KAMALADAS Das explores powerful themes of feminism/equal rights, freedom, and marriage in ‘An Introduction’. This poem is a very clear feminist statement that advocates for free choice for all women. This is in regards to every aspect of life, but the poet puts a special emphasis on marriage. She compares and contrasts the roles of men and women in society and explains for the reader how her life, the rules she’s forced to obey, infringe on her freedom. Readers should be able to ask themselves while moving through the poem how, if at all, the things Das is talking about apply to their own life. If nothing matches up, they might ask themselves why and if some kind of unaddressed or unacknowledged privilege is making their lives better. Kamala Das uses techniques such as enjambment, repetition, and anaphora in ‘An Introduction’. Repetition and anaphora are seen at the beginning of a number of lines, such as four and five. In this instance, the speaker is giving two conviction-filled statements about who she is. This is conveyed through the repetition of the pronoun “I”. Later on, repetition is used again to define her language as both “English” and “human”. She is a human being, as equal and valuable as any other. There are also several examples of allusion. She references specific a specific place and the name of a politician that requires some research in order to understand. Enjambment is another important technique. it can be seen throughout this poem, but one good example is the transition between lines fifty-eight and fifty-nine. The poem An Introduction is an autobiographical verse of Kamala Das that throws light on the life of a woman in the patriarchal society. This is a confessional poem. divided into five parts for better understanding. Now the poet comes towards her own life experience. She says that she is an Indian and brown in color (as compared to the British). She is born in Malabar. She can speak three languages, write in two and dreams in one of the dreams have a universal language. In these lines, she explains her Indianness. Like most of the citizens of India, she is also capable of speaking three languages and writing in two probably the English and her native language. She says that she dreams of one because the world of dreams is common to all. In this world, every individual, male or female, uses the same universal language Poet’s Struggle for Freedom • Being well familiar with the English she uses this language in her writings. However, this habit of her is not liked by her friends, relatives, and critics. They all condemn her for writing in English as according to them, English is the language of the colonists. She asks them why they criticize her. Why she is not given liberty to write in whatever language she desires. • In these lines, she exposes the jealous nature of her nears and dears who cannot endure her skills. This makes them criticize her. Having no logical reason to put restrictions on her writing in English, they try to tell her that the language she writes in, is the language of Colonists and thus she should avoid using it. The language in which she writes is her own along with all its imperfections and strangeness. The language is, though not fully English yet she considers it to be honest because like her as her language is also imperfect like her which a quite normal thing is. In these lines, she shows her ownership of the English and also the freedom of using it. She is imperfect but this makes her a human. Thus she should not be scolded for her mistakes or shortcoming. The language expresses her joys, grief, and hopes. For he, it is like cawing is to crows and roaring is to lions i.e. it is an integral part of her expression. She further says that her speech (in English) is the speech of humans that minds can understand and not strange and queer like the sound of trees in the storms or of monsoon clouds or of rain or of dead as these voices cannot be understood. Her Miserable Married Life I was child, and later they Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair. 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 She moves towards her married life. She was a child although the size of her body grew up i.e. she entered the stage of puberty yet her soul was immature. As she was still a child (after marriage) she asked for love. However, her husband quenched his own lust on the bed. The poet here not only describes her married life but tries to narrate the story of every woman in her country. Her grieves and sorrows are the grieves and sorrows of every woman of her country. The young girls in her country are forced to marry old men without having their consent. They are so 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 nuptial alliance. Then … I wore a shirt and my Brother’s trousers, cut my hair short and ignored My womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook, Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in. Oh, Belong, cried the categorizers. Don’t sit On walls or peep in through our lace-draped windows. Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better Still, be Madhavikutty. It is time to Choose a name, a role. Don’t play pretending games. Don’t play at schizophrenia or be a Nympho. Don’t cry embarrassingly loud when To avoid its load, she tried to become a tomboy by adopting Jilted in love … the attire of males. But it was not led by her in-laws. They started taunting her. She was commanded to dress in sarees, be a girl, wife, embroiderer, cook, quarreller with servants, etc. She was asked not to hide her real self. Her in-laws even commanded to remain silent and endure her unachieved love. The lines expose the condition of a woman in the house of her in-laws. She is forced to give up her frankness and attain the nature of a daughter-in-law. She is forced to do everything that her in-laws desire her to do. Her Struggle for the Status of ‘I’ I met a man, loved him. Call Him not by any name, he is every man Who wants. a woman, just as I am every Woman who seeks love. In him . . . the hungry haste Of rivers, in me . . . the oceans’ tireless Waiting. Who are you, I ask each and everyone, The answer is, it is I. Anywhere and, Everywhere, I see the one who calls himself I In this world, he is tightly packed like the Sword in its sheath. It is I who drink lonely Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns, It is I who laugh, it is I who make love And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying With a rattle in my throat. She meets a man (whose name she does not mention). The man is, according to her, the everyman 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. I am sinner, I am saint. I am the beloved and the Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I. 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’.
