Murders of Powerful Female Characters: Manto's Criticism of Gender Roles in "Colder Than Ice," "Mozail," and "A Girl from Delhi" Anonymous 12th Grade

Manto creates moments in certain stories where he establishes empowered female characters that challenge gender construction, which are enforced most times by the male characters, only to either kill them off at the end of the story or creates moments in other stories where he forms female characters that are at the mercy of the male characters and the societal gender criterion they enforce. By doing this, Manto is criticizing the fact that although female characters are essential and play major roles in his stories, the structure of gender construction in society will always be more powerful than the empowered woman.

Although Manto portrays male characters as being more powerful and controlling, the importance of female characters in his stories is never overlooked and most times, the story wouldn’t be possible without female characters. One example of a female’s essentiality in the plot of one of Manto’s stories is Kalwant Kaur in “Colder Than Ice”. The story begins with Kalwant being awoken by her husband trying to sneak into their room. Kalwant is curious about his whereabouts since it is past midnight, she asks him where he has been. Kalwant becomes impatient with her husband’s games: “you have shuffled me enough, it is...