Robert Phillips

This hatred of men and the unhealthiness of her mental condition continue to ground the figures of “The Colossus.” The speaker’s identity here hinges on a broken idol out of the stream of civilization, one whose “hours are married to shadow.” No longer does she “listen for the scrape of a keel / on the blank stones of the landing.” Man, personified by a ship, has no place in her scheme. The marriage to shadow is a marriage to the memory of the poet’s father, and therefore to death itself. The pull toward that condition is the subject of “Lorelei” as well as the central symbol of “A Winter Ship.” That she perceived the nature of her own psychic condition is clear not only in the identification with the broken idol of “The Colossus,” but also with the broken vase of “The Stones.” Plath makes a metaphor for her reverse misogyny in “The Bull of Bendylaw,” where she transmogrifies that traditionally feminine body, the sea (note the article, la mere), into a brute bull, a potent symbol for the active masculine principle. The bull, as in all Palaeo-oriental cultures, is a symbol of both destruction and power. Yet, as with many of Plath’s symbols, there is a complexity beyond this.

From “The Dark Tunnel: A Reading of Sylvia Plath.” Modern Poetry Studies 3.2 (1972).
Leggi il resto di questo articolo »

Sylvia Plath’s , The Bell Jar, is about an intellectual young ’s role in the society of the 1950s. The novel describes the oppressive and patriarchal society in which the main character lives. The work of literature exposes the main character, Esther Greenwood’s ambition to be a career woman in a field dominated by men, the obstacles she faces, and the mental breakdown that occurs as a result. Feminism is the belief that women should be considered equal in all aspects of life. The feminist lens is modeled with the correlation between literary texts, and the roles of women in society. In this paper, logical methods are applied to demonstrate, explain, and dispute the oppression of women. Through the feminist lens, The Bell Jar’s main themes of lack of control, dehumanization based on gender, and stereotypes of women are demonstrated, explained, and disputed.
Leggi il resto di questo articolo »