Social Status vs Individuals’ Actions in Hedda Gebler by Henrick Ibsen and Punishment by Rabindranath Tagore

Every person within a society is the product of his own social status and the actions his status lead him to undertake. “Hedda Gebler” by Henrick Ibsen, and “Punishment” by Rabindranath Tagore are two texts which display the profound idea that our social status is the foremost important factor which influences our decision making and also may corrupt our morals. If we analyze the two texts together we see that both Hedda in “Hedda Gabler” and the characters in “punishment” look forward to happiness but they are unable to receive it because of their particular society. On the one hand, Hedda’s arrogance, her decision to manipulate and devalue others, her unmerited action to burn Loveborg’ s manuscript, her unhappy marriage to Tesman, her suicide etc. are all fostered from her views of class superiority. She certainly thinks the way she grew up or the way she lives is superior to all others, thus she has the quality to control others. On the other hand, within ‘Punishment’, Dukhiram’s sudden action to kill his wife, Chidam’s decision to convince his wife, Chandara to take the blame for Radha’s murder, and Chandara’s acceptance of the false accusation that is befallen upon her are all resulted because of their lower social status. They are inclined to take unjust decisions/actions either because they are angry of the way they are being treated in society or because their hopes can never go along with the social standards. Overall, these texts provide the notion that our social position may hold us back from taking the right actions by which not only can we wrong others, but also dispose ourselves to face injustice.
The class system in our society and the environment we grow up in significantly shapes our social beliefs, our behavior...

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...ld and current social standings. Conversely, in “Punishment” the characters are forced to make unjust actions because of their inferiority against the social standards. The characters’ actions or decisions from the two texts display the idea that regardless of our social standing, our actions are limited by the society. It teaches us that we should obey by the social rules if it is just and we must always reason our decisions based on the potential outcomes or we will put others and ourselves on danger.

Works Cited

1. Ibsen, Henrick. “Hedda Gabler”. The Norton Anthology of world literature (3rd edition, Volume E) ed. Martin Puncher. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 782- 838.
2. Tagore, Rabindranath. “Punishment”. The Norton Anthology of world literature (3rd edition, Volume E) ed. Martin Puncher. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. 893- 898.