Silence, Confinement, and Patriarchal Power in Select Indian English Poems

Abstract

This paper reads Eunice de Souza’s “Catholic Mother” alongside Kamala Das’s “The Sunshine Cat” to examine two different experiences of women living within patriarchal structures. The poems do not present oppression in the same manner. De Souza works through irony, religious authority, the family photograph, and the striking absence of the wife’s voice. Das moves inward, presenting a woman whose desire for affection is met repeatedly by neglect and whose domestic surroundings finally become restrictive. A close reading of diction, structure, imagery, symbolism, titles, and poetic voice shows how both poets question the assumption that family life necessarily provides security or recognition to women. Reader-response ideas associated with Wolfgang Iser and Louise Rosenblatt are used as a secondary framework, particularly where the poems leave significant gaps for the reader to interpret. The argument of the paper is that silence and confinement function not only as themes but also as literary methods through which unequal power relations become visible.