Category: Student posts

Throughout a person’s life, money has always been the determining factor in a certain situation. From one’s career, to one’s possessions, money has directed where one goes. Not only that, but money makes one think any decision seems rational and morally justifiable. Trethewey’s novella, Bellocq’s Ophelia, details Ophelia being pushed to prostitution, because of her unfortunate need for money. Also, detailing how Ophelia tries to justify her choice in becoming a prostitute.

Immediately, Trethewey provides Ophelia’s profile: educated, young, and most importantly, black. Considering her time, 1910’s, society would dismiss her age and intelligence just one the basis of her pigmentation. Being conceived in a racist society limit Ophelia’s options and considering how her “purse thins” (Trethewey, 7), pursuing a respected profession does not seem economically wise. Acknowledging her economical problems and the fact that “no one needs a girl” (Trethewey, 7), any job would be accepted with open arms; pushing her to become a prostitute. Although one would think that Ophelia would take time to think over her decision, she only takes a month to decide to become a prostitute, showing how quickly money can sway a person.

Apart from making Ophelia work where “one glass of champagne is twenty” (Trethewey, 11), Storyville, the need of money seems to make her glamorize prostitution. Ophelia places an elegant façade over the grotesque profession “the perfumed soaps and fine silk gowns we wear”(Trethewey, 17), hindering any sense of regret. Ophelia then goes on to say that the money is being spent for a good cause “I have bought my mother new teeth” (Trethewey, 15), which is another way she tries to justify her decision. Although one would dismiss this as Ophelia’s appreciation for her new life, Trethewey explains Ophelia’s new mindset, “Empty your thoughts—think, if you do, only of your swelling purse”(Trethewey, 11). In other words, money demands Ophelia to diminish any sense of regret, since she will be paid at the end of all the dismay.

Retrospectively, Ophelia’s turn to prostitution is not only based on her limited options, but also on the fact of the universal need for money.

The common phrase that everyone knows is, “A picture is worth a thousand words” and throughout Tretheway’s poems it is evident that photography does play a vital role. However, in my opinion Tretheway challenges this common idea that a photograph can reveal a lot of information. Instead I think that she insinuates that a single photo can be very limited and not necessarily tell the whole truth. For example when Bellocq photographs the dying sister the narrator describes the photo as, “To the left, dressing gowns hanging empty/ on the door. And beyond that door, what you cannot see.”  (28) Illustrating that the photo may be capturing this dying women and comparing her to her healthy sister, but that something is missing behind the door, which could reveal more truth.

Only a few poems later the narrator explicitly acknowledges the disadvantages of photography when saying, “I’ve learned  the camera well – the danger/ of it, the half-truths it can tell” (30) She knows that the camera cannot capture everything, for instance movement, which is important. In the poem “Photography of a Bawd Drinking Raleigh Rye” the first two lines say, “The glass in her hand is the only thing moving- / too fast for the camera – caught in the blur of motion.” (34) Photography has its limits in that it can not capture motion, which can sometimes reveal more than a still photo.

Also, Tretheway brings up the idea of a single photo being interpreted in different ways and how what one person sees another may not. For instance in the poem “Photography” the narrator states, “I look at what he can see through his lens / and what he cannot…./ the yellow tint of a faded bruise -/ other things here, what the camera misses.” (43) For her it is clear that this photograph captures her physical pain because its her, however to anyone else looking from their own perspective they would probably miss the agony that is portrayed by the bruises on her body.

The entire book of poems ends with two great lines that also point to this idea that photography is limited: “Imagine her a moment later -after/ the flash, blinded -stepping out of the frame, wide-eyed, into her life.” (48) The camera catches a single moment, but not one’s life, meaning that a photo portrays only a small fragment of what is reality. For instance a single photo of Ophelia may make her appear ok, but once she steps away from the camera and into her reality, life may be very different.

“Bellocq’s Ophelia” is not just of collection of poems by Natasha Trethewey, but also a strong expression of the importance of keeping different memories. Although, Ophelia prostitutes her body to several men, her past and present recollections of a life of hardship and discriminations help explain why she acts in this manner. Ophelia writes to her dearest Constance Wright partly to justify her immoral lifestyle based on the rough memories she recollects from her society’s discriminative attitude toward her as African American mulatto.

