English
Poetry of the XIX and XX Centuries. Facultad de Filología. Universidad de Valencia.
Student:
Marcos A. Palao Contreras
A
work on “Examination at the womb door and “I am vertical”
Is there a classical view of gender reflected in literature in general
and in poetry in particular? Are there any particular subjects which could be
considered more masculine or more feminine? Could be a matter of this
differentiation, if there exist any, the way two authors belonging to both
sexes approach one only theme?
I shall try to find out in this paper whether women and men
differentiate from each other when giving expression to their ideas and thoughts
in writing, in this case comparing the work of Ted Hughes and Silvia Plath. I
have chosen the theme of death (and violence, the other side of the same coin)
to discuss this question, because it seems to be a constant in their work, and
especially in Plath’s production, who actually committed suicide in 1963
(Kirjasto, 2003)
But what are genders supposed to be? Where do their natural inclinations
tend to? Certain personality traits are often considered to be masculine and
others feminine. Traits such as
aggressiveness, competitiveness, ambition and dominance are often regarded as
masculine while traits such as kindness, sympathy, and pity are regarded as
feminine (James Miller).
Thus, we should see in what matters both authors are interested in to know
and to see whether they conform with the above mentioned traits according to
their approach to the themes, in this case especially on death. Hughes is
seriously interested in shamanism, hermeticism, astrology, and the Ouija board
(Kirjasto, 2003) but as it is been said there seems to be also an underlying
Puritanism in Hughes’s poetic vision and in the conflict between violence and
tenderness which seems to be directly engendered by this Puritanism. But his
poetry is notorious for the raging intensity of its violence, a violence which,
by some critics at least, has been seen as destructive of all artistic and
human values. Hughes himself seems consistently to see his own poetic
sensitivity as ‘feminine’ and his poetry frequently gives the impression that
he can allow himself to indulge this sensitivity only within a protective shell
of hard, steely ‘masculine’ violence (Richard Webster, 2002) and thus, blending
both sexes traits.
In her turn, Silvia Plath is an American poet and novelist whose
best-known works are preoccupied with alienation, and self-destruction
(Encyclopaedia Britannica) , and with a fanatical preoccupation with death and
rebirth (Linda Wagner-Martin and Anne Stevenson, 2004) Plath's mature poetry,
too exalted to be merely 'confessional', frequently treats about this
resurrection theme, together with a related one which attempts to redeem
meaningless life through art (Linda
Wagner-Martin and Anne Stevenson, 2004). Thus this would indicate a
sense of pity, pity for herself, that could be regarded as a way of classifying
her as a classical feminine writer.
But paying attention to the death (and as I said, also violence) theme
they display in the poem “Examination at the womb door”, by Hughes, and “I am
vertical” by Plath we could see that they do not fit this archetypal image
because of the way they deal with it.
In Hughes’ poem, first of all we see that he uses many ugly words, which
could be regarded as masculine, such as “scrawny, coat of muscles, messy blood
or wicked tongue” and specially talking of a baby who is about to be born and
that they only answer to his questions is death, once and again. That is, that
death is waiting for us and it is the master, the owner of us all. But Hughes
does not take the negative, or weak side -that is the feminine-, because after
asking who owns everything in the baby, and who is stronger than hope, will, or
love he finally states that there is something (or someone, in this case) that
is stronger than death, and that is the crow , not death “[…] stronger than
Death? / Me, evidently. / Pass / Crow.” (lines 18 to 20). And here Hughes
refers to the protagonist of the collection of poems to where this poem belongs
to and in which "Crow" is an embodiment of vitality that challenges
the supremacy of "Death" (Kirjasto, 2003), thus in
this sense it could be seen as a pro-life view, that is a feminine view, and as a result he is blending
both views.
In her turn, Plath, seems to take the masculine view as a result of her
inclination to death, because Plath herself has become a figure for death.
Death in the shape of a woman , femininity as deadly (Jacqueline Rose, p. 3).
She does so, because she would prefer to be dead as she says in the poem that
“[…] I would rather be horizontal” and as she is comparing herself with a tree
(which stands in the vertical position) being horizontal means being buried in
the soil, that is dead.
Besides, I think they both share the same idea on death, because as I
have said above they both look at it as a way of resurrection, a way of being
and feeling alive. Although in Hughes death existence is more like a
threatening device for reinforcing the idea of feeling alive and of fighting to
be alive, because ending the poem stating that the crow is stronger than death,
I think he takes position in the sense I have mentioned.
For Plath this seems to be a bit more evident. On the one hand, and as
it has been stated, in many of her poems, what Plath perceives is a
death-figure which threatens to swallow her up unless she can reassert her
living identity by "fixing" and thus immobilizing her enemy in a
structured poetic image (Jack Folsom, 1994) something she expresses in the poem
when she says that “[…] I want the one’s longevity and the other’s daring”
(line 10). What she gets of dying is nature strength and motherly love, that
can be seen when she says that the tree’s roots are “Sucking up minerals and
motherly love” (line 3).
Thus, I think the only thing they are doing is getting inspiration from
different places and trying to overcome or use death as a way of gaining
wisdom, knowledge or strength to keep going, to fight the adversity of a, at
times, a meaningless life.
SOURCES:
- “Ted Hughes”. Kirjasto.sci.fi. 2003. 10 May 2006.
<http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/thughes.htm>
- James Miller. “Masculine and feminine
personality traits”. Pages.prodigy.net. 10 May 2006.
<http://pages.prodigy.net/jmiller.cb/a378.html>
- Richard Webster. “The thought-fox’ and the
poetry of Ted Hughes”.
2002. richardwebster.net. 10 May 2006.
<http://www.richardwebster.net/tedhughes.html>
- Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2006.
Britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 10 May 2006.
<http://www.britannica.com/search?query=plath&ct=&searchSubmit.x=12&searchSubmit.y=13>
- Linda Wagner-Martin
and Anne Stevenson. “Two Views of Plath's Life and Career “.1994.
http://www.english.uiuc.edu. University of Illinois. 10 May 2006. <http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/plath/twoviews.htm>
- Jacqueline Rose. “The Haunting of Silvia
Plath”. 1991. Virago Books Little Brown & Co.
- Jack Folsom. “Death and Rebirth in Sylvia
Plath's "Berck-Plage". 1994. http://www.sylviaplath.de. Montana State
University, Temple University. 10 May
2006. <http://www.sylviaplath.de/plath/jfolsom.html>