Analysis Of Sylvia Plath's 'Two Daughters Of Persephone'

In the short story “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, the protagonist Millicent, a girl at Lansing High School is being tried as a member of an elite sorority. The girls must go through a week of being an older sister’s servant to be then tried on Friday at Rat Court. Only the most popular girls are accepted into the sorority. These popular girls are also the ones who get the most, popular boyfriends. Everything seems like a dream to Millicent except for the fact that her best friend Tracy wasn’t even considered. Although she wants to belong in the sorority, Millicent finds out that things might not be as perfect as they seem. In “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, the author uses the point of view third person omniscient to allow the reader to

America stands as the most prominent nation of liberty and freedom for all, yet some people still feel the reins of America’s oppressive past. Those include young African Americans and women, who feel that society places unequal expectations on them, simply based on their gender or race. Two young, American writers, Sylvia Plath and Langston Hughes especially feel this way through their works, Sylvia Plath at Seventeen and Theme for English B. Plath and Hughes employ tone, tone shift, and parallelism throughout their works to convey their message that young adults must stand up to demoralizing social expectations.

In 1963 on a cold winter day of February 11th, Sylvia Plath ended her life. She had plugged up her kitchen, sealing up the cracks in doors and windows before she was found with her head inside of her gas oven inhaling the dangerous fumes. She was only thirty years old, a young woman with two small children and an estranged ex-husband. A tragic detail of her life is that this is the second time she had tried to commit suicide. Plagued with mental illness her whole life, which is evident within her poetry. She would write gripping, honest portrayals of mental illnesses. Especially within Ariel, the last poetry book she wrote, right before she took her life. Although it’s hard to find a proper diagnosis for Sylvia Plath, it is almost definite that she at least had clinical depression with her numerous suicide attempts and stays in mental hospitals undergoing electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath is now famously known for her writing and the more tragic parts of her life. Such as the separation from her husband, Ted Hughes, mental illness, etc… Plath may not have intended for her life and art to become inspiration to many people but that has become the end result. Sylvia Plath writing shows symptoms of her suicidal thoughts. To study specific moments in Sylvia Plath’s life, it can be connected to certain writing’s of her’s, such as “Daddy”, The Bell Jar, and “Lady Lazarus”.

In a critical analysis of the tales of Persephone and Susie Salmon, an account of what is to come when a maiden is stolen away from her family and into the underworld is uncovered. As they face their own extinction in the Hell that is their captors Heaven, a counteractive force is exerted by their parents who are thriving for redemption but will instead be fed by integral peace. An archetypal reading of the Rape of Persephone and The Lovely Bones reveals the value of acceptance of loss in creating a peaceful existence for the living and their familial wellbeing. The myth and the modernized story reveal the ideology that one must preserve peace in a time of turmoil in order to keep order within the world.

Innocence and maturation are two key aspects of the human experience. The innocent mind allows you to live with less doubt and worry but it leaves you vulnerable to manipulation and people taking advantage of you. Thomas Hart Benton’s Persephone portrays the myth of Persephone and Hades. The Rape of Persephone goes as so; Zeus gives Persephone to Hades to have as his wife. Persephone is out and about and Hades takes her to the Underworld. A heartbroken Demeter, goddess of harvest and agriculture, Persephone’s mom, refuses to grow anything until Persephone returns. Persephone is allowed back but Hades tricks her, making her unable to leave the underworld permanently. Demeter compromises that Persephone can be in the Underworld part of the year but that nothing will grow while her daughter is away, forcing Persephone’s return and creating the seasons. Taking a new turn on the ancient myth, Benton sets the painting in a rural scene and illustrates a bare Persephone lying leisurely, surrounded by greenery with Hades and his chariot lurking behind her. The juxtaposition between the foliage, Persephone’s nude figure, and the wrinkled Hades in the background creates an imbalance between maturation and sexuality with a blithe young woman caught in the middle. Overall, Benton’s Persephone accentuates the bliss of naivete coinciding with the overwhelming malevolence and sexualization present in the world.

In ancient times, women were considered less than men, but in these times that thesis had changed a lot. Women now fight for their rights and are as important as men. But during those ancient times women were less than men and they didn’t have any rights and were treated like slaves. Even though women had those problems there was a group of women that fight for their rights, like Medea, Antigone, Helena, Electra, among others, in order to show that since that time the figure of the woman was important in humanity. It is noteworthy that the woman has a special gift to face the adversities of life, and despite the pain they might feel before a problem can stand firm in their positions.

