Ophelia March 11

The poem, March 11, from “Letters from Storyville” in Natasha Tretheway’s novel Bellocq’s Ophelia, describes the perspective of Ophelia and her story of being a prostitute in the red light District. 

In the first Stanza, Ophelia expresses her dissatisfaction by being apart of her job as a prostitute. But, as she recalls to her past, she defines key points of her life were she is raised and taught to become a proper women. That is, a women who can fulfill the needs of the man and allows patriarchy to being the system present. This system is considered normal back then and is still considered by some today as an appropriate way of living. Therefore, in this stanza, Ophelia understands that this is where her life has decided to take her and will continue to cooperate with it regardless of her own free choice.

In the last three Stanza’s, Ophelia describes herself in detail while sitting in front of a black backdrop where she is being photographed by Belloqc. She defines herself as “bleached white” and attempts to preserve that stature while being presented with a black backdrop. In this scenario, she is striving to keep herself distinct whilst being in the void of darkness. That is to say, she is acting as within her feminine nature while suffocating in a male dominant environment. As a white speck in the sea of darkness, she is the light that everyone sees in the darkness; therefore she must present herself as a proper woman. That is because during these times, there were double standards; women could not act outside the norm and must cooperate under the system that controls her and other females.

After she defines herself, she discusses further upon how she is controlled by society as she “was a doll” in the hands of males. As a proper woman, she allows herself to be controlled and serves the males that come to see her. In this field of work, alongside the system of patriarchy, she expresses how it is apart of the system, yet also expresses sorrow at how she is fated, like many, to being forced to accept their current way of living in this birdcage. Therefore in the last few lines, she emphasizes escapism to her like if she was not a prostitute. Depicting stereotypical fields of work such as an indoor housewife or as a farmer in the fields.