Social Taboos and
Silent Sufferings: A Feminist Study of Select Poems of Eunice de Souza
Bikram Chowdhury,
Ph.D. Research Scholar,
Department of English,
Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University,
Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India.
Abstract: This paper explores how Eunice de Souza
portrays the sufferings of women in her poetry. The “women”, that she writes
about in her poetic oeuvre, silently suffer from various social constructions.
These constructions are generally of societal taboos, gender roles, and other
established sets of behaviour and norms. This kind of oppressive social
structure has a telling impact on the lives of women as it constantly shapes
and reshapes their identities. Social taboos and the suffering of woman are
socially constructed issues that are obviously interconnected and
interdependent. Taboos and their assimilation by people living in the social
structures are also a part of this construction. Many Indian woman poets have
tried to deal with this issue of social taboos and silent sufferings of women
through their poetry. In this paper, Showalter’s concept of “gynocriticism” will
be used to understand the issues of women reflected in the writings of a female
writer. This paper aims to find out how this construction has been crucial for
women and how certain codes of society triggeredthe women subjects to respond
in a different way. Poems of Eunice de Souza perfectly capture the
sensibilities of oppressed women through her sharp ironic poetic lines. This
paper studies select Eunice de Souza's poems titled “Sweet Sixteen”, “Mrs.
Hermonie Gonsalvez”, “De Souza Prabhu”, and “Marriages Are Made”, and
investigates how the interactions between social taboos and silent sufferings
of women are shown in these poems.
Keywords: Silent Suffering, Social Taboos, Feminism,
Gynocriticism, Eunice de Souza
“When she does not find love, she may find
poetry.” (Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex)
The above quotation from The Second Sex speaks a lot about the relevance of relishing and producing art in the life of a woman. Art is where one can unload the hidden suffering as well as the hidden treasure. Art can, no doubt, heal the wounds and pains of human existence, but it can also stir up past memories to wound up the soul which has healed itself from the scars and “thorns of life”. Isolation is a thing human are destined for, in some ways or the other. In a patriarchal society, women feel it more than men who are taken as the driving force of society which is at core patriarchal and phallocentric. But it is not entirely true that only men are producers of patriarchal attitudes in society, and women are not. This is a fallacy many of us are indoctrinated with. Human beings have always found ways to protest against things that are unfair and inhuman, some take verbal protest, some physical, some through artistic forms, like poetry, music, and so on. Patriarchy has always been present in society. In the Indian context, which is a third-world country, the level of patriarchal attitudes is much greater. Here women suffer in multiple ways. Against this male-dominated society, some voices arise in protest, which is, in no time, repressed. One of the powerful voices has come through the poetry of an Indian poet, Eunice de Souza. Her poetry collections, like Ways of Belonging, A Necklace of Skulls, and Learn from the Almond Leaf, explored many crucial issues related to women and their ways of living and the issues they face in their everyday life in this patriarchal society. Before her, of course, many Indian women poets, like Sorojini Naidu, Toru Dutt, Aru Dutt, Kamala Das, and others, have written about these issues. They all have been successful in their poetic endeavours. But there is something unique and challenging about this poetess, Eunice de Souza. Being a professor and a scholar, she has been aware of modern dilemmas and loneliness, and sufferings of the time. In this paper, attempts will be made to find out how Eunice de Souza, being an Indian woman, has dealt with the problems of being a female in the male-dominated society, and how she has protested against the patriarchy through her creative expression.
This research article is an attempt to study the poetry of Eunice de Souza from the feminist perspective. As a part of this methodology, Showalter’s concept of “gynocriticism” (1978) will be used to analyse how the poems of a female writer like Eunice de Souza raises female issues and problems. As a part of the “female phase”, according to Showalter, only the writings that concern and express the female experiences in the female language are the kind of “gynotexts” that gynocriticism deals with. In this study, four poems of de Souza, titled “Sweet Sixteen”,“Mrs. Hermonie Gonsalvez”, “De Souza Prabhu”, and “Marriages Are Made” have been sampled out for this study, using Stratified Random Sampling Method.
