoral man nevertheless has a lovely sense of beauty and of how to
engage his listener.
But Browning has more in mind than simply creating a colorful character and placing him
in a picturesque historical scene. Rather, the specific historical setting of the poem harbors
much significance: the Italian Renaissance held a particular fascination for Browning
and his contemporaries, for it represented the flowering of the aesthetic and the human
alongside, or in some cases in the place of, the religious and the moral. Thus the temporal
setting allows Browning to again explore sex, violence, and aesthetics as all entangled,
complicating and confusing each other: the lushness of the language belies the fact that
the Duchess was punished for her natural sexuality. The Duke’s ravings suggest that most
of the supposed transgressions (go beyond the limits of (what is morally, socially, or
legally acceptable) took place only in his mind. Like some of Browning’s fellow
Victorians, the Duke sees sin lurking in every corner. The reason the speaker here gives
for killing the Duchess ostensibly differs from that given by the speaker of “Porphyria’s
Lover” for murder Porphyria; however, both women are nevertheless victims of a male
desire to inscribe and fix female sexuality. The desperate need to do this mirrors the
efforts of Victorian society to mould the behaviour—sexual and otherwise—of
individuals. For people confronted with an increasingly complex and anonymous modern
world, this impulse comes naturally: to control would seem to be to conserve and
stabilize. The Renaissance was a time when morally dissolute men like the Duke
exercised absolute power, and as such it is a fascinating study for the Victorians: works
like this imply that, surely, a time that produced magnificent art like the Duchess’s portrait
couldn’t have been entirely evil in its allocation of societal control—given though it put
men like the Duke in power.
A poem like “My Last Duchess” calculatedly engages its readers on a psychological
level. Because we hear only the Duke’s musings, we must piece the story together
ourselves. Browning forces his reader to become involved in the poem in order to
understand it, and this adds to the fun of reading his work. It also forces the reader to
question his or her own response to the subject portrayed and the method of its
portrayal. We are forced to consider, Which aspect of the poem dominates: the horror of
the Duchess’s fate, or the beauty of the language and the powerful dramatic development?
Thus by posing this question the poem firstly tests the Victorian reader’s response to the
modern world—it asks, Has everyday life made you numb yet?—and secondly asks a
question that must be asked of all art—it queries, Does art have a moral component, or is
it merely an aesthetic exercise(beauty)? In these latter considerations Browning
prefigures writers like Charles Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde.
The first contradiction to consider is how charming the duke actually is. It would be
tempting to suggest Browning wants to paint him as a weasel, but knowing the poet's love
of language, it's clear that he wants us to admire a character who can manipulate language
so masterfully. Further, the duke shows an interesting complication in his attitudes on
class when he suggests to the envoy that they "go Together down," an action not expected
in such a hierarchical society. By no means can we justify the idea that the duke is
willing to transcend class, but at the same time he does allow a transgression of the
very hierarchy that had previously led him to have his wife murdered rather than
discuss his problems with her.
The last thing to point out in the duke's language is his use of euphemism. The way he
explains that he had the duchess killed – "I gave commands; Then all smiles stopped
together"
Shmoop Editorial Team.https://www.shmoop.com/my-last-duchess/section-1-lines-1-
13-summary.html
Refusing to deign to "lesson" her on her unacceptable love of everything, he instead "gave
commands" to have her killed.
He was driven to murder by her refusal to save her happy glances solely for him.
the Duke of Ferrara demonstrates many narcissistic tendencies as he recalls the time he
shared with his now-deceased Duchess. Even in death the Duke wished to hide her away
behind the curtain where no other man could admire her beauty. The Duke then resumes
an earlier conversation regarding wedding arrangements, and in passing points out
another work of art, a bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse by Claus of Innsbruck,
so making his late wife but just another work of art.