In her first letter home, Ophelia remembers the effects of this racial judgment on her self-esteem. Initially she walks the streets of New Orleans, as confident as a “white woman, so [she] thinks” but shrinks into a “negress again” once she encounters any white stranger (Trethewey 7). She is compelled to lose her sense of importance when she meets with any white stranger. Without the presence of a white stranger, she is free to hold herself in high esteem and bask in the comfort that high esteem. But when she returns back to the sad and harsh reality of the society’s perception of her as a black woman, she becomes an ordinary person without any form of confidence.

Also, Ophelia recollects that she is unable to get a job because she notices that company or merchant “needs a girl,” because the society believes that black women should be restricted to ‘back-bending” work and “picking time” in the “cotton fields” (Trethewey 7, 8). At this point she is hurt by the harsh misrepresentation of her as a “girl,” and by the unfair qualifications that undermine her competence as a company worker. But these are all causes of the way her society views herself and other black women like her. These situations of subjection make her greatly concerned to the point where she feels a certain “desperation that tightens her throat (Trethewey 7),” which reflects her desire to live a life of freedom where is not restricted by society’s perception of her. She needs a new lifestyle that would remove the pressures and burdens of her past and present memories, whether moral or immoral.

Finally, Ophelia recounts that her inability to “keep up her [job] inquiries,” as the “rent was coming due,” made her choose to live and work for Countess P as a prostitute. Like the other memories, this experience portrays the kind of burden she faced in a harsh society. She cannot seem to sustain herself because she has been deprived by the society’s discriminative attitude towards her, giving her no choice but to prostitute herself in such a desperate moment.

In truth, she probably would not have made this decision, were it not for these rough memories that increased her discomfort. Moreover, these are just a few memories that illustrate Ophelia’s feelings and choices toward the life of prostitution throughout “Bellocq’s Ophelia.” Thus, the importance of memories is further communicated through Ophelia’s decision to free herself from desperation, however immoral or unacceptable it might be to the society.

In her work Bellocq’s Ophelia, Natasha Trethewey suggests that photography is an escape.

Ophelia at the beginning does not understand who she is, who she was meant to be, or why she lives as a prostitute, though she does not explicitly use that term. In the series “Letters from Storyville” in the poem “March 1911,” Ophelia gives insight to her childhood. She states, “Later, I took arsenic—tablets I swallowed to keep me fair, bleached white as stone. Whiter still, I am a reversed silhouette against the black backdrop where I pose” (Trethewey 20). As a child, Ophelia physically poisoned herself to masque her black skin. That she is a mixture of black and white races is confusing in itself. In her current life, she states that she is “whiter still” and a “reversed silhouette.” This language is somewhat oxymoronic. The word silhouette usually implicates dark and shadowy imagery, yet Ophelia uses this word to say she is a white silhouette, perhaps even ghostly. Whether a dark shadow or a white ghost, either way Ophelia describes herself using confusing descriptions because she herself does not know who she is.

After she is introduced to photography and gets a feel for the technique, Ophelia finds capabilities within herself that she did not know existed. In “Disclosure,” Ophelia says, “what power I find in transforming what is real, flushed with light” (44). Ophelia is thus empowered by using photography. She is able to take something real and manipulate it to her liking. Physically, a photograph is “flushed with light,” but metaphorically, this statement can also be seen as a way to describe Ophelia’s mood and happiness when she works with photographs. Her world fills with light, and that power she feels when manipulating a photograph morphs into feeling empowered in the real world.

Lastly, in “Photography,” Ophelia describes inverting a photo: “in the negative the whole world reverses…Inside out, I said, thinking of what I’ve tried to hide…I look at what he can see through his lens and what he cannot” (43). Through manipulation of a photograph, even though she is not physically able to see inside herself, Ophelia feels empowered to see herself from the inside out. Through photography and lighting effects, she is able to gain insight on her true self. She even states that she is able to see beyond what the camera lens can see. She pays closer attention to details on the outside as well as on the inside. Thus, photography is a way for Ophelia to escape her confusing, messed up life and gain a better understanding of herself, furthermore giving her power and control. Overall, Trethewey suggests that photography offers an escape to a better and more powerful life.

