The poem "Happy Marriage" by Taslima Nasrin is full of irony, starting from the title. It is the first-person account of a woman who devotedly loves an abusive husband. The speaker invokes sadness and indignation by providing a snapshot of an abusive and submissive relationship, full of allusions, metaphors, anaphora, and imagery. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The tone of the first verse of “Happy Marriage” is one of simultaneous supplication and resignation. The speaker is almost unrelated to the retelling in the way she alludes to her body as a piece of meat in the second half of the first verse ("...sprinkle salt into the open wound / throw ground black pepper into my eyes / with a dagger I cut off my thigh / [he] can bind me and hang me…” (15-18)), yet he evokes strong feelings in the reader with his diction, using words like “whip” (13) , “spit” (5), “slap ” (6) and “to pinch” (7), all of which have strong negative connotations. The tone of the second stanza changes slightly, with a shift towards hyperbolic and almost sarcastic language, as the speaker describes how she wishes to serve her husband: “ ...I would wait for him and sob... / tears fall, I would bake homemade bread / I would drink, as if they were ambrosia / the foul liquids of his polygynous body…” (24-27). Overall, the reader is left with a feeling of disgust towards the husband and pity for the wife. This tone is achieved with the use of numerous metaphors and similes, starting with the first two lines of the poem. The first line uses the simile, “My life, like a sandbar” (1), and the second describes her husband through metaphor as “a monster of a man” (2). He then uses the simile: “…as if they were ambrosia / the foul liquids of his polygynous body” (26-27). Metaphors and similes are a concise and accurate method for the speaker to illustrate this relationship to the reader in a way that he or she can identify with. Hyperbole is used in the section where the speaker alludes to her body as a piece of meat for her husband to take. She allows the reader to understand not only how she and her husband view her body, as property, but also how her husband treats her body, without even describing the actual physical actions he took against her. The author also chose to use anaphora and imagery throughout the poem. In the first stanza, he chose to use anaphora with the repeated phrase, “so that, if he will,” in lines 4, 8, and 11. This phrase speaks volumes with only five words. The phrase "if he wants" communicates that not only does the husband have the right to "rob her clothes" (9) or to "chain her feet" (12), but he can take advantage of these rights as he pleases, whenever he pleases. Additionally, part of the phrase “so that” is repeated in lines 20, 28, and 31. These two words convey the intentional thought the speaker has put into his actions and what he hopes to receive in return. In the second and third stanzas, the repeated phrase is “I would”: “love him” (20), “wait for him and sob” (24), “bake homemade bread” (25), “drink” (26), “ melt like wax” (28), “prove my chastity all my life” (30), and “commit suicide” (33), all for him. He also uses concise but effective imagery in the first stanza, such as “spit in my face” (5), “slap me on the cheek” (6), and “throw ground pepper in my eyes” (16). The purpose of this poem is to give the reader a glimpse into the mind of a woman in an abusive relationship and to point out the flawed thinking and tragic mindset behind her submissive behavior. It also raises the question: who told the woman that this was the way.