PORPHRIA LOVER
the irony is abundantly clear: the speaker has committed an atrocious act and yet justifies
it as not only acceptable, but as noble.
Porphyria, it is implied, is a rich lady of high social standing, while the speaker, out in
his remote cabin, is not. She has chosen on this night to leave the social order of the world
and retreat into the chaos of the storm to quell her tumultuous feelings for this narrator.
Thus there is some indication of the theme of class, though it is far less pervasive in the
poem than are the large questions of human nature. When the speaker realizes that
Porphyria ultimately will choose to return to the order of society, while simultaneously
believing that she wishes to be with him – she "worshipp'd" him, after all – he chooses to
immortalize this moment by removing her ability to leave.
So what the speaker undertakes is in some ways a fallacious yet heroic goal: to save
Porphyria from the tumultuous contradictions of human nature, to preserve her in a
moment of pure happiness and contentment with existing in chaos.
The overarching message of the poem is thus that humans are full of contradictions.
We are drawn to both the things we love and the things we hate, and we are eminently
capable of rationalizing either choice. Through such measured and considered language,
we are invited to approve of the murder even as it disgusts us, and in the murder itself we
are to forgive the woman for what we (at least if we were Victorian) might have otherwise
judged her. Humans are creatures of transience and chaos, even as we belabour (attack
verbally or physically) the attempt to convince ourselves that we are rational and that our
choices are sound.
Summary
“Porphyria’s Lover,” which first appeared in 1836, is one of the earliest and most
shocking of Browning’s dramatic monologues. The speaker lives in a cottage in the
countryside. His lover, a blooming young woman named Porphyria, comes in out of storm
and proceeds to make a fire and bring cheer to the cottage. She embraces the speaker,
offering him her bare shoulder. He tells us that he does not speak to her. Instead, he says,
she begins to tell him how she has momentarily overcome societal strictures to be with
him. He realizes that she “worship[s]” him at this instant. Realizing that she will
eventually give in to society’s pressures, and wanting to preserve the moment, he wraps
her hair around her neck and strangles her. He then toys with her corpse, opening the eyes
and propping the body up against his side. He sits with her body this way the entire night,
the speaker remarking that God has not yet moved to punish him.
Form
“Porphyria’s Lover,” while natural in its language, does not display the colloquialisms or
dialectical markers of some of Browning’s later poems. Moreover, while the cadence of
the poem mimics natural speech, it actually takes the form of highly patterned verse,
rhyming ABABB. The intensity and asymmetry of the pattern
This poem is a dramatic monologue—a fictional speech presented as the musings of a
speaker who is separate from the poet. Like most of Browning’s other dramatic
monologues, this one captures a moment after a main event or action. Porphyria already
lies dead when the speaker begins. Just as the nameless speaker seeks to stop time by
killing her, so too does this kind of poem seek to freeze the consciousness of an instant.
Commentary
“Porphyria’s Lover” opens with a scene taken straight from the Romantic poetry of the
earlier nineteenth century. While a storm rages outdoors, giving a demonstration of nature
at its most sublime, the speaker sits in a cozy cottage. This is the picture of rural
simplicity—a cottage by a lake, a rosy-cheeked girl, a roaring fire. However, once
Porphyria begins to take off her wet clothing, the poem leaps into the modern world. She
bares her shoulder to her lover and begins to caress him; this is a level of overt sexuality
that has not been seen in poetry since the Renaissance. We then learn that Porphyria is
defying her family and friends to be with the speaker; the scene is now not just sexual,
but transgressive also. Illicit sex out of wedlock presented a major concern for Victorian
society; the famous Victorian “prudery” constituted only a backlash to what was in fact a
popular obsession with the theme: the newspapers of the day revealed in stories about
prostitutes and unwed mothers. Here, however, in “Porphyria’s Lover,” sex appears as
something natural, acceptable, almost wholesome: Porphyria’s girlishness and
affection take prominence over any hints of immorality.
For the Victorians, modernity meant numbness: urban life, with its constant over-
stimulation and newspapers full of scandalous and horrifying stories, immunized people
to shock. Many believed that the onslaught of amorality and the constant assault on
the senses could be counteracted only with an even greater shock. This is the
principle Browning adheres to in “Porphyria’s Lover.” In light of contemporary
scandals, the sexual transgression might seem insignificant; so Browning breaks through
his reader’s probable complacency by having Porphyria’s lover murder her; and thus he
provokes some moral or emotional reaction in his presumably numb audience. This is not
to say that Browning is trying to shock us into condemning either Porphyria or the speaker
for their sexuality; rather, he seeks to remind us of the disturbed condition of the modern
psyche. In fact, “Porphyria’s Lover” was first published, along with another poem, under
the title Madhouse Cells, suggesting that the conditions of the new “modern” world
served to blur the line between “ordinary life”—for example, the domestic setting of this
