Her Miserable Married Life
She moves towards her married life. She was a child, although the size of her body grew up, she entered the stage of adolescence yet, her soul was immature. Though she was still a child (after marriage), she asked for love. She remarks : "I was child, and later they
Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs
Swelled, and one or two places sprouted hair."
However, her husband quenched his own desire on the bed. Here the poet doesn't only describe her married life but tries to narrate the story of every woman in her country. She mourns and sorrows for every woman of her country. As she gets grieves and sorrows, every woman of her country does.
The young girls in her country are forced to marry old men without having their opinion. So, they are young at the time of their marriage that they cannot accept that they have grown up. However, as their body parts including the genitals grow up, they have to accept that they are mature now and thus have bound into the wedding alliance.
After, the girl being married desires that her husband should show compassion to her and love her. But instead of, she is drawn to the bed and made to endure the pains of bed sharing that she is not willing to do. At this point, she says:
"When I asked for love, not knowing what else to ask
For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the
Bedroom and closed the door
He did not beat me
But my sad woman-body felt so beaten."
To avoid its load, she tried to become a tomboy by adopting the attire of males. But this was not led by her in laws. They started insulting her. She was ordered to dress in sarees," be a girl, wife, embroiderer, cook, quarrelled, with servants", etc. She was asked not to secrete her real self. Her in-laws even commanded to persist silent and endure.
The lines expose the condition of a woman in the house of her in-laws. She is forced to leave her frankness and attain the nature of a daughter-in-law. She is forced to do everything that her in-laws wish her to do.
She has to accomplish all the tasks, though she is not willing to do so. Still, she is "taunted", scolded as well as insulted. She is even advised not to express her grief if she is troubled in her married life.
She meets a man (whose name she does not mention). The man is, according to her, the every who desires a woman (to quench his lust) as a woman desires love from a man. When she asks him about his identity, his answer is ‘I’.
This ‘I’ or the ‘male-ego’ gives him the liberty to do whatever he likes. He can drink at midnight, laugh, and satisfy his lust. However, he feels ashamed after losing a woman due to his own shortcomings and also this ego of ‘I’ dies when the person dies and thus his end is no different than the end of the woman.
Hence, like him, she can also attribute the title of ‘I’ to herself. Like men, she is also sinner and saint, beloved and betrayed. Her joys and pains are no different than those of men. Hence, she emancipates herself to the level of ‘I’. To read the previous summary, click the link below,
https://paidforarticles.in/top-2-poem-s-summaries-written-by-kamala-das-559502
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