As the dismal month of February approaches, innate sadness fills everyone. On such dreary days, I often plunge into the mystery of Sylvia Plath to capture the true meaning of solace. Her work provides commiseration to all girls struggling to break free from the expectations laid out by society and find the unsophisticated reality of being a woman. Sylvia Plath teaches one the skill of escaping by turning our inner hostilities into an art so pervasive that it fully redefines the essence of womanhood. She urges us to shatter these invincible handcuffs clasped around our wrists by “man”-kind and refuse to let the entrapments of our minds mar our way forward.
Often we learn to appreciate an artist after they succumb to their sorrows and dilemmas. While throughout her life Sylvia Plath was recognised as a fiercely powerful woman with a high IQ as she started publishing her poems very early on in life, the true ethos of her work was analysed and recognised by individuals after her suicide. Her books were categorised as vehemently autobiographical as some of her work reflected a sense of self-estrangement coupled with a massive amount of self-destruction showcasing glimpses of her personal life. She was able to capture the frustrations in her life and wrote about them with pulsating rage and terrifying bitterness, harsh and clear, and with synchronising beauty. She was not a victim of complacency and obliging nature, subversively starting a new literary era: the confessional movement, writing violently about mental illnesses, sexual guilt, and profound suffering. Being ashamed of her feelings, she found a way to shed light on all the contradicting emotions that make us human. She normalised these intense emotions felt by multiple women in that era that were then considered, in many ways, unconventional and as the onset of insanity.
Her collection of poems named ‘Ariel’ feels like opening old wounds and shaking yourself with utmost resentment encapsulating the importance of self-expression and the desire to be heard and transcend life. One of the poems that breaks barriers and represents the anguish of living with cutting imagery and unfiltered rhythm is ‘Lady Lazurus.’ It acts as a mouthpiece for Plath’s feelings as she talks about rebirth being more of a curse than a blessing. She mentions graphically the way she wants to turn into a mere corpse and explicitly explains the three times she was close to death (attempted suicides) but made it out alive. While the persona is in immense distress and overcome with dejection, the suicide attempts seem to act like a “strip-tease” show for the world, where people brutally scrutinise her anguish like a theatre act.
Moreover, the faceless figure seems to have mastered the art of dying and is unperturbed. The persona recognises that death changes nothing, as after rebirth she returns the same. She directly addresses the male antagonists in her life who have reduced her to a mere materialistic value and cautions them that even when they poke at her “ashes” after her death the monetary possessions (wedding ring) will not be able to surpass her true worth. The end of this dramatic monologue evokes a sense of petrifying, bone-chilling calm. It foreshadows a mark of vengeance against the powerful male ego as the figure rises from her ashes like a dynamic phoenix. The persona perceives the purpose of her reincarnation to eradicate male supremacy as she avenges all the women who have been mistreated and is ready to “eat men”, and consume them effortlessly as she seeks justice.
The beauty of this poem lies in its primitive honesty and powerfully brutal choice of words. Plath was able to reflect on her emotions and conjure a wave of sympathy as well as rage from the readers for the persona. Plath became an icon for women when she continued writing about topics that were considered “taboo” in that era. She refused to subjugate to the patriarchy prevailing then and wrote incessantly about her feelings. Her writing style, often free verse, represents the chaos in her mind. Plath’s mental health issues manifest themselves in her writings making her work more passionate and provoking strong ardent emotions. Over the years, as we have progressed and awareness has settled in this modern world we have developed an understanding of mental health issues. Now, Plath’s poetry resonates with many individuals who strive to fight against the torment orchestrated by their minds. She has managed to provide a blanket of comfort for people who want to share their trauma and turn it into an art form to express clearly what one deserves and that their emotions are justified.
Plath is not only an intellectualised inspiration to female writers who extract incidents from their personal and professional lives and transform these instances into poetry with a sense of wild abandonment and fervent imagination but also a beacon of light for those who seek to feel less lonely, for wanderers finding inner purpose with a copy of bell jar clutched tightly in their fingers reminding them that despite the cruelties encroaching this world, life is something that can become meaningful again if touched upon in the right way. That in all its glory, we humans succumb to our feelings and that it is okay to feel what we feel. Plath may have had an unfortunate end, but as Icarus managed to catch a glimpse of the sun before his untimely fall, she managed to leave a legacy behind for many people, she left a glimpse of her unabashed self for the world to see and learn from.
In the end, we learn to become the predator instead of the prey baring our sharp canines to anyone who threatens our feminine sanctity. The snow melts away, leaves become green, winter elapses into spring and with that, Sylvia Plath recasts the unwanted and melancholic version of ourselves into a less lonely, determined one again.
תגובות