Analysis of a Womans Transformation Poem by Adrienne Rich - Essay Example

A Woman’s Transformation “Women” My three sisters are sitting On rocks of black obsidian. For the first time, in this light, I can see who they are. My first sister is sewing her costume for the procession. She is going as the Transparent lady And all her nerves will be visible. My second sister is also sewing, At the seam over her heart which has never healed entirely, At last, she hopes, this tightness in her chest will ease. My third sister is gazing At a dark-red crust spreading westward far out on the sea. Her stockings are torn but she is beautiful. Adrienne Rich In the 1960s, the life of women in America was restricted in nearly all aspects, at the workplace and at home. A woman was supposed to follow a single direction—to get married at the age of 20, form a family immediately, and dedicate her life to domestic duties. Per se, wives shouldered all the responsibilities of child care and housework. They were legitimately or officially bound to their husbands under ‘head and master laws,’ (Tavaana.org 2014) and they did not have the legitimate right to the property or finances of their husband, apart from a restricted right to necessary support; nevertheless, husbands would have power over the finances and property of their wives. If the marriage failed, divorce was not easy to get, since ‘no-fault’ divorce was improbable, pushing women to provide evidence of misdemeanor of their husbands so as to obtain divorce. A large number of women in America in the 1960s were mostly confined to jobs as secretary, nurse, or teacher. Women were largely discouraged in professional courses. Consequently, very few women were engineers, lawyers, and doctors. Employed women also received lower salaries and job opportunities than men due to their domestic responsibilities (Tavaana.org 2014). Adrienne Rich portrays this gender inequality in her poem ‘Women’. Adrienne Rich is widely known as a feminist, author, critic, and poet. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland on the 16th of May 1929. She grew up in a Jewish-Protestant household. She went to Radcliffe College and graduated in 1951. She was chosen for the Yale Series of Younger Poets award for A Change of World, her first compilation of poems at the age of twenty-two (The Famous People 2014). Her father was the one who inspired her to read and write and homeschooled her at a very young age. She used up most of her time in the library of her father which was filled with the literary creations of exceptional authors. She became the wife of an Economics professor, Alfred Conrad. By the time they relocated to New York in the latter part of the 1960s, Adrienne was becoming popular for her distinctive poems and political leanings (Poets.org 2014). She was widely recognized for her involvement in social and political movement as much as for her poetry, and in the 1970s she became one of the most influential representatives of feminists, lesbians, and anti-war activists (Poets.org 2014). Rich’s poem Women seems to resemble her complete transformation, from being a wife to a political and social activist and feminist. The first stanza hints at her gradual realization of her capability of becoming politically influential. The first line “My three sisters are sitting” appears to represent the three stages that Rich had to go through in order to become completely ‘free’ from the domestic bondage, from being a household ‘slave’. The term ‘sitting’ represents the status of Rich at the time, passive and meek, simply ‘going with the flow’, just like how ‘sitting’ feels like. The second line “On rocks of black obsidian” is somewhat a tricky metaphor due to the use of a quite uncommon object, which is ‘obsidian’. Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia Britannica (2014) defines ‘obsidian’ as “a dark natural glass formed by the cooling of molten lava” (1). It has a glassy sheen and is somewhat solider compared to window glass. It is usually black in color. ‘Black obsidian’ may signify the long-established societal beliefs and stereotypes about women. How an obsidian is formed, which is through ‘cooling of molten lava’, resembles stereotypes and social values are formed over time. Rich aims to destroy this ‘black obsidian’. And, the third line, “for the first time, in this light, I can see who they are”, embodies the reawakening of Rich, the realization of who she really is as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, and as a member of the society. The second stanza portrays the traditional, submissive self of Rich. It seems that in this stanza she is telling about her life as a full-time mother and wife, and how she succumbed to the dictates of society. The fourth line, “My first sister is sewing her costume for the procession”, introduces the first stage of Rich’s transformation. In here, she is preparing herself to become part of a society that sees women as housekeepers and caregivers. The word ‘procession’ here signifies her slow walk into her final destination: home. Procession is defined in Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia Britannica (2014) as “an organized group or line of people or vehicles that move together slowly as part of a ceremony” (1). The word ‘procession’ is befitting to what was Rich was feeling at the time—trapped and left without a choice. The fifth line, “she is going as the Transparent lady”, represents the public aspect of being a woman, of not having the same privacy accorded to men. She is ‘transparent’ because everyone has the legitimate access to her private life. The sixth line, “And all her nerves will be visible”, verifies how public the life of Rich had been, perhaps because her husband was an economist professor, or possibly due to something else entirely. The third stanza depicts the wounded, battered self of Rich; the self which is now clamoring for a release, for liberty. At this point she is becoming enlightened of her situation and how oppressive it is for her as a woman. The seventh line, “My second sister is also sewing,” tells how Rich is trying to mend her broken soul, how she struggles to piece everything together in order to keep her sanity. The eighth line, “At the seam over her heart which has never healed entirely,” talks about the rift within her, the crevice that signifies how conflicted she is about her true identity and role as a woman. The term ‘seam’ is defined by the Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia Britannica as “a line where two pieces of cloth or other material are sewn together” (1). This ‘seam’ embodies Rich’s feeling of uncertainty at the moment. Then the ninth line, “At last, she hopes, this tightness in her chest will ease,” signifies the decision she finally comes into—she will emancipate herself from the fetters that restrain her true potentials as a woman. The last stanza narrates the final leg of Rich’s transformation. At this point she is now a woman of greater purpose, a woman of politics and society. The tenth line, “My third sister is gazing”, reveals the fact that Rich has been renewed, transformed into a new being. She is no longer ‘sewing’, but ‘gazing’ to a new horizon, or, “at a dark-red crust spreading westward far out on the sea”. This eleventh line represents the endless potential that Rich is seeing in front of her. She is aware by this time that she can be influential in the struggle toward gender equality by raising her voice and fighting for women’s rights. The last line, “Her stockings are torn but she is beautiful,” symbolizes her ultimate emancipation from bondage, from the ‘stockings’ that traditionally define women as housekeepers and passive followers of their husbands; however, even with a ‘torn stockings’, she is still ‘beautiful’, for she is a renewed woman, a woman of higher purpose and value. In the poem ‘Women’, Adrienne Rich depicts her own transformation as a woman, from being a traditional, passive individual into a transformed, purposeful woman. She briefly chronicles her transformation in three phases. She effectively did this in a few lines. She convincingly showed the need for women to proclaim themselves and let their voices be heard. This poem is apparently all about women’s empowerment and how society will benefit from an equal treatment of genders. Works Cited “Adrienne Rich.” The Famous People. The Famous People, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. “Adrienne Rich.” Poets.org. Poets.org, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. “Obsidian.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster.com, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. “Procession.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster.com, 2014. 27 Oct. 2014. “Seam.” Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster.com, 2014. 27 Oct. 2014. “The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement: Breaking Down Barriers for Women.” Tavaana.org. Tavaana.org, 2014. Web. 27 Oct. 2014. Read More