Bloom's Literary Themes - ymerleksi - home

The Poetry and Prose of Sylvia Plath 161
hard-won independence enables her to withstand the taunts of people
like Buddy: “But who will marry you now?”
In spite of the often grim events of The Bell Jar, the novel is
frequently humorous: at the elegant luncheon given by wealthy Philomena
Guinea, Esther drinks the contents of the fingerbowl, cherry
blossoms and all, assuming that it was Japanese after-dinner soup;
about to receive her first kiss, she positions herself while her date
gets a “good footing on the soil,” but does not close her eyes. Plath’s
narration of Esther’s gaffs is brilliant, and her skill provides ample
evidence of her commitment to fiction. In an interview with Peter Orr
for the British council in October 1962, Plath commented that, unlike
poetry, fiction permitted her to luxuriate in details; she also said that
she viewed The Bell Jar as her apprentice effort and planned to write
another novel. In the same interview, she stated that she composed
her poems to be read aloud and admitted that The Colossus privately
bored her because the poems in that volume were not composed for
oral presentation.
To hear Sylvia Plath read her own poetry is truly a thrilling experience:
her voice was full-bodied, vibrant, and authoritative. Her voice
creates the impression that she was not hysterical, timid, or easily
subdued. Hearing her read makes it obvious that being a poet was
central to her existence—“The actual experience of writing a poem
is a magnificent one,” she once said, and the immense vitality of her
reading underscores the energy of her poems.
Savage anger and bitterness frequently spring from Plath’s poems:
“Lady Lazarus,” “The Applicant,” “Daddy,” “The Beast,” “Zookeeper’s
Wife,” “Magi” are monuments to her rage. “I made a model of you, . . .
A man in black with a Meinkampf look . . . And I said I do, I do. . . .
So daddy, I’m finally through”; “Daddy” turns on retribution; yet it
expresses the release of immense energy that occurs with the decision
to break away from emotionally damaging relationships. In An
American Dream, Norman Mailer experiences the same release when
he kills his wife Deborah and metaphorically as well as literally breaks
away from her domination: “ . . . and crack the door flew open and the
wire tore in her throat, and I was through the door, hatred passing
from me in wave after wave, illness as well, rot and pestilence, nausea,
a bleak string of salts. I was floating.” 6
Male writers are permitted to articulate their aggression, however
violent or hostile; women writers are supposed to pretend that they