Sylvia Plaths poetry is well known for it’s deeply personal and emotional subject matter. Suffering is one theme that is found throughout Plaths poetry. The later poetry of Plath portrays a negative image of both men and marriage. Most of the later poems show a woman who is trapped within a family situation or is trying to get away from one.
The feeling of being trapped is evident in the poem “The Jailor” This poem is a dramatization of female victimization. Plath was very unhappy in her marriage. This is evident in the “The Jailor” where she turns the hate for her husband into a negative representation of marriage in general. Plath is trying to get the message that “Marriage is a form of imprisonment,” to the reader. The woman in this poem is suffering by the means of her husband behavior.
“The Jailor” (Plath 226) is made up of nine five-line stanzas, which present increasingly intense images of physical torture inflicted upong the speaker, by her “jailor.” The prisoner/jailor relationship is comparable to the husband/wife relationship. The poem describes this womans suffering in the sleeping with her jailor and the sexual abuse he inflicts upon her. The central theme of this poem would be the “jailors” need for his victi
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Underneath, this poem is more about hatred of men, marriage and the self. ” (Rosenblatt 108) The first three stanzas of this poem completely reject the idea of marriage, yet it seems as if the last three do the opposite. (Roseblatt 110) At the beginning of “Fever 103º” the speaker seems to be answering her own questions about self-purification through suffering. The poem is meant to offend the reader. The fact that this reader borrows from the horror of the holocaust to account for her suffering is supposed to shock people. (Bloom, 134) A young female reading this might think “how can her suffering compare to that of the Jews during World War II?” But, this poem is not meant for a female audience, it is meant to captivate the attention of a male audience. (Rosenblatt 112) In the end, the woman still cannot break free from him and there will be suffering for life. This indicates that Plaths later poetry is open to the reader as the recipient of a message. An example of this would be when she says to herself “Pure? What does it mean?” She then turns to her husband and says “I am too pure for you or anyone. She also feels very good about hurting herself, and feels she does that very well. (Plath 231) This type of writing provides for the speakers rapid shifts of perception and address. It has been revealed that Plath wrote this poem to show her disdain for both her father and her husband. By reading the last three stanzas the reader is being told to disregard the first three. ”
"Lady Lazarus" is about Plaths suicide attempts.
Approximate Word count =
821
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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