Warring Sexes

The Mother of Pondicherry first met Sri Aurobindo in 1914 when she came to Pondicherry. Mirra Alfassa, who became the disciple of Sri Aurobindo and later referred to simply as 'Mother' wrote volumes of letters and essays and her spiritual talks had all been combined for a special edition of publication. Mirra had to leave Pondicheery, immediately after reaching it in 1914 due to the first World war. She took asylum in Japan where she happened to meet Rabindranath Tagore. Her sojourn in Japan was productive as she spent her free time in writing essays and letters. 'Woman and the War' is one of her interesting essays that were written in Japan that show how savvy Mirra was in current affairs of her time. The essay begins with a self-imposed question to put Mirra's idea on Feminism and its recent developments. Mirra compares the first world war's impact with the growth of feminism. The war is seen as a dispenser of scum that has been masking the eyes of the world. It has peeled off the pseudo upper layer to show the world how the sexes could complement each other for a better world. The war shows the world of the uselessness of the fight between the sexes and reserving jobs for the woman folk. When men were at the front, the women stepped into their shoes perfectly. Women were considered an object of pleasure, a distraction to productive work and a tender of family heretofore. The war provided an opportunity to women to prove their mettle and calibre. When women could assist the wounded at the war front, could they be termed as the weaker sex. Mirra quotes of the ancient Indian life where the women were allowed to govern and she also reflects that such a system is also in vogue in France, when it comes to administering the house-hold chores. However women are not allowed to hold public offices and govern a public body. She ruminates on a true incident that happened at the time of the first world war. An American society had requested its English counter part to help to save a few villages from famine that were on the Belgian soil under the German occupation. The request fell in the deaf ears of men. Fortunately a nurse heard it and with tremendous skill and organisational act she accomplished the act with her woman friends. Mirra is not too proud of the capabilities of women. She is wary of their weaknesses too that also get exposed by the first world war. She wants women to extricate themselves from the grip of emotions and sentimentality if they want to succeed in their position. Of course women are capable of love and humility and abstain from brutality and vulgarity. However they must getaway from passionate nature and partisanship to sustain themselves as successful administrators. Mirra appeals to the world to include women to achieve more. Women are for the interior and men for the exterior shall no longer be fructifying. The sexes must be put together for a sustainable progression. The hostility between the sexes must be put aside in the obsolete category. The war has destroyed the old structure and in their places must rise structures that are jointly built by men and women. Mirra feels that it can only be achieved through spiritual energy. All humans ought to grow spiritually. The Dhammata, the divine world of Buddhism is at the basis and on it is built other structures that sees all equally and does there remain no distinction. The feminist problem is spiritual problem and in recognising the spiritual equality can it be solved.

