21 pages • 42 minutes read
A Carafe, that is a Blind Glass
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Themes
Seeing and Not Seeing
Gertrude Stein addresses the theme of seeing in the poem's title when her speaker refers to the carafe as a "blind glass." This implies that the carafe had the potential for sight but cannot see. It's blind, so its imputed eyes don't work like they're supposed to.
Then again, perhaps the speaker doesn't mean "blind" in such a literal fashion. Maybe the blindness doesn't involve personification or the speaker's wish to confer human attributes on the carafe. Instead, blindness says something about the relationship between the speaker and the carafe. The carafe can't see the speaker because the speaker isn't a person, so, in a sense, the speaker is articulating a relatively straightforward fact about the speaker. The carafe can't see itself, and it can't perceive its "arrangement on a system," so it's up to the speaker, who can see, to describe the carafe.
The "spectacle" (Line 1) continues the theme of sight, as spectacle alludes to glasses. At the same time, spectacle might symbolize the speaker since the speaker serves as the eyes of the poem, with the reader witnessing the carafe through the speaker's eyes. The carafe the reader confronts is the carafe rendered by the speaker. Even if the carafe that the speaker sees doesn't make sense to the reader or resemble the type of poems they're accustomed to—there is, the speaker assures the reader, order and logic behind their vision.
The Different Belonging, Families, and Groups
After the speaker introduces the theme of sight in the title, they bring in the theme of belonging with a "kind in glass, a cousin" (Line 1). A kind is a type—a kind belongs with others based on compatible traits and characteristics. The carafe has a "kind in glass," so there are other glass objects like it. Despite the singular portrayal, the carafe is "nothing strange" (Line 1). The glass carafe is not an alienated, isolated, or one-of-a-kind object since it has a kind and associates with its kind—its kind being other glass objects.
The "cousin" reinforces the carafe's sense of belonging and adds an element of personification since humans, not glass objects, have cousins and family members. The cousin then turns family into a symbol for a group or a system. After all, like a system, a family provides order: it's a way for humans to arrange and label themselves. Thus, as a cousin, the carafe is a member of a family—it's a part of Gertrude Stein's book, Tender Buttons, and related to the other objects—"A red stamp," "A long dress," "A seltzer bottle," among them—described in the collection.
Conversely, the theme of belonging works within Stein's poetics—that is, it serves as a statement about her poetry and the kind of writing she intended to publish. Her poem remains a "kind" of poetry, so it’s still a part of the poetry family, which is why it’s "nothing strange." At the same time, the speaker admits that their poem is not "ordinary," but that doesn't mean that it lacks order and thought. Besides, whether the reader likes it or not, such disorienting descriptions and presentations will continue in writing, painting, and other artistic mediums. As the speaker says matter of factly, "The difference is spreading" (Line 3).
Difference, Not Belonging, and the Subconscious
As the previous theme attests, the poem stresses belonging. At the same time, the poem emphasizes difference and weirdness. Indeed, the speaker seems to want it both ways. They want their poem to be seen as "nothing strange" (Line 1) and acknowledged as "not ordinary" (Line 2). In the end, the theme of difference seems to gain the upper hand with the final sentence reading, "The difference is spreading" (Line 3).
The irony of the last sentence is that, once the difference spreads, it becomes less odd and more ordinary. In a lecture, "Composition as Explanation" (1926), Stein claims "Everything is the same except composition," which makes everything not the same. Stein's different composition spreads to the other objects, foods, and rooms in Tender Buttons. As the reader makes their way through the book and becomes familiar with the quirky syntax, style, and composition, they might not find Stein's compositions so different.
Back to the carafe—the theme of difference demonstrates the multitude of ways to behold and examine an object such as the carafe. Here, the theme of difference is about the depths of the mind and the ability to think about things in a way that departs from conventional attitudes. The different perceptions link to the German psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and his theories about the differences between the conscious (thoughts a person is aware of) and the unconscious (the thoughts a person isn't aware of, which can thus manifest in strange, startling ways).
As Stein studied psychology, Sigmund Freud and his theories apply to this theme. Perhaps the difference in mental states relates to the speaker's singular viewpoint and their ability to tap into their unconscious and release their "not ordinary” stream of associations as they connect to the carafe. In 1938, the famous psychologist and behaviorist B. F. Skinner published “Has Gertrude Stein a Secret?”—an article that claimed Stein practiced automatic writing or wrote without consciously paying attention to the words. The presence of automatic writing could also account for the uncanny portrait of the carafe.
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By Gertrude Stein
