preview

How Does Plath Use Of Personification

Decent Essays

Plath uses the simple tree and flower as manifestations of desire. Personification is heavily used to transform the tree and the flower from plants to people the narrator wants to become, and they are also used to emphasize the traits the narrator desires. The tree is fruit-bearing, stable, and peaceful. The narrator is upset that she lacks the tree’s ability to bear fruit, and the fruit represents achievement, and the lack of fruit represents the narrator’s discomfort at lacking achievement. Plath writes, “Sucking up minerals and motherly love / So that each March I may gleam into leaf,” (l.3; l.4) not only showing the emphasis personification creates, but the usage of the word “I” shows how the narrator is constantly wishing to be the tree …show more content…

The most important pieces of punctuation are the periods at the end of select lines. Periods are used to end thoughts, while commas at the end are used to indicate slight change in the thought. Using periods as dividers, the poem is divided into seven sections, all different but reinforce the ideas of insecurity, desire, isolation, and neglect. The first section, which is only line one, explains the narrator’s rejection of herself, which easily transitions to sections two and three. These two sections describe what she wants to be, first with the narrator becoming them, and then her comparing herself to them. Sections two and three explain the effect others have on insecurity because they represent the idealized version of her. Section four details her isolation, neglect, and invisibility to them. The setting of night, which represents darkness, offers a half-baked explanation to the narrator’s invisibility, however, the fact there is starlight shows that the trees and flowers are purposefully ignoring her. With this invisibility, her feelings snowball into neglect and isolation. Section five is similar to sections two and three; it is a repeat of her comparison to the trees and flowers. Section six is a reinforcement of her insecurities, and her out of placeness. Section seven is a detailed continuation of six, but the ending of section seven represents her insecurities and her neglect. Word pairings such as “useful... finally” (l.19) and “touch me for one...have time for me” (l.20) clearly demonstrate her hope that if she changes, she will be accepted by them. Plath’s usage of end punctuation creates an easy flowing cycle of insecurity; the insecurity is made known, the justification behind it is shown; it is then reiterated; and the narrator finally finds peace in the fantasy of being like the trees and the flowers. The constant

Get Access