Plath - Medallion Flashcards
About
A person’s psychological vulnerability due to vastness of nature
S1
-4 irregular stanzas
-How nature is structured but also erratic and unpredictable
S2
-Enjambment
-The flow of the winds as it bends destiny in one direction and the narrator cannot escape their impending fate
-Plath – White Goddess (Shamanic element) / Plath in her depression feels as if she is being forced into one direction – motif of being ensnared/ entrapped
Critic
Warren “her poems are full of colour when the tone is dark and comfortless”
-Through the malevolent depictions of nature
P1
The harsh emphatic opening “horizons ring me like faggots” evokes a metaphorical motif of darkness
-Monosyllabic personification “ring me” revitalizes potent imagery of someone having the life sucked from them
-Electroshock therapy
P2
-Hostile fairytale paradigm of the sheep’s “grandmotherly disguises” emphasises a predator – prey motif
-Infantile – Blakean innocence – Plath still feels trauma of father’s death and is like a small child trapped in a woman’s body
P3
-Grotesque “hard marbly baas” emulate a villainous quality
-Onomatopoeic monotone “baas” illustrate the isolation of the atmosphere and how the narrator is vulnerable and alone
P4
-Simile “small change” dramatizes the darkness that encapsulates the poem
-Civilization seems far away and distant
-Psychological suicide/ depression