I see Plath's life and work as self-indulgent wallowing in suffering. The performance art of a thwarted child as a means of controlling others that backfires on her again and again.
The awkward, clunky language of this sample reveals her poor effort to emulate poetry while seeking the sympathy she apparently craved but never sought, prefe…
I see Plath's life and work as self-indulgent wallowing in suffering. The performance art of a thwarted child as a means of controlling others that backfires on her again and again.
The awkward, clunky language of this sample reveals her poor effort to emulate poetry while seeking the sympathy she apparently craved but never sought, preferring to fuel her misguided concepts of love and poetic inspiration with exposure to abuse.
That said, I appreciate your empathy for such an individual. It may come from a psychological evaluation of her life and work as a whole in contrast to my wish to evaluate her individual poems on their stand-alone literary merit.
NOTES: I agree she'd have been better off never having met Hughes. But she would have sought and found someone else exactly like him.
Also, the destruction Hughes left in his path reminds me of Jackson Browne's shameful history with women.
I know nothing of Browne's history. If it's anything like Hughes' history then it's appalling. Plath's poetry had very little emotional impact on me when I was forced to study it in the early years of high school in remote, rural Australia. I was too young and immature. Leonard Cohen's work, which I was also made to study, had far more impact. Now, Plath's work takes my breath away. I feel for her for the major depressive episodes she suffered. One of her friends said that she had made plans for the future only a few days before she suicided successfully so it seems to.me that it was most likely an impulsive act. If she was beaten by Hughes before she miscarried then she might have had complex PTSD superimposed on her likely dramatic vulnerable child personality disorder characteristics. I do feel empathy for domestic violence victims, not all of whom engage in victim precipitation. She might have provoked Hughes but that would not justify him beating her, at any time but especially while she was heavily pregnant. Unfortunately, many women have precipitated their own murders. Strangely, I have some empathy for Susan Atkins, even though I suspect she made Charles Manson her fall guy. Atkins was a cold blooded psychopath and killer. Nonetheless, I suspect her conversion to Christianity in prison was genuine, although many such conversions in prison are faked. I have no empathy for her fellow Manson cult killer Tex Watson.
Few people are so understanding and magnanimous in their judgments.
As an aside, I never picked up on your being Australian. Meant in a positive way, you always seemed American. Or, to be precise, you know a lot more about American history and politics than I know about Australia. And I don't detect anything "foreign" in your written voice. A pleasant surprise.
I see Plath's life and work as self-indulgent wallowing in suffering. The performance art of a thwarted child as a means of controlling others that backfires on her again and again.
The awkward, clunky language of this sample reveals her poor effort to emulate poetry while seeking the sympathy she apparently craved but never sought, preferring to fuel her misguided concepts of love and poetic inspiration with exposure to abuse.
That said, I appreciate your empathy for such an individual. It may come from a psychological evaluation of her life and work as a whole in contrast to my wish to evaluate her individual poems on their stand-alone literary merit.
NOTES: I agree she'd have been better off never having met Hughes. But she would have sought and found someone else exactly like him.
Also, the destruction Hughes left in his path reminds me of Jackson Browne's shameful history with women.
I know nothing of Browne's history. If it's anything like Hughes' history then it's appalling. Plath's poetry had very little emotional impact on me when I was forced to study it in the early years of high school in remote, rural Australia. I was too young and immature. Leonard Cohen's work, which I was also made to study, had far more impact. Now, Plath's work takes my breath away. I feel for her for the major depressive episodes she suffered. One of her friends said that she had made plans for the future only a few days before she suicided successfully so it seems to.me that it was most likely an impulsive act. If she was beaten by Hughes before she miscarried then she might have had complex PTSD superimposed on her likely dramatic vulnerable child personality disorder characteristics. I do feel empathy for domestic violence victims, not all of whom engage in victim precipitation. She might have provoked Hughes but that would not justify him beating her, at any time but especially while she was heavily pregnant. Unfortunately, many women have precipitated their own murders. Strangely, I have some empathy for Susan Atkins, even though I suspect she made Charles Manson her fall guy. Atkins was a cold blooded psychopath and killer. Nonetheless, I suspect her conversion to Christianity in prison was genuine, although many such conversions in prison are faked. I have no empathy for her fellow Manson cult killer Tex Watson.
Few people are so understanding and magnanimous in their judgments.
As an aside, I never picked up on your being Australian. Meant in a positive way, you always seemed American. Or, to be precise, you know a lot more about American history and politics than I know about Australia. And I don't detect anything "foreign" in your written voice. A pleasant surprise.