Plath - Elm Flashcards
About
The shifting image of the tree associated with the mental turmoil of a suffering woman
S1
- Dramatic monologue
-Fairytale paradigm – woman enters a fantastical non-reality to cope with life
S2
-Free verse
-Woman’s instability – turbulent and detrimental evocative of a psychological breakdown
-1962 -Plath and Hughes split after his affair with Assia Wevill
S3
-Long lines
-roots of the tree reaching down into the woman and giving her voice yet titled “elm” Celtic mythology Afterlife – only in death a woman has voice
Critic
Tim Kendall “Elm perfects themes and images with which Plath has been struggling for weeks”
-Analogous to the classical Greek muse – a voice for the woman to speak her thoughts
P1
“I know”
-AO2
All-encompassing “I” suggests a poem for the universal women
-Cusp of the second wave of Feminism and Betty Friedan’s Feminist Mystique
P2
-The definitive statement “What you fear” is synonymous with a fear-wise warrior
-Accusatory “you” portrays the recipient locked with trepidation – stagnant in their position in society
-Women – housewife position
P3
Repetitive “echoing” – within a fantasy as she waits for a male prince
P4
Venomous “tin-white arsenic” presupposes the wicked peripetia the women will soon face
-“arsenic” sprung on “tap root” which brings the tree water being poisoned and contaminated
-Rot that has gnawed at society – suicide
P5
The extended metaphor of poison “snaky acids kiss” suggests poison that has permeated the poem finally taking effect
-“kiss” ironic as meant to be connotated with love but here it is the root of death
P6
Repetitive monosyllabic “that kill” malignant end to the poem
-Sharp venomous bites of the snake as the predator have now gone for the kill
-Electro-shock: Valley Head hospital 1952
