Student Question
Describe the patriarchy in the poem "The Bangle Sellers."
Quick answer:
Patriarchy in the poem "The Bangle Sellers" is largely seen through its implication that a woman's sole purpose in life is to satisfy a male through being physically attractive, providing him sexual fulfillment, serving him, and giving him children that will bring him both pride and prosperity. The poem hints that doing these things will bring women supreme happiness, never mentioning or allowing for the fact that a woman has an individual identity outside of these roles.
A patriarchy is a society in which males hold dominance. In the poem "The Bangle Sellers," the poem compares the bangles that are sold to the stages and purposes of a woman's life. The bangles represent the happy lives of women in their journey through life; however, this life is centered only around stereotypical images of females and focuses largely on pleasing men.
For example, in the second stanza, the speaker describes bangles appropriate for a "maiden's wrist." A maiden is an unmarried woman, and the bangles will add allure to her physical appearance so that she may be more pleasing to the male eye. This wish to look appealing largely centers around her hopes of being attractive enough to make a male desire her enough to marry her.
In the third stanza, the bangles are ones fit for a bride on her wedding day. The bangles symbolize a woman’s...
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happiness at this new stage in life. Her "heart's desire" is to please her husband in marriage and to be a good wife. Words such as "flame," "fire," and "desire" imply that one of the chief roles of a wife is to satisfy her husband's sexual needs.
In the final stanza, the bangles are best suited to an older married woman whose main purpose is to fulfill the role of a mother. Her job is to give "sons" to her husband. The author is an Indian woman and in the Indian culture, sons are prized much more than daughters, which in itself seems to perpetuate the idea that males have much more value than females.
The last lines of the final stanza are the most obvious examples of a patriarchal society because of the mention that, along with bearing sons for her husband, a woman's job is to "serve her household." As the husband is the head of the household, this implies that a woman’s job is to serve and obey her husband.
The poem itself seems to imply that a woman’s happiness in life mostly comes from pleasing and satisfying a male’s wants and wishes. There is no mention of the happiness that could be derived by a woman who chooses to live for herself and focus on her own desires.