Vol. 3, Issue 6, Part R (2017)

Abstract
The paper based on the novel The Uprooted Vine, that portrays the life of a child-widow Snehalata who commits suicide, is an attempt to examine the circumstances which compel her to take such a drastic step at the time when social reform movement was very much in existence in Bengal and reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar were being followed by the educated young men as their real heroes. It was the time of transition and the educated had already taken cudgels to eradicate the social ills such as child-marriage and widow burning among the upper-caste Hindus. To ameliorate the status of women, the need to educate them was being felt. Against such a prolific background what and who provoked Snehalata to end her life when she was under the shelter of an educated foster father who himself had taken pains to equip her with education.