A Feminist Study of Kamala Das’s poem “The Old Playhouse”

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to showcase the feminist approach in the poem “The Old Playhouse” by Kamala Das. The poem represents the speaker who voices out the oppression and psychological perceptions of a woman in the patriarchal society, gender stereotyping as well as the longing for personal space and creativity which is brought forth by the self-expression of the speaker itself. Das shows the demands of intellectual space for a woman to pursue her dreams in life and the objectification of a woman who were caged as a private property of a man strictly bounded to the four corners of the house whose inner desires to fly and nurture are overlooked in the male dominated society. The poem serves as the voice of the unheard inner emotions of the woman who becomes the victim of silent oppression in the patriarchal society.