Modern Language Studies

Women's Expression and Narrative Technique in Rosario Castellanos's "In Darkness"

Author(s): Naomi Lindstrom
Source: Modern Language Studies, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer, 1983), pp. 71-80
Published by: Modern Language Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3194181
Accessed: 04-10-2016 15:29 UTC
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Women's Expression and Narrative Technique

in Rosario Castellanos's In Darkness
Naomi Lindstrom

This essay examines the ways in which Rosario Castellanos (Mexico, 1925-74), especially noted as a woman writer with feminist concerns,
explores the problems of women's expression through the writing in her

novel Oficio de tinieblas (In Darkness). The 1962 work serves, at the
thematic level, to convey particular social content. This content (a fictional expose of the virtually feudal society of rural chiapas province; a
sympathetic, intimate look at Tzotzil Indian culture) has often drawn the
attention of critics.' The present study, though, is more concerned with a
second aspect of the work. The construction of the novel serves to focus

attention upon the ways in which a variety of women fail to express

themselves, and, particularly, fail to express special problems arising from
their situation as women.
To look at this special use of narrative technique, it would be well
to review briefly the main tenets of Castellanos's literary feminism.2 She

did not write any programs or prescriptions for feminist writing. Her
ideas appear here and there in her various writings, and many times she
only gave them out orally to lecture audiences or students.
Fundamental to Castellanos's thought was a very broad definition
of feminism in literature. To her mind, it was legitimate to seek an element
of sex-role analysis in any complex literary work. She did not center her
attention on work by avowedly feminist authors, but rather argued that

any writer attentive to the nuances of social behavior would necessarily

reflect feminist concerns. This included moder narrative works in which

form and technique were highlighted. Such innovative texts, far from
obscuring women's issues, could actually increase the reader's awareness

of them.

Castellanos looked especially at works in which a woman or

women speak and at works in which women characters fail to make their

voices heard. Both possibilities fascinated her: the one, as showing woman's attempts to express her concerns, the other, as an illustration of
woman's muteness, her inability or unwillingness to state her case.
Castellanos believed that such fictional devices as narrative voice
and point of view, being closely related to the issue of "who speaks," were
crucial in highlighting the problems of women. This analysis of Oficio de
tinieblas follows from Castellanos's recommendation that works by
women writers ought to be studied with the working assumption that
these narrative techniques would reveal these writers' implicit statements
about women's expressive difficulties.3
Before proceeding with the analysis, I should clarify a point of
critical terminology. I am using the term voice more broadly than it is
commonly employed in discussions of narrative technique. Castellanos's
depiction of women's communication here often rests upon her use of
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narrative voice or point of view, the device studied by Wayne Booth,

Ludomir Doluzel, Norman Friedman, et al. However, more is involved
than a particular type of controlling narrative voice. One must also exam-

ine conversation between characters, soliloquies and other instances in

which characters voice or conspicuously refrain from voicing their
thoughts. Voice, then, refers to all devices that reveal either a good or a

defective capacity for expression.

II

One of the first scenes in the novel narrates a tense encounter

between an Indian man and his wife. Here, the chief goal of the narration

is to reveal the deplorable communicational system that exists between

man and woman in a relationship of non-equals. The woman is afraid to
speak aloud, for fear of attracting attention to her failure to conceive; for

lack of overt means of interchange, she relies on an interior fantasy,

imagining the man's unuttered thoughts. The wife's imagined version of

her husband's inner monologue is inaccurate, further damaging the situation. To show the reader this complex scenario of failed communication,
the novel uses a variety of narrative techniques.

The wife in this scene is Catalina Diaz Puilja, later to prove a

dynamic and charismatic woman. At her first appearance, though, Catal-

ina has not become a powerful figure able to rouse and command the

population. She feels herself to be at an extreme of helplessness, and the

way she speaks, or fails to speak, shows her as indeed a person of little
importance.
Both partners appear in this scene, but the narrator only reveals
Catalina's anxious thoughts. The husband remains a secret to both reader
and wife. Catalina's distress, though, is revealed through a combined use
of indirect interior monologue and editorializing summary by the narrator: "Out of the corner of her eye, while she was kneeling at the stone to

grind up a day's supply of posol, Catalina kept watching her husband.