As a woman who was brought up in society listening to usual manly comments and eve-teasing, de Souza imparted in her poetry the first-hand experience of being a woman. In one of her poems, namely “Sweet Sixteen”, she explored female sexuality through her colloquial yet eloquent words. In the poem, she clearly mentioned how the real problems faced by girls at their puberty, are ignored even by their own family, not to say, but even by their mothers who also went through the same experiences as a young girl. The society, which is so constructed as per the rules and regulations of patriarchal norms, forbids people to talk of real problems just because of some constructed codes of conduct which are set up intentionally by people who do not have any idea how difficult and painful these problems are, if not discussed with “mature” people. But Eunice de Souza intended to break away from those so-called ‘codes’ of society which restrained and restricted women in the “tight hot cell” of “domestic wall”. In the poem, “Sweet Sixteen”, the lines read,
“Mamas never mentioned menses.
A nun screamed: You vulgar girl
don’t say brassieres
say bracelets.
She pinned paper sleeves
onto our sleeveless dresses.
The preacher thundered:
Never go with a man alone
Never alone
and even if you’re engaged
only passionless kisses” (Souza 14).
Even on clothing, they have certain codes to maintain certain ‘words’ not to utter in front of the public. Girls are forbidden to say “brassieres”, and are given an alternative word for that expression, “bracelets’’ which literally does not mean anything in that context. Girls are also strictly advised that they should avoid going out with men alone. See how patriarchal is that tone, how any type of romantic encounter or casual encounter with men is not entertained! Eunice de Souza, like “a sour old puss in verse” writes in simple words about some trending contemporary issues which really deserve some real “open” discussion as she did in her poem. Talking of getting pregnant while dancing with a man, she ironically writes, “Can’t it happen when you’re in a dance hall?” This posed question is really absurd. But there lies the irony of de Souza’s art. Every line, she poeticizes, has profound socio-political undertones. Her artistic expressions kind of make a justification of the slogan that whatever is personal is the political. The quoted line of the poem implies the lack of sex education in Indian society which considers “sex” as taboo and many biologically related issues as “other things” which are considered as something inarticulable. Discussing these “other things” in front of people, even in front of family, is strictly prohibited. Phoebe who asks this question to the speaker cannot be blamed for her “foolish” curiosity. But is she a fool to ask this query if she does not know? Sex education, which is a pressing need of this hour, is denied to them. This grave matter of being unaware of these “little” things may lead to disastrous ending for the “second sex” who gets influenced, most of the time negatively, by this lack of knowledge more than anyone.
In another poem titled “Mrs. Hermonie Gonsalvez”, Eunice de Souza explores the politics of marriage. She shows us how a woman in a third world country gets married without her own choice. The prospect of marriage has always been an integral part of a woman’s life. In the narrow domestic walls of a patriarchal society, this is undeniable that there are multitudes of helpless women, rather girls whose marriages are fixed at a very young age even without their proper consent. In the poem, “Mrs. Hermonie Gonsalvez”, the speaker admits that in her younger age, she was good-looking and had a bright complexion. But she was now wistfully says, “I’ve got only”. She further adds that her parents “married me to a dark man”. Marrying a “dark man” is seen as a not-to-do job for a woman with white complexion, as the disparity of colours between a husband and wife can stir up conversation among neighbours and relatives which Eunice de Souza spoke about later in the poem. From how she speaks of her marriage with a “dark complexioned man”, it can be guessed that she was not aware of the colour of her husband before marrying him. She was forced probably into the marriage where there was no pre-bonding between Miss Hermonie and Mr. Gonsalvez. She, in the next line, continues, “I wouldn’t even look at him”, on her own, even if she was given a choice of her own. The society has always been shaping and re-shaping the psychology of people living in a particular culture. Being a “dark man” is conditioned to being a bad one. This very psychosis has been in the head of Miss Hermonie because she is taught to respond in that way. She is made to do things and to say things which the society has conditioned her to.
“... once we were going
somewhere for a holiday and I went on
ahead my hubby was to come later
and there were lots of fair
Maharashtrian ladies there and they
all said Mrs. Gonsalvez how fair and
beautiful you are your husband must be
so good looking too but when Gonsalvez came
they all screamed
and ran inside their houses
thinking the devil had come” (Souza 16).
