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On Psychopathology Rabindranath Tagore Analysis

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: Sigmund Freud, “Some Neurotic Mechanisms in jealousy, Paranoia and Homosexuality,” On Psychopathology. tr. James Strachey (Harmondsworth :Penguin, 1979, rpt. 1983) P-198.

Chapter-3 (Tagore ’s Short Stories : A Study of Psycho-Socio Realities of Characters) “…………the artist finds out the unique, the individual, which yet is in the heart of the universal. When he looks on a tree, he looks on that tree as unique, not as the botanist who generalizes and classifies. It is the function of the artist to particularize that one tree. How does he do it? Not through the peculiarity which is the discord of the unique, but through the personality which is harmony. Therefore he has to find out the inner concordance of that one thing with its outer surroundings …show more content…

He portrays in them what he has felt about. He presents the feeling, emotions, thoughts and ideas (inner world). He is interested in the inner conflicts of their life. He deals with the problems realistically in the background of a traditional, patriarchal system of society. His thoughts are based on acceptance of life, and not denial of life. He critically analyses the psychology of the characters, examines every ripple of mind, delves deep into the character’s subconscious mind and shows the outcome of the conflict between nature, custom and self. It is really surprising that a lyricist is deeply earth-bound and realistic in the threadbare analysis of the psychological conflict of characters. The story- “Living or Dead?” describes a psychological case that is a result of social pressure. In the story, there is a reference to a repressed character---a widow woman (Kadambini) who because of not functioning of heart-beat for a short while is considered dead her re-awakening into life is considered as a ghost. She is ill- treated by her in- laws and she drowns herself in a well in the house to prove that she was alive as any other person and was not a spirit. The story ends on an oxymoron statement—
“By dying, Kadambini had given proof that she was not dead”. ( Omnibus

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