Sylvia Plath Essay
Composers can manipulate the content of their texts by employing deliberate literary techniques that inevitably shape their representation of the truth. The film text ‘Sylvia’ (2003) and Ted Hughes poems ‘The Shot’ and ‘Sam’ (Birthday Letters) display conflicting perspectives of the relationship between Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, which has become world renowned as a long standing literary controversy. The ‘Birthday Letters’ poems harbour poignant emotions such as pain and self-pity, whereas the film ‘Sylvia’ uses visual techniques to convey the anguish and torment endured by Plath. These two representations inexorably challenge the views of the audience and produce an array of responses. By incorporating various textual forms and language
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In Hughes poem ‘The Shot’, he establishes that Plath’s need to worship men in her relationships was a pattern established in her childhood and was directly tied to her relationship with her father, ‘Daddy’. Plath’s father’s role in her life is evident throughout the poem, ‘Your Daddy had been aiming you at God, When his death touched the trigger’. This line also reflects the accusatory tone of the poem, as he directly addresses Plath and therefore, makes the assertion even more powerful. Metaphor and imagery is used throughout the poem. The image of Sylvia Plath as a bullet heading towards her ultimate destination of death is evident in the line, ‘you were gold-jacketed, solid silver, Nickel-tipped. Trajectory perfect’. The listing of description is effective as it is insistently emphatic and highlights the fact that Hughes is confident in his assessment of Plath. Hughes’ perspective is that Plath’s instability and pattern of erratic behaviour was established before Hughes met her, or rather, that she was ‘designed at birth for a god’. Hughes therefore is positioning the reader to believe that he had nothing to do with her instability, that it was merely how she acted since she was born. Consequently, Hughes shapes his perspective on their relationship which is in conflict with the common belief that he was responsible for her mental deterioration and ultimate
In Hughes poem ‘The Shot’, he establishes that Plath’s need to worship men in her relationships was a pattern established in her childhood and was directly tied to her relationship with her father, ‘Daddy’. Plath’s father’s role in her life is evident throughout the poem, ‘Your Daddy had been aiming you at God, When his death touched the trigger’. This line also reflects the accusatory tone of the poem, as he directly addresses Plath and therefore, makes the assertion even more powerful. Metaphor and imagery is used throughout the poem. The image of Sylvia Plath as a bullet heading towards her ultimate destination of death is evident in the line, ‘you were gold-jacketed, solid silver, Nickel-tipped. Trajectory perfect’. The listing of description is effective as it is insistently emphatic and highlights the fact that Hughes is confident in his assessment of Plath. Hughes’ perspective is that Plath’s instability and pattern of erratic behaviour was established before Hughes met her, or rather, that she was ‘designed at birth for a god’. Hughes therefore is positioning the reader to believe that he had nothing to do with her instability, that it was merely how she acted since she was born. Consequently, Hughes shapes his perspective on their relationship which is in conflict with the common belief that he was responsible for her mental deterioration and ultimate