War, Love and A Sense of Freedom in Mrs Dalloway and Badhon Hara: A Comparative Study

Abstract

It is not a hard task to imagine the impact of the First World War on authors and poets. The First World War was the first greatest hostility among the nations and the whole earth witnessed its devastation. At that time traditional norms began to receive a sudden shock. In every sector: social, economic or cultural, common people began to observe an unexpected transition and as authors and poets had more receptive personalities, they captured this situation and engaged themselves to put an end to the old systems. They manipulated their writings to welcome this new phenomenon. In Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf has focused on post war London with people who have survived and continued their lives despite the tumult of war. The First World War also left great imprint on the history and psyche of the people of other part of the globe. In Kazi Nazrul Islam‟s famous epistolary novel Badhon Hara, some glimpses of the day to day lives of typical Bangali of West Bengal are portrayed during wartime. The events of both novels have an indirect link with the Great War but war is not the sole theme in both of these novels. These two novels emphasize human relationship, love and affection and make the readers aware of a sense of freedom. This paper tries to make a comparative study between Mrs. Dalloway and Badhon Hara to find out the similarities and also the unique properties that are manifested in these two pieces of post war literature.