TITLE OF AMAR JIBON

The story of “Amar Jiban” was written by Rassundari Devi .Through the title It can be understood
that the name Amar Jiban, indicates the whole life of Rassundari devi as the word “Amar” is the a
Bengali word that can be translated to “My” and the word “Jiban” can be translated as “Life” ,hence
the title of the story can be translated as “my life” indicating the life of the narrator, which also
reflects the life of other women living in the 19 th century of India. The story starts as a biography in
which the narrator reflects her life as a child , as a married women and as a widow . She speaks of
the things happened in her life from the most significant moment. While reflecting on her own life
she also has successfully reflected the life of other women in that time as she spoke of every rules,
regulations and restrictions which women at that time had to go through. In her biography she
speaks of her life being surrounded by men including her father, brothers, husband and sons, who
were responsible for taking decisions on her part as women were not given the right for taking
decisions for theirself. She says that she belonged from a male dominant patriarchal society where
women did not have any freedom but rather was forced to abide by the custom and rules which
men made for them to follow. She describes her childhood life through her memories where she
claims that she had a huge desire to study but was restricted to do so as she was a woman. She
claimed to have fulfilled her desire of studying by learning alphabets by seeing the way their
brothers use to read and write. She also says that she had to live with her father’s identity even
though he was dead, and her mother was the one to raise her. This shows how women at that time
had no self-identity and was only identified with the name of their father and husband throughout
their life. she speaks of the way she was force to marry a stranger but was not allowed to choose
who she would like to marry and after marriage she had to follow every custom of a married women
even though she did not want to do it. Through the biography, she shows how her real life fully
differs from the life she wanted to have, by havSing freedom of education and freedom of taking
decisions for self. Through the biography, Rassundari devi refers to her life being within a cage as her
life was spend behind the purdah and she had no freedom for what she wanted to do. Her struggle
of reading and writing was also seen within the biography, where she described the way she had to
hide a piece of paper and read it behind everyone’s eyes while she was in this kitchen, she also
speaks of the way she was forced to shave her head after her husband’s death which reflects how
her attachments, desire and wishes had no value as losing hair was equal to losing herself. Through
this, the narrator reflected the most significant incidents of her life, providing a view into her own
life as well as the life of women from 19 th century. Hence in the end it can be said that the title of the
story is justified as it has provided a detailed insight into the life of the writer.