In Natasha Tretherwey’s “Bellocq Ophelia”, Ophelia expresses her desire in many aspects of her life, including her family, jobs, names, and expectation to life in general. In the society where gender and racial treatment are unequal, Ophelia learns how to pretend her behavior and conceal her desire throughout her life. Indicating her desire, Ophelia points out, “The girls here are of a country sort, kindly/ and plain for the most part, with simple desires –/ not unlike myself or those girls I knew at home,” (Tretherwey 17). According to this quotes, Ophelia has desires in her life, just like all the other girls who are also treated unequally. However, as the poem proceeds, the reason why Ophelia is unable to fulfill her desire becomes obvious.

Early in her life, Ophelia is trained by her mother to serve man, and this forced obedience eventually leads her to accept being a prostitute in the future. She recalls her mother’s words, “my mother taught me to curtsy and be still/ so that I might please a white man, my father,” (Tretherwey 20). Because of her mother, Ophelia can neither choose to not follow her mother’s instruction nor speak for herself. This inability to express her feelings ultimately deteriorate her desire to pursue the life she wants.

Later in her life, she unfortunately becomes a prostitute due to her hardship in life, and her boss again trains her in a certain way she does not like. She describes Countess P     ’s advice, “Become what you must. Let him see whatever/ he needs. Train yourself not to look back,” (Tretherwey 11). Again, the boss has taught her to please man, and this is what Ophelia internally struggles to obey. Eventually, she is greatly disappointed to herself, and she develops a sense of emptiness in her life.

Unable to make a change in her life, Ophelia is frustrated to her life and is about to give up trying. She confesses to her love ones, Constance, “You are as steadfast as your name/ suggests, and I am as mute/ as my own namesake,” (Tretherwey 23), meaning she is jealous of other people’s life, not her own. This speech also infers that Ophelia is unable to reveal her true feelings, which is a continuous trend since the beginning of her life. She concludes her frustration with “I am then nothing/ but the light I see behind my shut eyelids,” (Tretherwey 19) and “I want freedom from memory,” (Tretherwey 24), showing how much she dislikes her current life and her desire to change the situation and the feeling of being ashamed. Ophelia goes through a series of process in which she starts from an obedient daughter, a cooperated worker, and a woman who is extremely unsatisfied about her life. This process and this development of her personality are the main factors why Ophelia is unable to express and pursue her desire.

Before starting to read Bellocq’s Ophelia I looked up who Bellocq and Ophelia were. However, I found that reading the first sentence of the first poem helped me find a starting point for my research. I started from the painting that describes Ophelia as she “dies face up, eyes and mouth open as if caught in the gasp of her last word or breath” (Tretheway 3). In this passage, Tretheway describes John Millais’s painting of Ophelia, a character in Shakespear’s Hamlet. It is known in Hamlet that Ophelia’s graceful time in the river is ended by her death, but this is not the case in Bellocq’s Ophelia.

John Ernest Joseph Bellocq was a 20^th century photographer who worked in New Orleans, known for his photography of prostitutes in the red light district. Most of his photographs were destroyed after his death, but some were found and published in a book. It was known that Bellocq would scratch off the face of the women he was photographing, “these plates are fragile…showing me how easy it is to shatter this image of myself” (Tretheway 42).  Although Ophelia is a prostitute, her relationship with Bellocq is unconventional. Their meeting at the hospital shows the depth of Bellocq’s fascination with images that capture local life. His interest was beyond the nudity, going as far as to emphasize the other side of a prostitute’s life.

However, Bellocq was not the only photographer of Ophelia. The description of “a doppelganger whose face I loathe” perfectly captures the standard reaction to an owners mug shot (Tretheway 29). Tretheway also mentions “Tableau vivant” which literally translates into living picture. People would dress themselves accordingly and pose without speaking or moving, and this  was a form of entertainment in the 19^th century. It was said that this art form fused photography with painting. Tretheway describes Ophelia’s strange postures, which then were accompanied by Countess’s calling of “Tableau vivant” which cued“the musical undulation of my hips, my grace, and my patience” (Tretheway 14).

