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What expressions in the poem bring out the contrast between the speaker and her husband’s plight? What difference does this indicate? |
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Answer» Being a man, the farmer was not used to being subservient to others. He could not bear the idea of bending his head or stretching his hand in front of the creditors. But, being a woman, the farmer’s wife was used to obedience and harsh treatment and could pull on even when insulted and deprived. Moreover, being a woman, her motherly instinct made it impossible for her to leave her children behind at the mercy of fate. Though the prospect of bringing up four children in the face of stark poverty is daunting, she faces the challenge and doesn’t take recourse to the easier escape route of suicide. Thus we see that the difference between the man and the woman lies in the way men and women are generally treated in society and the way in which men treat women at home. But the saving grace is the fact that the injustice meted out to women in society and at home makes them strong and gives them the courage to ’embrace life and struggle for life’. |
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