Me and My Pride

Haile, Sara, "Me and My Pride".
     Unknow Date, Online Poem.
     Poemhunter.com

 Me and My Pride

You think you’ve won
But you’re so wrong
You think I’m weak
But I’m so strong
You’ll never bring me down
I’m never gonna frown
I’ll walk with my head held high
With my dignity and pride
You’ll be terrified
Totally petrified
Irrevocably horrified
Eternally electrified
You won’t understand why
All this happened just because of my pride
It’s not bad
I’ll make you mad
But I’ll be content
Knowing you respect me
And that you actually see
My pride and me 

This is a poem by a woman, expressing her pride to someone. Some person has obviously done her very wrong and thinks they have broken her but she is proving that they have not. She will continue to hold her head high, and this person is the one who has lost, and has to live with whatever wrong he did to her. 

In the story, Chandara uses her pride to get back at Chidam. This poem is relatable because in the end she went out holding her head high and showing her strength against him. All the while, Chidam was horrified and confused by her and her pride. He was angry that she would not just tell the truth or stick to the story he had given her.

Pride & Prejudice - Trailer

Pride and Prejudice, Dir. Joe Wright
Perf. Keira Knightly, Matthew
Macfayden.  Focus Features Film 2005




Pride and Prejudice is a film set back in 1800 England and focuses mainly around two characters, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth comes from a lower class than Mr. Darcy. She still live with her parents and 4 sisters. Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy are pretty smitten with one another right off the bat, but neither will admit to it. Elizabeths mother is hard at work trying to find husbands for all of her daughters, but Elizabeth has her own plan. She is more of a free spirit, with her own ideas and thoughts, which is not how the world operated in those days. Women were supposed to marry, raise a family, and keep there ideas to themselves. After much bickering with one another throughout the movie, in the end Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy put there pride aside and fall madly in love.

This relates to my theme because it was Elizabeths pride that kept her from being with Mr. Darcy for so long. She knew he was the love of her life, but she held back making sure he knew she was still her own person. She did not want to just get married and live the life she was expected to live. She expected more for life and she waited for it.

Thorn in my Pride

Bengali Lady

Roy, Jamini,"Bengali Lady" . No date
Online image. Dollsofindia.com 11/6/2010

 This is a painting by Jamini Roy, an artist from Bengal. He was actually trained as an artist by Abanindraneth Tagore, who is the older brother of Rabindraneth Tagore, who is the author of the story The Punishment. Roy was famous for folk art paintings in India, and later won national praise for his work. This painting does not really have any background information, it is simply a portrait of a Indian woman, who look very angry to me.

For me this painting relates to the story, because this is how I imagined Chandara to look when sitting in court and facing her fate. This woman looks angry, prideful, and full of hate. If I had to draw a picture of Chandara this is what I would have came up with. The eyes on this woman are so piercing, as if trying to cut through someone like a knife, I imagine that to be Chidam. And yet this woman has a subtle beauty that is also relatable to Chandara.

The Punishment

Tagore, Rabindranath, "The Punishment."
        The Norton Anthology of World Literature
        12th Century, Volume F , Ed.s Sarah Lawall
        and Maynard Mack, Norton Company 2002. P, 1693-1699

This story revolves around two brothers, Chidam and Dukhiram, who live together with their quarrelling wives, Chandara and Radha. Chandara is the younger wife married to Chidam. Chandara can be described as more of a free spirit who does not really fit into the type of life they lived. Men worked and women spent their days cooking and cleaning and taking care of children. Chandara resented much of this. Beatings in the household were also a regular occurrence. After once such beating she fled her home and ran to an uncle's home three villages away, but eventually returned.

Towards the end of the story Dukhiram comes home and demands dinner from his wife.  In response to his demand Radha starts yelling at him about how there is no food, nor money to buy any. Dukhiram snapped and stood up with his knife and stabbed Rhada in the head, killing her. When Ramlochan approached the house after the quarrel, Chidam tells him that Chandara has killed Rhada, not Dukhiram. Chandara was very upset about this, even though Chidam told her that if she would stick to the story he told her she would most likely be able to walk away. I believe at this point Chandara's pride kicked in and she did not stick to the story, instead she continued to tell people she did it and in turn that lead to her receiving the death penalty. I think she did this to get back at her husband, make him live with this decision he made for the rest of his life. I think she also did it because she was unhappy with her life and wanted out anyway.