‘Victimization of Women in Indian Society’ simulated in the verse of Eunice de Souza
Dr. A.V.V.V.Malleswaramma
Lecturer in English A.N.R.College, Gudivada, Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh. India
Eunice de Souza is (born 1940) is a contemporary Indian English poet, literary critic and
novelist. Her poetic collections are- Fix (1979), Women in Dutch Painting (1988), Ways of
Belonging (1990) and Selected and New Poems (1994). She wrote four collections of folk tales
for children- All About Birbal (1969), Himalayan Tales (1973), More About Birbal, and Tales
of Birbal. Her book Talking Poems (1999) is a series of interviews with established Indian poets
writing in English is very famous. She is highly conscious of art, and her poems are praised for
understatement, economy and visual shape. Bruce King comments that ‘De Souza is in tune
with the feminist movement in contemporary poetry, in her directness of speech, self-revelation
and non-nostalgic memories of family life’. She writes instantly from a context and speaks about
the victimization of women in Indian society, especially Goan society. There is a force and
sharpness in her verse while satirizing different aspects of male domination and oppression of
women. She feels that the oppression that women face in the society is always not apparent.
Often it is psychological. They are confined in religious, traditional and societal boundaries to
become stereotypes and this condition prevail throughout the centuries. De Souza discusses
these issues in her two collections of poetry: Fix and Women in Dutch Painting. According to
Keki N. Daruwalla:
De Souza explores the Goan catholic milieu clinically, the-turned-outsider, who
probes the foibles, attitudes and complexes of the community. The collection is
centred around her Goan community. 1
De Souza writes about the innocence of teenage girls because of the secrecy maintained in the
issue of sexuality, psychology of spinsters, suffering of pregnant women, colour-complexes
nourished by women, penchant of male child, unvoiced suffering of women in the family,
seclusion, suppression of feelings due to fear either of a husband or societal norms, and finally
about the women who break these chains to attain freedom from traditional codes of the society.
De Souza’s first collection of poems Fix picturises the hypocrisy and conservative falsity
of Goan society. She ridicules the society for its double standards, male domination and
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repression of women and the male domination. In the poem “Sweet Sixteen”, the poet exposes
the ingenuousness of adolescent girls because of the privacy sustained in the issue of sexuality.
She submits the trepidation and stupidity of sexuality of the Catholic upbringing, which affects
the young girls regarding the matter of pregnancy and sexuality. Phoebe’s friend says:
At sixteen, Phoebe asked me;
Can it happen when you’re in a dance hall
I mean, you know what,
Getting preggers and all that, when you’re dancing?
I, sixteen, assured her
You could.
(Twelve Modern Indian Poets, P.117)
So many myths are prevalent that support the ignorance about the risks of pregnancy. De Souza
talks about one of the myths in this poem.
The psychology of spinsters is related in the poem “Miss Louise”. Words like ‘spinster’
and ‘old maid’ pertain to the sexual as well as marital state of a woman (Schur, 1983). Negative
social identity of single womanhood adversely affects construction of positive self identity for
single women. (Reynolds & Wetherell, 2003; Byrne, 2003). Stigmatisation and marginalisation
are still the dominant marks of singlehood in many societies because singleness is still seen as
defying the norms of femininity – marriage and motherhood (Sandfield & Percy 2003). De
Souza picturises Miss Louise, who is derided in her community as an eccentric spinster and
humiliated for her unfulfilled dreams in this poem. Miss Lousie maintains the voluptuousness
which she has dreamt all her life. She still believes that she is beautiful enough to perturb the
priest in the church. She pronounces:
My girl , I can’t even
Go to church you know
I unsettle the priests
So completely, Only yesterday,
That handsome Fr Hans was saying,
“Miss Louise, I feel an arrow
Through my heart “
(Twelve Modern Indian Poets, p.47)
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She imagines herself as a seductress listening to the comment of the clergyman. She flatters
herself. She says:
But no one will believe me They ‘ll say,
“Yes Louise, we know, professors
Loved you in your youth,
Judges in your prime.” (I bid)
This poem is a naughty, little satire on the snobbery of beauty-conscious women of Goan
community. It is about a woman who bullies of her possessing alluring beauty and is sure that
even in her middle age she is capable of shaking men, including the priests at the church. The
poem is a stirring satire at the moral pretensions of clergymen, Professors and Judges as well.