Throughout Bellocq’s Ophelia, Opehlia is photographed frequently, and these photographs capture the many descriptive moments of her life.

Although Ophelia is living in a brothel house, Trethewey uses refined language throughout the poems when describing Ophelia’s environment. Threthewey does not in any way glorify prostitution. However, though she does explain certain off-putting characteristics, she portrays some of the posh positives that come along with the job as well.  She describes the house as “high-classed” with “polished mahogany, potted ferns, [and] rugs two inches thick” (11).

The lady who runs the brothel is called “Countess.” Countess tends to refer to a noblewoman. I find it ironic that “Countess” runs a brothel, considering how sleazy the idea of a prostitution house is.  Although apparently contradictory, the boss’s title, “Countess,” makes the brothel seem more elegant.

While prostitution is an undesirable job for numerous reasons, the work is extremely advantageous for Ophelia. She “[saves] what [she pays] for board, [and] what [she earns] is [hers]” (15). Not only is Ophelia earning a living, she does not have to spend her income on housing. She can instead invest that money towards “[buying her] mother some teeth, [and paying] to have her new well dug” (15). Ophelia can now afford to pay for the necessary things she could not have afforded in the past.

The job is crude and degrading, but it does not involve tedious labor. Ophelia did not have to work in a factory or do field labor. She did not suffer the tragedies that sometimes occurred in factories, like the “clothing factory [where] so many women [died] in a fire” (22).

Through this job, Ophelia found her vocation, photography and modeling. She “spent a little of [her] savings on a Kodak”(27). After meeting a photographer, Bellocq, at the brothel. She became a model and apprentice. It was Ophelia’s calling. She observes the way “the camera can dissect the body, render it reflecting light or gathering darkness” (27). Ophelia has an eye for this hobby. Through this unpleasant means of earning a living, she has found her passion.

A photograph is defined as an image that is captured by a camera. When a photograph is taken, the image produced only displays a minor representation of the actual scene. In Natasha Trethewey’s collection of poems “Bellocqs Ophelia” she expresses the life of her character Ophelia based on the photographs of prostitutes taken by E. J. Bellocq. Trethewey was able to write an entire collection of poems based on simple photographs. There is a saying that states “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Trethewey proves this saying to be true because she was able to look beyond the visual representation she saw. She found the true inner state of the women in the photographs by only looking at the moment captured. In Trethewey’s conversation with Rosemary Magee, she stated that photographs inspire her to write poems because she knows each holds a deeper meaning. She believes that poems are the tool to express those deeper meanings and utilizes them entirely to make her thoughts heard.

Throughout her collection ,she constantly refers to photographs to emphasize the partial true they display. She states “I’ve learned the camera well-the danger of it, the half-truths it cant tell…” (Trethewey 30) to let the reader know that she is aware that photographs can be deceiving and not show reality. However, she also implies that it is up to one to look for that reality in a photo and not only believe what we see. Although the photographs of Ophelia are made to portray her as a perfect woman living a great life, her reality is the opposite. “I wear my best gown for the picture…Behind me, Bellocqs black scrim just covers the laundry- tea towels, bleached and frayed, drying on the line” (Trethewey 40) she states. Some pictures only show unreal scenes that are assembled to expose specific things while hiding others.

The photographs weren’t the only things that were misleading in Trethewey’s poems. On page 39 her poem reads “I’m so foolish that I don’t know this photograph we make will bear the stamp of his name, not mine.” The photographer Bellocq was the person who received all the glory and fame for his images while the model went unnoticed. Ophelia was the person who made the pictures have expressions through her poses, but yet the praise went to Bellocq. As a result of these things, we cannot always believe what we see and must look for deeper meanings.

Natasha Trethewey’s “Bellocq’s Ophelia” is a collection of poems that tell the story of a prostitute trying to escape her exposed life in hopes of gaining control of herself. Ophelia describes her life through a series of letters she has written to tell her loved ones of her journey as a prostitute. As the novella progresses, Ophelia slowly emerges from the oppression and blossoms into a woman in control of herself.

