Challenging the Myth: A Transitivity Analysis of Manto’s The Hundred-Watt Bulb

Abstract

The study aimed to highlight the gender stereotypes in Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story Hundred-Watt Bulb. A Transitivity analysis was conducted to understand how language can be manipulative and how it can create a different aspect of interpretation. By using this approach researchers have attempted to unravel that language used in a different context and within different scenario can create an astonishing result. The analysis of the short story reveals that the female character is not submissive in the story of Manto rather, he portrays an emancipated woman in his writing. Manto’s stand on femininity goes against the traditional set-up of damsel in distress waiting for a lad to rescue her rather she creates a niche for herself. The female character of Manto does not confine to an already settled hierarchy and shapes her as an individual. She tends to be her own hero and defies all the chauvinistic attributes, coming out from the scraps of male dominating society as a phoenix.  The study may be useful in establishing Manto as a forerunner of Modernist writers and also, it may open new avenues for researchers in the domain of gender and politics.