Regardless of who you are or which gender you belong to physically or psychologically, it seems a given that you will be constrained in some way. This is because every role in society has become associated with specific behaviors and expectations that are automatically applied to the individual who has become associated with a role through accident or design. As a result of the need to fit within these social expectations and thus achieve a sense of being accepted in the social sphere, each individual finds it necessary to restrict themselves in some aspect of their being. The theme of the restrained self is a strong theme that can be found throughout most of this term’s available readings. Even princes of the dominant culture can find themselves trapped within social constraints that prove destructive to the self as can be seen in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. However, some roles seem to be more self-destructive than others simply because there are more damaging constraints placed on them. In many cases, for instance, the theme of the restrained self is discovered about the position of women living in a male-dominated world. This is certainly the case in William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” in which the main character is defined by the men involved in her life and the social constraints placed upon her by her position within society. In many of these stories, the woman’s character or inclinations are often expected to remain unexpressed under the expectations of the external definition. As more people were able to enter the literary field, though, this theme began to be found applied to others as well such as in the minority black population voiced by Langston Hughes. In his poem “Dream Deferred,” Hughes provides a succinct description of the constrained self that is thus equally applicable to the position of women as expressed by Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” and the even the position of white men as seen in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
Langston Hughes describes the effects of the restrained self in his poem “Dream Deferred.” The title itself indicates that the individual must restrict themselves within the confines of an external definition that’s been applied to them because their dreams must be deferred. He provides several ways in which this dream might die, which, in turn, presents several conceptions of what might happen to the individual. Throughout his poem, Hughes forces his reader to consider what happens to the human soul when they are unable to fulfill their dreams. He uses simile and metaphor to make his point as he continues to ask a series of questions to answer his original opening question of “what happens to a dream deferred?” This list of questions explores the various ways in which the first question might be answered by using a simile to suggest the possible results. The first possibility/simile Hughes suggests is that the dream might “dry up / like a raisin in the sun” (3-4), suggesting something so dried and hard that it no longer functions as it should. The second possibility is that the dream might “fester like a sore – / and then run” (4-5). In this situation, the dream is like a wound that won’t heal and that oozes everywhere. The third possibility is that the dream deferred might “stink like rotten meat / or crust and sugar over” (6-7). In this possibility, the dream has become like something unpleasantly hard and containing an unpleasant odor. Another possibility Hughes brings forward through the use of simile is that the deferred dream might be like a heavy load (10). Throughout the poem, he continues to point to the larger metaphor of the dream as the individual’s potential and goals in life.
The format used by Hughes in his poem also introduces a significant amount of imagery for the reader to imagine. In the first case, a raisin is capable of providing the individual with a sweet and nutritious treat thus strengthening them and giving them fuel and encouragement for any difficulties ahead. Instead, Hughes suggests it is left drying in the sun, losing all of its nutritional qualities as these become too deeply embedded in the impossible-to-eat fruit to make it worth searching for. The second possibility introduces the imagery of a festering sore that eventually ‘runs.’ It is impossible to consider that Hughes selected this term accidentally, instead of using the more accurate word ‘ooze.’ In this possibility, Hughes suggests that the dream put on hold will continue to nag at the soul, always eating away at it until finally the soul gives in and runs, taking the physical form of the individual with it, in pursuit of the dream regardless of the final cost. In this situation, the individual becomes incapable of waiting any longer. The third possibility introduces imagery intended to incite the sense of smell rather than sight as the dream is subsumed under a hollow exterior that performs its functions as is expected but fails to completely mask the underlying resentment and anger. The fifth question immediately conjures up any images the reader might have of times in which they struggled with a load too heavy for them and realize how inevitable it was that they had to give up and seek assistance or concede the load would not be moved. Hughes ends the poem with the question, “Or does it explode?” (11). Because he doesn’t compare it with anything or confine it in any way, Hughes allows this line to be vaguely threatening, loose, and chaotic. Through this exploration of what happens to a dream deferred, or a person constrained unnaturally into social or external expectations, Hughes suggests the individual will become hollow, bitter, spoiled, defeated, or insane.
Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” demonstrates how dreams deferred, the restraint of the self, results in the short-circuiting of an individual’s life. Faulkner introduces Miss Emily Grierson as a woman who has been strictly contained within the boundaries of her father’s old Southern ideals. “None of the young men were quite good enough to Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau; Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door” (437). This created a situation in which Miss Emily “got to be thirty and was still single” (437). Because of her father’s assessment and enforcement of their family’s status in a town in which the rest of their class had largely died or moved off, Miss Emily becomes entirely alienated from her society. The Griersons become the town’s image of the Old South and, as a result, the town insists upon her maintaining this role. After her father’s death, Miss Emily is seen to attempt to break out of the mold her father has placed her in through her willingness to date Homer Barron and begin adopting more Northern ideals. When Miss Emily is seen in public sometimes following her father’s funeral, “her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows – sort of tragic and serene” (438) as she took on a more Northern approach to her appearance. At the same time, she is seen defying the old order of her class in her willing appearances on Sundays in the company of Homer Barron, “a Northerner, a day laborer” (438) so far beneath her station in life yet in keeping with the loose class values of the North. However, she is still not permitted to escape the bonds of the Old South as her cousins are quickly sent for (by the townspeople) to bring Miss Emily back into her ‘destined’ role.
While the town insists on Miss Emily retaining her Southern social position by forcing her to remain isolated from the community, this strangeness also gives her a degree of power over the community that she manipulates for her advantage. For example, Had the Northern attitudes been permitted to persist, Miss Emily would not have been forced back into her house, Homer would not have been chased out of town by the cousins and would not have been murdered as Miss Emily’s only means of pulling him into her warped world of the past.
The strictures of the community as they tended to weigh on Miss Emily are symbolized through the figure and ideals of her father, reinforced by the appearance of her cousins and upheld by the rigors of the watching community, finally locking Emily into the rigid figure she appears to be to the townspeople in the end. In this portrayal of her, Faulkner makes it clear that for the townspeople, Miss Emily is the last best vestige of the Old South and the town’s glory days of the world before the Civil War. Her attempts to move forward with the energy and progress of the North, demonstrated through her short haircut and willingness to flaunt social custom by being seen with a commoner, even considering marrying him, further threatened the townspeople’s sense of value in their traditions. Even though the attitudes of the North were coming into the South regardless of what they did, as is seen in the arrival of Homer Baron, there was a residual need for the townspeople to have some symbol of their own lasting identity. Although they insist something must be done about the odor coming from Miss Emily’s home, there remains a need to adhere to the old codes when it comes to this woman. “‘Dammit sir,’ Judge Stevens said, ‘will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?’” (436). While they insisted that she remain in an elevated if antiquated social position, they also found that they could not relate to her in the normal way, effectively isolating her in the figure of an icon. Emily’s action of bringing Homer into her life through poisoning was the only means by which she could get someone to cross the division line of propriety within the limits of the Old South and thus accompany her through her isolated existence. Her strangeness as a result of social position irrevocably traps her within the isolation of a dying social era, restricting her to the boundaries of a symbol representing a lost past and driving her insane as a result of her dreams deferred into eternity.
While it is understood that the black man in America has been severely oppressed and constrained in his options and the woman has been constrained in most societies throughout time, it is too easy to overlook the many ways in which the dominant white man is also constrained. In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Bernardo starts off the action by demanding to know “Who’s there?” (I, i, 1). As the action unfolds, Shakespeare tells the story of the young prince of Denmark who is informed by the ghost of his father that his Uncle Claudius, now married to Hamlet’s mother, murdered his father with poison. As the ghost demands vengeance, he points directly to the constraints that are placed upon the white man of honor. Hamlet seeks a way to both prove what the ghost has said is true and bring about the revenge that is demanded if the ghost is correct while also understanding that the ghost may be an illusion intending to trick Hamlet into betraying expectations that he acts honestly and with honor. Hamlet feigns insanity to discover the truth, but his inner battle with the conflicting constraints he feels upon him can be ascertained by closely examining what he reveals about himself through his many speeches.
