Metonymy, By Sylvia Plath

“Sweat,” a short story written by Zora Neale Hurston depicts the story of Delia, a washerwoman who is physically and mentally abused by her husband, Sykes. As Hurston explains, Delia is a strong, hardworking, calm, brave, and understanding woman who is able to stand with her head held high even through all the troubles she endures. In contrast, Sykes is abusive, a coward, troubleshooter and a man who depends on his wife to provide for him. He even has the indecency to use Delia’s money to pay for his mistress’ apartment. He messes with Delia to bring her down so he can be able to bring himself up as if his masculinity depends on it. All three symbols, which are the snake, the clothes Delia washes, and the light play an important role in this story to highlight Delia’s strength and weaknesses which finally help her find the freedom she desires from the domestic abuse that she has to deal with.

These lines are frightening, but unfortunately real. Plath tells us that she has married someone exactly like her father, a man who has a “my struggle” look, a German look. The third line above seems to mean that her husband, who was poet Ted Hughes, cheated on her, in turn abandoning her. But she still said “I do” and agreed to be with him.

Sylvia Plath was a troubled writer to say the least, not only did she endure the loss of her father a young age but she later on “attempted suicide at her home and was hospitalized, where she underwent psychiatric treatment” for her depression (Dunn). Writing primarily as a poet, she only ever wrote a single novel, The Bell Jar. This fictional autobiography “[chronicles] the circumstances of her mental collapse and subsequent suicide attempt” but from the viewpoint of the fictional protagonist, Esther Greenwood, who suffers the same loss and challenges as Plath (Allen 890). Due to the novel’s strong resemblance to Plath’s own history it was published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas”. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath expresses the

When I look up the meaning of metaphors in Webster it says "a figure of speech in which a work for one idea or thing is used in place of another to suggest a likeness between them." The Hours by Michael Cunningham is enriched with many complex metaphors. While intertwining three different woman's lives, Cunningham uses a wide range of metaphors to help mean something in one story and tie into the next woman's story. Using deconstructive interpretation to investigate these strategically placed metaphors can be difficult and exciting, yet challenging.

Metaphors by Sylvia Plath The poem 'metaphors' by Sylvia Plath deals with strong issues of pregnancy. The poem was written when she was pregnant. She wrote about her mixed feelings and emotions. The poem itself is a metaphor.

Sylvia Plath’s novel, “The Bell Jar”, tells a story of a young woman’s descent into mental illness. Esther Greenwood, a 19 year old girl, struggles to find meaning within her life as she sees a distorted version of the world. In Plath’s novel, different elements and themes of symbolism are used to explain the mental downfall of the book’s main character and narrator such as cutting her off from others, forcing her to delve further into her own mind, and casting an air of negativity around her. Plath uses images of rotting fig trees and veils of mist to convey the desperation she feels when confronted with issues of her future. Esther Greenwood feels that she is trapped under a bell jar, which distorts her view of the world around her.

The novel ‘The Bell Jar’ written by Sylvia Plath and the film “Me Before You” directed by Thea Sharrock both explore the idea of isolation. Both the author and director use various techniques in their texts to position the audience to understand that isolation makes a person withdraw from life and therefore leads to their downfall. Techniques such as symbolism, motif, imagery, simile and visual and literary techniques allow the author and director to deliver the message.

The final stanza of the poem represents the woman going into labor and the delivery of her child into the world. “I wither and you break from me;” (16). This line represents the moment the

In the short story, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, the main character Gregor Samsa wakes up to see that he has become a giant bug, and he and his family have to adjust to the changes that this has brought about. Kafka weaves several images and symbols through out the story, so many that writing a paper on all of them would be incredibly long. However, the thing I will concentrate on is the use and symbols of food that Kafka has placed in the tale. Just what do these symbols mean? Why are they there and what do they show about Gregor and his family and their relationship? I will prove in my paper that a piece of bread and bowl of milk can be much more than just a meal. The food in this story shows how life has changed for Gregor, and also that in some of the scenes, that it even has references to passages from the Bible itself.

