Consorting With Angels Analysis

I was tired of being a woman,

tired of the spoons and the post,

tired of my mouth and my breasts,

tired of the cosmetics and the silks.

There were still men who sat at my table,

circled around the bowl I offered up.

The bowl was filled with purple grapes

and the flies hovered in for the scent

and even my father came with his white bone.

But I was tired of the gender things.Last night I had a dream

and I said to it...

"You are the answer.

You will outlive my husband and my father."

In that dream there was a city made of chains

where Joan was put to death in man's clothes

and the nature of the angels went unexplained,

no two made in the same species,

one with a nose, one with an ear in its hand,

one chewing a star and recording its orbit,

each one like a poem obeying itself,

performing God's functions,

a people apart."You are the answer,"

I said, and entered,

lying down on the gates of the city.

Then the chains were fastened around me

and I lost my common gender and my final aspect.

Adam was on the left of me

and Eve was on the right of me,

both thoroughly inconsistent with the world of reason.

We wove our arms together

and rode under the sun.

I was not a woman anymore,

not one thing or the other.O daughters of Jerusalem,

the king has brought me into his chamber.

I am black and I am beautiful.

I've been opened and undressed.

I have no arms or legs.

I'm all one skin like a fish.

I'm no more a woman

than Christ was a man.

.: :.

Similar to Plath in ‘Ariel’ and ‘Lady Lazarus’, Sexton dehumanizes herself to become a distorted version of a female, one without gender. She begins the poem with an almost ironic “I was tired of being a woman”, the past tense adding to the off-hand, conversational tone. She then continues to describe what a woman is through a series of symbols, similarly seen in Plath’s reincarnation. She highlights the stereotypical roles and restrictions placed on a woman in her society, using images of everyday objects such as “spoons and the post”. Males in this poem have predatory qualities as she does the chores they “circle around the bowl I offered up”. The symbol of the bowl that she presents is filled with “purple grapes and the flies hovered in for the scent”. The flies link to the men who sat at her table and the bowl of fruit offered is related to her sexuality. This becomes very suggestive when her deceased father “came with his white bone”. Sexton uses this first stanza to depict her reality and the society she lived in and her boredom and resentment of it. This however changes in the following stanzas of the poem.

The dream sequence in Sexton’s poetry becomes a tool to explore the unnatural. The images of religion are used in this dream to create her new identity, without gender. Joan of arc is used as her symbol of female persecution and injustice. In the poem Sexton highlights that Joan of Arc, a martyr was “put to death in man’s clothes”. The quote refers male clothing, suggesting that Joan herself was not considered a woman, because of her acts, and was stripped of female qualities. Sexton suggests strong women in history have been classified as almost masculine where in fact she believes they have no real gender, relating herself to them. This metaphor is continued as Sexton herself is “lying down on the gates of the city….chains fastened around me”. Sexton loses her “common gender” as she is chained in between Adam and Eve which are both “thoroughly inconsistent with the world of reason” her act of being between these two figures suggests her identity is neither masculine of feminine. This is seen when she writes “I am not a woman anymore,/ not one thing or another.” There is a contradiction in last stanza as she is uses her sexuality when she is brought to the “kings chamber…black and beautiful… open and undressed”. However her sexuality is take when she states she has “no arms or legs”, showing her will to remove this sexuality seen in the first stanza. Her wish to become something else is evident in the repetition of solitary and combined symbols emphasized by the use of the angels in stanza two. The angels are unitary; independent of gender, each being different and individual having “one with a nose, one with an ear in its hand”. The angels symbolize what she wishes to become and call her the “answer”. She finally becomes “one skin like a fish”, the symbol showing the grace and harmony of her new identity. The final lines proclaim “I am no more a woman/ than Christ was a man.” This daring metaphor in which Sexton uses Christ as an immortal symbol may be used to shock readers. Gender is not attributed to his actions for which he is known. By finally using the most prominent Christian symbol in her poem Sexton is proclaiming her right to be genderless. Yet, although she has escaped it in her dream, she, as a woman who wished to be “without gender” was alienated and isolated for her individualism.
| Posted on 2005-10-26 | by Rachael Hewes

| Posted on 2005-10-27 | by Approved Guest