K. Ezhil Dr. B.

Cauveri
Assistant Professor Assistant Professor (SG) and Research Guide
Department of English and Foreign Languages Department of English and Foreign Languages
SRM University, Kanchipuram, India SRM University, Kanchipuram, India
Contact no. 9884980835 Contact no. 9789820140
Mail ID: [email protected] Mail ID: [email protected]

Women – Prisoners of Marriage

Abstract

This paper deals with the ways marriage penetrates and undermines the life of
women, and their varied reactions towards it through ages. Three poems by different
authors have been chosen and analysed in the light of the above statement. The paper also
traces the reflection of Elaine Showalter’s three phases of women writing literature
alongside the thematic expression in these poems. The three phases of feminine, feminist
and female aspects are discussed with respect to “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” (1951) by
Adrienne Rich, “Monkey Business” (2015) by Ashley Depuy and “There is Another Sky”
(1890) by Emily Dickinson. The selected poems provide an appropriate platform to
express these thoughts effectively.
Key words – Feminism, marriage, Feminine, Feminist, Female, suppression, liberation,
self realization

Introduction
“If divorce has increased by one thousand percent, don’t blame the women’s
movement. Blame the obsolete sex roles on which our marriages were based.”
- Betty Friedan
Women are victimised in the name of marriage which they seek for safety or
dependency. But ironically, this so called refuge often turns to be an unsafe and insecure.
Parents are not happy until their daughter is committed in a marital relationship with a
man to rely on throughout her life. Shirley Chisholm says, “The emotional, sexual, and
psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: It’s a girl.”
(www.Brainyquote.com) It is a mysterious fact that the daughters are brought up in such a
way as to be perfectly ready, both physically and mentally, to relocate themselves to a
totally unfamiliar place amidst unfamiliar people, and adapt themselves easily to the new
alternative environment leaving behind their roots without any regret and in fact, with all
of happiness. Owing to their probable unquestioning allegiance to the social mores, the
victims of ‘Sati’ might not have felt depressed or worried, but instead might have proud
and privileged to have lived up to the societal ideas regarding them. Social living and
procreation within the wedlock are the two advantages of marriage Conceding this, it
becomes very clear that the trouble is with the imposition obsolete sex roles within the
system of marriage and this is due to the gender bias as rightly pointed out by Betty
Friedan.
Poetry is a magical mirror that not only reflects one’s own image when one looks
into it, but also shows different images to the very same person according to her or his
moods. This lends a unique charm to poetry. As mentioned earlier, the poem as a magical
mirror lets the reader interpret the very same poem in so many ways. In one of the selected
poems, “Monkey Business” by Ashley Depuy, two main characters are involved, one an
active speaker, and the other a silent listener. The speaker advises the other to shirk the
monkey on her/his back which is constantly annoying or putting down her/him in life, and
it also seems that it is not an easy job to get rid of that monkey for the listener. The initial
readings of the poem gave an impression that it is a piece of advice given by a friend to a
friend; a parent to his child; a lover to her lover, to give up a bad habit like drug addiction.
These very same ideas have also been expressed by different reviewers as, Ashleigh,
Jemiemariekreiner and Brenda McGehee. One of the reviewers has extended his thoughts
one step ahead and has suggested that the speaker of the poem is an ex-lover coaxing his
girl who is now in relationship with another one who is not reliable, to come back to him.
But according to me, the poem centres on a woman talking to herself during the hard times
of her marriage and recalling her shiny past similar to the way Emily Dickinson does in
her “There is Another Sky”. This is how poetry liberates the reader to interpret the poetry
in her/his own way.
Three poets have been chosen for this brief study. They are: Emily Dickinson,
Adrienne Rich and Ashley Depuy. Emily Dickinson and Adrienne Rich are popular writers
whereas Ashley Depuy is an anonymous author. No details could be found on Depuy and
the poem has been published in an open website, familyfriendpoems.com.
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, Amherst,
Massachusetts. Adrienne Cecile Rich was born on May 16, 1929 Baltimore, Maryland.
Both the writers belong to America, but they lived in two different centuries. Elaine
 Showalter in her work Towards a Feminist Poetics, not just introduces the term
‘Gynocritics’ but also classifies women’s writing into three phases: feminine, feminist and
female. She says the first phase, i.e., feminine phase covers women’s writing roughly
from1840 to 1880, and detects evidences in it that make it an imitation of male literature.
There were also women writers who apprehensive of writing in their original names and
apprehensive of expressing their female identity in a male dominated world began writing
under male pseudonyms. Despite this, the readers can find the literary evidence for the
hidden female identity through the pressure in the narrative, the depressed tone, the strong
diction and the peculiar characterisation.
The second phase, the feminist phase, covers women’s writings from1880 to 1920,
where the women writers are totally against men and protest against the stereotypical
images of women in the writings of men. The women writers also fought for women’s
rights and equality.
The female phase which is the third phase denotes the period from 1920 to the
present. These writers focus on the self-discovery and reject both the imitation of and
protest towards men. Hence the female phase writers’ ideas broke away from that of the
other feminine or feminist writers. But real life cannot be so well compartmentalised.
Thus the 20th century female phase can be observed in the 19 th century writer, Emily
Dickinson, the feminist phase from the late 19th century to the early 20th century can be
noticed in the 21st century writer Ashley Depuy and then the mid to late 19th century
feminine phase can be seen in the 20th century writer Adrienne Cecile Rich. In simple
terms, Emily Dickinson substitutes female to feminine phase, Adrienne Cecile Rich
substitutes feminist to feminine phase and Ashley Depuy substitutes female to feminist
phase. Thus the changes of women are not a common gradual change, but a random
change of the individual self with respect to her personal background, life style, stability
of life and other external circumstances as well.