Esther Greenwood, the main character, is the most obvious comparison to Sylvia Plath herself. Esther is a troubled girl who is gifted with intelligence and scholarships to fancy schools and opportunities, but still finds herself in a pit of depression she can’t crawl out of. Both Esther and Sylvia are extremely intelligent, Sylvia being gifted with an IQ of 160. Sylvia shows her descent into depression through Esther, gradually getting worse and worse as she goes through college and realizes she has no idea what to do with her life.

The next stanza moves on to talk about how Plath's apprehension stops her from bonding with he child with these lines: "I'm no more your mother / Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow / Effacement at the wind's hand." Here Plath (the ‘cloud') is resenting giving birth to her image as it reminds her of her own inevitable mortality. The child is the mirror, which reflects the dissipation of the cloud.

This strong metaphor compares the narrator to the elephant who feels their fate is death. The third part of line 4 is the fine timbers that directly relate to the house previously mentioned. The purpose of the house fortifies the idea that what’s inside is of value. The house is nothing without its fine timbers and it is merely for protection and shelter. Just like a pregnant woman is for her unborn child. The fifth line represents the rising loaf like a child growing inside a womb. It is a pun on a familiar saying to pregnancy of a bun in the oven. “Money’s new minted in this fat purse” plays with the idea that the purse has no great value in itself but contains valuable things inside. Line 7 explores the narrator’s feelings towards having a child. She feels like “a means”, as if she is just a way for the baby to be born. As a mother she is just “a stage” and a platform but not a performance. She is “a cow in calf,” where many cows are separated from their offspring and have little to do with their mum. The final lines seem to break away from the rest of the poem and have a tone of darkness. After eating “a bag of green apples” one might feel sick especially since green apples are considered sour. The fruit is also unripe, signifying that the narrator is not ready to have a baby. Another point that can be found is that it is easy to see the resemblance of this line and Eve from the Bible. Eve was tempted to eat an apple and was cursed with the

Wrapped in gaseous mystique, Sylvia Plath’s poetry has haunted enthusiastic readers since immediately after her death in February, 1963. Like her eyes, her words are sharp, apt tools which brand her message on the brains and hearts of her readers. With each reading, she initiates them forever into the shrouded, vestal clan of her own mind. How is the reader to interpret those singeing, singing words? Her work may be read as a lone monument, with no ties to the world she left behind. But in doing so, the reader merely grazes the surface of her rich poetics. Her poetry is largely autobiographical, particularly Ariel and The Bell Jar, and it is from this frame of mind that the reader interprets the work as a

The poem is about being pregnant and she uses nine lines with 9 syllables in each line. This is stated in the first line of the poem. There is a sense of regret about the pregnancy throughout the piece. Plath focuses on the negative attributes of being pregnant and the inflections of it on her. "An elephant" suggests her belly is showing and she feels large. However, Plath describes herself as a "ponderous house" suggesting that she is slow and clumsy because of her weight and she is trying to hide this. "This loaf's big with its yeasty rising" implies that she is getting even larger as time goes on. In the 6th line the impression that this is her first pregnancy and she is feeling obese is shown when she says, "money's new-minted in this fat purse." Two meanings can be derived from "a cow in calf." One being that she is a child giving birth to a child. The other is that she feels the baby is bigger than her, literally a calf giving birth to a cow. Plath also gives the idea of being ill and having pains when she says, "I've eaten a bag of green apples." However, at the end she knows there is nothing she can do but go through with the pregnancy; "boarded the train there's no getting off."

In the poem Plath is showing her hatred for her father. Plath uses tone to describes her strict, heartless father, but also describes him as “no less a devil” desperate to disremember him. Plath also uses Symbolism to show the distastes she has for her father. In the Poem she compares her father to Hitler stating “I have always been afraid of you, with your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo . And your neat mustache and your Aryan eye, bright blue. Panzer-man, panzer-man” (41-45). This shows that her father was an authoritarian who showed little to no feeling and love toward her. Another example of symbolism is when Plath compares herself to a Jew. She was explaining that her life was like she was in a concentration camp “chuffing me like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen. I began talking like a Jew, I think that I might as well be a Jew” (32-34).