Double-Consciousness Under the White Gaze
Double-consciousness under the White Gaze in Maud Martha
The theme of double-consciousness was first defined by Du Bois in The Souls of the Black Folk. He put the term “double-consciousness” in "a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one 's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one 's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."(Du Bois) It is obvious that the protagonist as well as several lesser characters in Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks suffer from this distressing double-consciousness, especially Maud Martha. Maud Martha realized that she was not the cherished one because of her darker skin color at an very early age, thus “to be cherished was the dearest wish of the heart of Maud Martha Brown”.( Brooks 1650) In her own family, her beloved father preferred her sister Helen because Helen was lighter; At school her schoolmates also liked Helen and ignored her; When she grew into womanhood and got married, her husband Paul also showed a partiality to lighter women. Martha’s father, classmates and husband acted this way because as black people they themselves were treated as inferior creatures all the time by white Americans. Under this white gaze, the value that the black was inferior was accepted and internalized by the gazed over time. This internalizing also happened to Martha as she struggled all the way to build up her subjectivity. That accounts for her inferiority about her appearance and jealous of Helen her prettier. When a white schoolmate Charles came to visit Martha, she should feel “a sort of gratitude.”
The theme of double-consciousness was first defined by Du Bois in The Souls of the Black Folk. He put the term “double-consciousness” in "a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one 's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one 's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder."(Du Bois) It is obvious that the protagonist as well as several lesser characters in Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks suffer from this distressing double-consciousness, especially Maud Martha. Maud Martha realized that she was not the cherished one because of her darker skin color at an very early age, thus “to be cherished was the dearest wish of the heart of Maud Martha Brown”.( Brooks 1650) In her own family, her beloved father preferred her sister Helen because Helen was lighter; At school her schoolmates also liked Helen and ignored her; When she grew into womanhood and got married, her husband Paul also showed a partiality to lighter women. Martha’s father, classmates and husband acted this way because as black people they themselves were treated as inferior creatures all the time by white Americans. Under this white gaze, the value that the black was inferior was accepted and internalized by the gazed over time. This internalizing also happened to Martha as she struggled all the way to build up her subjectivity. That accounts for her inferiority about her appearance and jealous of Helen her prettier. When a white schoolmate Charles came to visit Martha, she should feel “a sort of gratitude.”
References: The Souls of the Black Folk, Du Bois, W. E. B. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison , Michel Foucault Maud Martha, Gwendolyn Gwendolyn