When would he force her to repeat the separation vows? How long would
he put up with the insult of a barren wife? Marriages like this one had no
validity. One word from Winikton and Catalina would be sent back to her
family's hut out in Tzajal-hemel.
Why was it he kept her around? Fear? Love? Winikton's face gave
no clue. Without so much as a gesture of good-bye the man left the hut.
The door closed behind him.
Catalina's features grew hard as an irrevocable resolve took hold of
her. They would never separate, she would never be left alone, she would
never be humiliated in front of everyone!"4

Here, Catalina's entire thoughts and behavior are dictated by a

conflict-ridden circumstance. She would most like to know her husband's

position with regard to their marriage; yet, she cannot. Indeed, she seeks
to avoid speaking to him on any occasion, for fear she might remind him
of her barrenness. Catalina dares not even exchange sociable pleasantries;
she is afraid to greet her husband or say good-bye to him; she cannot look
him in the face, but only observe him "out of the corer of her eye."
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has its counterpart in her husband's disinclination to give out information

about himself. Despite her incessant spying, hypothesizing and speculation, Catalina ends this scene no better informed about her husband than
when she began her attempt to divine his thoughts. Her problem, in this
respect, is that her only way of interpreting her husband's blank muteness
is to attribute to hinr the thoughts that are in her own mind. While he gives

"no clue" she concludes that he, like herself, is obsessed with issues of
childbearing and marital status.
Although the scene takes place in an indigenous household, it is
easy to recognize certain features common to Western society. One sees

the uncommunicative husband whose silence drives his wife to extensive

interior monologues or fantasized dialogues. The narrator highlights

Catalina's projection of herself as a failed wife "humiliated in front of
everyone!" (p. 13), and her long, self-pitying unvoiced soliloquies. The
narrative treatment of the scene emphasizes that women are often excessively verbal ( in this case, unuttered verbiage) in ways that can hardly be

favorable to them at the same time that they are unable to articulate
concerns plainly.
Castellanos shows this blockage of expression as one result of the
unequal distribution of power between man and woman. As in other
Castellanos works, neither sex is assigned blame for this inequality.
Rather, she carefully forcuses attention on whole society. Winikt6n,

although he terrifies his wife with his silence, is not really an oppressor

figure; indeed, he will prove a heroic individual. Nor is Catalina any

pathetically engaging victim. Her sullenness and continual brooding over
grievances make her an unappealing character. Nonetheless, she is subject
to her husband's rule. He could, if he cared to, deprive her of her wealth
and standing. Emblematic of this inequality is the divorce ceremony
Catalina obsessively fears. In the traditional rite, the man obliges the
woman to speak words renouncing him, even though these words go
against her true inclinations.
The next time the couple is shown together, the narrator utilizes a
different procedure. Now there is a swing back and forth between man
and woman, telling the reader what each is thinking, then summarizing
and commenting. In this scene, the characters again speak much more to
themselves than to each other. Catalina has brought an unknown girl to
live with the couple, but Winikt6n fails to respond even to this circumstance. Only Catalina's remark that "a white man raped her" (p. 29) draws
a lively response from Winikt6n. The following passage is a long interior
monologue that reveals Winikt6n seeking to formulate a fully-articulated
concept of justice.
While Winikt6n's mind works through the notion of justice, Catalina continues her practice of mentally reconstructing his thoughts. At the
end of his inner monologue, the narrator gives Catalina's assessment of the
man's inner state. Now it is clear how poorly Catalina's system works, for
she concludes: "he's not thinking about anything" (p. 35). After transcribing this thought directly from Catalina's consciousness, the narrator steps
back to comment ironically: "And she found it a comfort to know for
sure.

What emerges from the narrative technique is an exp

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man's and woman's stereotypical concerns. The man is mentally processing abstractions, dealing with concepts, while the woman perceives the
girl's adoption as a means of altering the unfavorable balance of power in
her personal relations. One may well ask whether Castellanos has not
done women a disservice by showing the woman as a petty conspirer,
juggling household politics while the man increases his social awareness.
This same question is especially relevant to the second half of the novel,

where Catalina's internal monologues show her to be an ever more

hysterical and self-obsessed being.