Feminist Poetry - Glimpses

'The Other Side of a Mirror' is a poem by Mary Elizabeth, the great great niece of the great romantic poet, S T Coleridge. The poem presents a morose picture of the figure in the looking glass. A woman looks herself in a mirror which reflects her inner self. The speaker of the poem claims herself a conjurer and creates a visual in the glass. Instead of reflecting a lively, gay woman, the mirror shows the figure of a sullen woman. The figure has an unkempt hair and the face is want of beauty that once filled itself with jealousy. The face is an aureole of distress. The figure's mouth is agape and lips are parched and nothing comes off it. Her eyes gleam but express a dying desire in her. The face stands for a hopeless dream. The emotions of revenge and jealousy possess the face and are responsible for the dying flame of goodness. The vision is obnoxious and the woman pleads the vision to die out and never to return. The woman is so sure of the uncanny form in the mirror and whispers out to it that it stands for herself. The poem reflects on the distressful state of the narrator. The use of words that stand for contrary feelings suggests that the narrator is in the state of quandary and oscillation. However the line 'She has no voice to speak her dread' clearly states that the woman is enduring an unspeakable suffering and voicing of which would put her in jeopardy. The poem is an example of subjugation and torment of inner self. 'The Doubt of Future Foes' is Queen Elizabeth's poem, is believed to have been composed between 1568 and 1571. The poem depicts the queen's skill in rhetoric too. Queen Elizabeth faced hardship as any monarch would have, during her rule, to her throne. The poem written in the background of the rising of Queen Mary of Scotland up against Queen Elizabeth stands testimony to Queen Elizabeth's valour and administrative excellence. Queen Mary took refuge in England in 1568 by abdicating her Scottish throne that resulted in the movement of putting the Catholic Mary on the English throne. There were a number of attempts to throw away non-protestant, not-catholic Queen Elizabeth who took up a middle path by distancing herself from both sects. The queen is much worried about the prospective attack on her kingdom that makes her subjects concerned and worried. She tells them that if they apply their reason then they will not get worried. She comforts her subjects that all the perilous attempts of their foes will be thwarted by her force.The eyes of the foes have been covered with pride that blinds their vision and makes them miscalculate her strength. She warns that the person who sows the seed of ill-will would get disappointed as peace will eventually conquer. The land of Elizabeth never fosters traitors that would stay to prevent the entry of the aliens. Her sword would see to it that the enemy gets destroyed on their entry. Elizabeth Cary is the first woman English playwright whose work got published. She also holds the credit of her biography being written officially, the first ever of an English woman writer. 'The Tragedy of Mariam' is the first play in verse by an English woman. Cary took the story from the Hebrew tales that got translated by Josephus. The story is about king Herod who leaves his wife Doris for Mariam. The king is helped by his sister Salome. In this prescribed piece the chorus speaks about the duties of a wife. It is not enough that the wife shuns herself away from committing evil. She must also exercise precaution from getting herself plunged in the suspicion of others. She should restrict her free will and practice restrain. Though there are liberties allowed legally, a woman would not indulge in themselves freely. She is forbidden from letting personal things go to a second ear, that would blot her honour. A woman has to give herself completely to her man. She must not allow her mind to wander and offer only her body to her man and must not let free will to takeover her mind. This may ruin her chastity and make her impure. Thus the chorus advises Mariam who has committed the act of snatching Herod from Doris. Lady Mary Chudleigh, a seventeenth century, self educated genius of a writer, discusses the patriarchal supremacy in the prescribed part of her poem 'The Ladies' Defense or a Dialogue between Sir John Brute, Sir William Loveall, Melissa and a Parson'. Melissa answers about the duties of a woman, as earmarked by the men. She is a representative of the female world and is dissatisfied with the position and treatment of women in the patriarchal society. The men hate women and never allow them to the secret of that which attracts men to women. The menfolk prevent women from education and knowledge and accuse them that they are incapable and fit only for household chores. It is denial of opportunity and forced branding that the women have to face. The world has turned its head away and the women have only to plead to heaven. The world is spiteful and vengeful. Even those who pity women's status do not realise their true strength. The men think that it is enough for a woman to know how to dress and dance and to their impervious heads it never occurs that women are for far better prospects. Melissa then calls out to all women to snap the strings that attach themselves to a puppeteer. They must wake up to knowledge, throw away novels and take history books instead. Women must immerse themselves in all nooks of knowledge and practice humility. These acts will fetch them respect, fame and will silence men and they will be in the affable company of other women and more importantly it will make them withstand the malice of men and stop their yearning for them.

The Balcony

Jean Genet's 'The Balcony' is an eponymous title. It is the name of a brothel house run by a woman named Irma. It is an unusual brothel house where one's physical gratification never gets fulfilled. It is a place where one goes to gratify one's desire. The desire has nothing to do with one's physical urge. It is to do with one's hope of life, one's ambition and one's hankering for power. The whole play could be viewed in the aspects of desire for power, temporary loss of power and retention of the lost supremacy. The characters are the Bishop, the General, the chief of police and the judge who visit Irma's phantasmagoric studio where their inner desires get fulfilled by Irma. She supplies props and also characters and creates situations and executes their intentions. The characters or personalities turn to Irma to compensate their loss in the real world. The whole play is set only in the studio of Irma where most of the action takes place and the audiences are fed with information about the coup d'etat of without now and then with the arrival of characters. Genet works out the transformation fantastically as the members of Irma's clientele get in to ease them and with a sense of unbearableness of their loss. As the play progresses, there is gaining of power by the insurrectionists and as it reaches its denouement they are put under control and power gets restored. Irma appears as queen and faces the audiences and addresses them. It is not clear whether she puts on the role of the queen or she appears as queen. However she confirms the disbelief of the audiences by stating that things will be very strange in their real lives in their houses. The play ends with this final speech of Irma/Queen that is addressed to the audiences and not to the characters of the play. Through this play Genet confirms the 'play' of supreme powers in the lives of humans and its permeation everywhere.

