Gender Rights (Female)

Gender Rights (Female)

Dr .T.S. Geetha, Asso.Prof. of English,

J.K.K.Nataraja College of Arts and Science,

Komarapalayam.

Carol Ann Duffy, an  English poet was a lone female child among the four brothers in her family. She has published more than five collections of poetry. Her poems are simple in the usage of words, but are quite complicated. Most of her poems are based on the English classic characters.

 One such poem is “Havisham”. This is a monologue spoken by Ms. Havisham, a character in Dickens, “Great Expectations”.

 Ms. Havisham’s  fiance ditches her and she waits to take revenge on him. She is so upset, that she does not even change her clothes nor wash.She dreams of her lost lover, she screams in bed and gets up in anger and revenge. The thought of how she stabbed at the wedding cake, recurs again and again and her urge for revenge multiplies.

 The poem is a true picture of a psychologically affected woman. Though the poem has no connection with Dickens’ novel, it portrays the mental agony of a woman who has been cheated by a man.

 If “Havisham” pictures a mentally agitated lady, there are poems of Carol Ann, which portrays the joy  of a woman too.

Woman is a symbol of serenity, a symbol of creativity, a sign of sacrifice; she is, and ought to be proud, as a creator of a progeny. If not for women, how will the world survive?

It may be due to the behavior of certain men like Ms. Havisham’s lover that women after becoming mothers, look up to their children for bliss and support. The child on his/ her part is brought up, breathing the mother’s world of words and actions and even thoughts.

  It may be because of this, that we see Hamlet delaying the act of avenging his father’s  murder. Every time he sees his uncle, the presence of his mother, makes him change his mind.

Duffy’s poem “Salome” is a good example of mother-daughter relationship. Though the poem portrays a black and gruesome picture of Salome, still when we find out that she murders, John the Baptist, for  the sake of her mother, Salome is symbolized as a dutiful daughter, ready to do all that her mother orders. The poem is a retelling of the Biblical story seen in the New Testament of Mathew.

 Women from historic times had been portrayed as bad, as is the case of Hamlet’s mother and Salome’s mother, who had an affair with Salome’s uncle. When Salome’s mother gets a chance, she takes revenge on John, the Baptist, who had condemned this relationship. Through Salome, she brings about the death of John. In the poem, Salome is pictured as murdering a series of men.

When we look at the picture of Ms. Havisham  and Salome, we see a lot of contrast. The same Duffy is able to show women in two different views. Leaving aside the picture of Salome, the murderess, let us bring to our mind, the picture of Salome’s mother, who is proud of her dutiful daughter. As Judith Wright in her poem quotes, Salome’s mother can haughtily say, “ I am the earth, I am the root/I am the stem that fed the fruit”(Collected Poems PP.29)

 Duffy’s “Before you were mine” is a poem, which every mother can cherish. It is a poem which truly brings out the realities of a woman after mother hood. The better part of the poem is that it is the daughter who recollects all the sacrifices that her mother had done, all her likings, all her entertainments that she had forsaken for her sake- her child’s sake.

 The best happiness a mother can get is when her child realizes the troubles that the mother had undergone for the sake of her child.

 The poem appears to be the words of the poet herself, addressed to her mother. The name of the mother, Marilyn,  brings images of the actress Marilyn Monroe to the daughter’s eyes. She imagines her mother to be as carefree and gay as the actress; but she had lost all that joy because of motherhood. Every movement of the mother makes the daughter think of all that her mother had missed. The steps in dancing which the mother teaches the daughter, on her way to church on Sundays, brings pictures of her mother, as a dancer long ago but which she had forcefully forgotten for the sake of her girl.

 If the child realizes all these like Duffy or even if not, the mother can at anytime be proud to say:

 “O node  and focus of the world;

I hold you deep within that well

you shall escape and not escape-

(Judith Wright., Collected Poems,29)

Such is the stead-fast relationship and it is more genuine and glued if the child is a girl. Why do then people shun girls?

Works cited:

Wright, Judith. Collected Poems. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 2002.

Poems by Carol Ann Duffy – study guide.

Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An introduction to Literary and cultural Theory 2^nd ed. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.

Guerin, Wilfred. et.al Eds. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature.

4^th ed. New York: OUP, 1999.