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How Does Sylvia Plath Present Miranda In The Tempest

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How Does Sylvia Plath Present Miranda In The Tempest
Discoveries are a complex, multi-dimensional process which enable individuals to develop new understandings and perceptions of the world and themselves. The impact of these discoveries however, can vary according to an individual’s historical, personal, cultural and social values and context. In Shakespeare’s play The Tempest we see both Miranda and Prospero develop as a result of their individual discoveries about humanity. Similarly in Sylvia Plath’s poem Daddy the narrator encounters personal discoveries which ultimately lead to her freedom.
Sudden and unexpected discoveries can be confronting and transformative and are an integral part of an individual’s development and maturation. The protagonist of Miranda in Shakespeare’s play The
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The poem is a recount of the speaker’s discovery of freedom and truth. Initially, we see the speaker in despair about the death of her father in “at twenty I tried to die to get back, back, back to you”. The repetition used exemplifies her own desire to reconnect with her father through death. The use of childish jargon in “gobbledygoo” shows that she is still young at heart and considers her dad the closest thing to “a bag full of God”. However, after a revelation, she got married to a man who reminded her of her father. Unfortunately, this is what catalyses her discovery about her hate for her father. “I have always hated you” she exclaims after realising how much control her had in her life. “I used to pray to recover you” The past tense is an indication of her renewed perception of her father. She resolves to metaphorically killing both men. “If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two”. This line is followed by a double hyphen to allow the reader time to unscramble the paradox. By killing her husband she is able to rid herself of the memories of her father’s authoritarian figure, thus metaphorically killing both me and discovering freedom. Evidently her discovery has been confronting as she had to kill two men close to her heart yet it resolved in new perceptions of herself and was fresh and intensely

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