Beauty-consciousness and Colour-complexes nourished by women are given
expression in the poem “Mrs. Hermione Gonsalvez”. This complex develops in women due to
the significance given to fair women by both the family and society. The fair skinned Mrs.
Gonsalvez complaints against her parents. She says that they married her to a dark man. She
wouldn’t even have looked at him, on her own. One day she has gone for a holiday. There the
bright Maharastrian women have praised her beauty:
Mrs. Gonsalvez how fair and
Beautiful you are your husband must be
So good Looking too but when Gonsalvez came
They all screamed
and ran inside their houses
thinking the devil had come. (Fix p.12)
Thus Mrs. Gonsalvez reveals the aspects of nostalgia and of patriarchal domination, while
selecting a life partner. Through the character of Mrs. Gonsalvez de Souza underscores the
colour discrimination in the female society in a humorous way. Ketu Katrak opines:
Inter-connections between gender, class and colour-prejudice are represented in
Eunice De Souza’s poem. The poem’s colloquial tone and humour flavour the
female narrator’s tale, a whining complaint about once having “looks and colour”,
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and now sadly married to a dark man. In this poem, colour is coded with religious
overtones – darkness and the Devil inhabit in the same space; fairness is equated
with beauty, goodness, and moral virtues. De Souza’s characteristically ironic tone
reveals the serious undertones of an arid relationship between Mr. and Mrs.
Gonsalvez, one that is marked and marred by colour prejudice. 2
De Souza often feels those women are maneuvered by marriage. They’re married to ensure
security and solidity in their life. The women are the ones who end up in work and provide for
the family, and also take care of their children. She claims this is what most Goan women go
through and therefore she derides the complete idea of marriages. In the poems “Mrs. Hermione
Gonsalvez”, and “Marriages Made” De Souza mocks at arranged marriages and the fuss made
in selecting the brides considering the bride as a commodity in marriage market.
In Marriages Made de Souza portrays the distressed position of Cousin Elena in the
name of selecting a bride. The poem denotes de Souza’s reluctance in arranged marriages and the
din made by the bridegroom’s family while selecting the bride, brushing aside the mental agony
of the bride. The irony of the poem draws attention to the reality of a woman’s plight. De Souza
describes:
My cousin Elena
is to be married
The formalities
have been completed:
her family history examined
for T.B. and madness
her father declared solvent
her eyes examined for squints
her teeth for cavities
her stools for the possible
non-Brahmin worm.
She's not quite tall enough
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and not quite full enough
(children will take care of that)
Her complexion it was decided
would compensate, being just about
the right shade
of rightness
to do justice to
Francisco X. Noronha Prabhu
good son of Mother Church. ( Fix, P.13)
‘The theme for the poem “Marriages Are Made” is ‘gender decides power’. While this is not
always how supremacy is interpreted, it is famous throughout this piece that men receive more
power than the women in South Asia. In order for a woman to get married, she has to go through
a series of tests and examinations. The woman described in the poem is treated as an investment;
like a piece of new land. Her health is checked, and even her father’s financial stability is an
important asset in whether or not the bride is fit for her suitor. Also, Elena, the bride is referred
to in a manner that furthermore shows how she is not seen as important.’ (WARD'S WORLD
WIKI, South Asian Poetry, Eunice De Souza.)
Another factor in the victimization of women in India is the deep-rooted mind set of
society. It is believed that women are mediocre and must be constrained to be homemakers and
child bearers. In the poem “Catholic Mother” De Souza visualizes efficiently the silent
suffering of a pregnant woman, who endures the pain of bearing seven children. The poet
focuses on the inhibition of feelings of a wife owing to fear either of a husband or of societal
norms. She writes:
Francis D’souza
Father of the Year,
………………….