The first argument against seeing antifeminism in Catalina's characterization is the novel's insistence on the social causation of Catalina's

malaise. The narrator, who is free to comment on the action when not
transcribing the character's thoughts verbatim, insists that Catalina deve-

loped her narcissistic, sly thought patterns because "her position as a

childless woman was so precarious" (p. 44). Because Catalina is subjected

to this strain and forced into silence about the matter, her voice is turned

inward, becoming an unproductive, obsessive monologue.

Throughout the novel, one finds women afflicted with this tendency to brood privately, especially over issues of womanhood and
maternity. This pattern appears not only in the uneducated Catalina but in

the worldly Latin woman, Isabel. The latter's inner, unuttered speech

reveals her fixation on the idea that her barrenness is divine punishment

for sexual misconduct. In her own essays and journalism, Castellanos

provided the model of a woman who could discuss any matter with
candor, including criticizing and eventually discarding as invalid the
concept of the presumed necessity of motherhood; in the novel Oficio de

tinieblas she offers the negative counterimage: women so terrified of

these concepts that they can only silently be obsessive about them. The
third-person narrator, however, breaks in on the accounts of these brood-

ings to undercut the women's self-pity with ironic remarks or to make

astute generalizations of which the women would not be capable. The
narrator's superior verbal performance constantly reminds the reader
how poorly these women voice their vital concerns, even to themselves.
It is significant that the favored mode of representing these
women's consciousness is through the narrator. Direct interior monologue

is used sparingly. The indirect monologue technique is more utilized

because it is another way to emphasize the women's low efficacy as users

of language: because their articulation of concepts is so inchoate the

narrator must help them along by organizing the representation of their

thoughts. The degree of the narrator's intervention corresponds to the

women's marked inability to be their own spokeswomen.
III

As well as showing the silent, brooding woman Castellanos show

another manifestation of the same underlying problem; the stereotypical

loquacious, and often devious female. This type is constantly willing t

employ language by her illogical, digressive talk marks her as a user

frivolous "women's language," a person not to be taken into account. Like

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Catalina Mercedes Solorzano is a "different" woman in a precarious and

isolated position. She has saved herself from life on the streets by serving
as procuress to the town's most powerful man. Unlike Catalina, Mercedes

does not abstain from speech lest she jeopardize her standing. Her strategy is an overabundance of speech designed to create an illusory appearance of communication.
One first encounters Mercedes conducting a most tortured conver-

sation. Having summoned an Indian vendor, ostensibly for a bargaining

session, Mercedes deviates from the conventions governing such encounters. In that town, non-Indians are expected to be rude and distant to
Indian vendors. Mercedes, however, addresses the girl in indigenous
language and offers her a seat, leaving her "confundida por la amabilidad
(confused by friendliness; p. 18)." After a few perfunctory remarks in her

"buyer" role, Mercedes breaks with this role and speaks on topics inappropriate to the apparent situation. She reminisces about her youthful
vigor and asks intrusive questions about the girl's marital status and
prospects.

When the "buyer" returns to the bargaining theme, her rupture

with expected behavior is still uppermost. Rather than replying to the
asking price with a conventional protest, the buyer mocks the seller for
demanding too little. The whole discourse is moved further into the realm
of strangeness by her insistence that the Indian address her by her first

name. Mercedes's disorienting conversation is a ploy designed to disarm

and baffle the girl, who is being prepared to be an easy victim for the rich

man. In addition, Mercedes must ascertain the girl's virginity without

posing this question to her directly. Here the procuress is making use of

language to disconcert her victim and to disguise the true nature of the
encounter.

But when the woman remains alone, it becomes clear that

cannot halt her confusing voice even when it serves no easily recogn

end. The ironic narrator, characteristically, provides a "distancing

face before immersing the reader into the flow of a character's thou
An "explanation" of the procuress's habit of soliloquizing is proffered

temperamento de dofia Mercedes era comunicativo (Dofia Merced

naturally communicative; p. 20)." This remark, which immediate
lows Mercedes's display of verbal guile and obfuscation, places e

thing she is about to say under suspicion. The narrator also alerts one

nature of Mercedes's expression. Rather than speaking to herself,

addressing a being of her own invention, "imaginando un impr
auditorio (imagining some vague listener; p. 20)."
The fictional listener may be vague, but Mercedes implici

