(University of North Bengal, 2022-03) Roy, Gitanjali
A Nobel laureate, Nationalist, and Idealist, Rabindranath Tagore‘s literature portrayed female characters
with spitfire personalities. Charulata, Kalyani, Binodini, Mrinal, and Giribala are a few such characters who
have gained popularity in Bengali literature and media. His female characters are anything but submissive
muses to the patriarchal society. Secondary literature and media projected them as independent, shrewd,
intuitive thinkers, fearless, stubborn, selfish, assertive, and intelligent. The pool of characteristics veils the
true interpretation of their personalities and hence the Hermeneutic method of research is adopted in this
paper. A critical review of Tagore‘s Bengali literature, the primary source of information, provided a new set
of information. This new information has changed the context of the female characters in terms of the
personality traits of Tagore‘s female characters. The paper presents psychological hermeneutic perspectives
of these characters for understanding the similarity and differences in the portrayal of females now and
decades ago.
