The Girl Child Characters and its Interrelation to Adolescent and Child Psychology in Rabindranath Tagore's Fiction

Abstract

This article explores Tagore’s insight into human psyche and behavior, especially the child psychology. The characters which linger longest in memory are those of children and adolescents. It seems that Indian girl child steps straight to adolescence and is expected to be responsible and wise. This review is all about Tagore’s most heart touching girl characters that he created in his short stories. Moreover, Tagore’s girl child characters appear either as child wives, child brides or widows and seldom as little children. In fact, she is deprived of the limitless joy of childhood experiences. However, nineteenth century literature had numerous girl characters between the age of two and ten. Yet there are no counterparts to the most memorable and unforgettable female characters such as Jane Eyre, Maggie Tulliver in The Mill on the Floss, Flora in Little Dorrit, or Pearl in The Scarlet Letter. In many of his short stories the character of girl child before becoming a wife, is presented as a child and daughter, uninitiated into the realities of life. She is often the favorite of her father, the pupil of her mother, the playmate of her siblings. She is innocent in looks, in thoughts and in behavior as a friendly child, she is pleasant and cheerful; and, as a pampered child, she is stubborn and subject to tantrums. The delineation of girl child in his fiction shows Tagore’s powers of observation which contribute to his understanding of child and adolescent psychology.