assigns him certain attributes. Speaking to this imaginary being, she

the regional and familiar form of you, vos. No Mexican Spanish-s

with serious pretensions to respectability makes such a linguistic dev

but the lax and "fallen" Mercedes flaunts the nonstandard form. She
exploits it to create the illusion of intimacy outside the narrow primness of
proper society, "como si fueramos de confianza (as if we were old friends;

p. 21)" and addresses him as "compadre (buddy; p. 20)." Mercedes's goal

in creating this being and drawing him into collusion is to make him
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accept a favorable account of herself. Her first tactic is to displace the

listener's disgust from her own complicity to her employer's "unclean"
desire for Indian girls. She virtuously intervenes to mitigate the impropriety; through her vigilance, she saves her indiscriminating employer from

enjoying the more evidently unhygienic girls he might unthinkingly

accept.

Later, Mercedes presents herself as a basically sensitive and noble

individual to whom it "da remordimiento hacer estas cosas (is shameful to
do these things; p. 20)." All consideration of verisimilitude is abandoned as

the procuress states: "en la honra nadie me ha puesto nunca un pie

adelante. Las seinoras bien se pueden mirar en mi, que soy un espejo de
cuerpo entero (as for maintaining your honor, nobody's ahead of me on

that score. If those fancy ladies take a good look, they'll see I'm every bit as

good as them; p. 21)."

A phantom listener is the only one who Mercedes can regularly

have as the recipient of her outpourings, for this imaginary partner can
never reject her discourse habits. The narrator underscores this point by
observing slyly that the sociable Mercedes spent large portions of her time

alone (p. 18).

In this scene, Mercedes speaks aloud rather than mulling over her
thoughts in silence. Further, the narrative technique is Mercedes's direct

voice, rather than indirect relay by the narrator. These features of the
narrative treatment suggest a more verbal character, able to speak for
herself. Yes this procedure ironically exposes the deficiencies of Mercedes's voice. In quoting the woman's ipsissima verba, the narrator has, in
effect, allowed her the opportunity to betray her own incompetence.
This soliloquy, even with all the distortions and ramshackle argu-

ments, makes two valid points. Mercedes recognizes that part of her
problem is the lack of acceptable options open to women without wealth
or male protectors. Without her employer's aegis, she observes, "dadonde

hubiera yo ido a parar? Estaria yo de atajadora, como tantas infelices que

no tienen donde les haga maroma un piojo. O de custitalera, o de placers
... a saber (What would have become of me? I'd be out robbing from the
Indians, like so many poor women who can hardly keep body and soul
together. Or I'd be living out practically in the same place as the Indians to
try to sell them stuff, or out in the plaza... who knows; p. 21)." Mercedes
also dimly realizes that too much depends on remaining in the good graces

of her employer. The importance of this becomes increasingly clear

throughout the novel as the unscrupulous boss repeatedly punishes those

who offend him and rewards those who please him. He incarnates a male

stereotype at least as negative as any of the female types who appear

throughout the novel. The narrator is explicit about the relation between

sex role and the man's reprehensible behavior, speaking on one occasion
of "la insensibilidad de Leonardo, con ese orgullo del macho que no esta
acostumbrado a recibir dones sino tributos (the insensitivity of Leonardo,
with that pride of the macho who's used to receiving tributes, not gifts;

p. 197."

Though able to glimpse the limitation of female roles and the

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roblem of exaggerated male dominance, Mercedes cannot relate these

issues to her devious habits of expression. When the reader places the two
together, the result is essentially a sex-role analysis of female hypocrisy.

Moreover, the third-person narrator plainly describes Mercedes as an

oppressor as well as one of the oppressed, one who cannot be placed as a
simple, appealing victim-prostitute. The narrator further alienates the
reader from Mercedes's potential pathos by noting the laxity and indolence that facilitate her degradation: "Sus dos manos, acostumbradas al
ocio, descansaban sobre el regazo (She kept her hands, which were used
to lying idle, in her lap; p. 21)." and describing the coarse appearance
Mercedes has developed: "cuarentona, obesa, con los dientes refulgiendo
en groseras incrustaciones de oro (fortyish, obese, her teeth aglitter with

tacky gold incrustations; p. 17)."

