Woman unknown – Rabindranath Tagore

Genre : Traditional realistic fiction

This story, written from the point of view of a first person narrator, tells of a 27 year – old man
immersed in Indian tradition. The story exposes the readers to Indian culture of the period when
cultural practices, especially arranged marriage and dowry system, were more common. Part of the
appeal of the story is portrayal of the woman unknown who struggles to break out her stereotypical
role.

Theme: Standing up for one’s right

Tagore handles the theme in the form of standing up for one’s rights with subtlety and
understatement. His treatments of the themes can be compared to that of M.G. Vassanji’s in
‘Marriage is a private Affair and Dahl’s ‘Lamb to slaughter”.

Technique:
There are elements in the form he has used which one should know, namely, prologue, flashback
and epilogue, so that we can understand how the author is able to use the first person narrator to
tell the events of the story and still comment on the significance.

Prologue: Opening or introductory section of a text.

Epilogue: A closing or concluding part of a text.

Flashback:
1. A device that shifts the narrative from the present to the past, usually to reveal a change in
character or illustrate an important point.
2. A device that allows the writer to present events that happened before the time of the
current narration or the current events in the fiction. Flashback techniques include
memories, dreams, stories of the past told by characters, or even authorial sovereignty.
(That is, the author might simply say, "But back in Tom's youth. . . .") Flashback is useful for
exposition, to fill in the reader about a character or place, or about the background to a
conflict.
Advantages:
 Shows a change in character or situation
 Builds suspense
 Exemplifies an important point
 Makes the story interesting
Disadvantages:
 Makes the scenes in the story unclear
 Creates confusion in the minds of the readers. The readers may lose track.

Point of view: First person narrator

Conflict: Man vs Man, Man vs society etc.

Setting: Calcutta, Kanpur, in the train.

Questions to Ask When Writing in First Person

Is this the character who is best qualified to tell this story? Sometimes, the central character is best
qualified. Sometimes, it's another character; for example, the Sherlock Holmes stories are narrated
by Watson. Holmes wouldn't seem nearly so clever or impressive if the reader could see exactly
what he was thinking.
On the other hand, a mystery narrative that gets away with first person focusing on the central
character, and yet doesn't reveal the train of thought, would be Raymond Chandler's novels, which
follow the detective Philip Marlowe.

Chandler mostly does a very good job of concealing Marlowe's inner thoughts by making Marlowe
the kind of tough guy who doesn't go in for a lot of introspective, touchy-feely stuff; however, his

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writing has still been criticized for a few instances of hiding what should have been obvious to the
reader.
In general, be sure to show all of the relevant details the character's senses reveal. Thoughts
and feelings can be hidden for later revelation – for example, Bob looks at a picture of his father
and feels sad, but only in the next chapter do we understand whether this is because Bob's father is
dead, dying, estranged or simply because he recently insulted Bob's accomplishments.

However, when using first person, trying too hard to imply one of these options and then revealing
a different story later is not playing fair. If using misdirection, be subtle.

What kind of character is the narrator? How emotional is this person; how thoughtful and
introspective? The character's narrative voice will reveal very different things depending on these
factors. Let's take the same situation – Jane loves Bob and hasn't told him – viewed through the
eyes of three different Janes.

The first Jane, who is neither very emotional nor very introspective, might tell the reader that Bob
was a great guy, strong and smart and loyal, and she'd always want him around to go to bat for her
when problems come up in her life. She isn't talking about her own feelings: rather, she tells the
reader what she knows about Bob, and leads them to draw their own conclusions.

The second Jane, who is very emotional but not very introspective, might tell the reader that she
felt butterflies in her stomach when Bob was around; that when Bob complimented her dress, her
whole mood improved; that she thought Bob had a great smile and it made her think of children
with that smile. She wouldn't linger on the implications of these feelings.

The third Jane, who is introspective about her emotions, might tell the reader her thoughts about
Bob: would she want to marry Bob? Why or why not? What kind of person does she think he is, and
does she think her own personality traits are compatible?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Writing in First Person POV

The above kind of internal monologue is both a great advantage and a great disadvantage of
writing in first person point of view. A writer can tell stories this way that can't be told in any other
way: when a character puts together complex thoughts and feelings, or puzzles out a situation, it
can be quite exciting – but on the other hand, if that character is just mooning on about their baser
emotions, it can bore the reader.

