Cut by Sylvia Plath

"Cut" Sylvia Plath

[CONTENT]
Persona
In terms of content the persona in "Cut" is Sylvia Plath herself. Plath was one of the first American women writers to refuse to conceal her true emotions. In articulating her aggression, hostility and despair in her art, she effectively challenged the traditional literary prioritization of female experience. Plath has experienced much melancholy and depression in her life.

Scenario
The scenario of the poem starts off in a seemingly domestic scene, perhaps preparing for dinner and develops into this amazing association and blurring of the physical and emotional senses, where a great joy has been found in an ‘accident'. Plath dedicates "Cut" to her new au pair (nanny), Susan O'Neill Roe as a "welcome to the family" gesture. It is most likely the au pairs thumb, which has been cut however Plath refers to it as her own thumb as a sign of empathy/psychosis. In the poem, Plath describes the feelings and sensations of deliberate self mutilation and the emotional release it brings. The cutting of the thumb can be viewed in a Freudian manner in which the incident occurred accidentally "on purpose" a parapraxis, having the effect of building up tension.

Context
The context in which the poem is taking place is in England, isolated away from all her family and friends, during the 1950's where Plath was the victim of a male-orientated sexist society and her poetry a choreography of female wounds. Values portrayed through "Cut" are Plath's life of hardships from separation, divorce and as a single mother and poet. Through the remarkable consistent images that all "flow" from her very ordinary "accident" it is evident that this poem showcases a history of bloodshed through war, death, injury and maiming in the Western world and Plath's family history

Story
The story of "Cut" is a rapid succession/conglomeration off sensations and images of violence and bloodshed throught history and its emotional relief. Plath chooses to use an ongoing metaphor of a battle between two armies. She is possibly one soldier who has lost much, while fighting the depression battle. This poem demonstrates Plath's disconnection from humanity as for example she disassociates the thumb as being part of the body. The fact that she relates her cut to onions, with cooking as a household duty displaying her discontent with her role as a housewife and mother. However, when she cuts herself she is in control, it's her choice and she has the freedom to do it. The story is told through images of war. The reference to the Indian/frontier wars through "little pilgrim, the Indian's axed your scalp" is referring to the historical notion of pilgrims in escaping in fear of religious persecution. Plath's thumb is being associated to being a "little pilgrim". The link to the American War of Independence is through "Redcoats, everyone" meaning that the blood is not a simple liquid but is composed of a million tiny parts, each with an individual and collective purpose, hence the military analogy. This is also done through the reference to "Saboteur" of the French Revolution representing the sabotage of one's own well being and one's physical body, her own undoer as saboteurs often come from within. The link to Kamikaze "Kamikaze man" from World War 2 signifies the recklessness towards herself when "cutting", pointing to the idea that for a moment she is her own killer. The Ku Klux Klan reference from the Civil War "Gauze Ku Klux Klan/Babushka" from the cold war represents the outward act of anger, hatred and bathing against self. This image is significant as historically the white linen was a hood worn by men in the Ku Klux Klan and the Babushka contradictory was a scarf worn by women in Russia. All metaphorical for the stained bandage, showing sins committed. The military references represents both the control one feels when exercising a deliberate act, as well as the feeling of submission to the need to do it as if it were a command which one is powerless to refuse. Like the "trepanned veteran" who is trapped or ensnared, one feels caught and trapped in a battle with oneself, where historically the consequence was the slicing of heads off. Plath is seen as a wounded veteran of "kitchen wars" domestic and social.

Issues
Within the poem various issues are explored. This includes self mutilation for the joys of foretasting death. It is these acts that are often as a result of her depression that she shares with the responder. Perhaps Plath is cutting herself to ‘feel' something real. The fact that Plath relates her cut to onions, with cooking as a household duty, displays her discontent with her role. This displays her unsatisfactory position in a male-dominated society. The responder is given an insight into Plath's life of family, pain, suffering and unstable psychological state of mind. As the poem begins as an ordinary physical incident but then moves on to encounter a deeper more psychological and emotional understanding. Presented is a historic record of violence amongst human beings, which takes a clear yet gruesome image and uses it for a metaphor for something we are universally aware of and responsible for.