poem—and insanity—illustrated here by the speaker’s action.
This poem, like much of Browning’s work, conflates sex, violence, and aesthetics. Like
many Victorian writers, Browning was trying to explore the boundaries of sensuality in
his work. How is it that society considers the beauty of the female body to be immoral
while never questioning the morality of language’s sensuality—a sensuality often most
manifest in poetry? Why does society see both sex and violence as transgressive? What
is the relationship between the two? Which is “worse”? These are some of the questions
that Browning’s poetry posits. And he typically does not offer any answers to them:
Browning is no moralist, although he is no libertine either. As a fairly liberal man, he is
confused by his society’s simultaneous embrace of both moral righteousness and a
desire for sensation; “Porphyria’s Lover” explores this contradiction.
Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Porphyria's Lover: Lines 46-55
Summary. Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://www.shmoop.com/porphyrias-
lover/lines-46-55-summary.html
Wikipedia
The "Porphyria" persona's romantic egotism leads him into all manner of monstrously
selfish assumptions compatible with his own longings. He seems convinced that
Porphyria wanted to be murdered, and claims "No pain felt she" while being strangled,
adding, as if to convince himself, "I am quite sure she felt no pain." He may even believe
she enjoyed the pain, because he, her lover, inflicted it. When she's dead, he says she's
found her "utmost will," and when he sees her lifeless head drooping on his shoulder, he
describes it as a "smiling rosy little head", possibly using the word "rosy" to symbolise
the red roses of love, or to demonstrate his delusion that the girl, and their relationship,
are still alive. More likely, however, is the thought that blood returning to her face, after
the strangulation, makes her cheeks "rosy." Her "rosy little head" may also be a sly
reference to the hymen; Porphyria leaves a "gay feast" and comes in from the outside
world wearing "soiled gloves"; now her blue eyes, open in death, are "without a
stain".[4] The lover may also be a fetishist, indicated by the fact that he refers to her hair
numerous times throughout the poem, and strangles her with it. He also refers to the "shut
bud that holds a bee" which backs up the view of it being a sexual fetish.
Since the speaker may (as many speculate[who?]) be insane, it is impossible to know the
true nature of his relationship to Porphyria. Theories, some of them rather bizarre,
abound: some contemporary scholars suggest, for example, that the persona may be a
woman; if so, the strangulation could stem from frustration with the world.[citation
needed] An incestuous relationship has also been suggested; Porphyria might be the
speaker's mother or sister. Another possibility is that she is a former lover, now betrothed,
or even married, to some other man. Alternatively, she may simply be some kind lady
who has come to look in on him, or even a figment of his imagination.
Other sources speculate that the lover might be impotent, disabled, sick, or otherwise
inadequate, and, as such, unable to satisfy Porphyria. There is much textual evidence to
support this interpretation: he describes himself as "one so pale / for love of her, and all
in vain." At the beginning of the poem, the persona never moves; he sits passively in a
cold, dark room, sadly listening to the storm until Porphyria comes through "wind and
rain", "shuts the cold out and the storm," and makes up his dying fire. Finally, she sits
beside him, calls his name, places his arm around her waist, and puts his head on her
shoulder; she has to stoop to do this. At the poem's midpoint, the persona suddenly takes
action, strangling Porphyria, propping her body against his, and boasting that
afterward, her head lay on his shoulder.
In line with the persona's suggested weakness and sickness, other scholars take the word
"porphyria" literally, and suggest that the seductress embodies a disease, and that the
persona's killing of her is a sign of his recovery. Porphyria, which usually involved
delusional madness and death, was classified several years before the poem's publication;
Browning, who had an avid interest in such pathologies, may well have been aware of the
new disease, and used it in this way to express his knowledge.[5]
Much has been made of the final line: "And yet, God has not said a word!" Possibly, the
speaker seeks divine condonement for the murder. He may believe God has said nothing
because He is satisfied with his actions. God may be satisfied because: He recognises
that the persona's crime is the only way to keep Porphyria pure; or, because He
doesn't think her life and death are important compared to the persona's. The
persona may also be waiting in vain for some sign of God's approval. Alternatively, the
line may represent his feelings of emptiness in the wake of his violence; Porphyria is
gone, quiet descends, and he's alone. The persona may also be schizophrenic; he may be
listening for a voice in his head, which he mistakes for the voice of God. It has also been
postulated that this is Browning's statement of "God's silence," in which neither good nor
bad acts are immediately recompensed by the deity.
The final line may also register the persona's sense of guilt over his crime. Despite his
elaborate justifications for his act, he has, in fact, committed murder, and he expects God
to punish him – or, at least, to take notice. The persona is surprised, perhaps a little uneasy,
at God's continued silence.

