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Transcript

Theme

Plath emphasizes the amazing transformation that can come from letting go and becoming one with nature. Once you become at one with your surroundings, you will be able to accomplish and change things for the better. The transformative death within this poem kills off the fragile woman that Plath starts out as, and enables her to become the empowered person we see at the end.

Works Cited

Symbolism

  • http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178962
  • http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/07/lady-godiva-the-naked-tr.html
  • http://www.biography.com/people/sylvia-plath-9442550#synopsis&awesm=~oCXhjWv1i3z2qy

"And I

Am the arrow,

The dew that flies

Suicidal, at one with the drive

Into the red

Eye, the cauldron of morning." (Lines 26-31).

Plath compares herself to the arrow flying straight into "the red eye, the cauldron of morning". Not only is this a nice use of kenning's, it also demonstrates Plath's darker tendencies. the "cauldron of morning" is supposed to symbolize the sun. Plath wants to fly towards the sun until she is consumed. The "cauldron of morning" symbolizes the imminent death that plath is charging forward. Morning sounds like

Mourning. Coincidence? I think not!

The REAL Little Mermaid

"Ariel" by Sylvia Plath.

Stasis in darkness.

Then the substanceless blue

Pour of tor and distances.

God’s lioness,

How one we grow,

Pivot of heels and knees!—The furrow

Splits and passes, sister to

The brown arc

Of the neck I cannot catch,

Nigger-eye

Berries cast dark

Hooks—

Black sweet blood mouthfuls,

Shadows.

Something else

Hauls me through air—

Thighs, hair;

Flakes from my heels.

White

Godiva, I unpeel—

Dead hands, dead stringencies.

And now I

Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.

The child’s cry

Melts in the wall.

And I

Am the arrow,

The dew that flies

Suicidal, at one with the drive

Into the red

Eye, the cauldron of morning.

Literary Time Period

More Background!

  • Sylvia Plath, along with Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton were Confessional Poets. Confessional Poems were revolutionary for their time as they discussed the darker things that the society of the 1950s-1960s refused to acknowledge.
  • Typical Topics for Confessional Poems were death, depression, trauma and relationships.
  • Plath and Anne Sexton both shared similar poetry as they both used a "confessional" style of writing.
  • After her husband Ted Hughes left her in 1962, Plath fell into a deep depression which inspired her writing the collection "Ariel".
  • After a failed attempt at suicide while studying at Smith College, Plath succeeded in killing herself after her husband left her in 1963.

Background On Sylvia Plath

  • Sylvia Plath was most recognized for her poems "Ariel" and "The Colossus" as well as her book "The Bell Jar"
  • Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27, 1892 and Died in 1963 by committing suicide.
  • Plath became the first person to ever receive the posthumous Pulitzer Prize.

Objectives

  • Students will be able to correctly identify literary devices and techniques that Plath uses in her poem.
  • Students will identify and understand the central theme and purpose throughout Plath's poem, "Ariel".
  • Students will understand Confessional Poems and how they apply to Plath's works

The Little Mermaid

Basic Situation

The speaker (presumably Plath) is off riding her horse Ariel. Ariel goes crazy and the speaker looses control over the reins, and the thrilling ride brings Plath to meditate on things such as Life and Death with a thrilling and exhilarating undertone.

Allusions

"Godiva, I unpeel—" (Line 20).

Lady Godiva was a young woman married to Leofric. Godiva repeatedly asked her husband to lower taxes for the town of Coventry. Leofric said that he would the day she rode naked, horseback, through the town. Taking him up on his bed, Godiva completed his challenge and became a heroine for her town. The "un-peeling" that Plath mentions alludes to Lady Godiva un-peeling her clothes in order to complete the bet.

"Ariel" by Sylvia Plath

Elizabeth Bryant

AP Literature

Mrs. Brown

2 May 2014

Imagery

"I unpeel—

Dead hands, dead stringency." (Line 20-21)

The image of un-peeling dead hands brings in a harsh and morbid image, paralleling the depression that Plath is experiencing in her everyday life. The un-peeling of the speakers dead hands also symbolizes a rebirth, a new beginning achieved through this metamorphosis.

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