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Female Depression Through Symbolism: A Study on the Selected Poems of Adrienne Rich

This paper talks about Adrienne Rich’s support and standing with the women through her selected poems. The paper discusses the depression of women because of male dominance. Rich uses symbolism to display women depression. She also tries to clear the position of woman in the society. The research demonstrates the position of women through psychoanalysis, social problems and female point of view. This paper also tries to identify Rich’s view on feminism. Adrienne Rich has highlighted the hard reality in her writings. This paper also clarifies Adrienne Rich’s thinking or point view regarding feminism and sexuality. Her experiences regarding the depression of women are displayed here through symbolism. Thus the focal point of the paper is to show how Adrienne Rich shows female depression through symbolism.


Introduction
Adrienne Rich (1929Rich ( -2012 was brought up in a milieu that was totally fashioned by patriarchal thought in every field of life. Great male figures mastered the literary scene and they created their rules for what should be written and what should not. Rich's legibility to write poetry was only found in the imitation of poetic conventions of the canon. She started writing poetry that matches the literary styles and subject matters of the period; a period that was totally fashioned by male writers' thought. Moreover, Rich was raised in a family who fed her mind with the importance of reading and imitating the great figures of literary scene (Hassan 55). A Change of World (1951) was her first collection of poems that were complemented by W. H. Auden himself in his preface to this collection. Auden said: In a young poet, as T. S. Eliot has observed, the most promising sign is craftsmanship for it is evidence of a capacity for detachment from the self and its emotions without which no art is possible. Craftsmanship includes, of course, not only a talent for versification but also an ear and an intuitive grasp of much subtler and more difficult matters like proportion, consistency of diction and tone, and the matching of these with the subject at hand; Miss Rich's poems rarely fail on any of these counts" (Rich 278). "It is noted above that craftsmanship, decorum and detachment were really what matter for those writers. The poetic conventions at that time entailed the writing about public issues that matter public opinions. More importantly, woman writer had nothing but to follow the rules of writing sponsored by the great masculine writers of the period. Thus, she had to talk about impersonal issues, which led to the burial of her female voice in her writings. That was the milieu that characterized the early poetry of Adrienne Rich to the extent that she was given the label of 'great imitator'. Following these formalistic techniques and modes of expression left Rich incapable of finding the appropriate means to voice herself in her writings. She couldn't talk about her ambitions and concerns as a woman having a life ruled by masculine thinking. Thus, she lived a duality of life between satisfying the demands of great male pioneers of the period and the following of her needs and desires as a woman seeking her own female identity" (Hassan 56). Moreover, Rich realized that the distinction of man at the expense of woman did not lie in certain innate attributes or characteristics, but it was imposed on woman by force. She wrote in her essay, When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision (1971) that "The charisma of Man seems to come purely from his power over her and his control of the world by force, not from anything fertile or life-giving in him" (36). Though Rich's realizations of the oppressive doctrine of writing poems separate from the poet's everyday life, she could not save herself and reflect her voice in her early poems because she was still using the same tools and modes of writing of the common male writers. These modes of writing convey only the fixed meanings of what Lacan called 'the symbolic language' that serves the masculine needs and neglects the feminine ones. Women are dominated in our society but there is none to end this problem.
Rich feels the depression the depression of the women as she is also a woman. She decides to display it through her poetry and she tries. We know if the child wants to get an access into his own subjectivity. The child should give up his first identification and attachment with his mother in order to construct an identity that copes with the patriarchal model, which in turn favors the masculine over the feminine. So the society doesn't recognize a child by its mother's identity. Woman has no right on her children. The patriarchal society is not ready to recognize any woman which is the main cause woman's depression. Adrienne Rich was against this in justice and she protests against it through symbolism in her writings. So Rich's writings reflect women's psychological aspect (depression) and the use of symbolism. When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.

The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid. (Rich, 1951: 13-16) Through these symbolic lines Rich wants to say that the oppression of woman will end after their death but it will be recognized by anyone. Everyone will forget the miseries of the woman and other woman will be dominated and oppressed by the society. Thinking about rights. When women try to raise their voices, society stops them. It obviously makes the women frustrated. They manage to overcome it. They don't lose hope as they love the family and society. They believe today or tomorrow, they will be treated properly and they will enjoy their rights.
Adrienne Rich herself also says about her depression. Some lines from one of her interview: "I find the condition of life in this country often very depressive. The work that I choose to do is very much in part to not get lost and paralyzed. The activism I choose to do, the kind of writing I choose to do has a lot to do with that, with going to the point where I feel there is some energy. And there is a lot of energy in this country, but it's diffused, it's scattered, it's localized." (Rich 35). Adrienne Rich is always hopeful, and she knows that her path is full of obstacles but she is unchanged. As a woman, he faces depression but she wants the country changed. So she is writing against it. She doesn't want to stop. She will move forward. Her thoughts are like the Himalayans. Probably, she is quite successful regarding A thinking woman sleeps with monsters.
The beak that grips her, she becomes. (Rich, 1970(Rich, : 2639 Women are deprived by the men. Their husbands are the persons who dominate them most. So the depression of the women symbolizes the men as monsters. It is usually very tough for any woman or man to sleep with the person who dominates her or him most.
Women have to do it for the whole life so their depression knows no limit. We are familiar with a term lesbian. A lesbian is a homosexual woman. Adrianne Rich also writes for them. Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence is an essay of her regarding this."It was written to challenge the erasure of lesbian existence from a large amount of scholarly feminist literature. It was not written to widen divisions but to encourage heterosexual feminists to examine heterosexuality as a political institution which disempowers women and to change it" (Kafer 2003). It is a gift for the all depressed lesbians who fell insecure to express their feelings and demands. It is an attempt to change the notion of women's dependence on men as social and economic supports, as well as for adult sexuality and psychological completion.

Conclusions
Adrienne Rich's writings on the oppression of woman are a very brave attempt as we are living in the male dominant society. She tries best to cover up her protest by using symbolism. She also uses symbolism to show female depression. The paper will help us to identify the use of symbolism in Adrienne Rich's writings to show female depression. People will get a clear view about Female Depression in Rich's writings. They would be more careful about their female family members and would respect them and provide their rights. It will build a better family and society. Finally, all will be equal.