Throughout much of the play, Hamlet’s speeches can be seen to indicate more than one aspect of his character, such as in the Player’s speech (II, ii). This scene shows Hamlet’s tendency to approach life as if it were a play, constantly taking on new roles to fit the action he is confronted with. This is revealed in his admiration of the play as a true account of life: “I remember one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savory, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation, but called it an honest method, and wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine” (II, ii, 429-434). In his comparison of the roles available to him in this instance, he can be seen to relish neither one. As he describes Pyrrhus, his imagery is full of the base, evil creatures, with which he has a difficult time associating himself. However, his sense of duty and honor, while it prevents him from willingly taking on the role of a murderer, also prevents him from allowing a foul, underhanded murder go, not only unpunished but richly rewarded. At this point, he can not find a role that allows him to both enact the revenge demanded and retain his sense of worth and morality, so he stalls for time and further justification by seeking proof that the Ghost is not leading him falsely.
In trying to determine just what his choices are, Hamlet reveals how depressed he has been feeling in the speech immediately following the Player’s speech. Although it is often interpreted to mean Hamlet is considering suicide from its very beginning, the famous “to be or not to be” speech can also be interpreted as an anxious consideration regarding whether or not he should put his plan into action regarding the King. The speech begins “To be or not to be – that is the question: / Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles / And by opposing end them” (III, I, 56-60). These first lines seem to contain a little indication that Hamlet is considering killing himself as an examination of the argument indicates ‘not to be’ corresponds with ‘suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ while ‘to be’ corresponds with taking ‘arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.’ If this is the case, then ‘not to be’ would correspond to the idea of doing nothing. In this case, Hamlet could expect to inherit the kingdom eventually, living in ‘outrageous fortune’ yet always feeling he failed in his duty and therefore unworthy of his honor, the ‘slings and arrows that would haunt him throughout the remainder of his lifetime. To be, then, would be a contemplation of taking action against the king, directly confronting his ‘sea of troubles, which will probably end in his own death. This thought would necessarily prompt considerations of death and mortality, which lead into the depressed thoughts that keep Hamlet from doing anything. Yet, this is not entirely true either, as the speech ends where it began and necessitates even further consideration in the mind of Hamlet. In both of these speeches, Hughes’ observations regarding what happens to a man whose dreams have been deferred are proved.
Whether male or female, white or black, from the upper or lower class, the literature reveals that everyone is a victim of some form of restraint from being just who they are inside. From the dominant white man to the submissive female to the oppressed black man, each individual spends their life struggling to find a balance between the strict constraints of their position in life and the expression of their inner passions and talents. As Shakespeare, Faulkner, and Hughes reveal, though, full suppression of the inner will can only lead to a limited number of equally negative outcomes. Hughes suggests these outcomes include hollow, bitter, spoiled, defeated, or insane while Shakespeare and Faulkner demonstrate how it can include all of the above. In stories and poems such as these, the authors of the literary world recognize a common theme regarding the human condition and attempt to provide warnings on how to avoid experiencing a similar fate.
References
Faulker, William. (2004). “A Rose for Emily.” Anthology of American Literature – 8th Edition. Ed. McMichael, George, James S. Leonard, Bill Lyne, Anne-Marie Mallon and Verner D. Mitchell. Boston: Prentice Hall: 433-444.
Hughes, Langston. (2003). “Dream Deferred.” Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Robert DiYanni (Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill: 721.
Shakespeare, William. (1969). “Hamlet.” The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. New York: Penguin Group: 930-976.