Plath’s Life: The Importance of Imagery
Throughout the centuries, people have been using images to convey their thoughts, feeling, or emotions, dating back to the very cavemen who we have evolved from. Back in the old days, there was no “English”, no language, or written text of any kind. Sylvia Plath, a brilliant artist and poet, has used imagery to her advantage. In many of her poems, Plath has used the imagery of animals to depict the pain and hardships which she has had to endure.
Plath has used the imagery of animals in every single one of her poems. But in the poems, “The Swarm” and “Colossus”, Plath has used the image of animals to show how she was deeply scarred during her life. In “The Swarm”, Plath show how she, as a Jew, was affected by the Holocaust. She claims that the Germans are as fierce and vicious as a dog in line #22 of “The Swarm.” She is showing the readers a wicked image of the Germans and how scared she was of them. Another Jew reference would be in line #25 of the same poem, “Like the pack, the pack, like everybody.” This is like when the Jews were brought into the internment camps. Everyone was treated the same; all were given old dirty clothes, all ate the same food, and all were given dog tags and serial numbers to identify themselves with.
This imagery of animals relating to hardships can also be seen in the poem “The Colossus.” Plath writes, “Mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles” (Colossus 3). In the poem, “The Colossus”, the main audience is her father, Otto Plath, and her husband, Ted Hughes. However after going through the poem, it can be concluded that this particular quote was directed towards her husband. When she first met him, she was fooled by his sophisticated manner and smooth talking or “mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles” (Colossus 3). Once they got married, had three children, and got to know each other, she realized how greatly she was fooled. Everything that Ted had ever said to her was “worse than a barnyard” (Colossus 5). This is funny because in a barnyard full of animals, all that comes from it is a bunch of noise and ruckus which is more or less meaningless and rubbish. She was lied to, cheated on, and robbed of her life. This pain that she had to live with everyday drove her nearly crazy to a point where she tried committing suicide on many different occasions.
This theme of pain and hardship in her life is extremely important seeing as to how Plath’s life was full of it. Plath was able to express all of her distress and fury into her poems all because of the image of animals. Without this imagery, Plath might’ve died even earlier in her life from not being able to truly express herself freely.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Xinyi Lin
1. The essay is supported by relevant references, such as the history background of Jews.
2. Suggestions:
a) “She claims that the Germans are as fierce and vicious as a dog in line #22 of ‘The Swarm.’” You should write out the quote instead putting the line number.
b) “However after going through the poem, it can be concluded that this particular quote was directed towards her husband. When she first met him, she was fooled by his sophisticated manner and smooth talking or ‘mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles’ (Colossus 3). Once they got married, had three children, and got to know each other, she realized how greatly she was fooled. Everything that Ted had ever said to her was ‘worse than a barnyard’ (Colossus 5). This is funny because in a barnyard full of animals, all that comes from it is a bunch of noise and ruckus which is more or less meaningless and rubbish.” I personally do not agree with this paragraph, because I believe that the audience of “The Colossus” is only Sylvia Plath’s father, and the colossus represents her dead father. When she wrote“mule-bray, pig-grunt and bawdy cackles” and “worse than a barnyard,” she is describing her disgust for her father’s death, not Ted Hughes. Therefore, you might want to reconsider the theme and audience of “The Colossus,” and perhaps do additional research on this theme to help you to determine your interpretation.
c) Since it is a formal essay, I suggest you to use formal style writing.“This is funny because in a barnyard full of animals, all that comes from it is a bunch of noise and ruckus which is more or less meaningless and rubbish.” You should change“This is funny” to “This brings the humor because in a barnyard full of animals, all that comes from it is a bunch of noise and ruckus which is more or less meaningless and rubbish.”
Good job! Keep up the good work! :)
-Maria Bychkov-
“Plath has used the imagery of animals in every single one of her poems.” I don’t think you should used this statement because she didn’t use animal imagery in every single poem for example in her poem “Poppies in July” she didn’t use animal imagery. Instead you should say that “In many of her poems Plath uses imagery of animals.”
Your language is not really formal throughout the essay. Like when you said, “life was full of it.” You can make that sound more formal and “smarter” by saying something like
“This theme of pain and hardship in her life is extremely important seeing how Path’s life was inundated (or you could use overwhelmed, or besieged) with them.” This sentence is just an example of how you could fix the other informal phrases you used.
Another thing I don’t think that the poem “Colossus” addressed her husband in any way it talks about her father. The one however she talks about her husband in the poem “Daddy” but the problem is in that poem she doesn’t use animal imagery. Perhaps you could change from talking about animal imagery to the use of the holocaust and Nazi imagery, or you could pick another poem to talk about perhaps “Medusa” there is a line that says “off, off, eely tentacle!” that perhaps could be used in the context you want. Or another poem you could use “The Hanging Man” she writes in it “If he were I, he would do what I did, and talks about a lizards eyelid in there, I’m not really sure what she is talking about in that poem but I got the idea that she is talking perhaps about her suicides and how her world is controlled by a god which could be seen as her husband. Perhaps you could connect that with what you were say.
I hope I was of any help. I really liked the idea of your essay. You were just interpreted it wrong. And I liked your introduction also it was capturing.
Justin Lin
1. I enjoyed the support and connections you gave to your analysis by drawing from Plath's own life.
2. a) You could change the line "Back in the old days..." to something more formal such as "In the past" or "in ancient times."
b) You could also change the line "Plath might've died even earlier..." to "Plath may have died even earlier" because contractions cannot be used in formal writing.
c) Overall, your essay contains good support from both quotations as well as Plath's own life. It could be improved by changing the informal tone of it because your style of writing is a bit colloquial.
Post a Comment