Whether Tagore’s fictional constructs - Mrinmayi, Uma or

Mrinal - are the embodiments of his real life acquaintances or not
is a matter of debate. Yet, there can be no doubt in considering
that Tagore was highly inspired by the wave of emancipation that
gave birth to a sense of freedom in the minds of the nineteenth
century women.
THE EXERCISE BOOK
Bindu’s suicide is condemned by many but Mrinal interprets it as an act of
assertion, one which enables the girl to transcend her imprisonment. She never seeks
solace in the deathbed. Rather, Mrinal chooses a life that would be her own. Instead
of searching security within the confines of four walls, Mrinal tends to justify her
position in the vast cosmos. While the tales represent the experiences of fictional
characters, it should not be forgotten that they represent Tagore’s sensitive
evaluation of the condition of contemporary women. The short stories acknowledge
the desire and the urgency to allow contemporary women to script a space of their
own.
Exercise-Book (Khata) explores another forceful interruption of social norms, thereby,
curbing the spirit of Uma. Though named after the warrior goddess of Hindu mythology
(Durga), Uma fails to imbibe the deity’s strength. The Exercise Book’ by Rabindranath
Tagore is a short story. It deals with the themes of contradiction between age-long
prejudice against female education and new progressive thought of equality in
educational opportunities for woman. Along with this theme, the theme of child
marriage is also juxtaposed in the story. Bindu’s suicide is condemned by many but
Mrinal interprets it as an act of assertion, one which enables the girl to transcend her
imprisonment.
The protagonist of the short story is a little girl named Uma. As a child, she was an
exception as she had a chance to attend school. But as soon as she learnt to write, she
became a nuisance in the eyes of others. She took to scribble on every wall of their house.
She would draw unnecessary lines with a piece of coal and she wrote the rhyme:
‘Raindrops on treetops’. With huge scrawled letters, she obliterated most of the
auspicious dates in the new almanac kept for the household use. Right in the middle of
the credits column in her father’s account book, she wrote:
”He who writes and studies hard
Will one day ride a horse and cart.”
Uma had a brother named Gobindalal who occasionally wrote essays on physiology. One
day she took out her brother’s pen and ink and scribbled on an essay written by her
brother. When her brother came to see her wickedness, he became angry and confiscated
her store of writing implements — a stubby pencil, a blunt ink-pot and a stained pen. The
humiliated little girl, unable to fully understand the reason for so severe a punishment, sat
in a corner of the room and cried.
After the period of discipline was over, Gobindalal returned Uma’s looted property and
tried to assuage her by presenting her with a bound-rolled stout exercise book. Uma was
then seven years old. From that day on, that exercise book was with her almost all the
time. At night she put that under her pillow and at the day she carried the book with her
to the village girl’s school. The sight of it arouses wonder in some of the girls and greed
and envy in others.
In the first year, she wrote carefully in her exercise book the rhyme, “The birds sing, the
night is past”. She would sit on the floor of her bedroom clutching the exercise book and
write, read and declaim loudly in a sing-song voice. In this way, she collected many lines
of prose and poetry.
In the second year, a few independent compositions began to make their appearance in
her exercise book. They were very brief but extremely pregnant, lacking both introduction
and conclusion. On it, she had copied out of the tale of the tiger and heron from
Kathamala. Between the lines, she sometimes wrote some independent sentences which
had not been in any book. As for example: ‘I love Jashi very much.’
Thus the Exercise Book presented by her brother Gobindalal bears a great significance
for little Uma. For Uma, it is not only a notebook but it was a medium to evolve and
express her own emotion and feeling. It symbolises her struggle to come out of the
age-long prejudice against woman education. In other words to say it is a token of
revolt against inequality between boys and girls in enjoying opportunities to learn
reading and writing.
Secondly, the author had depicted the theme of child marriage in the story and along
with it, the author had given a peep towards the outlook of others to woman
education. Uma, as a social custom, became a victim of child marriage at the age of
nine. She was married to Pyarimohan, one of Gobindalal’s literary associates. Although
he was not so old and had received some education, his mind had remained entirely closed
to new ways of thought. For this reason, he was highly regarded by his neighbours and
Gobindalal tried to follow his example though without complete success.
