Thursday, February 25, 2010

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath


I believe Plath and Anne Sexton both had problems finding their real place in the world. As I wrote about Sexton, times were changing for women and they struggled to find their true identity. Plath was on an emotional rollercoaster partly because of her husband’s infidelity. She was so bright and had so much to offer as a writer. I still question why did so many choose suicide as the answer to their struggles. Her piece, Ariel is full of suicidal thoughts. The word choices she used, darkness, nigger-eye berries cast dark hooks, black sweet blood mouthfuls, shadows, deead hands, dead stringencies, suicidal, into the red eye , the red cauldron of morning, all of these words to me point toward someone who is very depressed. I am not saying you can not write dark poems unless you are suicidal but when someone already has a problem with depression writes lines like these, one tends to get the idea they are ready to take their own life. Now when I heard the interview below, I did not get that feeling, it is only when I read her work that I see depression. I feel she wanted to be free and I think that is where Lady Godiva comes into the poem. The freedom to ride her horse and feel free from whatever it was that was binding her. I find it so sad that the two women killed themselves but really had so much to live for. I feel like they were both tormented inside and wanted to get away from that torment and the only way as far as they were concerned was suicide, how sad...


http://jaschneider.blogspot.com/2008/12/plath-interview-online-part-1-2.html

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