IV

The women discussed above have been revealed as notably poor

users of human discourse. However, not all of Castellanos's portrayal of
females and language is negative. On occasion, Oficio de tinieblas offers
examples of women who experience limited liberation by making statements capable of clarifying difficult issues. Given outside support, the
narrator makes clear, communication might have progressed from such
beginnings.
An instance of this spark of illumination through language occurs

when Marcela, the girl raped by Mercedes's employer, finds a verbal

mode of comprehending this experience. The narrator has shown Marcela
to be the most mute of women, unable to reply to simple questions or to

express the most ordinary needs and desires. It has been amply revealed
that her experience of language has not been one of increased awareness
through speech. It is through confusing talk that she has been misled and
betrayed. She is portrayed as the most uncomplicated example of oppression in the novel. In swift succession, she has been described as suffering

entrapment and betrayal by Mercedes, being raped, and being expropriated by Catalina, who has taken over the running of the girl's life.

The narrator reports Catalina's assessment of Marcela: "esta

muchacha insignificante y estupida que ella usaba como un simple

instrumento de sus propositos (that insignificant, stupid girl she was using

as a simple pawn in her game; p. 46)."

But one day as she listens to other persons discussing her case,
Marcela has this reaction:

Repitio mentalmente la frase, saboreandola: "un caxlan abus6 de ella".

Esto era lo que habia sucedido. Algo que podia decirse, que los demis
podian escuchar y entender. No el vertigo, no la locura. Suspir6 aliviada.
She repeated the sentence to herself, savoring it: "a white man raped
her." That was what had happened. Something that you could say out

loud and other people would listen and understand. Not a fall into

dizziness or madness. She breathed a sigh of relief (p. 29).

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The reader is here made aware of a particular lack. Marcela had

not realized her traumatic encounter could be expressed and grasped
through words and communicated to other people. The realization that
her bewildering experience could be expressed in a sentence marks a
move toward rational living. This straightforward message impresses
upon the rape victim that her experience is not unique and eases her

isolation.

Here, the message is optimistic: Marcela can learn from the articu-

lation of experience. The narrative technique, though, warns the reader

not to expect too great a breakthrough. It is significant that the entire
episode is narrated by the third-person narrator, who summarizes all of

Marcela's responses. The phrases "That was what had happened ...

madness" may or may not represent Marcela's own thoughts; they may be
simply the narrator's summation of what Marcela felt. In either case, the

narrator maintains control rather than allowing Marcela a voice of her

own. There is no real indication that Marcela can formulate concepts in

words, although she can clearly appreciate a formulation made by

another.

The narrative treatment of this scene is prophetic of what is to

come. Despite Marcela's insight into the possibilities for communication,
she finds no opportunity to speak out. As Catalina's ward, she is next
presented registering a series of wordless protests against her pregnancy.
The narrator makes it known that she bases her actions upon a lack of
understanding of the reproductive process. She does not comprehend

that she is bearing a child, a child Catalina could not produce. Her

confusion, the narrator tells the reader, is clear to Catalina, who is impres-

sive in her refusals to enlighten her ward about the physical changes in
pregnancy that terrify the girl. Bitterly jealous, the woman long avoids
mention of the pregnancy. The narrator draws attention to Catalina's
angry, aggressive withholding of communication: "callo (she fell silent),
"enmudecia (she wouldn't say anything; p. 46)." "Desde afuera la miraba
(She looked at her from without; p. 47)." Finally, the older woman
screams at Marcela: "iVas a tener una hija! (You're going to have a baby!
p. 46)." Thus delivered, the news sends the previously-unaware Marcela
into a panic. Marcela's subsequent near-autistic behavior is unattractive,
but the narrator is clearly not blaming her for it: "Marcela, a quien la
adversidad habia reblandecido los tuetanos, ya no protestaba (Life had
beaten Marcela down to a pulp, and she gave up protesting; p. 47)." The
narrator implies that if women are to become more articulate they must
have support from their listeners and conversation partners.
Oficio de tinieblas expresses concerns common to many discussions of women's status. What makes this feminist statement so exceptionally interesting for literary readers is its mode of presentation. Oficio de
tinieblas makes its points about women's voice, not simply through direct
statement, but by the skillful design of narrative. It is the use of various
forms of narration-characters speaking for themselves, direct and indirect interior monologues, and the narrator's commentary (often in cynical
contrast to versions of events offered by the characters)-that are crucial
in persuading the reader of the gravity of feminist issues. It is the rhetoric
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of fiction, to use Wayne Booth's phrase, that allows this woman writer to
express in fully literary fashion women's concerns.
University of Texas, Austin

