Preview

Tpcast for Face Lift by Sylvia Plath

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
524 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Tpcast for Face Lift by Sylvia Plath
TP-CASTT Poetry Analysis

Title: What predictions can you make from the title? What might be the theme of the poem?

The poem might have to do with plastic surgery. It might depict what women immediately pursue once they’ve reached the old stage in their life. Women tend to seek for youth all the time, because society has made women think that in order to get what they want in life they must look young and radiant.

Paraphrase: In your own words, describe what happens in the poem.

Plath uses an aging woman who is in fact and without a doubt impetuous. She wants to regain her young body. She then resorts to cosmetic plastic surgery in order to be rejuvenated. After she has followed through with the process she comes to realize that she was never really satisfied with her old body. We then see this women imagine herself in a new body while under the influence of sedatives. lines 13 and 14, represents the way women expect to be cherished and treated right simply because they’re beautiful and have a new body.we are hinted that something has gone wrong in lines 14-16. “i don’t know a thing” indicates a new start, starting with nothing. The change is so dramatic that she then has to remain in the hospital for 5 days. This shows how the rejuvenation isn’t smooth as she hides herself. once she see’s her stitches, she undergoes uncomfortable experiences. in the last stanza when she mentions that they have tapped her in a laboratory jar. Here the old sock face, sagged on a darning egg is the previous face of a perfect doll she lets “wither incessantly for the next fifty years.” The psychic death of the false self culminates with resurrection of a new self
“swaddled in gauze, / Pink and smooth as a baby.”

connotation:

Swaddled in gauze- wrapped in silk, cotton. represents how her new life will be, full of pleasure.
I don’t know a thing- represents the start of something new. stitches- undergoes uncomfortable situations.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    This begins with her ‘folding a little towel’ at her time of death, which is symbolic of the way she has continuously served others. She then calls her mother “a fabric of marvels folded down to a little space”, which refers to the marvels she accomplished during her short life, but can also be interpreted as her metaphorically large heart being ‘folded down’ into her small body. Her face ‘crumples’ like ‘fine linen’ because of it’s fine lines but also its delicacy and in the ‘remembered hours’ she is represented by a beautifully embroidered linen, which both physically and emotionally representative of her mother’s…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After researching, I was able to dig deeper into her life and what this poem meant to her. This poem was written about her life, starting with her father and then onto her husband. Her referral to many German and WW2 terms made it apparent that time was important in her life. Plath first wrote about her issues with her father. She states “I…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “ I shut my eyes and all the world is dead, I lift my eyes and all is born again” (37 Sylvia Plath). one of the many quotes from Plath and in this book she uses it why? What is plath trying to tell you, is she being hypothetical or is she serious? Is there a point behind what Plath is writing or is it just for fun, well in this paper this well be one of the topics covered and how Plath point of view on the mental system the last thing that will cover is how the mental health system if bad, and different or the same to the real world from the book.…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The girl apologizes for not being what they want her to be and she tries to change herself into what they would like. The poem says “She was advised to play coy, exhorted to come on hearty, exercise, diet, smile, and wheedle,” this explains that she tries her hardest to change herself and fit in. Eventually she figures out that no matter how hard she tries she still can not become what they want of her. Imagery is shown by the standards of the people and that the Barbie doll is not a real person and no one can live up to her, but they have not realized that.…

