Sylvia Plath wrote her poems in the 1960’s, a time when women were still dominated by men. Within the patriarchal society women had set roles to play; they were to remain in the kitchen and were never to voice an unwanted opinion.
Plath and the women she portrays in her poems felt suffocated within this domestic prison and were desperate to make a role for themselves outside the dominating misogynist rule.
Binary Opposition
The moon has nothing to be sad about, / Staring from her hood of bone.
The image of the moon which Plath uses here in her poem Edge is a traditional image of female passivity. From before Renaissance times traditional binary oppositions used in poetry and plays connote the moon with women and the sun with men. The moon is reliant on the sun as it is from the sun the moon gets its light. So in the same way women are said to be reliant on men.
Plath uses the image of the moon again in The Moon and the Yew Tree:
The Yew tree points up. It has a gothic shape. / The eyes lift after it and find the moon. / The moon is my mother.
The moon is her mother and the mother of all women. Her passive light is a constant reminder of the pallid role women play in a patriarchal society. The image of the moon is surrounded by images of death such as the yew tree which is traditionally found in grave yards. The images of death suggest that that is the only way for women to escape the shackles of a male dominated world.
Misogynistic World
The role of males in Plath’s poetry is one of activity and domination. All men seem to be in opposition against her. In Lady Lazarus the woman is made to feel like an object, and it is a male gaze that keeps her passive:
So, so Herr Doktor / So, Herr Enemy
The doctors and the enemy are both referred to as Herr which is the German for Mister. This shows that the speaker sees the enemy as being men.
Within the family unit the father had to be strong and controlling, in Daddy the speaker projects the image of a fascist on to her father. The fascist is the ultimate symbol of controlling dictating power so Plath may not be talking solely of her father but of the patriarchal society in which she lives:
Every woman adores a Fascist, / The boot in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you
Plath uses alliteration; the repetition of the letter b and the word brute echoes the sound and motion of a boot in the face. It is as though she feels as though she is being kicked in the face by her father or possibly men in general. The word brute conjures up an image of a monstrous bully, one that forces her into the passive role she is forced to inhabit.
Finding an Identity
The speakers in Plath’s poems are defined by the men that surround them; it is through this they find an identity. In The Jailer the speaker finds definition through the jailer-prisoner relationship. The speaker does not have an identity that satisfies her:
I am myself. That is not enough.
Being herself is not enough because she is merely a woman. Being a woman means she has to embody the passive role expected of her from society, this does not fulfil the speaker’s desired role in life. The speaker at the end of the poem finds an identity by being the object of desire of the Jailer, he is dependent on her:
What would the light / Do without eyes to knife, what would he / Do, do, do without me?
The repetition of the word do emphasises the male activity of the Jailer and so the passivity in contrast of the speaker. Although the speaker is passive they are given a sense of control as the Jailer needs the speaker and relies on her for a sense of identity as much as she relies on him.
Hope of Release
All is not lost for Plath’s speakers though; there is hope and a chance for release. Plath’s speakers search for liberation, a way in which they can free themselves from the shackles of Patriarchal society, and for many of them emancipation is only gained through death.
In Edge the speaker only finds the much sought after perfection after death:
The woman is perfected / Her dead / Body wears the smile of accomplishment,
The woman smiles because she has achieved the definitive goal, she is perfect because she no longer has to be judged under anybody’s standards.
The ultimate liberation and triumph over man comes at the end of the poem Lady Lazarus:
Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.
The woman rises from the dead like the phoenix and men are nothing to her now; they are no longer tangible presences in her life. She has gained a new life and a new sense of empowerment.
Plath’s world can be at times very bleak, her speakers feel imprisoned, and bound up by the society in which they live. There is hope however, and a chance of liberty if one can be strong, break out of the passive stereotype and snap the chains linking them to the misogynistic society.
Sources:
Plath, Sylvia. Ariel, Faber and Faber, 1965, ISBN: 0-571-08626-8
Plath, Sylvia. The Jailer 17 October 1962
Jade Weighell - My name is Jade Weighell and I have a BA in English and Drama and an MA in English Literature. I write book reviews and have been ...