And in any case, a writer should always make sure to alternate scenes of introspection and action.
A character's inner thoughts can be rewarding, but only if they're about something that the reader
has seen, felt, or experienced through the character's perceptions. Philosophizing about a boring
life just bogs down the story.

Switching Viewpoints
One final note on first person: switching viewpoints can liven up a story, or weaken it, so consider
carefully when deciding to write more than one viewpoint. The strength of having multiple
viewpoints in a first-person story is that it shows more information and more perspective to the
reader. The weakness is that the story may not need all of this information – and that when
character viewpoints are added just to provide information, it can come off as dry and boring. The
antidote is to make certain all viewpoint characters are interesting people in their own right.

Summary and critical analysis

Anupam, a 27 year old man reflects on the incident which has changed his life. Tagore through
Anupam exposes the immersed Indian culture and tradition, especially the arranged marriage and
the dowry system prevailing then. Tagore handles the theme of standing up for one’s right through
the character of the unknown woman. The theme of the story can also be compared to the story
‘Lamb to slaughter” where, women are subjected and deprived of their choice and opinion,
however, like Mary, Kalyani, the Unknown woman, too breaks out of her stereotypical role. The
author uses descriptive images and similes to give us vivid image on the character and incidents in
the story.
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The story opens with Anupam, the narrator, a young eligible bachelor, who has completed his
university examination and achieved his Master’s degree. The narrator has attained the marriage
age and is now waiting to get married. Though he is physically grown up to look for a bride, yet he
has never grown up as a man because he was pampered and fussed by his mother, Anupam is a
typical example for Indian sort. He has good manners, does not smoke and is very obedient son,
following the orders as trained, not looking into whether it was wise or not. Now that he is ready for
marriage, he requests his friend Harish to talk it over with his uncle, who was barely six years older
to him. After Harish eloquently persuaded the uncle about Anupam’s marriage, they, the elders
follow the custom of looking for a suitable bride for Anupam. Marriages formed out of love, “Love
Marriage” do happen in India, but it is not the norm. So Tagore exposes the accepted the fact of the
families; picking up the partners and the method of exchanging their photos with their bio data,
until then they are not allowed to see each other till the day of their marriage. Unfortunately,
Anupam has been even deprived of seeing the woman he was, to wed, thus Tagore keeps up the
suspense of title unknown, woman till the end. The uncle is surprised to hear that the girl has
already turned fifteen; he finds it hard to believe what took her so long to get married. It’s here that
Tagore shocks us with conventional and accepted practices of child marriages, who carry on their
lives, as their parents and grandparents have done before them. “The first time Shambunath Babu
meets the uncle, we find a great difference in their character. Shambunath, the bride’s father like
all the parents of daughter is submissive, silent and doesn’t take part in the discussion, where as
the uncle talks incessantly to prove that in wealth and rank their family is not inferior to anyone in
the country. He wants to make Shambunath grateful to him for accepting his daughter as their
bride in this so called “cultured family”. He has even accepted to give a substantial dowry and
meets the demands of the groom’s family.

The uncle represents the proud and greedy patrician society, who has fixed notion about marriage.
He is against daughters of rich family, yet he has ingrained love for money. He wanted a Father-in-
law for Anupam, who had no money, yet would not fail to provide it. Someone who could be
squeezed, but need not be respected and the Daughter-in-law as bride who enters the house with
her head bowed with humility. Seeing the low-spirited man the uncle then takes control over it by
ruining the marriage occasion right before the marriage.

Anupam then narrates the incident that took place few hours before marriage. Unlike the other
Indian marriage, his marriage was different. It wasn’t the groom who walked out of the wedding,
but it was the bride and her family who rejected the marriage. The uncle’s miserliness and greed is
clearly portrayed here. The uncle who is determined never to be deceived by the bride’s parents
insists to examine the jewelries. He wasn’t sure of the father’s honesty, because he is aware of the
true stories where the bride’s family not being able to pay the dowry even after the marriage- once
the wedding is over, there wouldn’t be anyway of undoing the fraud. With this doubtful nature, he
proceeds with his thought and thus creates a twist in the life of the narrator.

