Cruelty V/S Aestheticism

Sylvia Plath is a stunning poetess who wrote poetry on the basis of cruelty as well as positivity in the society around her. Jacques Derrida, in his theory of deconstruction, supports the readers’ power to interpret a text. Some readers, naturally enough, consider Plath’s handling of her themes as cruel but that is indeed, very limiting. Although her life experiences were not very encouraging but she wrote about hope, strength and courage, despite being a victim of pathos and acute mental and physical sufferings, most of which were self imposed. There is a simultaneous expression of sorrows and suffering, pains and guilt, but that is not all. Her work explores positive human emotions as well. Her life experiences, to a great extent, have immense impact on her personality but restricting one’s interpretation of her work to the autobiographical approach would not be justified. She was energetic, highly expressive and full of wisdom which is evident in the ambivalent nature of her work. In the presence of indifferent brutalities of the society, all that she gathers is the kind of depression, but she uses this feeling of depression in her poems as a tool of positivity. She was a woman who, doubtlessly lived a miserable life but her poems convey blissful events also. She wants to be a pure and straightforward female and this purity and straightforwardness could easily be analyzed through her poetry. She struggles against her inner and outer worlds, as she is simple from inside but the external world is clever. She wants to live simple and she also wants the society to be simple and kind to females. She uses different colors and symbols in her poetry to express her ideas and feelings about the society. The betrayal of her husband intensified her emotions and her work reflected this sensitivity clearly. But it does not mean that she had a split personality. She had all the qualities of a genius poet. She used poetry as a tool and mouth piece of her as well as the