Plath Phrases To Remember Flashcards
Morning song - Betty
Betty Frieden
After WW2 when men returned home and women left the workforce there was a return to the Victorian conceptualisation of women as INNOCENT CREATURES made for REPRODUCTION and SUBMISSION influencing the presumption it was a female’s biological destiny to be a mother
What did Betty Friedens view of motherhood in morning song result in
The belief was so pervasive within American Culture women who failed to live up to these expectations felt a sense of estrangement from their role as mother as Plath seeks to demonstrate.
Critic about morning song and resurrection
JANOS SZÉKELY
birth giving is a king of resurrection-losing an old self and receiving a new one
Intention of Plath’s poems relating to motherhood (especially manor garden!)
Paradoxical to presumed associations with childbirth and marriage allowing sacrifice those roles require to become clear
Attempts to remould idealistic representation of families by illustrating a dysfunctional relationship.
Hints towards need to change what’s thought of as right and expected.
Manor garden view of motherhood
Real REVULSION to motherhood expressed.
Birth isn’t seen as PROPITIOUS (advantageous)
Motherhood = as monstrous as child
Plath’s use of the holocaust
1962 - began to use holocaust imagery after Plath left her and her move Devon to London. Used Jewish persecution to express feelings of being victimised by Hughes!
Relevant in 1950s, prospect of a nuclear war was very likely.
James young - Plath felt she shared a sense of victimhood. Victimized by modern life.
When did Plath write tulips?
After being hospitalised for an appendectomy, she’d miscarried a short time before. 2nd hospital confinement probably triggered association with death and birth.
APP. END. ECT. OMY
Message of the stones
“Love is the uniform of my bald nurse”
Portrays hospital ironically as a place brainwashed by a regimented routine, emotion reduced to an objectified essential.
Absence of Austerity
Insinuates reason she rejects emotions is because she refuses to fit in and becomes merely another accepting and controlled aspect of society
Message of wuthering heights
Journey of realisation despite her lack of control she is apart of something far greater. Part of the human race.
“Small change” = insignificant despite fact within society surrounded by humanity she feels sense of absence and isolation disconnected and rejected.
Isolated by her own silence.
A race horse in a world without race tracks
Inspiration of Plath’s poem Mirror X2
Stem from her attempt to be like a mirror, able to reflect ack what others see and that itself is a perfect reflection of the female idea in male eyes.
Also her undergraduate thesis in Smiths College was titled “the magic mirror” highlighting her interest on what’s on the surface and what’s hidden.
Ariel alternative message (link to thought fox)
Poem is poetry making process.
Begins blank, empty and motionless ideas begin to accumulate and poems speed increases.
Begin to “unpeel” restraints and reveal real self and thoughts shoot like an arrow yet become dew as not in control. Power of imagination = all consuming and takes over.
Imagination/power restricted and unrealistic like women being poet. Expected to prioritise place children and reproductive duties before imagination
Thought fox ends on powerful climax, Ariels sudden anticlimax - contrasts illustrates Plath’s frustration with modern world, men given access, power and potential effortlessly - women confined and restricted
