LS.2. SHE

LS.2. SHE 

 

BY LAKSHME KANNAN

 

 (DEGREE I YEAR OU SYLLABUS)

 

INTRODUCTION:

SHE was written by Lakashmi Khannan. She uses the pen name “Kaveri” for her writings in tamil. She has received the Manjula Srinivas Award for the best woman in 2012. She is her own translator. She is famous for her portrayal of a strong and positive women protagonist. In the poem she Lakashmi Khannan presents an elaborate description of the external attributes of an Indian woman existence and her inner life of subordinate and oblivion.

 

EXPLANATION:

 

Lakashmi Khannan, presents in her poem, a nameless woman who is apparently leading an orderly and contended life, nevertheless feels an emptiness within and breaks down at the end. The woman is drawn from middle class or upper class society where the wife has to maintain a certain standards of life and keep up appearance.

 

In the opening section, the poet delineates a woman who is elegantly and tastefully dressed, creating a vision of a modern woman who wears tight-fitting clothes that smack of western culture. These is about her an aura of confidence as she glibly pronounces “value judgment”.  But beneath this suave and self- assured appearance there lurks a person who is tense and insecure. Both before and after marriage, in most upper and upper middle class familie, girls enjoy the luxury of expensive clothes and the benefit of liberal education, but their inner, authentic voice remains unarticulated. Lack of self-expression leads to dissatisfaction and even depression.

 

In the second section, the scene shifts to the luxury and comfort in which “SHE” lives. The house is looked upon as a living creature opening “with clean health” and “breathing an air of uncluttered ease”. Every room is spick and span and with eye-catching décor, enough to make a woman “house-proud”. However in this instance, the woman is not genuinely proud but is forced into being so. Inspite of all the material comforts, the woman experiences emotional sterility in her life.   The floor swept clean as her empty heart paradoxically, while the house enjoys “clean health” and breathes an air of uncluttered ease”. The woman is psychologically  and emotionally ill with her role (home maker) that denies her opportunities of a fuller and more meaningful realization of the self.

 

In the concluding section, the woman’s life is viewed against the backdrop of life outside the house. Through the open door she has a glimpse of the orderly “backgarden” and the “lengthening shadow” of her. One gets the impression that life has quietly slipped her by and she is left with longing loneliness. The oppressive silence of the house sings in her ears. The inner chaos was in sharp contrast do the orderliness of the life of nature as symbolized by the garden. The mango tree is in full bloom with the sudden appearance of “glossy leaves” that shine like copper on the branches. Then there is the sweet-throated song of the birds in the midst of so much joy, all she can feel is the peeling stillness and the pain of memories of once pleasant past.

 

CONCLUSION:

In each of the three sections of the poem, Lakashmi Khannan presents an elaborate description of the external attributes or circumstances of the woman’s existence against the background of which peeped into her inner life is provided.

 

Lakashmi Khannan stress the paradox of a house-proud woman holding suffering behind. The happy appearance life of deprivation and loneliness.