When Uma set out for her husband’s house, her mother told her. ”Listen to your mother-
in-law, darling, attend to the household, don’t spend all time reading and writing.” Her
elder brother Gobindalal told her, ‘Remember not to scratch letters on the walls.” He also
warned her not to scribble on any of Pyarimohan’s writings.
Jashi went with Uma to stay for a few days to settle Uma in the new house. Jashi took
Uma’s exercise book along with her to the new home. The book was a part of Uma’s
paternal house, a loving reminder of her brief stay in the house. It brought a savour of
tender freedom to the little girl in the midst of her premature wifeliness.
During the first few days, Uma wrote nothing in her exercise book. She had no time. At
length, some days later, Jashi returned to her former residence. That day Uma shut the
door of her bedroom in the afternoon, took the exercise book out of her tin box and wrote
tearfully in it: ”Joshi had gone home, I want to go back to Mother too.”
Uma no longer had the leisure to copy anything out of Charupath or the Bodhodoy. After
some days she wrote in her exercise book, ”If Dada comes to take me home just once, I’ll
never spoil his writings again.” Uma’s father often wanted to bring Uma home, but
Gobindalal teamed up with Pyarimohan to frustrate these plans. He said that it was the
time for Uma to learn devotion to her husband. Having heard people say this, Uma
wrote in her exercise book, ”Dad, I beg of you, take me home just once. I’ll never make
you angry again.”
One day Uma has shut the door and was writing some meaningless triviality in her
exercise book. In the meantime, her sister-in-law Tilakmajari became exceedingly curious
and took a peep through the crack of the door. Then her younger sister Kanamanjari and
the still younger Anangamanjari came and had a peep through the crack. Suddenly they
burst into laughter. As she was writing, Uma suddenly heard the laughter of three familiar
voices outside the room. She realised what was happened. She hastily closed the exercise
book and hid her face on the bed in shame.
When Uma’s husband Pyarimohan heard this, he got much disturbed. He thought if
women began to read and write novels and plays, then it would be very hard to
uphold the household virtues.
Therefore Uma’s husband Pyarimohan, by special reflection evolved an exceedingly
subtle theory. He said that the power of the female and the power of male together
produced the sacred power of conjugal relationship, but if the power of the female was
vanquished through education and study, the power of the male alone would be
paramount. The male power would clash with male power to produce so terrible a
destructive energy that the power of the conjugal bond would be completely destroyed.
For many days after that, Uma wrote nothing in her exercise book. But one day, on an
autumn morning, a beggar woman was singing an Agamani (advent of Durga Devi) song
outside. Uma sat listening to the song silently at the window resting her face on the
bar. Uma could not sing but since her learning to write, she has developed the habit of
writing down any song she heard to lessen the pain of not being able to sing it. The beggar
woman sang:
”The folk of the city say to Uma’s mother:
‘Your lost light has returned.’
At this, half-crazed, the queen rushes out
Where are you, Uma, where are you!
…………………………………………………..
Why did not you come to fetch your daughter?”
Hearing the song, Uma’s heart welled up, her eyes filled with tears. She called the singer
secretly to her room, shut the door and began to write down the song in her eccentric
spelling. In the meantime, her sisters-in-laws observed everything through the crack of
the door and suddenly burst out, clapping their hands and said, ‘Boudidi we’ve seen what
you’re doing!
Uma quickly unfastened the door, came out and began to plead with them, ‘Darling
sisters, please don’t tell anybody, I beg you, please don’t, I’ll never do it again. I’ll never
write again –.” Tilakmanjari went to summon her brother, Pyarimohan. He came in and
sat down grimly on the bed. He said in a voice like thunder, ‘Give me the exercise book.’
Seeing that his command was not obeyed, he lowered his voice a couple of notes and said,
‘give it to me.’
The little girl clapped the exercise book to her chest and directed a glance of utter
supplication at her husband’s face. But when Pyarimohan was getting up to snatch the
book from her, she flung it down, covered her face with her hands and collapsed on the
floor.
After that day, Uma never got back her exercise book.
Thus the author of the short story has made a vivid portrayal of child marriage. He shows
Uma’s eagerness to reading and writing and thus the story bears the strong reformist
plea for greater equality in educational opportunities for men and women.
Tagore strongly felt the need for social reforms, particularly in the areas of
education, gender equality and child marriage. Most often we see his concerns penned
down in his short stories and novels.

