Plath Flashcards
Daddy- descriptions of the speaker
“lived like a foot” “poor and white” “tongue…stuck in a barbed wire snare” “i could hardly speak” “i began to talk like a jew” “i may be a bit of a Jew” “adores a Fascist” “pretty red heart” “tried to die” “I used to pray to recover you” “If I’ve killed a man, I’ve killed two.” “I’m through”
daddy- interpretation of speaker
Trapped in a bad relationship with nazi father, he dies, she tries to die with him but that fails so she creates a replica and marries him. In the end she is broken and unhappy and splits with both.
daddy- descriptors of daddy
“black shoe” “marble-heavy” “ghastly stature” “grey toe” Godlike “every German” Ariel warfare, a tank driver dark, evil, devil, “cleft chinned” “swastika” “fascist” “brute” “devil” “fat black heart” “bastard”
daddy- descriptions of ted
“model of [Daddy]” “in black” “Meinkampf look” “vampire” “drank my blood for a year”
messages/views and values of Daddy
The narrator is oppressed like a jew
The father is the oppressor like a nazi
She feels oppressed by her father and yet she attempts to die to find him and eventually marries a model of him
Inability to grow up and move on
daddy tones
Childlike
Desperately fearful
language features of daddy
Repetition
oo sound- emphasises the childlike nature of her
b sound like smacking
Childlike language
Irony- says she is through but still calls him Daddy
structural devices daddy
Enjambment showing continuity and spreading of Daddy’s hold on her
Imagery of Jews and Nazis and devils and vampires
messages/views and values of LL
About the speaker’s “mirac[ulous] resurrection from death (often suicide)
Feelings of repression by society
Her words are powerful, she has power with her poems
Nazi themes
Patriarchy themes
Idea that depression scares people
Commits suicide each decade and has 9 deaths
Mummy being unwrapped
German
tone LL
Opens in a detached, bemused tone
Becomes powerless
In the end her words are powerful, her tone strong and confident
language LL
“it” to describe depression Ambiguous “enemy” “shoves” and other brutal words to describe society German is used- creates fear Internal rhyme Jaring and unsettling Anaphora Irony Dramatic
structure LL
Stanzas are triplets, lines short- sharp
Jaring and unsettling
Enjambment creates the flow of life and the closing of her shell. Also creates drama
quotes LL
“i have done it again” “walking miracle” “do I terrify?” “nine times to die” “peanut-crunching crowd” “the big strip tease” “i rocked shut/as a seashell” “dying/is an art” “i do it so it feels like hell” “theatrical” “charge, a very large charge” “blood…hair…clothes” “Herr dokter…Herr enemy…Herr God…Herr Lucifer” “i am your opus…pure gold baby” “nothing there” “you poke and stir” “out of the ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air”
summary Morning song
Motherhood is not glamorous
Motherhood can be hard for some women and society always paints it as wonderful and puts pressure on women
Post-natal depression
The relationship with the baby takes time and eventually the bond is powerful
tones morning song
Opens in a detached, cold, disconnected, numb, empty
Tone becomes gentle, natural, loving
language morning
Objectification of baby
Metaphors for what the baby represents
Assonance
Synthasesia
structural devices morning
Enjambment to show the flow of morning
“oo”
quotes morning
“fat gold watch” “bald cry” “place amount the elements” “new statue” “blankly as walls” “nakedness” “i’m no more your mother” “moth-breath” “cow-heavy” “whitens and swallows its dull stars” “rise like balloons”
summary sheep
Depression
Being lost and alone in life
Low self-esteem
Life is meaningless, wondering aimlessly
A calling to death, a sense of belonging to death
A fear of what lies beyond, whether it will indeed be better than life
tones sheep
Desperate Fearful Tired Constant stream of debilitating thought Drowned
language sheep
Use of fog to create an isolated environment, no clarity, all pressing in, consuming depression and isolation
“stars”, “heaven”- create a sense that the massive expanse of life is against her- complete inability to cope with such a force, also a bit self-centred showing deterioration of sensible thought
Sheep imagery- a following, a nobody, lost, unable to be found- biblical?