One of the tricks that hades played on Persephone wes when he told her to eat some seeds. There were a total of 12 seeds. When she ate seven of the seeds, she was going to spend 7 mounth in the underworld. Because she didn't eat 5 of the seds she will be able to spend 5 mounth with her dad. In the story it said,’’Alas,’’ said ,’’my daughter , what have you done?’’The Fates have said that if you ate anything in the land of the shallow, you must return to Hades and rule with him as his queen.’’ Since she ate 7 seeds she stays with Hades in the underworld for 7 months, and she would spend 5 months with her dad, Demeter.Therefor, if she would have ate all 12 seeds, she would have to say in the underworld for life. Luckily, she only ate 7. It's

Persephone is the goddess of Spring Growth and rebirth. She is queen of the Underworld. Her story and character has interested me since i was 7 years old when i found a book about her. Some people say different things about Persephone, but they all lead to Persephone’s character and story. From Persephone living in the Underworld to Persephone’s symbols I have researched as much as I could.

Louise Glück’s poem A Myth of Devotion describes a battle of right versus wrong with ambiguous statements that are frequently contradicted by Hades’ own thoughts. The title begins the ongoing battle of good versus evil that Hades struggles with, by using the words “myth” and “devotion”. The word “myth” is commonly defined as being a legend or untrue story. When this word is coupled with the term “devotion”, an earnest attachment, the character of Hades presents as an infatuated individual rather than one who cares for Persephone’s character.

And have.” She has been both the daughter and the mother, the naive and the wise, and for this reason she loves and understands the story. As a child she grew up in England, “a city of fogs and strange consonants.” But when reading the myth as a child she became “an exiled child in the crackling dusk of the underworld”, able to relate to the confusion of Persephone. The words “crackling dusk” roll off the tongue with sharpness, and fill our minds with images of a dry, forgotten place where “the stars

Persephone has always interested me; she is able to balance her two lives exceedingly well. She is known as the goddess of death, and the goddess of the harvest in Greek mythology. During the three to four months Persephone is in Hades, she welcomes the new souls, then in the remainder of the year she is with her mother on earth causing the earth to be warm, and able to produce fruit. Persephone somehow manages to be the queen of the dead, then bring life to earth’s inhabitants. Most of the gods, and goddesses have only one domain and stay in that domain. In the process of writing this poem I discovered that Persephone actually enjoys the time she spends with Hades. Before preparing the poem I had always thought that she had resented the time

Upon hearing the word daddy, pleasant thoughts such as love, support, and dependence usually come to mind. Daddy is the person that little girls relate to, and count on to fix anything from boo-boos to a broken heart. In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” one would expect to read about the love and comfort that a daddy can bring to a child, but after reading the first stanza it becomes clear that “Daddy” is far from anything lovely and beautiful. The speaker in “Daddy” is a girl who is emotionally torn. She has mixed emotions towards her father— deep love and strong hate.

It has been a subject of many paintings and a theme of stories - the young girl, without a care, stolen away by the heaviness of mortality. In “Persephone Falling” by Rita Dove, the tale is retold and in the first stanza it seems that Dove is showing it is partly Persephone’s fault for being stolen - the last line is “she had strayed from the herd”, thereby suggesting there is safety in numbers. It is also interesting that Dove states Hades had “claimed his due”. What “due” had been owed him? It seems to imply that there was a debt to be paid, or that of course it would be a young maiden taken - how would it be different? In the second stanza there are warnings, one a mother might warn her children (daughter, in this case) to be careful. How one mustn’t dally because it isn’t safe, and not to make eye contact. Don’t play. But straying from one moment to gather something beautiful - this one time is what lost Demeter her daughter. “This is how easily the pit opens. This is how one foot sinks into the ground” (lines 13 - 14). The imagery further implicates the Underworld with pictures of a wide chasm, and a body being tugged down to where the dead go, away from the world of the living and of

Life is full of unexpected changes, advancements and insights. People will look at life through different lenses as they age. However, some social norms will be unwavering. Social norms, such as women being considered the weaker ones in society, have been around for a long time. Hilda Doolittle explores what it means to be a woman in society in her poem “Eurydice”. She alludes to the Orpheus myth and modifies Eurydice’s character from passive to strong to show that women can be resilient and independent even if men try to use women to glorify themselves and even if society tries to downplay women. Doolittle does this through her diction, symbolism and imagery of flowers and colors.

Sylvia Plath lived from 1932-1963, dying at the age of 30. In her short life, however, she witnessed World War Two and the Cold War. Both of these events inimitably influenced her life and writing style, which can be observed in her works “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus”, where she uses Holocaust imagery to draw connections between her life and the lives of the Jewish people held captive in concentration camps. Through her use of imagery she tackles personal and political issues encapsulating feelings of victimization, loss of individualism and fear for an impeding reoccurrence of a worldwide holocaust through nuclear buildup.