THE WIFE’S LETTER

Summary
 Tagore's story is written in epistolary(in form of letters) form - the letter from
the wife forms the entire text. The film uses the letter as a frame for the narrative.
It tells the story of Mrinal (Madhabi Mukherjee), a young woman from a poor
family, married into an aristocratic joint family of Calcutta. She is chosen as a
bride because of her beauty. However, it is her intelligence that turns out to
be the key factor in the story. Women in the family lead a life that is confined to
the kitchen and the bedroom. Mrinal's sister-in-law (Smita Sinha) accepts the
system unquestioningly. Mrinal is different; she takes an independent stance on
several domestic matters, and secretly writes poetry. Her daughter dies soon after
birth. Mrinal's life changes when Bindu (Rajeshwari Roychowdhury), her sister-
in-law's sister, comes to stay. The family is not happy at this development. They
treat Bindu like an unpaid servant, with Mrinal alone standing up for her. To get
 rid of the problem, the men force Bindu into an arranged marriage, and even her
sister considers this to be the best solution. However, Bindu's husband (Nimu
Bhowmick) turns out to be mentally unstable and violent. Once again, Bindu seeks
shelter with her sister. Now, however, the situation has become untenable, and
Bindu commits suicide. Meanwhile, Mrinal has managed to get permission to go
on a pilgrimage to Puri with relatives. Through these tragic events, she has come
to realise that women have no freedom in a patriarchal society. Standing on the
seashore at Puri, she makes up her mind, and writes a letter to her husband declaring
that she would never return to their house.

 This is an epistolary story i.e. the story unfolds within a letter. Mrinal writes the
letter to her husband of 15 years. As she reminisces on her past and their life
together we learn of their arranged marriage when Mrinal was a mere child of 12.
Her husband’s family, though not outright cruel, are mostly indifferent to her,
as is her husband. Her beauty is considered her only asset and her intelligence
is treated as an affliction. Then one day, Bindu walks into their home and family.
Bindu is the orphaned, unwanted younger sister of the family’s eldest daughter-in-
law. Mrinal takes the scared and abused girl under her wing and starts to care for
her. Bindu in turn, adores Mrinal and the two create a sort of parallel world of their
own. But then Bindu’s marriage is arranged to a mentally unstable man and she is
to have no say in the matter. Mrinal tries to fight for her but is powerless in the
face of her family’s adamant insistence. What follows is heart-wrenching to say
the least. “In Bengal no one has to search for jaundice, dysentery, or a bride; they
come and cleave to you on their own, and never want to leave.”

