The Old Playhouse by Kamala Das- Summary and Analysis

In most of her poetry Kamala Das is seen to express her bitter feelings toward the loveless martial relationship where the husband always tries to internalize his ideologies to the woman. Her poetry depicts that marriage is no more than a way of learning about one’s self or the completion of one’s own personality where living in the same room the female gradually turns to a “Subaltern.” That’s why while reading the poetry of Kamala Das the readers can easily get the idea of “self and other” from the dictions, tone and the incident represented in the particular poem. In the same way, “The Old Playhouse” tells about the unsatisfactory and disappointing conjugal life of speaker with her husband. Kamala Das argues that from the very beginning of her conjugal life her husband tries to tame her that means the process of domesticating the women starts just after their marriage. It suggests that the women start to lose their identity at the beginning of their married life. That’s why in spite of their living together their souls never get connected which eventually portray two separated selves. Here the narrator compares her with a Swallow which refers to a long winged migratory bird. The migratory bird has its experience of flying the wide sky, it knows the endless pathways of the sky:

In the long summer of your love so that she would forget
Not the raw seasons alone, and the homes left behind, but
Also her nature, the urge to fly, and the endless
Pathways of the sky. (The Old Playhouse: 2-5)

But in this poem the narrator’s husband has been found to apply the techniques of love so that it “would forget not the raw seasons alone” but also “the homes it left behind”. Just like this migratory bird after her marriage where the marriage has been compared with the migration of bird the narrator’s life has been caged. Now she has lost her spirit to fly and urge to find her old home which she left behind. Here the homes have been compared with the inner self of the poet which she starts to loss just after her marriage. And her searching for identity has been continued in different poetry like “My Grandmother’s House” where Kamala Das is seen to tell that she has lost her way and is trying to get back her identity by wandering at strangers’ doors:

There is no place of the exploitation and dehumanization of any partner in love. But opposite things happen in this poem where the narrator’s husband has been found to give her lesson only about himself. It suggests that after the marriage the husband tries to internalize his ideologies to her wife. On the contrary Kamala Das argues that she has not come to the life of her husband only to learn about the rules and regulations of patriarchal society rather she wants to learn how to fly and how to grow. In a nutshell the poetess wants to establish her identity with the help of her husband which never comes true. 

Here in this poem Kamala Das has tried to be a free agent of human being and tries to make her soul free but every time she has been imprisoned by the egotistical nature of her Husband. She is also seen to criticize the loveless relationship where every night men and women are seen to consume each other physically but not with the spirit of divine love. Kamala Das accuses that the physical relation without love is nothing but dribbling spittle into the mouth where her husband is also seen to pour himself in “every nook and cranny” of her body which shows the animalistic attitude of man during intercourse. Here the world “poured” has played a great role to display the identity of the poetess. When someone pours oil in water then normally the water losses its own characteristics where the mixed chemical neither can work like the water nor like oil. The life of the poetess has become like this mixed chemical where she is unable to act like her husband or regain her own self of woman. Thus, with the spiritless sexual relationship the women gradually loss their true identity.