Rabindranath Tagore: Short Stories Lesson Plan

Examine the supernatural in The Living and the Dead. What symbols indicate the supernatural realm? Do we know what really happened to Kadambini? Is she painted as a reliable and conscious character whose perception is true to reality? Does Tagore intend the story to be plausible, as though she really came back from the dead, or is this an allegory? If so, what does it reveal?

The banyan tree is an important symbol of immortality and associated with Yama, the god of death. Another symbol is water, both from the monsoon rains and the water tank. Bodies of water symbolize life and birth, so, even though it is macabre, it is not a coincidence that Kadambini chooses to...