Sylvia Plath Flashcards
When was Ariel published?
• 1965 (after she committed suicide)
Juxtaposition within poppies in October
Vivid ‘astounding’ beauty of the poppies contrasted with the grim reality of human suffering
Speaker not desiring the poppies (poppies in October)
Illustrated in repetition of ‘gift’ which is ‘utterly unasked for’, illustration of emotional numbness, doesn’t want these gifts of womanhood
Harsh juxtaposition between suffering and poppies, symbolising life vs hardship (poppies in October)
‘Nor the woman in the ambulance/ Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly-‘
Quote exposing the tender fragility of the speaker (poppies in October)
‘Red heart blooms through her coat’
• vulnerability of speaker reinforced through connotations and new life. Exploring trauma of childbirth, contrasted with suffering of the mother, criticism of domestic roles and motherhood
Societal numbness and detachment in poppies in October
‘Igniting its carbon monocides by eyes/ Dulled to a halt under bowlers’
• portrays a world disconnected from both nature and emotional depth, modernism/ alienation, 1950s consumer society
Struggle of life in a harsh environment in poppies in October (compare also with the bell jar)
‘That these late mouths should cry open in a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers’
• suggesting desperation and longing for life in a harsh environment
• Similar to the inhabitable environment in the bell jar ‘the hot streets wavered in the sun…[and the dry, cinders dust blew into my eyes and down my throat’
Daddy quote aligning disproportionate male power with dictatorship
‘Every woman adores a fascist,/ The boot in the face, the brute/ Brute heart of a brute like you’
Plath rejecting naturalised male oppression in ‘Daddy’
‘Daddy, I have had to kill you’
Sense of reluctance, erasing him and his hardship from her memory, choosing to not let his reign control her even in death
Depiction of Plath and her father having a similar power imbalance in their relationship as that of a Jew and German
Her dad was a German
‘I began to talk like a Jew./ I think I may as well be a Jew’
- talks in a submissive way, afraid of her father’s oppression
Electra complex in daddy
‘If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two- The vampire who said he was you/ And drank my blood for a year’
(Ted Hughes draining her life, mirroring her father)
Plath not necessarily escaping male oppression
‘Daddy, daddy you bastard, I’m through’
Through the barrier of death, his loss has impacted her life and she has now rejoined him through suicide
