MORNING SONG

Question 1

links to THE HELP

Answer 1

CELIA: alienation and pressures to conform to the SOUTHERN BELLE ARCHETYPE.

Question 2

HEGEL

Answer 2

the birth of children is the death of parents

Question 3

STRUCTURE

Answer 3

moves from STRANGE ALIENATION to RECOGNITION of MATERNAL INSTINCTS

STANZAS of 3 LINES that are ERRATIC in length- MIRRORS the INSTABILITY OF EMOTION

Question 4

‘you’ ‘bald’ ‘elements’

Answer 4

The unfamiliarity that is alluded through the phrases ‘you’, ‘bald’, ‘elements’, promulgates an insecurity in Plath’s view of herself as an inadequate mother as she struggles to function with the absence of her maternal instincts.

Question 5

‘echo’

Answer 5

the assonance in the phrase ‘our voices echo’ reinforces such emptiness, whilst the verb ‘echo’ symbolises the hallowing out of identity that Motherhood brings

Question 6

As she cannot form expected bonds with her child.

Answer 6

Plath undergoes a shift in identity; whilst she faces the struggle of having nurturing impulses but a loss of maternal drive, the societal pressure for women to be that of service, forces Plath into the role of a mother ‘cow-heavy in (her)… nightgown’.

The compound epithet subordinates the female identity to her reproductive abilities.