NOTES

1. For examples of criticism of the novel's examination of indigenous

and social inequity, see John S. Brushwood, The Spanish American N
Twentieth Century Survey (Austin: University of Texas, 1975), pp.
which contains also commentary on the novel's treatment of time; his
in its Novel: A Nation's Search for Identity (Austin: University of
1973), p. 166; Joseph Sommers, "Changing Views of the Indian in M
Literature," Hispania, 47 (1964), 47-55; "El ciclo de Chiapas: nueva co
literaria," Cuadernos Americanos, 133 (1964), 246-261; "The Indian-o
Novel in Latin America: New Spirit, New Forms, New Scope," Jou

Inter American Studies, 6 (1964), 249-265); "Rosario Castellanos

enfoque del indio mexicano," La palabra y elhombre (Xalapa, Verac

(1964), 83-88; After the Storm: Landmarks of the Modern Mexica
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1968), 83-88; and "Forma
logia en oficio de tinieblas de Rosario Castellanos," Revista de critica
latinoamericana, Nos. 7-8 (1978), 73-91. Other discussion of these
includes Emmanuel Carballo, "Rosario Castellanos," in his Diecinue
tagonistas de la literatura mexicana del siglo XX (Mexico: Empresas
ales, 1965) pp. 409-24; Walter M. Langford, The Mexican Novel Com
Age (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame, 1971), pp. 182-85): G
Lorenz, Dialogo con America Latina (Santiago de Chile: Editorial Po
1972), pp. 185-211; Cesar Rodriguez Chicharro, "Rosario Castellanos:
Canin," La Palabra y el Hombre, 9 (1959), 61-67; and Alfonso G
"Lenguaje y protesta en Oficio de tinieblas," Revista de Estudios His
8, 3 1974), 413-17.
2. The best introduction to Castellanos as feminist is Maureen Ahem an
Vasquez, eds., Homenaie a Rosario Castellanos (Valencia: Estudios de
pan6fila, 1980). See also "Rosario Castellanos: Representing Women
course," my article in Letras Femeninas, 5, 2 (1980), pp. 29-47. Th
examines in general terms Castellanos's ideas about and use of nar

technique without analyzing any work in detail. A very general and th

study of Castellanos's literary feminism is Phyllis Rodriguez-

"Images of Women in Rosario Castellanos's Prose," Latin American L

Review, 6, 11 (1977), 68-80.
3. See Naomi Lindstrom, "Rosario Castellanos: Pioneer of Feminist Cri
in Ahern and Visquez, pp. 191-92. The best sampling of Castellanos'
nist criticism is her 1973 Mujer que sabe latin... (Mexico: SepSetenta

literary, and more sociocultural, are the essays in El uso de la

(Mexico: Excelsior, 1974).

4. Norman Friedman, "Point of View in Fiction: The Development of a

Concept," PMLA, 70 (1955), 1160-84; Wayne C. Booth, The Rhet

Fiction (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1961); Tzvetan Todorov, "

ique," in Oswald Ducrot et al., Qu'est-ce que le structuralisme? (Pari
1968); Ludomir Doluzel, Narrative Modes in Czech Literature, (Tor
University of Toronto, 1973), all examplify the type of terminologi
refer to. Castellanos's examination of all varieties of speech acts is c
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the discourse analysis of Mary Louise Pratt, Toward a Speech Act Theory of
Literary Discourse (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1977).
5. Castellanos, Oficio de tinieblas (Mexico: Joaquin Mortiz, 1962), p. 13. Subsequent page numbers given in the text refer to this edition.
6. Wayne Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction (cited in note 5 above), argues that all
the structural features of fiction can be seen as devices to persuade the reader
of the truth of what is being presented. This principle is especially well
illustrated by Castellanos's novel, with its complex structure and pervasive
social message.

MANUSCRIPTS INVITED

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the Managing Editor, Shakespearean Studies, American Libr
Baldev Nagar, Ambala City, 134007, Haryana State, India.

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