“whiteness”- cold, sterility
“O” sounds make it slow and dreary, sorrowful, mournful
“blackening” morning- complete inability to find goodness and life, even the natural light is vanquished, depression overcomes all hope
“dark water”- isolated, stagnant, evil, paradox to pure religious connotations of water- fear of after life
structure sheep
Enjambment in certain places further breaks up rhythm and slows it all down, allows the consciousness to flow on, overwhelmed
— further slowing
links sheep
Chill fogginess of moon and ewe tree
“threaten” - Tulips
“dark water”- Words
quotes sheep
“whiteness” “I disappoint” “O slow” “dolorous bells” “morning has been blackening” “a flower left out” “my bones hold a stillness” “threaten” “a heaven/starless and fatherless, a dark water”
the applicant messages
Social pressure to marry- to live up to certain expectations
The oppressive nature of the patriarchy
Society has become so caught up in expectations that it is false, marriage is now a business transaction
The changing of one’s true self for conformity
“empty”- without marriage you are nothing
“stop crying”- inability for men to show “feminine” side
Women cannot live without men “sorrow”
Society profits from their mourning in funeral costs and their returning to the marrying pool- “new stock”
Women say nothing meaningful, they have one purpose- marriage for male gain
tones applicant
Opens persuasive, judgemental- “will you marry it?”
Condescending of male tears and females in the closet
By the end society demands marriage- “marry it”
language applicant
Synecdoche- fake body parts define a person, marriage “a hand”, the need for marriage as a social expectation is more important than knowing the identity behind the “hand” - womens’ sole purpose is the complete the “Empty” man
?- constantly asking, pressuring, gives a sale pitch vibe
“it”, “thing”- dehumanisation of women
Biblical imagery- “stitches” to show the rib is missing
“guaranteed”- sales pitch
Nakedness and needing to be clothed- the moulding expectations of society- “black and stiff”
Repetition of “empty”- need to be altered, not complete, society needs to contaminate your mind
“doll”, “silver”, “gold”, “paper”- valuable asset, objectified, investment
structure applicant
Enjambment connects the two in marriage
Enjambment to show progression of marriage worth
links applicant
Munich Mannequins- doll-like women, purposeless
quotes applicant
“are you our sort of person?” “stitches” “Empty? Empty. Here is a hand “it is guaranteed” “new stock from the salt” “naked” “black and stiff but not a bad fit” “sweetie” “a living doll” “it’s an image” “will you marry it, marry it, marry it.
tulips message
The desire for freedom and peace but she may have confused that with absence of thought
“leaning peacefulness”- unnatural highlighting unnaturalness of her drugged method of peace
Gives herself to the doctors, gives up identity to find peace
Society tries to smooth her over, fix her through conformation
But she can’t escape thought, it keeps attacking her
By the end she appears to realise that to find health she needs to return to the world
tulips tone
Shifts between panicked, fearful and paranoid of tulips to empty, numb, detached unconsciousness and back
Water loses purity of the unconsciousness and becomes a eddying, dangerous, festering mass as the Tulips consume her
Glimmer of hope by the end- her heart is red but it pumps life, she needs to find peace in health
tulips language
Long sentences
Slow vowel sounds- “ow” “oo”
Tulips and red: mind chaos, blood connecting to wound, draws her back, loud, obnoxious
White: sterility, cold, “winter”, “snowed-in”
“look”- imperative, convincing self and audience
“pupil”: passive, unable to move or to stop thinking, to stop observing
“smiling hooks”- good things are painful, they pull her back from her peace of numbness
Water of unconsciousness, purifying her
tulips structure
Septets are long and slow, full stops further slow and break up- drugged effect
Enjambment shows the flow of consciousness and unconsciousness, drugged state
tulips links
Applicant- synecdoche, detached from self
Words- pebble, water
Sheep in Fog- rust, water
Morning Song- cat/lion
tulips quotes
“too excitable” “Winter” “i am learning peacefulness” “i am nobody” “stupid pupil” “pebble…tend to it as water” “little smiling hooks” “scared and bare” “utterly empty” “water went over my head…pure” “they hurt me…talks to my wound” “now I am watched” “the vivid tulips eat my oxygen” “snags and eddies” “sheer love of me” “A country far away as health”
cut messages
The descriptions of her cut thumb
How the mind spirals out of control
tones cut
Exhilaration and curiosity
Queasy, fearful
Blunt
language cut
— creates suspense
Metaphors- soldiers, pilgrims, blood cells, KKK etc. blow an everyday incident out of proportion
Monosyllabic words enhance shortness
structure cut
4 line stanzas with short sentences, create a fast, jarring rhythm
Enjambment- running on of blood, of overactive mind
links cut
Blunt, jarring like Lady Lazarus
red/white colour contrasts like Tulips
quotes cut
“what a thrill—“ “hinge” “flap like a hat” “little pilgrim,/the Indian’s axed your scalp” “pink fizz” “red coats, everyone/ whose side are they on.” “O my/homunculus” “pill to kill” “dirty girl” “thumb stump”
summary night dances
The fleeting nature of human existence
How small we are and our families when compared to the grander of space and time
Children grow up, they lose their wonder in the logic of the universe and they age- a blip in time
Why is she given blessings that will never last?