Poverty, marriage and love in the Bengali short stories of twentieth century : deconstructive explanation of the tale of Shiv-Parvati in Mangalkavya/ বিশ শতকের তিনটি বাংলা ছোটগল্পে দারিদ্র্য, দাম্পত্য ও প্রেম : মঙ্গলকাব্যের শিব-পার্বতী উপাখ্যানের বিনির্মি

Abstract

This essay is about the application of the deconstruction theory on the Bengali short stories of twentieth century. This writing focuses on two angles, one of them is the short stories of a particular century and the other one is the tale of Shiv-Parvati in the Mangalkavyas; which belongs to the era of medieval in Bengal. Now, this essay has tried to connect the literature based texts from two different centuries by the help of deconstruction theory. The texts have been explained in a way where these can be connected and disconnected at the same time through a comparative discussion. The correlation has set on the basis of povery, realation between spouses, the definition of love, the interpretation of chastity of women, gender politics in a household.

             The deconstruction theory is a medium through which it will be established that how the gender role, the financial power game, bonding between partners has been evolved in an opposite direction from the era, where we were told the tale of Shiv-Parvati. Along with this, I will be discussing on some more insights about some uniqueness of the Shiv-Parvati tale in Mangalkavyas. This writing has revolved around the protagonist characters of the selected short stories and Shiv-Parvati from Mangalkavyas. Through the Contrast and Conflict of characters and situations from different timeline, I have tried to show the real picture of society, the truth of economy, anarchy of times. In twentieth century’s Bengal, everything was falling apart, yet there was hope, there was partnership, there was love. Women were growing as an earning member of their household. It was new for them, so, their legs were shaking because they sometimes chose the path that they did not willing to walk on but for the sake of family thay had to walk on those unwanted lanes. Women had to learn the survival skills. Were they different from Parvati? Did Parvati has any similarity with these women? Here the contrast begins!