The Conflict between Widowhood and Sexuality in Tagore’’s Chokher Bali

Abstract

Rabindranath Tagore epitomizes the dilemmas of the young widows who are the victims of the orthodox society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Widow Remarriage Act could not change the mentality of the people; through the contribution of social reformers such as Tagore critically analyses Binodini’s psychology, tension, inner agony as a beautiful widow with has western education. She has desires, passion and intelligence to fulfil her incomplete desire with Mahendra. She enjoys the game of love with Mahendra, but at the same time, she wants to captivate Behari, who is most virtuous in character. This paper attempts to explore the critical condition of Binodini, who fulfils her sexual desires with Mahendra and later rejects his marriage proposal. She realizes that the conservative society will not allow widow-remarriage.