“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” – Feminine Phase

“Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and
delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.” - Virginia Woolf

The above quotation occurs in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, talks about
the wives who live their whole life either for their husband or for their kids and not for
themselves. These types of women or wives can be seen very frequently in developing
countries where there is a fairly high percentage of illiteracy among women. More than that,
since their childhood, the girls are educated by their parents, family members and media as
to how to submit themselves to their husbands to lead a successful married life. A woman’s
prior duty is to take care of her husband’s health, wealth, honor and the growth of his
generation. Not only that, a wife has to act according to her husband’s moods. Sometimes
she should be a listener when her husband expresses his success or should be a motivational
speaker when the husband feels low about him or should be a silent spectator or become
invisible when he is concentrating on his own work for his career or personality
development. This is what has been beautifully pointed out in the above statement of
Virginia Woolf, women acting like a magic mirror that reflects the doubled size of man so
that he can feel perfect.
In the poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”, Adrienne Rich, talks about Aunt Jennifer who
is a submissive wife and dutiful homemaker who wants to free herself from the burden of
offensive marriage and the male dominated society, in which she finally fails. It shows the
feminine phase. The poet has aptly described the burden of feminine qualities in the
following lines: ‘even the ivory needle [is] hard to pull [with the] massive weight of
Uncle’s wedding band sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand”. French also uses select
phrases to explain Aunt Jennifer’s yearning for freedom in the following lines: “they [Tigers
made by Aunt Jennifer] do not fear the men beneath the tree” and “the tigers in the panel
that she made will go on prancing, proud and unafraid”. The inability of Aunt Jennifer to
break free is expressed in the line, “when aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie still ringed
with ordeals she was mastered by”.

Monkey Business – Feminist Phase

“When she stopped conforming to the conventional picture of femininity, she finally
began to enjoy being a woman.” – Betty Friedan

If every woman started to realise her own real self, she can definitely reach hights,
and can change the world into a better place to live in. The problem is, a few women due to
lack of wide knowledge are not able to analyse their own problems. Mostly they are
illiterates and they blindly follow the instructions given by their illiterate elders. Even the
other literate women, despite their education still blindly follow the same line and
deliberately do not analyse the issues. What makes them do so is a mystery. A few more
women are there who know what is right but are unable to stick to their stand due to social
traps such as the patriarchal system and gender politics. But if a woman decides to come
out of her pathetic condition at any point, no one can stop her. Even God cannot forbid
women from getting knowledge.
The poem “Monkey Business” is absolutely a brilliant writing in which the reader
can substitute so many subjects as addiction, reunion, bad thoughts as well and can interpret
the poem in multiple ways. The poem is about a wife who is about to make a bold decision
that is going to rescue her from all the pains she faces in her married life. She is about to go
back to her own past life where she was very happy and full of energy. The only hesitation
that she has is whether everything of her life in the past will be the same. But finally, her
self confidence enables her to move on. In this poem, the wife keeps on asking the same
question again and again to make sure about the firmness of her decision, “That monkey on
your back? …I thought he was dead and gone”. It is very clear from the following lines that
the husband is an abusive person: “he’s a tricky little guy”, “He’s creeping into your mind.
You don’t see what you’re doing. You’ve gone completely blind”. “He’ll do anything to get
it. He doesn’t care about the sting”, “He’ll distract you at all costs! As long as he has what
HE wants, he doesn’t care what YOU have lost!” “He made you lock the door so I couldn’t
get to you, when you were dying on the floor…”, “he won’t stop until you’re dead, on your
last trip to Neverland.” The self confidence of the wife can be seen from the lines such as,
“that monkey on you back or me? One of us has to go! The ball is in your court. Your
choice. It’s time, please let me know.”, “and please tell me that you’re ready to get your life
back into shape.”, “I can’t lose you to this addiction! Please! Come back where you
belong!”, “this battle will not be easy! Don’t worry! I’m on your side!”, “there will be
wounds and scars and blood but in the end you will feel pride!”, “And I’ll be there, on your
side. If war he has declared."’

