"Men" Analysis

In the poem “Men”, Maya Angelou uses varying sentence lengths and imagery to show how bad experience with love may alter a person’s perspective forever, but some still choose to return to similar experiences and try again. At both the beginning and end of the poem, Angelou uses curtains as a symbol for innocence and safety. She begins by saying “When I was young, I used to/ Watch behind the curtains”, but eventually curiosity draws her out from behind the curtains into the not-so-innocent world. Once she does so, the sentence structure of the poem changes from long, multi-line sentences to short sentences, only 3-5 words each. “Then/ they tighten up. Just a little. The/ First squeeze is nice. A quick hug/ Soft into your defenselessness. A little/ more. The hurt begins” (Angelou). The short sentences give the poem a flashback-like feeling, where the speaker only reveals certain quick images, leaving the rest for the reader to infer on their own, as if the speaker’s afraid or ashamed to speak of what happened. It also causes the pace to speed up, inducing a more panicked voice. The use of metaphors, such as the egg, also help give the reader a better picture of what Angelou is trying to get across; the women are innocent and fragile, and while men are big and strong, the women are easily broken. She also uses the simile “your mind pops, exploding fiercely, briefly/ Like the head of a kitchen match” (Angelou). Once again, even though the woman is portrayed as something less innocent now, she’s still weak, as kitchen matches aren’t extremely dangerous or explosive. Finally, the speaker returns to the curtain metaphor, saying that this time she’ll “simply/ stand and watch/ maybe” (Angelou). The final word, “maybe”, ends the poem with somewhat of a contradiction; the entire poem she’d been speaking of how awful men were and how she’d never go back, but the slight hint that she would go back shows her uncertainty over the whole experience.

            In “Nights at the Circus”, by Angela Carter, this same uncertainty is seen through Fevvers’ painful past with men. Fevvers grew up in Ma Nelson's house, which was "a wholly female world within" (Carter 38). Like the speaker in the poem, innitially, Fevvers' only experience with men was from "behind the curtains" (Angelou) of the house, but as Fevvers grows older she eventually becomes more exposed to the world of men through Madame Schreck and joining the Colonel's circus. "And the curtains have never been opened in all my memory of the place, nor could a single one of the cother girls recall when those curtains had last been opened, either. . . So we threw open the curtains" (Carter 49). This point in the novel is where Fevvers finally has to leave behind her childhood, though she takes Ma Nelson's sword with her wherever she goes as a sense of security.

            "Wrench out a/ Smile that slides around the fear" (Angelou) is describing when women let their guard down, then the man moves in to hurt them, but they play innocent at first and pretend to not know what's going on before they get hurt. This is like Fevvers' encounter with the Grand Duke, when she feels uneasy around him, but doesn't leave. "the hairs on her nape rose and the Grand Duke turned to her a satisfied smile, as if, all along, he intended her to be afraid of him. For the first time in her life, she refused champagne" (Carter 188). While the Duke is trying to hold power over her, Fevvers tries to not let him win, but she can't overcome his strength. " when the Grand Duke's arms tightened around her, she realized he was a man of quite exceptional physical strength, sufficient to pin even her to the ground. . . flushed out Nelson's sword from its hiding place in her corset" (Carter 191). His destruction of her sword, the one item that makes her feel secure, finally gives him complete power over her. "Now she was defenseless. She could have wept" (Carter 191). From this point on in the novel, Fevvers, like the speaker in the poem, is transformed. She's uncertain as to who she is, but she vows that she's learned her lesson. "But this time, I will simply/ Stand and watch./ Maybe" (Angelou). The "maybe" at the very end, however, addresses uncertainty towards going back to men. Fevvers and the speaker both relapse slightly after their bad experiences, and contemplate perhaps trying at love again, though they're uncertain. "Can you love? he demanded of her in a great, rhapsodic rush as she rose up out of her curtsey. When she heard that, her heart lifted and sang" (Carter 291).