Introduction to the Poem:
The poem entitled "The Looking Glass" is one of the finest poems in The Descendants. It records authentically the personal frustrations and disillusionments of Kamala Das' own life. It explores Kamala Das' quest for a personal relationship which gives both love and security and she has always been deprived from these two things. In this poem, the poetess writes about the sufferings and humiliations the womankind has to suffer in male dominated society. The poem brings a real picture of the lustful relationship between every man and every woman. It deals with the theme of love, sexuality, sickness and loneliness. This poem shows maturity in craftsmanship.
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| Kamala Das’ Poem The Looking Glass, Summary and Critical Appreciation |
Summary of the Poem:
The poetess suggests that a woman should be bold when she is going to have sexual intercourse with a man. She should give up her shyness during sexual intercourse. If she wants to derive the maximum pleasure through sexual intercourse, she should tell to her lover all her requirement. She should not conceal the admiration of man's body and his limbs in her heart. When she sees her lover in nude state, she should speak high of his body and limbs. The woman must not hesitate to stand naked with her lover in front of a mirror so that he can compare her physical weakness with his masculine strength and admire himself. It will also enable him to see that she is young, soft and beautiful, and worthy of his lust. Her feminine beauty and delicacy would both ignite his passion and gratify his ego of being the superior being the male of the species. The woman also needs to cater to his ego and vanity, and admire the perfection of his body. The woman should note his eyes becoming red when the water enters his eyes while he is having a bath. The woman should note the shy manner in which he walks upon the bathroom floor, dropping his towel because of his lose grip in it. She should not hide her admiration for her lover's manner of urinating. When man completes the process of urination, he jerks his body a little to shake off the last drops. All these details about the man's body and his movements actually please a woman and make her think that this particular man is the only one who can provide her fully satisfaction when they lie together in bed. She should offer her lover everything which is under her capacity. She should spread her long hair over his face to smell. She should bring her breasts close to her lover so that he might smell the sweat between and under her breasts. The woman should be free from the conventional myth that sexual intercourse is harmful during menses. She should encourage her lover to come into contact with her during menses. At first the lover feels shocked to find that there is blood between her thighs. The woman should make her lover conscious of all her sexual cravings. The woman would find it easy to do all these things if she sheds her shyness and adopts bold attitude. It is very easy to get a man to love woman, but to continue with her life after he has departed, is a very hard task. The man quickly forgets the woman; he moves on and never returns. For the man, the encounter was nothing but a transient pleasure, it had no emotional significance for him, but for the woman it is quite different, she remembers the relationship, and suffers for it all through her life. The woman looks for emotional gratification. She yearns for it, all her life, but when she does not find it, she suffers for it. Her body that once gleamed like burnished brass grows old and frail. The frustrated women like Kamala Das are prone to premature aging and disease.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
The poem entitled The Looking Glass is a confessional and autobiographical poem. This poem is an extract from The Descendants. The present poem records authentically the personal frustrations and disillusionment of poetess's own life. It deals with the theme of love, sexuality, sickness and loneliness. This poem shows maturity in craftsmanship. It explores Kamala Das' quest for a personal relationship which provides both love and security. In it, she writes about the sufferings and humiliations the woman - kind has to suffer in male dominated society. It mirrors a real picture of the lustful relationship between every man and every woman, and the disillusionment and frustrations that follow such a relationship, especially for the women.
Thought - Content:
The poetess suggests that the woman should make no secret of her sexual requirements when she is going to have sexual intercourse with a man. She should not feel shy about admiring a man's body and limbs when she sees him nude. She should stand before a mirror and ask her lover also to stand by her side so that they can both see their reflections in the mirror. She should not only admire the man's symmetrical and strong limbs, but also his movements including his jerky manner of ending his urination. All these details about the man's body and his movements should actually please a woman and make her think that this particular man is the only one who can satisfy her fully. The poetess also suggests that a woman should give to her lover everything that she is capable of giving to a lover in bed. The woman should make her lover conscious of all her sexual cravings which she wants him to satisfy. A woman would find it easy to do all these things if she sheds her shyness and timidity. The real difficulty for a woman lies in the fact that if some particular, with whom she has taken the most pleasureful experience of the sexual act, leaves her, never to come back, she would find it impossible to get a substitute for him. If she does not find a substitute, her predicament would lead her into a state of total despair. This woman would thus be physically alive but mentally, emotionally and spiritually no longer alive.
Universal Theme of the Poem:
The woman is destined to play only a lustful role. If she understands this harsh reality about her, she can easily get a man who will satisfy both her lust and his own. Physical satisfaction can easily be taken. Emotional fulfilment is not possible in this world. So, a woman must not crave for it. She should clearly understand that in the male dominated world it is her primary duty to satisfy the male by admiring her lover's masculinity and accepting her own feminine weakness. The Looking Glass is a mirror that reproduces the true image of the man and the woman standing before it. It shows the man's ego, and the humiliation that the woman has to suffer in a male dominated world, where there are set roles that have been assigned to her, which she must accept without complaints. Kamala Das too has to play just such a role, for she is bound into a relationship that she cannot escape from, and the result of this unfulfilling relationship was lifelong dissatisfaction and frustration.
An Autobiographical Note:
Kamala Das looked for love and emotional fulfilment all her life, but this was one thing that eluded her forever. All her quests eventually ended only in disasters of lust and meaningless sexual relationships. These relationships, far from fulfilling brought nothing but misery, frustration and disillusionment to the poetess. Though she does not advocate free sex , but she continuously looks for a meaningful relationship, that would give her the emotional security that she so desires . This emotional security and fulfilment should have been her right from the beginning, but all she ever got was a sterile relationship, which was far from satisfying. The poetess gives vent to her humiliations and her frustration in the poem.
The Use of Imagery:
In the poem, the poetess uses human body, both male and female, for expressing the fulfilment not of love but of lustfulness. Female body with all its gracefulness and delicacy is meant for surrender before the male body:
“All the fond details that make
Him male and your only man. Gift him all,
Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of
Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts,
The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your
Endless female hungers.”
Such concrete images of human anatomy dramatise her passion and impart certain depth and resonance to her feelings.
Style and Language:
This poem has been written in a style which is perfectly lucid and, therefore, thoroughly comprehensible. The necessary marks of punctuation have carefully been provided. The lines begin with capital letters. The poem illustrates Kamala Das' talent for choosing the right words and putting them together in appropriate and even felicitous combinations. The phrase “a living without life” is particularly noteworthy physically alive but emotionally and spiritually lifeless. This poem has been written in free verse which reads very much like prose, does have a certain rhythm which adds to its charm.
