The
Dance of the Eunuchs- Kamala
Das.
Summary-
'Dance of the Eunuchs' vividly conjures up the atmosphere of a
hot, tortured, corrupt, sterile and barren world through vivid symbols and
images. The dance of the eunuchs whose joyless life reflects the poet‘s
fractured personality is a noticeable piece of autobiographical poetry. Kamala
Das has vividly visualized the world of vacant ecstasy and sterility through
numerous functional images and symbols in her poetry. In fact Eunuchs try to
eke out a livelihood by dancing. Their dancing is mechanical and painful. The
conditions and the climate are forbidding. The spectators are merciless. Even
God seems to add their woes. The eunuchs‘ voices are harsh and their songs are
full of melancholy. The themes of the songs are those of lovers dying and
children left unborn. Some beat their drums while others beat their flat
breasts and wept. The joy on their faces is only a mask as they writhe in pain
and their faces are really vacant. The atmosphere of heat and sterility is,
first of all, expressed through fiery gulmohur and the jasmines in, their hair‖ could not provide them with a soothing effect.
The image of 'Their sour breasts' again suggests their sterility
and barrenness because they belong to neither sex. They are destined to remain
unfulfilled. In fact their personality reflects the psychological outburst of
the poet. It can be examined on the lines of abjection theory developed by
Julia Kristeva The abject is that which is rejected by social reason- the
communal consensus that underpins a social order . The abject exists
accordingly somewhere between the concept of an object and the concept of the
subject representing taboo elements of the self barely separated off in a
liminal space.
According to Julia Kristeva- The abject is situated
outside the symbolic order, being forced to face it is an inherently traumatic
experience, as with the repulsion presented by confrontation with filth,
waste or a corpse- an object which is violently cast out of the cultural world,
having once been a subject'' Similarly the highly suggestive images a meager
rain that smelt of dust in Attics and the urine of lizards and mice….highlight
the depressed and dejected mental state of Kamala Das. According to Kristeva‘s
theory of abjection, fear is the dominant/operative word. Making a connection
between language and phobia, Kristeva claims that phobia does not disappear but
slides beneath language and any practice of speech, in as much as it involves
writing, is a language of fear.
Similarly the heightened sensibilities of the poet through
the picturisation of
the external factors forge the image of the psychological state
of the poet herself. It is a poem that successfully delineates the contrast
between the superficial joy and the inner depravity. The eunuchs become the
objective correlative of suppressed desires.
Reference-
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