At the beginning of the novella, the repressive life of a prostitute wears on Ophelia. She reveals the letter written by Countess P, the girls’ caretaker. The letter, titled ‘Countess P—‘s Advice fro New Girls,’ gives guidance to new prostitutes and helpful direction to ways they can safely live. Countess P describes the proper way to interact with a customer. She tells the girls to “see yourself through his eyes” and to “let his gaze animate you […] think of yourself as molten glass” (Trethewey 11).  The women are clearly inferior to men and are simply puppets to their masters. Their customers control them, and they also have to mold themselves into what their clients desire. The emotional disconnect within the women also adds to their meek personas. They cannot personally see who they really are, but rather, they look through other peoples’ eyes to see who they should become. Ophelia does not feel comfortable in her skin. She lies down in a bath, staring at her muffled reflection. She grows colder the longer she sits and begins to get the chills: “my skin gooseflesh, / the Braille text of my future” (18). The bumps on her skin foreshadow her future as a prostitute. The pokes look like Braille reading across her arm. Braille, a method of reading and writing for the blind, serves as a metaphor to foretell the carless, insignificant, and submissive life Ophelia will live if she continues to live as a prostitute.

Ophelia decides, however, to stop her compliant life and live for herself. As winter turns to spring, a time of rebirth and rejuvenation, Ophelia also encounters changes of her own. Ophelia hopes to start fresh and live with purpose and ambition. Ophelia reveals she is finally “aware of [spring’s] coming / as I’ve never been […] Now, I feel what trees must— / budding, green sheaths splitting—skin / that no longer fits” (33). For the first time, she realizes the seasons changing and transforms with the trees of spring.  Ophelia outgrows her old, useless skin and begins to blossom into a new woman. The potent capabilities of self-power drastically alter Ophelia. She now wears ‘new’ skin that symbolizes her new self. She learns “ how / to wear skin like a garment, seamless” (42). Ophelia’s skin, revealing who she is, no longer droops in the sorrows of a timid girl; it now shows power and structure that corrects her life and leads her into control of her fate. She wears her skin, proud of its shape. By the end of the novella, Ophelia has completely transformed. She takes control of her destiny and focuses on living a meaningful life. As the story concludes “she’s no longer listening; she’s forgotten / he’s there” (47). Ophelia does not even pay attention to the men. Ophelia’s disregarding of men contradicts the initial advice of Countess P, to listen to what the clients desire. She slowly grows into her own person and learns the ways of an independent, committed life.

“Bellocq’s Ophelia” shows the story of a young prostitute living a life of sorrow and eventually growing into a self-thinking woman.

A story is defined as a fictitious tale and it is no coincidence that Tretheway chose to name the town in Bellocq’s Ophelia Storyville. Though the description of the setting reminds the reader of a fairy tale, what occurs behind this story book façade is far from it. Aside from the obvious fictitious story, the name of Storyville reflects Ophelia’s desire to live the life of someone else.

When prostitutes are selected and used for their services, all of their human qualities are ignored and they are objectified by the customer. Ophelia is forced to go by a name other than her own, pose as if she is a mannequin, and bleaches her skin white. She is pushed deeper into the role of a fictional character as she hides who she truly is.

Ophelia also tries to hide her past and start anew at the brothel. She attempts to become a new person but her memories haunt her and prevent her from doing so. She wants “freedom from memory” so she can “then be somebody else, born again,” but cannot (Tretheway 24). Ophelia wants nothing more than to forget her past and move on with her new life, but her memories of her father and her cotton-picking days follow her.

She also cannot bear to remind herself or Constance about the horrifying things she has seen. Ophelia prefers to omit these experiences from her memory and writing, pretending that they never happened and are but a story. She writes to her friend, “And then there are those, of course, whose desires I cannot commit to paper” (Tretheway 18). What she has done is so unbearable, that she chooses to keep it a secret and act as though it happened to the character she plays, rather than herself.

Life at a brothel has the power to cover up a prostitute’s true self. Ophelia attempts to do this by erasing her memory, changing her name, and acting as someone she is not. Ophelia poses for a photograph, “Now I face the camera, wait for the photograph to show me who I am” (Tretheway 21). She tries so hard to cover up whom she once was that she loses sight of who she has become. She records her quest to bury her true identity and become but a character in a story.