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    Eunice de Souza (Marriages Are Made)

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    Aishita
    The poem highlights the oppressive nature of marriage for women in traditional Indian society. It describes the formalities that Elena, the narrator's cousin, must undergo for her marriage, including examinations of her family history, physical attributes, and health. While she is found lacking in some respects like height and weight, her complexion is deemed acceptable. The poem criticizes how marriages objectify women and subject them to humiliating standards of approval, while men like the prospective groom Francisco are not scrutinized in the same way. It aims to shatter romantic illusions about marriage and expose the gender biases that dominate such unions.

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    Eunice de Souza (Marriages Are Made)

    Uploaded by

    Aishita
    611 views3 pages
    The poem highlights the oppressive nature of marriage for women in traditional Indian society. It describes the formalities that Elena, the narrator's cousin, must undergo for her marriage, including examinations of her family history, physical attributes, and health. While she is found lacking in some respects like height and weight, her complexion is deemed acceptable. The poem criticizes how marriages objectify women and subject them to humiliating standards of approval, while men like the prospective groom Francisco are not scrutinized in the same way. It aims to shatter romantic illusions about marriage and expose the gender biases that dominate such unions.

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    Eunice de Souza (Marriages Are Made) (3)

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    The poem highlights the oppressive nature of marriage for women in traditional Indian society. It describes the formalities that Elena, the narrator's cousin, must undergo for her marriage, including examinations of her family history, physical attributes, and health. While she is found lacking in some respects like height and weight, her complexion is deemed acceptable. The poem criticizes how marriages objectify women and subject them to humiliating standards of approval, while men like the prospective groom Francisco are not scrutinized in the same way. It aims to shatter romantic illusions about marriage and expose the gender biases that dominate such unions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    611 views3 pages

    Eunice de Souza (Marriages Are Made)

    Uploaded by

    Aishita
    The poem highlights the oppressive nature of marriage for women in traditional Indian society. It describes the formalities that Elena, the narrator's cousin, must undergo for her marriage, including examinations of her family history, physical attributes, and health. While she is found lacking in some respects like height and weight, her complexion is deemed acceptable. The poem criticizes how marriages objectify women and subject them to humiliating standards of approval, while men like the prospective groom Francisco are not scrutinized in the same way. It aims to shatter romantic illusions about marriage and expose the gender biases that dominate such unions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 3

    ‘Marriages are Made’ by Eunice de Souza

    My cousin Elena

    is to be married

    The formalities have been completed:

    Her family history examined

    for T.B and madness

    her father declared solvent1

    her eyes examined for squints2

    her teeth for cavities3

    her stools for the possible

    non-Brahmin worm.

    She is not quite tall enough

    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 Prabhu4

    Good son of Mother Church

    1
    Solvent (adj): the ability to pay off loans
    2
    Squint (n): a condition caused by a weakness of the eye muscles which makes the eyes to look in different
    direction from each other
    3
    Cavities (n): holes in teeth
    4
    Francisco X. Noronha Prabhu: prospective groom for Elena. The name is used exaggeratedly as a satire on male
    dominance in marriage.
    Critical Appreciation

    Marriage is a social institution. By social institution, I mean social custom. It is supposed to be a

    sacred and happy institution for husband and wife. There is a common saying that ‘marriages are

    made in heaven’. Eunice de Souza’s poem is a satire5 and she deliberately truncates6 the title

    and keeps it open-ended as ‘Marriage are Made’. The title of the poem is ironic7 as the poem

    reveals that marriages are not made in heaven. They are made on earth as socially constructed

    entities. Our societies are male dominated societies. The institution of marriage in our society is

    also man made. The poem highlights the humiliation faced by a woman during the preparations

    for marriage. The occasion of the poem is the marriage of Elena, the cousin of the narrator of the

    poem. The formalities to be completed for her marriage highlight the oppression of women in

    male dominated societies. Elena has to prove herself worthy for the prospective bridegroom. Her

    eyes are scrutinized for squints and her teeth are examined for cavities. Even her family history

    is examined for possible diseases and conditions. How can she be happy with such a marriage?

    She is treated as an object and her role in the marriage is negligible. Her passiveness is

    highlighted by the fact that she (Elena) does not have any surname as if she does not have any

    identity of her own. She is not allowed to speak or say anything. Eunice de Souza smashes the

    romantic notions of marriage as a union of love and respect between man and woman. Hence, the

    style of her poem is aptly anti-romantic. She refrains from using the basic poetic devices like

    simile, metaphor, assonance, alliteration etc. She rather uses litotes, a figure of speech by which

    an affirmation is made indirectly by denying its opposite, usually with an effect of

    5
    The use of humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize peoples prejudices, hypocrisy or
    stupidity.
    6
    Shorten (something) by cutting of the top or the end.
    7
    Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from
    actual meaning of the words.
    understatement8. “She’s not quite tall enough/ and not quite full enough” are examples of

    litotes using double negatives. It is an indirect way of saying that Elena is short and slim. There

    is an effect of understatement as one could feel that Elena is presented as less important than she

    really is.

    Her complexion it was decided

    would compensate, being just about

    the right shade9

    of rightness

    to do justice to

    Francisco X. Noronha Prabhu

    Good son of Mother Church

    The poem is written in free verse and there is no clear rhythm and meter, and the lines do not

    rhyme. It reads like a monologue. The poem ends with the name Francisco X, the prospective

    bridegroom He is mockingly portrayed as the lord to Elena who does not need to prove anything.

    Only Elena has to prove everything. The poet succeeds in exposing the gender bias against

    woman in male dominated society.

    Note

    For further discussion on this poem, you can join our Google Classroom using class code:

    atboh4n

    8
    The presentation of something as being smaller or less good or important than it really is.
    9
    It is an example of litotes created directly though understatement without making use of double negatives

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