Paper Example on Domestic Violence by Eavan Boland

Domestic violence is defined as the act of being violent or physically abusing another individual in a domestic setting such as marriage. Domestic violence is an example of a modern social issue, and it also involves "a sequence of assaultive and intimidating behaviors, which may include physical, sexual, and mental attacks, not forgetting economic coercion, that adults or youths use against their spouse in a domestic setting." Eavan Boland in his poem "Domestic violence ", tries to highlight the physical abuse between partners as one of the main social issues in Northern Ireland (Anderson 2). Statistically, there is a growing number of domestic violence cases in the United States. For example, in 1998, an estimated 1 million violent crimes were perpetrated against people by their existing or former spouses (Anderson 2). Two years later, a survey was conducted by the Chicago Police Department, and they discovered that approximately 85% of the male are domestic violence perpetrators which were a shocking statistic. Hence, the main discussion will be on how domestic violence in the poem by Eavan Boland compares to domestic violence as a modern social vice.

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The main motif in Eavan Boland's poem is issues of gender-based violence. For example, in the poem, she says "and there was a couple who argued into the night, their voice high sharp, nothing is ever completely right in the lives of those who love each other dearly" (Boland 13). As elucidated in the entire poem, there is marriage life between couples more than just house chores and wrangles. The poem shows the correlation between private arguments and public fights and it is made into one metaphor. By writing domestic violence, Eavan Boland tries to depict the land as an extension of the family unit, while the latter defines the warring factions as fighting couples. She explains to the readers that domestic violence resulting from family quarrel is one of the main contemporary social problems that Irish citizens are facing on daily occasions.

In the poem "Domestic violence", the poet also sees most Irish conflicts emanating from sexual rape and assault. That idea is mainly explained in the introduction part of the poem. "Their voices were high, sharp: nothing is ever entirely right in the lives of those who hold each other dearly" (Boland 13). In the first stanza, Eavan Boland talks about a couple heading to the "suburbs" where they can overhear their neighbors quarreling, it explains how rampant domestic violence is in Ireland (Boland 12). In the next stanza, she explains how domestic violence cases are reported to authorities and her last two stanzas focus talks about her success and failure both in personal and collective perspectives (Boland 37) For example, "we failed our moment..., the times we grand in size and we were small..., why do I write that when I don't believe it."

Helen Kidd asserts the idea of the house in Eavan Boland's poem "Domestic Violence" explains the kinds of domestic wrangles occur within the home and the nation as a whole (Kidd 35). "Our island broke out its old sores for all to see, we saw them too (Boland 13-14). "There were killings, killings, killings." The poet writes these stanzas with a melancholy tone to demonstrate the extent of suffering that women go through when they are domestically molested by their husbands. Eavan Boland, feels disjointed from the place, due to her inability to solve the problem of domestic violence which has become rampant in his nation. That decrease her desire for belonging.

In the poem "Domestic Violence" she also tries to explain an aspect of political violence which metaphorically, means the outsider or immigrants trying to come and take up the opportunities or even cause violence to domestic citizens living in Ireland (Anderson n.p). Some of the economic costs of domestic violence are quite high in Ireland as most families do strain when trying to fend off high bills from hospitals. Finally, through domestic violence poem, the author tries to show how conflicts are likely to encroach on the private sphere and contaminate the household through cruelling and gruesome domestic acts.

Issues of domestic violence are brought out in Boland's poem particularly on the role of women in society. The poems show how women's legacy is underestimated when comes to inheritance (Boland 39). Women struggle to fit in the family due to the way society puts treats on them. They are treated as lesser human beings who have less voice, especially in family settings. On the other hand, Harsent avows that, Boland uses the poem to highlight the metaphoric relationship of women's lives in society. There are instances of political conflicts that develop in society and most of this emanate from the family setting. For example, in the domestic sphere, women positions are confined as evidenced in the poem images of women are spinning in troubles with numerous challenges in society. Nonetheless, daily occupations in society explain fully how women are underrated when it comes to political positions and power rankings.

In Boland's poem, the lines between indoors and outdoors justify that there is more life outside domestic chores and women routine works (Miquel-Baldellou 17). While this is a major theme, there is a collection of questions and troubles that women face as they are trying to move from their unchanging duties. The process of moving from the household setting to public sphere results to problems and troubles which at the end lead to domestic violence. The conflict created from the society encroaches the private sphere hence attracting issues such as family conflicts. The redefinition of the home becomes a center for conflict where the husband and wife are always on rankles. On the same parallel, Boland asserts that the conflict is shown on media; television where images, for instance of bloodshed and quarreling are shown openly (15). Instead of the media covering or reducing domestic violence cases, they are fueling them by showing the real occurrences in society.

The intrusive dichotomy of the media is also undermined. It is made to report everything that occurs including the troubles and deaths. Despite the fact that the instances of conflict are rarely mentioned in the poem, they are made eruptive in the second part of the poem. The lines continue to attractive friction and therefore, social disorder when looking at the steady rhythmic transpiration. The use of the pronoun 'television' conveys how domestic violence is broken in the association of national and intimate junctures. Even though the poem is further broken into other distinct parts which illuminate how the troubles are handled, there are overlapping personal distinctions that make the media be considered an undercut responsible for fueling domestic violence in society. On the other hand, the poem is set to occur in a kitchen space where television is used to create a boundary between the public and the private.

Elsewhere in the poem, the realm of the garden is used as a protective space where all instances including domestic violence vices can be understood. Taking wedding and seeding as the imagery of natural growth, the garden points to a cyclical time when the season of domestic violence are purported to occur. Boland mentions that although they had thought they knew, rivers, Vikings, to mention but a few had been made to shiver (13). The imagery explained here is the connection between what is made to grow naturally and the troubles that encounter it creating a change. The fragmented changes also occur in the individual psyche resulting in ware and divisive violence between intimate partners. War is welcomed into the war by the differences in language and the ways through which the female character tries to find shelter. Beyond the fences of the garden, there occurs turmoil and therefore, violence between men and women in the family setting.

In conclusion, the domestic violence metaphors used by Boland are an interplay of war and what happens in private life. Domestic violence emanates from the outbreaks of the public sphere to the private lives of individuals in society. For example, the stories shown in the media; television ignite social disorder thereby resulting in the conflict in families. The poem makes use of metonymy in order to ease what is explained in the formal bracketing. By engaging the audience, Boland succeeds to explain the collocation of the terms indoors and outdoors in the poem and how they help expound on the concept of domestic violence.

Works Cited

Anderson, Laura E. "Domestic violence: Contemporary interventions and the rise of specialized domestic violence units." (2014).

Boland, Eavan. Domestic Violence. New York, London: Norton, 2007.

Boland, Eavan. Eavan Boland: A Critical Companion: Poetry, Prose, Interviews, Reviews, and Criticism. WW Norton & Company Incorporated, 2008.

Harsent, David. Selected Poems, 1969-2005. Faber & Faber, 2007.

Kidd, Helen "Cailleachs, Keens, and Queens: Reconfiguring Gender and Nationality in the poetry of Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, and Eavan Boland." Critical Survey

Miquel-Baldellou, Marta. "Women in the Twilight and Identity in the Making: The Concept of Transition in Eavan Boland's Poetry." Estudios Irlandeses 2 (2007): 128-34.