In the later part of the poem, de Souza explicated the social dilemma which suffocated the speaker. During the holiday, the couple planned to go out. Somehow she went first, then her husband was to come there too later on. There were a number of beautiful Maharashtrian ladies on that place where she visited for the holiday. They all were praising the beauty and fairness of Mrs. Gonsalvez. But then they commented with a usual expectation, “Your husband must be so good-looking.” People always expect things which, if not fulfilled, may dishearten the happiest of souls. The same had been the case with Maharashtrian ladies when they came to meet Mr. Gonsalvez himself. “They all screamed/ and ran inside their houses/ thinking the devil had come” (Souza 16). But seeing “a dark man” married to the bright Mrs. Gonsalvez, they felt a shock which is, no doubt, due to the expectation set up and shaped up by the patriarchal society. Out of utter shock and fear, they all ran into their respective houses. How insulting! How sophisticated, indeed! They all thought the devil himself had come on earth. But how did they know that the devil is “a dark man”? What if he is a fair-skinned fellow? These questions may challenge the codes of patriarchal society. Eunice de Souza, through her poetic art, attempted to decode these codes and subverted them extremely and influentially.
De Souza criticizes the familial authority for their gender-biased outlook towards childbirth. In the poem titled “De Souza Prabhu”, she complacently writes in a confessional tone, “I heard it said/ My parents wanted a boy./ I’ve done my best to qualify.”(Souza 10).The lines mark the female subject's compromise of her own identity and her humble attempts to fulfil the expectations of family and society. In this context, in the poem “Women”, Louise Bogan writes about the content condition of women that they “have no wilderness in them,/ They are provident instead/ Content in the tight hot cell of/ Their hearts/ To eat dusty bread” (Bogan23). These lines suggest that women lack in them a sufficient amount of “wilderness” in them to break away from the “tight hot cell” where they are forever stuck and content. De Souza further writes about the suppressions of female realities about their body identities. Female subjects resort to manipulation of facts about their body parts aiming to keep away from male gaze. This is so evident in her poem where she writes, “I hid the bloodstains/ On my clothes/ And let my breasts sag.”
Eunice de Souza, in her energetic creative expressions, not only mocks the stereotypes of sex, and gender, but also the very foundations of institutions like marriage and its surrounding politics. In the poem titled “Marriages Are Made”, she fiercely writes,
The formalities
Have been completed:
Her family history examined
For T.B. and madness
Her father declared solvent
Her eyes examined for squints
Her teeth for cavities
Her stools for the possible
Non-Brahmin worm (Souza 9).
Through these well thought expressions, she sheds light on the contemporary conditions of the institution of marriage which is but a game of material transaction full of falsities, compromise, and social conformities without any spiritual outlet of understanding and mutual compatibility. Commodification of female subject is what that looms large in any socio-political institution that involves interactions and transactions between genders, be it marriage or any other institutions. Objectification in corporeality of female bodies is also well expressed by de Souza in her sarcastic comments like, “Her eyes examined for squints/ Her teeth for cavities/ Her stools for the possible/ Non-Brahmin worm”. Ranajit Haskote writes in his article, “On Eunice de Souza” that she is “a woman individuating herself in defiance of the systems, structures and embedded axioms of the patriarchy” (2017).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be understood that Eunice de Souza, through her creative expression, explored the social taboos and how these societal issues influenced the then contemporary milieu. Her poems are still relevant and are studied widely, because of her non nostalgic sensibilities and subtle understanding of female issues which are written with her sharply satirical tone and colloquial yet to-the-point diction. She was “a quiet crusader and fierce critic of all things hypocritical, including the church establishment, patriarchy and social mores” (Abraham, 2017). A need for Sex Education and a hidden urge to correct the prevailing taboos and concrete patriarchal attitudes toward some serious issues of female sexuality and female issues by displaying the hypocrisies of this patriarchal as well as matriarchal society can be located in her poetry. Throughout her career as a prolific writer, she kept exploring “her inquisition of unethics in to her feminist critique in Women in Dutch Painting (1988), her straight-faced explorations of the self in Ways of Belonging(1990) and through her last collection, Learn from the Almond Leaf (2016)” (Raj66).
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