“There is Another Sky” – Female Phase

“If you ask me what I believe in today, I believe in feminism. I believe that no one
has the right to authority over anyone else. Feminism has to do with everything in the
world, a vision of how the world can be. I have great doubts about utopias, but I just keep
thinking there is a better way to live than the way we live now.” - Marilyn French

When a woman imitates or protests against the male, it shows the utter dependency
of women over men. On the other hand, if women realise their ‘selfs’ and work hard to
 improve their self status, then there is no doubt that women can build a better society than
the existing one which was created by men. In this Female phase, as mentioned by Elaine
Showalter, women do not treat men as their foes or rivals. Instead, they concentrate on
their self development and extend their hands to men and inviting them to join the world
created by women. Like Ashley Depuy’s “Monkey Business”, this poem is also open to
many interpretations. The garden is used as a metaphor in this poem. One of the readers
sees the poem as the author’s call to her brother to return to their homeland from the
comfortable foreign land he has settled in. For another critic it is a deserted beloved’s call
to her lover to come and reunite with her. Another reader has interpreted this poem as a
lover’s passionate invitation to her lover for sexual union. Thus the description of garden
in this poem is substituted with a homeland, a woman’s love and a woman’s body by other
readers. In my opinion, the poem picturises a woman who is a wife (representing all
women), dreaming of an alternative land that can be created by her to where she invites
the man, who is her husband (representing the whole men society), to live a better life
with her. She never pronounces it as a perfect land; instead, she confesses that the land has
some desert in it. From this it can be inferred that this garden is a woman’s dream land. In
the lines “there is another sky, ever serene and fair, and there is another sunshine”, “here is
a little forest, whose leaf is ever green; here is a brighter garden, where not a frost has
been; in its unfading flowers I hear the bright bee hum”, the poet promises that the world
of women would be a greener, brighter and unfading land. The acceptable mistakes of that
land are explained through the following lines, “Though it be darkness there; never mind
faded forests, Austin, Never mind silent fields”. And finally, she extends an invitation for
her husband or men as, “Prithee, my brother, into my garden come”. She tries to reveal
that the married life that she is living is very partial as it is framed for the benefits of
husbands by men. So it is fragmented and missing the balance. That made her to dream of
a different land or world where equality prevails and she and her husband can lead a happy
life.

Conclusion

Thus the voices of wives convey the message that marriage for them is not a
convenient institution unless and until the necessary changes are made. And this point is
communicated in Elaine Showalter’s all the three phases of women’s writing. , The poem,
“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” is an example of the feminine phase. It demonstrates the
subordination of a wife to her husband and the failed attempt to liberate her. The poem
“Monkey Business” by Ashley Depuy represents the feminist phase as the wife is conscious
of her absurd married life and abusive husband, and completely hates him. She wants to get
away from him. She sees him as an annoying monkey who is sitting on her back all the
time. She wants him to be dead and gone from her life. Emily Dickinson’s poem “There is
Another Sky” illustrates the female phase. It doesn’t express any protest against men;
instead, it conveys the uneasiness of women living in a manmade society. Here the wife
calmly tells her husband that they cannot lead a peaceful or harmonious life in that
discriminated land. In addition, she tries to build a new land where there is equality and
invites her husband there to accompany her.

Works Cited
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013. Print.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. London: Penguin, 2011. Print.
French, Marilyn. The Women’s Room. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print
Showalter, Elaine. The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature and Theory.
New York: Pantheon, 1985. Print.
“Shirley Chisholm Quotes.” BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc., 2017. 4 November 2017.
“Elaine Showalter – Wikipedia.” Web. 3 Nov. 2017.
“Adrienne Rich – Biogaphy.com.” Web. 3 Nov. 2017.
“Emily Dickinson – Writer, Poet – Biography.com” Web. 4 Nov. 2017.
“‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,’ Poem by Adrienne Rich – SFGate.” Web. 27 Aug. 2017.
‘“There is Another Sky’ – Poem by Emily Dickinson.” Web. 28 Aug. 2017.
“Monkey Business – Family Friend Poems.” Web. 28 Aug. 2017.