I began reading "The Home and the World" before the in-class lecture. Now that I've gained more knowledge concerning the partition, the role of the British, and the Nationalist movement, Tagore's words have acquired a new significance that is more meaningful than the love triangle at the surface of his novel. I understand now why Bimala would feel the urge to light fire to her foreign clothes as a pledge to the Swadeshi storm that surges in her blood and why Sandip's speech was so moving.
I am curious about Tagore's structural decision to make Bimala's story a frame narrative. The novel begins as Bimala introduces herself as her mother's daughter, a dark-faced young woman who is angry with the mirror. She speaks of cautiously, silently rising in the morning to "take the dust of [her] husband's feet without waking him" (18). She worships him. But, this description is all told in the past tense. At the entrance of the novel she has already been educated and exited the Purdah. She admits, "these words that I write seem to blush with shame in their prose setting" (19). Is her narrative voice unreliable, tainted by nostalgia and her new-found intelligence? And what is the purpose of having a revolving perspective when Bimala seems to be the heart of the novel?
Also, I noticed Bimala's ability to be both veiled and worshiped. As Sandip gives his speech, Bimala sees his eyes flash over her in the crowd and imagines herself transformed as "the sole representative of Bengal's womanhood"..."for we women are not only the deities of the household fire, but the flame of the soul itself" (31). Later, Sandip expresses that "it is our women who will save the country" (39). Tagore is fiddling with a world that restricts Bimala to the domestic sphere and places her behind a screen. Instead, men prompt her in conversation. Her husband pushes her to enter the universe beyond the home. This seems unconventional, impossible, exciting.
I am curious about Tagore's structural decision to make Bimala's story a frame narrative. The novel begins as Bimala introduces herself as her mother's daughter, a dark-faced young woman who is angry with the mirror. She speaks of cautiously, silently rising in the morning to "take the dust of [her] husband's feet without waking him" (18). She worships him. But, this description is all told in the past tense. At the entrance of the novel she has already been educated and exited the Purdah. She admits, "these words that I write seem to blush with shame in their prose setting" (19). Is her narrative voice unreliable, tainted by nostalgia and her new-found intelligence? And what is the purpose of having a revolving perspective when Bimala seems to be the heart of the novel?
Also, I noticed Bimala's ability to be both veiled and worshiped. As Sandip gives his speech, Bimala sees his eyes flash over her in the crowd and imagines herself transformed as "the sole representative of Bengal's womanhood"..."for we women are not only the deities of the household fire, but the flame of the soul itself" (31). Later, Sandip expresses that "it is our women who will save the country" (39). Tagore is fiddling with a world that restricts Bimala to the domestic sphere and places her behind a screen. Instead, men prompt her in conversation. Her husband pushes her to enter the universe beyond the home. This seems unconventional, impossible, exciting.
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