By the grace of God he say
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We’ve had seven children
(in Seven years)
We’re One Big Happy Family
God Always Provides
India will suffer for
Her wicked ways
(these Hindu buggers got no ethics)
………………………….
(Nine Indian Women Poets:p.39)
The enormity of the misery of the Father’s wife as well as the insensitivity and hypocrisy of the
Father are marvelously conveyed by these few words. Minakshi Kaushik comments:
In ‘Catholic Mother’, the hypocrisy of Francis X. D’ Souza is exposed by the ironic
juxtaposition of phrases like “Grace of God” and “Pillar of the Church” against the
sufferings of the Father’s wife due to consecutive impregnation for seven years. The
injustice he imposes thus on his wife are pitted against his hollow tirade against
“Hindu buggers” who have “got no ethics”. But thus juxtaposing phrases and direct
speech, de Souza avoids lengthy description and brings out the irony of the Father’s
words simultaneously. 2
In the Indian society a male child is always given preference rather than the girl child.
This makes the girl suffer mutely in the family. This verity is in focus in the poem “De Souza
Prabhu”. Eunice De Souza believes that women, themselves are liable for their own
maltreatment. Though they are women they give preference to male child. In the poem De
Souza narrates how her parents, especially her mother was hostile towards her because she
wanted a boy. This aspect shows the willingness of women in showing contempt and scorn
towards their own sex. She writes:
I heard it said
my parents wanted a boy
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I've done my best to qualify.
I hid the bloodstains
on my clothes
and let my breasts sag.
Words the weapon
to crucify.
(Nine Indian Women Poets:p.37)
The mind of a woman is always filled with a sense of fear: A woman‘s life is relentlessly bogged
down by fright and it is one of the main obstacles to her endeavor at self-realization. One of the
main reasons why women are oppressed by patriarchy is that it is capable of inducing fear into
them. The same fear resulting in delusions of maltreatment, which is one of the symptoms of
schizophrenia. It is evident in De Souza‘s poetry as she claims:
I thought the whole world
was trying to rip me up
cut me down go through me
with a razor blade.
(Nine Indian Women Poets “Autobiographical”p.38)
The poem “Forgive me Mother” exposes the mother daughter relationship and mother as
the inculcator of patriarchal code of sexual subjugation in her daughters. A mother is influential
in socializing her children into conservative gender roles and reception of value system that
serves male interests. De Souza voices out her bitterness towards such sexual prudishness
towards her mother:
In dreams
I hack you.
(Twelve Modern Indian Poets, p.118)
In the collection Fix de Souza establishes herself as writer of short poems with ironic acuity. The
poet herself acknowledges that ‘The Catholic poems originated in anger-anger about the kinds of
values we had, such as our sense of superiority over everybody else, When ironically our values
were not all that-different’ (Keki Daruwalla: 1960-80 P.49).
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In her second collection of poems Women in Dutch Painting, De souza’s focus is on
loneliness and silence in the lives of women due to bitter experiences of life. This collection
discloses a certain brooding compliance and merit of the poet. She deals with issues like friendly
reticent relationships of women folk, the dilemma of age and of love. She articulates rebellion
and bile towards the position of society, and men and women in wide-ranging: There is also
empathy and sympathy for the bigotry of women for their non-resistance, orthodoxy, fantasy and
receipt of womanly customs laid down by the society. She opines that women remain dumb on
compulsion. In the poem “Women in Dutch painting” she says:
The afternoon sun is on their faces
They are calm, not stupid
Pregnant not bovine
I know women like that
And not just in paintings-
An aunt who did not answer her husband back
Not because she was plain.
(Women in Dutch Painting, P.11)
There is a harmony and unresponsiveness in women’s silence. According to Simone de
Beauvoir:
‘One is not born, but rather one becomes a woman. No biological,
psychological, or economic fate determines the figure that the human female
presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature,
intermediate between male and eunuch, which is described as the feminine.3
Beauvoir states the position of women as "other" and a woman finds herself living in a world
where men compel her to assume the status of the ‘Other’ and remain silent even while suffering.
