Dowry is an Extreme Disease: A Critical Reading of Tagore’s Dena Paona and Aparichita

Tagore has been considered one of the pioneers of the genre of short story. His short stories particularly become important because of the depiction of varied hues of society and human experiences. Women’s experiences in the patriarchal set-up, in general, are dealt with utmost precision. On one hand, he depicts social adversities related to women’s experiences; on the other hand, he is a reformer who tries to weave stories in order to bring about social change. This paper would focus on one such aspect of ‘dowry’ through select short stories, Aparachita and Dena Paona. Dowry as social adversity has been well entrenched in South Asian societies since times immemorial. India in the post-independence era has made vigorous attempts in prohibiting this practice through laws, policies and Acts. However, numerous reports of domestic violence and both physical and mental abuse continue to form headlines in daily newspapers. In this light, the present paper attempts to look at Tagore’s projection of this vice. This paper aims to investigate the conundrum of dowry in the mentioned short stories wherein the women’s experiences of the menace called dowry remain the central foci.