Sisyphus - an Existential Man

Albert Camus' 'The Myth of Sisyphus' is a four chapter book that deals with many of the modern philosophical issues concerned with life. Camus discusses the possibilities for a human to commit suicide and the functioning of the individual's brain and its abetting in the act of committing suicide. The fourth chapter retains the title of the book, 'The Myth of Sisyphus'. Sisyphus, a righteous kind, committed the act of divulging a divine secret for water. He chose to enjoy what the Earth could give rather than what the divine decide. Another version puts him in the list of callous men who acted as a highwayman. Yet another version calls him a recalcitrant who chained the powerful Death and made Pluto angry. However all these versions agree on the punishment meted out to him; rolling a boulder to the pinnacle of a mountain whence it would roll down to the abyss of the underworld owing to its weight. Camus considers the mythological Sisyphus a representative of modern man. He compares the unproductive task of rolling the big rock to the pinnacle of a mountain to the day to day labour of men. Only when the labourers get conscious of their activities and their meaninglessness they get frustrated and their day to day life will be torturous. What causes this frustration is the teeny weeny sapling of hope that clings on to this harsh physical activity. Sisyphus is never conscious of his absurdity until he hopes not of positioning the rock on the mountain. When the hope of stationing it on the pinnacle buds in his heart, he is sucked into the vortex of disappointment. He will find himself in the position of doing a useless labour. According to Homer, Sisyphus is condemned by the Gods to this state which according to Them is the most poignant punishment. The strain is only physical until the condemned is not aware and not thinking beyond this hard labour, which turns to be a mental trauma once the victim begins nurturing hope. Camus takes up this Sisyphus who has committed himself to hard labour without an inkling of its consequences. This acceptance of one's predicament as it has been a product of one's own acts eliminates the possibility of a higher destiny. Camus presents Sisyphus as an existential man who never bothers with the ideology of the existence of God. For him everything in

the world exists and interests. Camus is concerned very much with the descending Sisyphus whose contemplation gives energy to his existence and whose reverie puts him in the position of deciding his fate in the world.

Woman of Moral Stories

She had a very unhappy childhood. She lost her mother when she was eleven and saw her suffer when the mother had to give her daughters in adoption owing to their dire straits living. She had a good patron who paid dowry on behalf of her to have her live happily, which turned out to be a severe disaster. Her husband was dissolute and her marriage got annulled after two years. She was Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont, the French woman writer of the eighteenth century. All her personal suffering gave her resource for her writing and made her a writer of didactic tales for young people, especially girls. Beauty and the Beast is one such tale of hers and she uses it to instruct the young girls. The writer believes in right upbringing, possession of righteousness, simplicity and moral uprightness amongst young people as traits to be honed for decent living. Most of her tales reflect all these notions of hers. Once upon a time there lived a merchant. He was very rich and had three beautiful daughters. Of the three the last one was very kind and simple and helped all. She was not haughty and carried herself in all humility and treated the rich, the poor, the invalid and the healthy alike. The people of the town began calling her beauty and soon it became her name. On the contrary her two elder sisters were unkind, rough and in possession of stolid temperament. It so happened that the merchant all of a sudden lost all his wealth and chose to live in penurious condition. Beauty did all the chores as there were no servants whereas her two sisters were busy finding suitable matches for them. They got rejected by wealthy gentlemen who had been rejected by the two sisters when they were rich on the ground that those gentlemen were not super rich. The two sisters were of the opinion that Beauty was meant for menial life only and never partook in daily chores to help her. One day the merchant got information that if he could take a trip he would get back at least half of his lost wealth. So the father bade farewell and departed with the intention of satisfying the requests of his daughters. The eldest needed a diamond necklace, the second needed a suite of pearls and Beauty simply needed a white rose. The journey was fructifying and the merchant could find the requirements of his first two daughters and was in disconsolation as he could not find any white rose. He was taking his trip back and found a palatial house with fine garden overlooking and an avenue of lemon and orange trees.

