Literature is a vast body of knowledge system, accumulated into sentences and forms. Literature is constantly in flux. Literature includes various forms of composition, like poetry, novels and essays. However, psychology is an integral part of literature as well. Be it Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Chokher Bali ‘or Dostoevsky ‘s ‘Crime and Punishment ‘, psychology has forever been an integral part of literary bodies of work. Dostoevsky explores the themes of crime and punishment, something which is highly complex in nature. What truly is crime, and can it even be resolved? Or, how much punishment is truly enough? Measuring the extent of punishment is truly important.
On the contrary, ‘Chokher Bali’ deals with the complex psyche of a young widow, Binodini. Binodini is a complex character who channelizes her own grief to instead harm another innocent woman, Ashalata. The bond of friendship the two characters, Ashalata and Binodini, gradually turns into bitterness from sweetness. Binodini ends up breaking her own friend’s home, maybe intentionally or unintentionally. Psychology gained widespread influence with the works of Sigmund Freud. Freud focused on psychoanalysis, which comprises Id, Ego and Superego. These form the basic structure of the human psyche. Human psyche is like a dark tunnel of secrets.
