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.