Another summary
 Mrinal wrote in her letter that her husband soon forgot that she was pretty and
proceeded to neglect her. However, the unpalatable fact that she was intelligent
was something that her husband and his family were constantly reminded of.
Mrinal commented in her letter that her innate intelligence had survived the
thraldom of fifteen long and laborious years of married life, not conducive to
emotional or mental growth. She remembered that her mother used to be very
worried of Mrinal’s intelligence, for in the conservative Bengali middle-class
milieu, intelligence and a capacity for independent thinking in a woman were
flaws and not virtues .A woman was expected to comply and bow down in front
of many restrictions and was bound to meet with opposition and obstacles if she
tried to use her powers of reasoning and question the correctness and validity of
existing rules and strictures. So, Mrinal had to face the flak in daring to question
and go against existing norms and was severely criticized for her precocity. In her
book Nabar examines some of the constraints implicit in being born a girl.
 The woman’s situation was marginal in her husband’s home; she was forever an
alien and an outsider and it was man-made laws and social strictures that made her
so.
 The girl child in India…is an alien’ from birth, a fact which is reinforced in later
life by innumerable tragic instances of deprivation and discrimination. Mrinal
soon realized that by giving shelter to Bindu, she had angered the entire
household. However, she determinedly made it clear to all that she had taken
Bindu under her wings. If anything, untoward happened in the household or
anything went missing, all members of the household promptly put the blame on
Bindu. Mrinal gave Bindu succour in the face of great antagonism and opposition.
Bindu blossomed in the secure haven of Mrinal’s love and grew very devoted to
Mrinal. As Bindu was of marriageable age, Mrinal’s in-laws finally found a ploy
to remove the unwanted girl from the household permanently, and hastily arranged
for Bindu’s marriage. Mrinal was very concerned about what the future had in store
for this dark, plain- looking, orphan girl after marriage and what sort of a house she
was marrying into, for no one had come to see Bindu from the groom’s family. Yet
Mrinal was aware of the harsh truth that there was no other option for Bindu
but marriage.
 Bindu was very upset and cried bitterly at the thought of separation from Mrinal
whom she dearly loved. For Bindu, marriage was a physical journey away from
all the caring comfort and protection of Mrinal’s love; as well as a mental
journey undertaken through the searing anguish of estrangement, the fear of
uncertainty, unseen predicament and danger. It was a moment of trial for her.
Rather than being separated from Mrinal, Bindu wished that she would die.
To describe her state one may use an animal image of a caged bird or a sacrificial
lamb. Mrinal knew that there was no escape for Bindu from getting married, but
she vowed to stay by Bindu’s side always, no matter what. Three days after Bindu’s
marriage she ran back from her husband’s house. She had discovered to her horror
that her husband was insane, a fact which had been deliberately suppressed by the
groom’s mother, who claimed madness was but a minor fault in a man. She had
even forced the terrified girl to spend the night with her insane husband after
marriage. Bindu had managed to escape unnoticed when her husband had fallen
asleep.
 Mrinal wrote in her letter to her husband that she was aggrieved at Bindu’s
suffering and ashamed of the reaction of her husband’s family who blamed Bindu
for running away from her mad husband. She was also sure that Bindu would die
rather than return back once again to Mrinal. But she remembered her own promise
not to forsake Bindu till the end. So, Mrinal sought help from her younger brother
Sarat in order to get news about Bindu, as Bindu would never dare to write a letter
to her, nor would any letter from Bindu ever reach Mrinal. On seeing Sarat and
Mrinal engaged in serious discussions, Mrinal’s husband enquired what nuisance
they were up to and whether they had smuggled Bindu back from her in-laws’
place. Mrinal retorted that if Bindu had returned, Mrinal would surely have kept
her hidden, but she would never return. From her husband Mrinal came 594 On
Reading ‘Streer Patra’, Mrinal’s Letter to Her Husband to know that Bindu had
escaped once again from her husband’s house. The news grieved her greatly for
she understood Bindu’s suffering, but she was helpless and could not do anything.
 It was revealed that Bindu had escaped to her cousin brothers’ house, much to their
displeasure, only to be returned back summarily to her in-laws’ place.
 In the meantime, an elderly relative of Mrinal’s family decided to go to Puri on
pilgrimage and Mrinal expressed her desire to accompany the lady. Mrinal’s
husband and in-laws were overjoyed on seeing this sign of religiosity in their
stubborn and rebellious daughter-in-law and were also relieved that she
would not be in Kolkata, thus avoiding any possibility of trouble relating to
Bindu’s affairs. Meanwhile Mrinal requested her brother Sarat to escort Bindu and
put her on the train taking Mrinal to Puri. Sarat, however returned with the shocking
and tragic news that Bindu had killed herself by setting herself on fire. She had left
a letter addressed to Mrinal, but it had been destroyed by her husband’s family.
Bindu’s act of killing herself was severely criticized by Mrinal’s husband’s family.
Mrinal, commented that poor Bindu had earned a bad name even in her death. Apart
from Mrinal, only Bindu’s sister shed tears for her secretly but she simultaneously
heaved a sigh of relief that Bindu was dead. Bindu’s martyrdom was
unacknowledged.

