Character sketch of Dhaniya: She is the main female character of the novel Godaan written by Premchand. It is one of the most important questions for the BA English honours students of the first Semester at BBMKU and VBU University. Follow Jpathshala.com for all news and updates of the BA English Honours. For the Video lesson visit our YouTube channel Jharkhand Pathshala.
Write a Character sketch of Dhaniya.
Dhaniya is an essential character of Munshi Premchand’s novel Godaan. She is the wife of Hori. She is a supportive wife who always supports her husband. She had to face many problems in her whole life, but still, she stood by her husband. She belongs to a farmer family of British India where Zamindars and moneylenders were exploiting Indian peasants.
She was a very self respective woman who loved her self-respect. She doesn’t like her husband’s dance attendance before Rai Sahab. She thinks that they are farmers who give land rent and then use Zamindars field, so there is no need for dance attendance before Zamindars. She always revolts against injustice, but her husband always calmed by saying that “one cannot fight with a crocodile while living in water”. She has a son Gobar whom she always appreciates because her son’s and her mindset was the same on some topics.
At the beginning of the novel, her husband was going to Rai Sahab without breakfast, so she stopped him and requested some food; this shows Dhaniya’s love for her husband. Dhaniya always supports her husband and family. She was a woman who could not tolerate injustice. She was an outspoken person but had a kind heart. She grew up with his two brothers in low like her child because her father in low dead when they were a child.
Dhaniya’s kindness can be seen in the matter of Jhuniya. She accepted her as her daughter in low. Society was pressing her to turn Jhuniya out of her home, but she was against it for which she had to give a fine of hundred rupees, but she didn’t care. She knew very well that she would die if she turned her out. Moreover, she gave shelter to Siliya and also helped her to survive. She was against Mattadin because she was doing wrong with Siliya. Dhaniya was a woman who had a fear of no one. She does what she thinks is correct and doesn’t care what would anyone say.
Sometimes she quarrels with Hori, but that doesn’t mean she is against him. Hori had a fear of society, and Dhaniya had not. She openly speaks the truth in front of everyone without any fear. When Dhaniya came to know that Hira had poisoned the cow, she called the police and requested him to punish Hira, but Hori was against it. Dhaniya has always supported her husband; she works as a labour with Hori in the Dattadin’s field. Dhaniya could not fulfil her husband’s dream of having a cow, but she tried as much as she could to achieve it. When her husband died, she had one rupee and 25 paise in her stole, so she gave it to Dattadin and said it was all she had as “Godaan”. In the last, we can conclude that her life was full of mourning, yet, she had met her all responsibilities bravely.