Shambunath Babu as a changed father does not see any good future for his daughter in the so
called “cultured family”. He is no way going to make any sort of relation with a family that
considered him capable of stealing his own daughter’s jewelleries (relate the incident, of the family
gold smith checking on the gold content) Shambunath represents the modern outlook of a
concerned father, who doesn’t care about what the society might say after the broken marriage,
but is confident enough to believe that his daughter will suffer because of this marriage.

As years passed, none of the family members mentioned about Anupam’s marriage. His uncle too
was embarrassed to talk about marriage again. His mother wanted to defer fresh negotiation until
the memory of his humiliation had faded. But, the thought of unknown woman haunted him.
Anupam began imagining weird things and connecting thought about her, who remained indistinct.
He could not possess her in reality or in his imagination, because he missed the opportunity to see
her picture. The conflict he experiences is too tough for him to go through with his life. Binu Da has
described her beautiful. Anupam’s heart felt for the unknown girl, who remained the walls he
couldn’t cross: with news of this never to marry sends a strong feeling inside him. The black tide of
his thought, which flowed, created vengeance, for the humiliation they have done. But on the other
hand, the other stream, clear as tear, assumes the shape of swan and tells him, to fly to her and be
there with her imagining the story to end happily.

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The Epilogue of the story takes us to the situation where we find Anupam defying his uncle’s order
and mother’s command. And insisting on proposing to the woman he loves: The unknown woman
who changed and renewed his life. He recounts the point in the train incident where it becomes
endless.

The voice of the Bengali girl in the dark fascinated him. He found it mesmerizing because he is a
person who has always been interested in human voice, his voice that really makes him imagine
what is in the innermost soul of the person. Though she remained beyond his reach; the destiny
somehow supported him in the train, where he sees her, calling his mother and offering her a place.
The narrator was too carried away with the tone in her voice that created a magic and turned every
word into gold to him. He was also astonished beyond belief to find her confident. When the station
master commanded all of them to vacate the seat for the two Sahibs, Anupam stayed quiet and
was even ready to leave, but the girl reproached the station manager tearing off the name tags and
threw it on them. On knowing that unknown woman was the woman he was to wed; he feels a
sense of regret for having lost her. He then makes up his mind and changes, from the typical
obedient son to an independent man. The change in Anupam is an epitome of his outlook to see
through the goodness of an action and not be blinded by the age old orthodox traditions. Though
Kalyani has rejected his proposal, the faith that an unknown woman instilled in him on the dark
night has now made him find a room there. He makes him useful to her whenever he could.

Anupam’s cowardice and timidity is something Kalyani doesn’t possess. She embodies a nature so
bold and confident to fit in a society where women are looked down. Hence, the author creates
personality so different from typical Indian woman. With this, the readers are made to reflect about
a change in the culture, a cultural re-thinking on the status of women, which can be achieved only
through education. Thus, we see Kalyani, dedicating her life to the motherland educating women.

Study questions

 From what point of view is the story written?

 List the characters encountered in the story? Write two or three lines about what you know
about their character.
 What simile does Anupam use to describe his uncle’s miserliness?
 Who is Shambunath?
 How does uncle treat Shambunath when he comes with the marriage proposal?
 Mention the arrangements made by Anupam’s family for the marriage.
 What happens to Anupam’s marriage? Why?
 What was the reaction of Anupam when the marriage ceremony did not take place?
 What are the reasons you think Shambunath was right in doing what he did?
 What do each of the characters Shambunath, the Uncle and Kalyani symbolize?
 Decide in what ways the title is appropriate to the story?
 Explain: Prologue, Epilogue and Flashback.
 Contrast Anupam’s timid ness with the courage and tenacity of Kalyani.
 Mention Kalyani’s encounter with the officials who tried to occupy their compartment in the
train?
 Write a brief note on the character of Kalyani.
 Show external conflict between the Uncle and Shambunath?
 What kind of father-in-law uncle wants to get for his nephew?

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  Shambunath refused to give his daughter in marriage to Anupam? Why?
 Why does the marriage of Anupam and Kalyani end in a fiasco? How far is his uncle
responsible for this?

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