An Introduction by Kamala Das critical analysis

 

An Introduction is the most celebrated piece of confessional poetry composed by Kamala Das. It is highly subjective, intimate  and follows the modern style. It is blunt, frank, bitter and straightforward. By following the bare bound style she gives more emphasis to the lives of womanhood rather than focusing on the structural beauty of poetry.

By mentioning her own personal life, she presents the predicaments of females in the patriarchal society. She brilliantly uses certain imageries like funeral pyre, monsoon clouds and rain.

T.S. Eliot remarked that "Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality" in his well known essay, Tradition and Individual Talent. He was of the opinion was poet should surrender all the subjective aspects and pints that poetry should be objective and impersonal. 

But the poems of Kamala Das exhibit a clear departure from the poetic sensibilities of T.S Eliot. She attempts to present the real snapshot of her life, her emotions of love and her rebellious attitude against the patriarchal confinement. 

She expresses all the complexities of human emotion just like the classical masters such as  Shakespeare, Keats, Balzac, Emily Bronte, Fielding and  Virginia Woolf.

 

The poem “An Introduction” begins with Kamala Das’s attitude to politics. As she is aware of the leaders like Nehru. She highlights and asserts her identity,

“I am Indian, very brown, born in

Malabar, I speak three languages write in

Two, dream in one.”

She had a special affinity towards English language. She wants to express all the emotions and complexities of mind in mixed language perhaps 'half English, half Indian'. She states that  this language is honest and genuine. But others suggest her not to express her views in English. She gets such types of restrictions from the oppressive patriarchal presence.

“….Do not write in English, they said,

English is not your mother tongue.

Why not leave me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,

Every one of you? Why not let me speak in

Any language I like?”

Despite having strong rejection from the family members and friends, she expressed her views in English. She says that English language can give voices her joys, her longings, her hopes and agonies. As far as she is concerned this language is as instinctive as cawing is to crows or roaring to the lions:

“It is human speech, the speech of the mind that is

Here and do there, a mind that sees and hears and

Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech

Of trees in storm or monsoon clouds or of rain or the

Incoherent mutterings of the blazing

Funeral pyre.”

 

 

Kamala Das recollects her adolescent age when she was on the threshold of puberty. But the patriarchy of her family gets her married in the tender age of sixteen.

“….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. He did not beat me

But my sad woman body felt so beaten.

The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me. I shrank

Pitifully.”

 

These lines poignantly deal with the poet’s predicaments, her piteous plight under the patriarchal domination, her longing for love and freedom. She was forcibly married to a man (Madhav Das) almost twice of her age and the door of the bedroom was closed. The closing of the bedroom door is again symbolic.  The closing of the bedroom door may also be interpreted metaphorically.

The word ‘door’ is a universal symbol of liberty and freedom. So here the ‘closing of the door symbolises the closing of liberty of a girl child.

 

She in fact does not mean only the husband of her, but it also suggests the universal masculine gender, their cruelty and heartlessness.

The line  “The weight of my breath and womb crushed me” remarkably conveys her existence.   It represents the responsibility of a girl child as a mother who gives birth to children and nourishes and nurses them. This shows that the immature age is not suitable for giving birth to a child, but the pity is that the girl child has to abide by the strictness of patriarchy.

Her poetry doesn't follow the traditional verse rhythm but it is prosaic in nature. She even uses broken sentences and fragmented thoughts. Kamala Das asserts daringly that after her marriage, she has to live in restrictions posed by the conservative men of the family. But she wanted to lead a life of freedom even after marriage. So, she often wore a shirt and her brother’s trousers. She cut her hair short and ignored the womanliness. But it was totally against of their customs . So, they prohibited all such things.

Their tone was like

“Dress in saries, 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 window”

These lines clearly point out that how the fate of a woman is restricted only to be a girl, a domestic wife, a cook, and quarreller. It also shows how the women have been prevented from sitting on walls and peeping through the windows.  The repetition of the verb ‘be’ again and again shows the chains and restrictions of masculine gender. The sentences are very short containing only two words, e.g., Be cook, Be girl, Be wife, Fit in etc. They suggest the confinement of women under the clutches of patriarchal force. the shortness of sentences show the shortness of women in the eyes of men. The repetition of the verb also shows the anger mood of the men of the house.

A woman in such a family is never allowed to play schizophrenia and cry loud when cheated in love. All such  unwanted and undeserving restrictions made Kamala Das a rebel in her life. She boldly asserts that she wants a man who has love for her. She even goes to the extent of making an unbecoming, untraditional, illicit relation with a man:

“I met a man, loved him.

Call Him not by any name, he is every man

Who want woman, just as I am every

Woman who seeks love. In him…. The hungry haste of rivers,

In me. The oceans’ tireless Waiting….”

Here in these lines the confession of Kamala Das is very bold, open and frank. She does not speak of herself but speaks for a large number of women who are devoid of love and liberty. This is why she uses the phrase ‘every woman’ and ‘every man’. The illicit relation has been euphemistically and metaphorically rendered through the images of ‘hungry rivers and tireless ocean’. The lover has been compared to the hungry rivers that are very eager to merge in the eternal ocean. On the other hand, the beloved has been compared to the tireless ocean.

In literature nothing is moral or immoral. The only thing that matters in art and literature is the presentation of the reality and the face of the genuine. So, in art and literature vulgarity may come, but it must come through poetic beauty.

 

Here, her description recalls us of D.H. Lawrence and Arundhati Roy. They too openly portrayed the feelings of love and physical union. Unfortunately, the speaker was the worst sufferer of male chauvinism earnestly searches for a man whocan quench her desire, the desire for love and freedom. She is in search of a man to whom she may share her grief and sorrow, pleasure and happiness.

So, she asks each and every one the question. “Who are you?” This question is very suggestive. She wants to be fully confirmed whether the man whom she is searching for is genuine or fake, conservative or liberal. And ultimately the man is found who calls himself “I”.

The poet states that he is tightly packed like the sword in its sheath. Here the phrase’ sword in its sheath’ is highly symbolic. It symbolizes the inner nature of behaviour of a man’s personality which is always covered or hidden. Modem psychology says that man’s mind is a complex organism which cannot be fathomed so easily. But Kamala Das is able to search for that man who was the same in both his inward and outward appearances. So she frankly observes that she enjoys the pleasures of life with him :

“…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.”

In these lines, we see the confession of Kamala Das on the metaphorical plane. Here the word, ‘I’ represents the inner soul of Kamala Das. It may suggest the inner longings of an average woman who wants to be loved by her husband free from the do’s and don’ts of the categorizers. And now, the poet has got what she wanted. But by doing so, she is both ashamed of and happy, sinner and saint:

“….I am sinner.

I am saint. I am the beloved and the

Betrayed. I have no joys which are not yours, no

Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.”

These lines have got antithesis and balance.  Kamala Das uses the word ‘sinner’ because she thinks that she has committed blunder by breaking the age-old rule of the religious bondage of marriage. But after the marriage, her husband treated her like an inanimate object. He was only concerned with the body of the poet.

So, there was only a sexual or physical union. But in the second part of the poem, we get love, the identification of emotions of the lover and the beloved, the physical as well as the spiritual reunion of the two souls leading to a state of cosmic bliss which a Yogi attains through sacrifice. But the case of Kamala Das is opposite. She gets it through pleasure. Perhaps this is why she says that she is both sinner and saint, beloved and betrayed.