What was written in that letter

 her letter to her husband Mrinal wrote that she had decided never to return back to
her husband’s house again. She had witnessed Bindu’s tragedy and realised the
pathetic condition of women in society. She also felt that when society had
disowned Bindu, God had not cast her away. However powerful societal
oppression was, it could not hold Bindu prisoner forever. Death, which was more
powerful than any mortal agent and also the ultimate liberator, had claimed
her. In death Bindu had achieved greatness. From being an orphaned,
unwanted girl in a Bengali middle-class household, cast off by her own kin and
tricked into marriage to a madman, she had been set free by death and
transformed into an immortal soul, one with the great God Himself.
29. Nuncupative will - of a will or testament) declared orally as opposed to in writing, especially by
a mortally wounded soldier or sailor.

1. Abatement - removal of a nuisance

2. Abjuration - a solemn / renunciation of citizenship.
3. Acquittal – free from charge.
4. Act of indemnity – to protect an illegal act.
5. Adduce – cite as evidence
6. Alias – also known as
7. Ambulatory – place for walking(aisle) – mobile court
8. Reprobate – an unprincipled person
9. Arrears – money owed
10. Averment – an allegation
11. Bicameral – having two chambers
12. Blight notice
in planning law, a notice served on an authority proposing a development indicating that it has been attempting
to sell the property with no success and requiring the authority to purchase it because its value has been affecte
d by the plan.

13. Blue-chip - A blue chip is stock in a corporation with a national reputation for quality, reliability, and
the ability to operate profitably in good and bad times.

14. By laws - a regulation made by a local authority or corporation

15. Caveat – beware s
16. Certiorari - a writ or order by which a higher court reviews a case tried in a lower cour
17. Codicil - an addition or supplement that explains, modifies, or revokes a will or part of one.
18. Contingency – s+ubject to chance.
19. Contraband - goods that have been imported or exported illegally.
20. Diplomatic privilege – exemption enjoyed by diplomats
21. Double jeopardy- punishing for the same offence twice
22. Embezzlement - theft or misappropriation of funds placed in one's trust or belonging to one's
employer.

23. Ex-post-facto - An ex post facto law is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences of
actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law.

24. Forfeiture - the loss or giving up of something as a penalty for wrongdoing.

25. Judicial immunity - Judicial immunity is a form of legal immunity which protects judges and others
employed by the judiciary from liability resulting from their judicial actions.
26. Lien - a right to keep possession of property belonging to another person until a debt owed by
that person is discharged.

27. Mala fide – bad intention

28. Notary - a person authorized to perform certain legal formalities, especially to draw up or certify
contracts, deeds, and other documents for use in other jurisdictions.

30. Ombudsman - an official appointed to investigate individuals' complaints against a company or

organization, especially a public authority.

31. Perjury – misrepresenting under oath

32. Petty sessions - a magistrates' court for the summary trial of certain offences.
33. Prima facie – first impression
34. Probation - he release of an offender from detention, subject to a period of good behaviour under
supervision.

35. Rebutter – the person who rebut 2an instance of rebutting evidence or an accusation
36. Subrogation - the substitution of one person or group by another in respect of a debt or insurance
claim, accompanied by the transfer of any associated rights and duties.

37. Windfalls - a large amount of money that is won or received unexpectedly.

38. Repudiation - reject
39. Sabotage - deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political or military
advantage.

40. Solatium - thing given to someone as a compensation or consolation