SYLVIA PLATH
…
• Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist
and short story writer who was born on 27
October 1922 in Boston Massachusetts. She
studied at Smith College and Newham College
Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a
professional poet and writer.
…
• She married the famous poet Ted Hughes in
1956 and they lived together first in the USA
and then England having two children
together, Frieda and Nicolas.
• Sylvia suffered various bouts of depression
and tried to take her life numerous times. Her
life experience led her to write her semiautobiography, “The Bell Jar”.
…
• Her husband‘s work was far more popular and
celebrated which further lead Sylvia into a
downward spiral. She also discovered her
husband having an affair with their landlady,
Assia Wevill in July 1962. Sylvia and Ted
separated in September the same year.
…
• She experienced a spur of creativity and wrote
most of her poems after her separation. Her
depression returned and she died of carbon
monoxide poising.
• She sealed the kitchen with towels and
clothes and placed her head in the oven with
the gas turned on.
• Allegory (The representation of abstract ideas or
principles by characters, figures, or events in
narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form)
• Narrative
• Protest poem – choral voice, speak in unison
• 11 stanzas of 3 verses
• 1st Person Plural
– Us/ we never “I”
• Present tense
• Colloquial diction – natural speech
• Lexical (Linguistics relating totems of vocabulary in
a language) fields of study:
– Nature
– The Body
– Furniture
WAR
FEMINISM
• The poem could be about • The idea that women are
the way in which war
not appreciated within
effects society – and the
society.
unexpected impact that it • That they are seen as
has.
inanimate objects, that
• Mushrooms, could be
don’t really belong.
taken to represent the • The oppressive treatment
shape that a bomb makes
of women.
• The Cold War – people
coming and taking over
(communism)
• Themes of fertility and new generations.
• New generations of girls/women prepared to fight
against society.
• The oppression of women within society
• The impact of a combined effort
• The underestimation of nature and how it relates to
society.
Literal meaning, a fungi that
appears overnight, often
trodden on, insignificant and
unwanted
Plath may be talking
about the
unexpected and
destructive nature
of war
A sudden, effective
and unanticipated
threat
Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly
Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
Enjambment the
mushrooms cannot be
contained/ the women
are determined to
succeed
Use of possessive
language,
represents how
women had to
‘acquire’ such a
basic need and
fully illustrates
how low they
were within
society.
Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.
Delicate
Personification
body parts
: little baby
toes and cute
that are
button noses
seen as
womanly.
Women were ignored
Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,
Soft skin. Also an Oxymoron,
Personification
Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,
Traits that make women appear inferior
to men. Physical weakness
Emphasises the importance of
persistence and how the women
are slowly gaining ground
Metaphor: Shape suggests
instruments of destruction. Shows
that the women’s persistence is their
greatest weapon
Metaphorical description of their
disadvantage within society,
Personification
Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We
Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking
Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!
Women lived in the shadow of their
husbands, they were submissive and
obedient “asking little or nothing”
The cadence and rhythm of the stanza mimics that
of a nursery rhyme subconsciously imposing the
role of mother onto the women.
We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,
Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:
We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.
Metaphor: Language related to domesticity –
reinforcing the stereotype that a women’s
place is in the home.
Image of fairies seated around mushroomshaped furniture.
Despite men’s perceptions women can
be strong even violent
Allusion: Biblical reference to show that women
deserve to gain freedom and independence
Women have the vote, all they need now is to
break away from the housewife stereotype
ANSWERS
1. The mushrooms narrate the story of how,
overnight, they come into their own (take
control of what is rightfully theirs).
They tell of how, together in great
numbers they force their way through the
paving stones and difficult places.
They explain how they have been ignored
and side-lined for such a long time, but
their day is about to come.
They explain how they have survived on so
little, always taking second best.
…
2. a The hyphen makes a compound adjective
to describe the undemanding nature of the
mushrooms.
b The mushrooms are undemanding. These
“people” ask nothing for themselves. They
expect very little.
3. The shape of the mushroom makes us think
of little battering rams. They also have the
look of little fists which might be used as
hammers to beat their way through the
tough places.
…
4. The mushrooms, by sheer weight of number,
are able to force their way through cracks
and may then be able to lift the paving
stones.
5. A – 3, B – 5, C – 1, D – 2, E – 4
6. a Repetition
b It reinforces the great number of the
mushrooms. It suggests their power and offers a
threat.
…
7. Functional items are mentioned, tables and
shelves, suggesting the way these “people”
or “women” are used by others, they are
edible, which is the ultimate sacrifice.
8. Personification
9. “our toes, our noses”
“nobody sees us, stops us, betrays us”
“soft fists”
“shoulder through holes”
“bland-mannered”
…
“asking little or nothing”
“so many of us”
“we are meek”
“our foot’s in the door”
10. aggressive, bitter, angry, ironic, rebelious