Boccaccio's Love Tale

An interesting idea also an useful one to survive. Ten Florentine youth, seven women and three men to escape the Black Death, decided to flee to a remote villa in a country-side called Fiesole in Italy and stay there until the disease got subsided. Each evening they narrated tales to kill boredom and ennui except one day that dedicated to house-hold chores. On the tenth day, they were amazed to find them in possession of one hundred tales with them. The title of the book literally means 'Ten-day Event' (The Decameron). Boccaccio's 'Federigo and Giovanna' is the penultimate tale of the fifth day's narration. Boccaccio started composing this work, the one hundred tales, probably in 1350 and took one to three years to complete it. This interesting love story is about a young man of Florence, the son of Messers Filippo Alberighi. He is Federigo degli Alberighi. Federigo is in love with a very beautiful woman of Florence, Monna Giovanna.

Federigo was head over heels in love with the woman that he did everything to attract her. He took part in Joust and Tourneys and threw parties extensively and invited the gentle folk of the town. This unstinting love was snubbed by Giovanna who held up her chastity and threw no glance at this man. Federigo never stopped his activities and soon became a victim of penury. He sold all his wealth and chose to endure his poverty by staying on the only remaining farm of him in Campi. He held in possession a Falcon and that comforted him during his moments of dismay. In the meantime, Giovanna happily married and gave out a male child to the world. She was living happily until her husband fell ill and made a will to bequeath all his property to his lovable son, and made his wife heir to the property lest the son could die without legitimate children. After her husband's death, the widow came to spend sometime on one of her farms in Campi. There her son managed to hook up a friend-ship with Federigo and became a great fan of the falcon. One day the boy suddenly fell ill and day by day his illness aggravated. Monna was worried and wanted to mitigate his illness by doing what the boy really required. Knowing that the boy wants to possess the falcon of Federigo, Giovanna with all humility decided to visit him in person and with shame would ask for the falcon. On seeing Giovanna at his doorstep, that she never condescended to visit him when he was rich, Federigo became happy and decided to give her what he could. She expressed her interest in dining with him and unfortunately the poor man could not afford a decent meal. At last he killed the falcon and made a fine curry and served her with all happiness. Afterwards he felt bad of doing so, as the visit of hers was to have the falcon alive for her son. Reconciling with the fate, Giovanna returned empty-handed and the son of hers died owing either to the disappointment or the unrelenting illness in a few days. Giovanna was still young and rich and her brothers compelled her to marry and she decided to take the gentlemanly Federigo as her husband in the end.

The Uruguay Melody

A sheer poetry on screen from South America. This Uruguay movie is set in a small town of Melo abutting the Brazilian border. Some men of this village occupy themselves in contra banding goods (even household items) from the other side of the border to make a living. The movie is set in 1988 and based on the visit of the then Pope, Pope John Paul II, to Melo. There is much hoopla and hype about the turn-outs for the liturgical service that the Pope would hold in the small town. The villagers borrow money to set up stalls for the attendees. The protagonist Beto wears his 'Think-hat' and builds a toilet by doing service to the local don, who lets him pass through the border by bribing the watches, much to the agony and opposition of his wife. His daughter who has dreams of becoming a TV reporter dislikes her father's profession and at times acts indifferently towards him. Beto suffers from knee-pain and ignoring it, he gives a final trial to his inception of the toilet. With the saved up money of his wife, as the good-angel in him comes alive, for their daughter's higher studies, Beto buys a Western-type toilet mug and reaches his shanty abode at the last minute. On contrary to the expectation, the services end early and only a very less turn out has been seen from the other side of the border. The whole of the stall-holders is disappointed and is further deprived of expected wealth. The movie ends in a reconciliation between the father and the daughter, who realises the fatherly commitment and steps into her father's shoes to help him.