The repetition of the ‘a’ draws attention to how the nouns escalate from minor to major emotions. Duffy makes clear these are all internalised, ‘in my mind’, but the effect of the negative emotions immediately transforms how she sees herself as ‘the hairs on my head [turned] to filthy snakes’. Not only does she see herself as a monster now but the pejorative adjective ‘filthy’ shows how her self-esteem is beginning to be eroded. The snake metaphor is extended as Duffy uses sibilance to recreate the vicious sounds of the snake-like thoughts that ‘hissed and spat on my scalp.’ The thoughts are as poisonous as snakes but the poison is directed inwards, towards her ‘scalp’. This word can also mean to gain a victory but the only person here being damaged is herself.
Miller manifests this ideology through the application of literary and stage techniques. A key character in the play which demonstrates this ideology is Abigail Williams. Her unscrupulous nature promotes the use of propaganda to shift suspicion among people and to manipulate by the power of hysteria. From the beginning of the play Abigail enforces power of speech stirring hysteria to devoid any towards her. Continuously throughout the text she performs acts of deception which tragically condemn others to death just to cover her lies.
Her use of words in ‘Elm’ is also interesting. “Faults” could be emotional and/or physical and this shows the psychological states explored throughout Sylvia Plath’s work. “Malignity” symbolises evil and the intensity of how disturbed her life was.Another poem by Plath that I found to be personal on an intense and disturbing way was ‘Mirror’. It is clear as Plath looks into the mirror that she is unhappy, watching her age. A mirror never lies, but Plath cannot find solace in what she sees.
Therefore, the snake can represent Delia’s protector, sin, death, or devil but it most certainly is a mirrored reflection of Sykes. Sykes routinely shows his lack of respect for Delia. One morning Delia, sorting laundry and wondering where Sykes has gone with her horse, becomes paralyzed by fear when suddenly something “long, round, limp, and black falls upon her shoulders and slithers to the floor beside her.” Again Delia is reminded of what a malicious man Sykes can be. He uses a bullwhip to scare her; she believes it is a snake. Delia
Because of her hate towards Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth, Abigail creates demented tales, directed at abolishing the “problem.” Though Abigail’s wild canards seem quite obtuse in civilization today, at the time her acts fell to justification. Furthermore, because of Abigail’s childlike disposition in wiggling her way out of punishment as well as her lust and love for John Proctor, she found deceiving the people of Salem easy, seeing as the threat of witchcraft and demons loomed dangerously in the hearts and minds of all who lived there. Though the
Therefore, in analysing the power of Plath’s symbolism within The Munich Mannequins and applying a Feminist perspective to the poem (although Plath’s role within and around Feminism is extremely ambiguous), perhaps one might be able to understand her writing and the social inequality she presents even further. Plath begins her poem by showing the disdain with which childless women may be treated. “Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children”. This phrase is a
Haley Houston October 3, 2013 Honors English 11, Per. 3A Analysis Essay The Evil of Jealousy and Lust Much of the evil in today’s world is driven by jealousy and lust. Affairs occur often, students betray each other in order to get something they desire, and many young girls like Elizabeth Smart have been kidnapped and raped because of that unreasonable lust. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller describes a young group of girls as they wrongly accuse many of witchcraft in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. One of the girls, Abigail Williams, is the cause of all wrong accusations and innocent deaths in Salem, thus making her the antagonist of the play.
The women had no choice but to be punished the same way as men were; brutally. This involved being beaten, burned alive, and the women specially, drowning for committing adultery. The men sent to drown these women had been practising how to do so and this was a very common practise that would occur. There were torture devices that were used specially for women such as the ‘Breast Ripper’ also known as ‘Spider’. As the name suggests, the female’s breasts were ripped off by using claws which either would be heated or used cold.
In the other hand Medea’s evil part takes control in almost all the play since Jason left her and betrayed her, she became totaly crazy and irrational in the search of revenge. Her anger was so strong that she would do everything to make Jason suffer in the worst way posible. Medea first killed Creons daughter wich Jason had left Medea for and then she killed her own children as Jason loved them and wanted to take care of them. She did this just with the simple excuse that it was better for them to die bye her hand than with a less loving hand. Medea’s ambiguity is really important for the play as this is what makes the story happen.
Once again this brings the theme of entrapment that features in much of Plath’s poetry as she felt she was trapped within her own body. Not only does the speaker refer to the bees being “dangerous” in a literal sense because they have the ability to harm people but she is also suggesting that her subconscious mind is a menacing, dangerous thing that should it be unleashed she would be in jeopardy. I imagine mind as the box and the bees as her uncontrollable thoughts that must be oppressed for if they were released from containment they would bring damage. The speaker’s inner turmoil is revealed as she feels she “can’t keep away from it”, she is all consumed by her dangerous thoughts as they continue to uncontrollably buzz around her head much like the venomous bees in the box. The bizarre image of the speaker curiously peering into the bee box and seeing “dark, dark” pulls us into complete and utter darkness.