Mood
The overall mood of Plath's "Cut" is grimly humorous where amusing undertones of the piece are set. Many surreal and strange images are used such as of war, violence, bloodshed and psychological behaviour linked to her thumb. The mood is grotesque as the thumb is likened to a male and castration in a Freudian manner that Plath committed this act ‘accidentally' on purpose. For example "thumb stump" and "Homonculus" with sounds evoking this. The images are bizarre but all linked to each other, to be associated with a thumb being cut.

Tone
Tone is created through the types of dark imagery used such as that of war, violence blood shed and self-mutilation. It is ambiguous where the responder is unaware if the tone is serious or humorous. This is deliberate ambiguity. Furthermore, the fact that the poem is about self-mutilation as a foretaste of death and how Plath finds strange excitement out of doing so, showcases her mental illness reflecting through. Plath's tone is bright and flippant, although the images themselves are all of violent conflict.

[TECHNIQUE]
Form
In terms of technique the form of "Cut" is written in parapraxis usingfree-verse, structured with irregular line length. The effect of irregular line length is irregular metre and stresses. Frequently lines are split to look visually good on the page. In the poem, enjambemennt, run on lines is utilized to speed the poem up. The aspects of musicality and images are employed in order to classify "Cut" as poetry. Plath creates musicality through rhyme. This can be internal rhyme for example "thrill", "ill", "pill", "kill" and end rhyme for instance "run" and "one".

Imagery
In terms of imagery "Cut" is a metaphor driven poem, which turns a female domestic accident-slicing her thumb in the kitchen into macabre humour. The use of male metaphors increases in the second half of the poem to generate "saboteur", "kamikaze man" and "Ku Klux Klan" within 4 lines. Any sign of specifically female gender are absent from the imagery until the last 3 stanzas of the poem. For example in the 8th stanza the darkening gauze bandage is compared to a Ku Klux Klan headdress and then is immediately superimposed in the next line "babushka". The softening of the image seems out of character with an intensifying pattern of male violence and hardly relieves the gore of the stained and bloodies head wrap.

Rhyme + Rhythm
Rhyming and rhythm are incorporated to reinforce meaning. The rhyme used displays their comic virtuosity for example "turkey wattle" is echoed by "bottle" patterns of exact monosyllabic end rhymes. End rhyme is portrayed "a million soldiers run/redcoats everyone". Its effect is to draw attention, emphasizing that there are no other soldiers of any other colour, or enemies. Internal rhyme is also showcased "Homunculus, I am ill/I have taken a pill to kill". "Homunculus" is an apostrophe which displays Plath's disassociation with the diminished size of her husband. Here musicality is created with the sound grating on the responder. It evokes an irritating sound. In terms of rhythm the use of irregular metre is to create an ambiguous tone. The rhythm adapted is irregular with the use of enjambemennt to make the poem look visually pleasing on the page. The purpose of punctuation such as (-) at the end of lines such as the first "what a thrill-" creates a colloquial level of language, where in this case an exclamation mark could have been used.

Sounds
A variety of language devices are employed to create tone for the poem. Sounds such as assonance is used in the line "a flap like a hat" with an emphasis on ‘t' and taken off on ‘a' coupled with dental ‘t' and plosive ‘p' evoking and mirroring the on/off nature of a hat, in reference to the skin that has been cut on her thumb. Internal assonance and consonance appear and disappear with unpredictability. This demonstrates signs of Plath's mental illness. Also there is assonance in "little pilgrim, the Indian's axed your scalp" where the chopping sounds evoke the movement.

In conclusion, there is more than one implication of the word alone "cut" [hurt,injured,rejected,excluded]these are to mean: physically injured, rejected or wounded by people, excluded by living on own and bleeding in all senses and self mutilation. In the poem "Cut" by Sylvia Plath there is more to the poem than moods and feelings through the use of context and technique. For instance images,sounds,tones,rhythm,rhyme and form which all add up to an effective poem with textual integrity.