Plath and Hughes PDF

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Plath and Hughes comparative essay on a different question for Module A English Advanced...

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How is the depiction of the search for autonomy in Sylvia Plath’s Ariel reconstructed in Ted Hughes’ Birthday Letters? The search for autonomy is a person’s independence in one’s thoughts and actions. Sylvia Plath’s poetry depicts the search for autonomy which is reconstructed in traumatic contexts through Ted Hughes’ poetry. Plath’s poems ‘Daddy’ and ‘A Birthday Present’(Ariel, 2001) suggests her search for autonomy is overshadowed by the domesticity and idolisation of her father that ultimately leads her to yearn for death. Hughes in his poems, ’The Shot’ and ‘Red’(Birthday Letters, 1999) reconstructs Plath’s perspective by describing that her search for autonomy is rather the result of her obsessive personality and failure to recognise the consequences of her self-destructive behaviour. Thus, an exploration of literature across different contexts which convey the search for autonomy, reveal the reconstructions of contrasting perspectives In ‘Daddy’, Plath represents the impact of her oppressive idolisation of her father shaping her relationships in her life and leading her to search for autonomy. Her father Otto Plath, died in 1940 when she was eight and Plath believed she never resolved her idolisation of him and struggled emotionally. Plath uses the context to describe her father as a “bag full of God/ Ghostly statue with one grey toe” to emphasise her childlike idolisation of him. The speaker further emphasises through “chuffing me off like a jew/ A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen” the oppressive and frozen memories of her father in the Nazi imagery. The frozen memories of the speaker’s father cause her to search for him in her relationships expressed through the historical allusion, “I made a model of you/ A man in black with a Meinkampf look,” illuminating her relationships were influenced by her father. Her obsession extends to the concept that she hoped Hughes would be a recreation of her father. Plath begins to realise her excessive obsession through the vampire imagery of Hughes as “The vampire who said he was you/ And drank my blood for a year,” depicting him as an evil demon slowly stripping her life from her. Ultimately, the metaphor for her purge is revealed in, “There’s a stake in your fat black heart,” demonstrating the torture is too painful and she can no longer continue. The speaker acknowledges she needs to eliminate them to reclaim autonomy and autonomy. In consideration, Plath argues her social subjugation was caused by oppressive men who sought to limit her freedom and acknowledges the need to remove them to regain autonomy and establish her identity. In response, Hughes reconstructs that Plath’s search for autonomy is formed in part by her mental illness and unhappiness rather than oppressive men and her death was inevitable. Hughes’ poem ‘The Shot’, posits that her death was not his fault or the patriarchal society but rather the result of her obsession with her father that motivated her mental condition and her death was unavoidable. Similarly, Hughes represents Plath’s psychological dependence on the father through the imagery of her search “Your search needed a God,” describing her idolisation of her father that caused her to desire a perfect man. Hughes further emphasises the damage created by Plath’s father through the motif of the gun, “When his death touched the trigger/ In that flash,” conveying the damage that is triggered by the death of her father. Her father is the cause of Plath’s search for autonomy leading to her search for death and ultimately, releases the bullet that flies towards self-destruction. This depicts Hughes as an innocent victim who was unable to influence Plath and that she was beyond his control. Likewise, Plath describes her

self-destruction through the repetition of “Daddy, Daddy, you bastard, I’m through,” highlighting the debilitating memory of her relationship with her father that leads her to search for autonomy. This contributes to Hughes’ presentation of himself as an innocent bystander who could not prevent Plath from committing suicide in, “the right witchdoctor/ Might have caught you in flight with his bare hands.'' This implies that only someone with magical powers could have helped her recover autonomy from her mental illness. Ultimately, Hughes challenges Plath’s search for autonomy in ‘Daddy’ as being the result of the idolisation of her father rather than his oppressive demands. In ‘A Birthday Present’, Plath is overcome by the stifling expectations of a patriarchal society and this motivates her search to achieve autonomy through death. Her poem represents the difficulty of well-educated women of the ’50s who felt restricted by the social pressure as Betty Freidan described it as ‘getting married and having children.’ The speaker alludes to the stifling effects of forced domesticity through the repetition of “Measuring the flour, cutting off the surplus… Adhering to rules, rules, rules,” suggesting she is bound by domestic duties and the confinement by social restraints. These domestic confinements cause the speaker to obsess death through the visceral imagery within, “But it shimmers, it does not stop, and I think it wants me,” mirroring death’s omniscience that suggests hope for an escape from the oppressive experience. Her search for death depicts her yearning for control in the metaphor, “Only let down the veil, the veil, the veil,” conveying an urgency for death replicating her constant pursuit for autonomy. This reveals her desire for death because of her societal expectations within the rhetorical question, “Can you not give it to me?” emphasising how her subjugation causes a slow and painful death and thus, she hopes for a quick death. Her death is seen as a form of escape for her in the imagery of the knife cutting “Pure and clean as the cry of a baby// .. universe slide from my side,” conveying the speaker's subversion of the domestic roles. The speaker characterises her search for autonomy which she achieves in death and escapes all domestic conformities. Thereby, Plath presents her perspective of the suffocation by domestic conformities that drive her to escape through death and experience autonomy. Contrastingly in ‘Red’, Hughes reconstructs a positive image of domesticity, suggesting that Plath was unaware of the consequences of her self-destructive behaviour because of her focus on autonomy. Hughes responds to Plath’s decision to take her own life by expressing his regret and sadness at her decision to commit suicide. Hughes represents Plath’s duality in the colour symbolism “Red was not your colour/ If not red, then white,” contrasting her creativity and passion in the colour of red with her obsession with death in the symbolism of white. Hughes characterises her father as a tainted legacy through the rhetorical question, “Was it red-ochre, for warming the dead?” emphasising her morbid obsession with her dead father that pervades her thoughts and feelings. This fixation subsequently leads to her search for autonomy. Hughes interprets that Plath’s idolisation causes the disintegration of their marriage as exemplified in the cumulative listing of her heart’s “last gouts/ Catastrophic, arterial, doomed,” conveying her search for her father in relationships that destroy her connections. On top of that, Hughes reinforces that her search for autonomy could only be achieved in death. Dissonantly, Plath demonstrates her suffocation from domesticity through the personification of the world, “The world will go up in a shriek, and your head with it.” Whereas, Hughes reveals the loss in her suicide due to her self-destructive behaviour through the symbolism of blue, “But the jewel you lost was blue,” suggesting the final tenderness that has been lost with Plath’s decision to take her own life. Hughes reveals Plath’s focus on her autonomy that takes away from her ability to realise her damaging and suicidal tendencies. Therefore, Hughes’ reconstruction of Plath’s poetry reveals in contrasting ways, her search for autonomy that is caused by traumatic events....