Vicky Tu

"Legends and Myths"
In Sylvia Plath’s poetry, constant allusions to various myths and legends can be found throughout. In “The Colossus”, Plath describes the way her father had a huge role in her life and how she felt betrayed by his death. In “Two Sisters of Persephone”, Plath laments that women, even the “happy” ones, are all treated badly and lead sorrowful lives. In “Ariel”, Plath writes about the illusion of freedom and how it is not really freedom at all. Sylvia Plath uses various mythological references throughout her poetry, especially in the three poems “The Colossus”, “Two Sisters of Persephone”, and “Ariel”, to express her unhappiness.
In “The Colossus”, Plath’s father is portrayed as a man of enormous significance that Plath, after her father’s death, attempted to piece back together. The very title of the poem alludes to The Colossus, a monumental statue that ships would sail between its legs to reach the other side. Plath’s father was, figuratively, The Colossus in Plath’s life as he was a prominent and imposing figure. In addition, Plath mentions the Oresteia in the fourth stanza: “A blue sky out of the Oresteia / Arches above us. O father, all by yourself / You are pithy and historical as the Roman forum.” The Oresteia was a trilogy of tragedies that involved numerous betrayals as a husband sacrificed his daughter and is consequently murdered by his wife. Plath, too, felt betrayed by her father as he died. Plath references the Colossus and the Oresteia in her poem “The Colossus” in a negative connotation, much like she did in “Two Sisters of Persephone”.
“Two Sisters of Persephone” is about two seemingly opposite women; one woman is unhappy and forced to work all day while the other woman frolics in the sun. Again, the title of the poem is a mythological reference to Persephone, the Greek goddess who was forced to marry Hades and return to the Underworld every year for a short period of time. Using this imagery, Plath is stating that while there are happy times in a woman’s life, unhappiness will always be there, as well. Plath mentions the two opposite sides of women in the first stanza. “Two girls there are within the house / One sits; the other, without / Daylong a duet of shade and light / Plays between these.” Here, Plath contrasts the two women, representative of the two sides of a woman’s life. Plath continues on to describe the “happy” side of a woman’s life: “Bronzed as earth, the second lies, / Hearing ticks blown gold / Like pollen on bright air. Lulled / Near a bed of poppies, / She sees how their red silk flare / Of petaled blood / Burns open to the sun’s blade.” However, even within this woman’s happy life, sadness and pain are still present in her life as the poppies’ “red silk flare of petaled blood burns open to the sun’s blade”. Then, Plath mentions the unhappier side to women: “…Turned bitter / And sallow as any lemon / The other, wry virgin to the last, / Goes graveward with flesh laid waste, / Worm-husbanded, yet no woman.” Plath felt that, no matter how happy a woman may seem, she is secretly unhappy and will always be unhappy, much like how she discusses a women never being free in her poem “Ariel”.
In “Ariel”, Plath describes how she tries to escape the world by taking rides on her horse, Ariel. Furthermore, the title of the poem itself is a reference to the story of “The Little Mermaid”. In the true ending of “The Little Mermaid”, the mermaid throws herself off a cliff and disappears into sea foam. In addition, the first two lines of the eighth stanza allude to “The Little Mermaid”, as well. “And now I / Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.” Using this reference, Plath is saying that true freedom does not really exist, and anything that may feel like freedom will always carry an underlying theme of oppression and frustration as one attempts to escape. Plath also references the story of Lady Godiva in the seventh stanza: “White / Godiva, I unpeel --- / Dead hands, dead stringencies.”. According to the legends, Lady Godiva was married to a man who heavily taxed his people. They appealed to Lady Godiva to beg her husband to cut back on the taxes, which she did, but he refused to listen to her. Finally, after numerous requests, Lady Godiva’s husband said he would lift the taxes if she would demean herself by riding naked through the streets, which she did. In relation to the story, while the line may seem to be about letting go and being free, Plath is actually using it in a connotation of oppression by men. Thus, Plath is using mythological references to convey her unhappiness.
The poems “The Colossus”, “Two Sisters of Persephone”, and “Ariel” all use references to myths or legends to convey Plath’s unhappiness. “The Colossus” was about the significance of her father and the impact it left on her. “Two Sisters of Persephone” was about the inevitable unhappiness in a woman’s life, and “Ariel” was about freedom not truly existing. Sylvia Plath uses the mythological references in these poems to convey her sorrow at the world.

Word Count: 881