Analysis of Sylvia Plath Poems Essay

Stringency A rigorous imposition of standards A familiarity or constriction A scarcity of money or credit. stringency conscientious attention to rules and detailsThe narrator makes reference to a brand in your fat black heart and vampire imagery is understandably used here as vampire can only be killed with a stake through the heart. The stress falling on all(prenominal) word is like each pound and thrust of the stake. In addition, syllabic words create force and energy. The sentence is plosive and it is almost as if the heart is going to burst.We can understand the narrators contingent dislike of domestic chores from her depiction of how a sudden wind funnels at me/Slapping its spook laundry in my face. The personification of the wind makes it come quick and the word slapping is particularly explosive. It kick ups that the wind is being harsh towards her. The word phantom shows death imagery. The sudden wind could refer to the death of her father or perhaps the sudden discove ry of her husbands affair. This abruptness is support by the following line because the phrase a slap in the face can be used to imply the element of surprise.The lake in Mirror has drowned a young little girl and replaced her with a middle-aged woman. passim the poem the mirror/lake appears as quite a sadistic component part who takes delight in the girls sadness. This text informs us that her spring chicken is passing and age is gaining on her the word young puts particular accent on this fact. The drowning could suggest that the girl has drowned herself in her vanity. We can liken the girl to Narcissus, who was so obsessed with his reflection that he couldnt tear himself out-of-door and eventually died.The mushrooms declare that there are So many of us / So many of us We read this line as if it has been yelled. This is help by the previous line little or no involvement where flatus suggests that the line itself is almost quiet. The mushrooms in this poem are link to wom en in the time of Plath and so it is like they are yelling to be noticed. This poem iswritten in a time period when womens right were very much suppressed.The poem Ariel takes a turn in the stanza WhiteGodiva, I unpeel Dead hands, bushed(p) stringencies.The word white suggest starting fresh. Unpeeling implies that the narrator is unpeeling her layers, and trying to find herself. Lady Godiva is famous for ride naked through the streets of Coventry which is quite a rebellious thing to do. The narrator is rebelling from the expectancies of women at that time. She does not want to follow the rules, the constrictions, the stringencies and she makes this clear by referring to them as dead. Dead hands could mean that her hands are dead from doing household work and could also be a metaphor for the rules that arrive a hold on her.