De Souza depicts this opinion of Beauvoir in the poem.
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Growth of individuality of a girl is not appreciated. Societal norms always make her
dependent on either the parents or others in every mode of life. A girl feels crippled in crossing
the road without the help of her mother or sister Flora in the poem “The Road”, i.e crossing the
road of life. She needs assistance at every stage of life. Girls are conditioned to fit into a
phallocratic society completely, and they are perplexed and anchorless. The poet admits:
I am still learning
To cross the road.
(Women in Dutch Painting, P.24)
Women’s dependency is socially constructed due to patriarchal system. The sense of loneliness
and alienation felt by most of the women is due to the domination of men. They compared
women to assume the position of the other on the family or in society. The poet in “Advice to
Women” focuses on the otherness of women and comments ironically:
Keep cats.
If you want to learn to cope with
The otherness of lovers
Otherness is not always neglect-
Cats return to their litter trays.
When they need to.
(Women in Dutch Painting P.22)
De Souza applauds the emergence of a dominant woman from the distinctiveness. They should
expound the politics of ‘patriarchy’ and ‘struggle for the identity’ of a woman. They should
prove that they are not inferior, vulnerable and easily prone to violence either from men, religion
and society. They should protest their humiliation and despotism to obtain justice. A woman
needs to outdo herself to be a self-sufficient woman even if she is ridiculed.
De Souza portrays the equivalence of women’s experiences in the poem “Return” when
they challenge male oppression:
Sarala Devi, Kusum Bala, Rani Devi,
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All of ill fame.
I read your story in
The morning paper:
You refuse to wear ankle –belts
Worn for generations
You study law
You hear catcalls in the street-
Drums and belts behind your books.
Sitting alone in a Bombay restaurant,
Listening to the innuendoes of college clerks
And a loose-lipped Spanish Priest,
I know something their feelings.
(Women in Dutch Painting,P.44)
She shares conventional feelings of all those women who are prostitutes and their struggle to
attain their aims in life. They try to break away from the past and improve their prospects. With a
feminine sensibility, the poet understands their feelings and appreciates their stance.
In the last poem of the collection “Return” V th Section, de Souza subverts the story of
saint Tukaram who made his wife suffer sensitively and physically for his godliness. She
condemns him:
You made life hard for your wife
And I’m not sure I approve of that
Nor did you heed her last request:
Come back soon.
(Women in Dutch Painting p.45)
On the excuse of devotion Tukaram makes the life of his wife and children troublesome.
De Souza condemns the fraudulent stand of male dominated society and religion, which supports
the interests of male. Her aversion towards her milieu, catholic backdrop and femininity infuses
in her poetry ‘a profound sense of alienation, which is evident in her statement: ‘there are ways
of belonging/I belong with the lame ducks’. Like most Indian English poets of her generation, de
Souza draws heavily from her personal life and she fruitfully manages to fix her personal
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experiences to the broader context of the cultural and political milieu around her. Having been
brought up in a conservative Catholic family in Goa, she has a first-hand experience of the multi-
layered subjugation that women are subject to in India, which she visualizes in her two
collections of poetry.
References:
1. Keki N. Daruwalla. Ed. Two Decades of Indian Poetry, (1960- 80) New Delhi: Vikas
Publishing House, 1980. p.49
2.Minakshi Koshik. “ Experiments in Form: Eunice de Souza’s Poetry” Galaxy: International
Multidisciplinary Research Journal, Vol. I. Issue. II 1 April 2012, p.2
3. Simone de Beauvoir. The Second Sex. Vintage Classics, 1997 p. 295’
4. Ketu Katrak. The Politics of the Female Body: Postcolonial Women Writers: “English
education Socializing the Female Body”, Rutgers University Press, USA:2006, p.139
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