    • 507 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The character within “Barbie Doll” starts off as a happy child that continues her early childhood as a happy girl. She engages in activities that any normal girl child would engage in, such as playing with her dolls. Once she enters puberty the difficulties arise. She is teased by her classmates for having a big nose and fat legs. This caused her a great deal of stress and anxiety. She was advised to alter her diet, and exercise. This obviously did not work out because she became even more insecure and frustrated with herself. Her good attitude ultimately wore out because nothing seemed to work. Her final attempt was to have herself physically altered by a plastic surgeon. She ultimately dies from the…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The speaker of this poem is going through an identity crisis. They are dull and don’t see themselves having a personality. They see women in beautiful saris in the beginning of the poem and revel in how exotic and interesting they are or appear to be. Simultaneously they are conscious of their own bland way of life…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Perhaps the first thought to mind when the name Sylvia Plath is mentioned is pure ironic tragedy. What a destructive death for a woman with a seemingly jubilant life. It is know to most that she was a poet and author beyond her time, beaming with creativity and writing poetry in her early teen years. However, with longing for fame struck the bittersweet reality of holding the title for the most unfortunate life. How can it be, that a woman struck by dire occurrences, leave such an incredible mark in the guest book of all great authors and poets? It seems to be true that many a melancholy poet, tend to be of the male gender; at least those who are greatly remembered and studied. So why is Plath one…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Upon becoming adults, our perceptions of people and relationships differ and change. As a child, we are impressionable, innocent and under the care of our parents, we see people on a shallow level. The poem shows the reader this with its structure; the focus often jumps from the past to the present. The change in relationship with the poets mother is also apparent, she goes from being a mere observer, drawing in the environment around her and mimicking her mother, to being like her, both physically and mentally.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She begins the poem with a neutral tone. In the last two lines of the first stanza, she introduces complication when the young girl goes through puberty and the outcome is less than delightful. Here the tone is resentful, that anything less than perfect is flawed. The second stanza begins back in the neutral tone, but not as neutral. The stanza begins with a list of qualities that the girl has, which is everything a "normal" happy girl could have; yet she still did not meet the norms of society. Then the tone changes in the last two lines to express a sense of frustration as the girl feel the need to go through life apologizing for her image. She was not what society expected a girl to look like and she slowly became a victim of society's expectations. The third stanza is full of aggravation and frustration. The girl is fed up with her image and decides to have plastic surgery done to her nose and her legs. She then dies but ultimately achieves a happy ending of finally being accepted by society. Through tone, Piercy helped the reader understand the meaning of the poem.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The theme of the poem is childhood. Look out for some hidden references around this theme, such as child observation, and juvenile…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ted Hughes Trophies

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages

    * The poem brings out many emotions rather than keeping them all in “Your journal pages. Your efforts to cry words” this could suggest his anger towards her his encouragement for her to write to progress. Plath’s journal is like a trophy for Hughes after her death he posses this. It can also been seen as the poet trying to get his own back discriminating her in a way that she was unable to write whereas he was.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathan, Jean, The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: the search for Dare Wright. NewYork: Picador, 2004. Print…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Barbie doll

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Society's idea to be attractive is to be nothing less than ideal. To lack perfection is not acceptable in society. Also society tells people how to dress and act, having people be and look a certain way to be accepted. The desire to be accepted can destroy ones’ self-esteem and many lose sight of their own true beauty. Many will do whatever it takes to not be, say, or do what society thinks is disturbing. Marge Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll,” written in 1973, is a powerful poem about society’s pressure on a young woman. The name carries a lot of meaning because a Barbie doll has long been an icon in society. Although it is a children’s toy, a Barbie doll demonstrates a woman with a perfect body and pure beauty. The poem portrays a summary of a life since birth to the end of life at a funeral. The main character in the poem never has a chance to live life to the fullest because she is always trying to please others and be accepted, which leads to a life of unhappiness. Piercy uses form, diction, and imagery throughout the poem to help imagine the “perfect” woman in the eye of society and the price one may be willing to pay.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sylvia Plath

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Throughout the poem, Plath contradicts herself, saying, ‘I was seven, I knew nothing’ yet she constantly talks of the past, remembering. Her tone is very dark and imposing, she uses many images of blindness, deafness and a severe lack of communication, ‘So the deaf and dumb/signal the blind, and are ignored’. Her use of enjambment shows her feelings and pain in some places, in other places it covers up her emotional state. She talks of her father being a German, a Nazi. Whilst her father may have originated from Germany, he was in no way a Nazi, or a fascist. He was a simple man who made sausages. ‘Lopping the sausages!’ However she used this against her father, who died when she was but eight, saying that she still had night mares, ‘They color1 my sleep,’ she also brings her father’s supposed Nazism up again, ‘Red, mottled, like cut necks./There was a silence!’. Plath also talks of her father being somewhat of a general in the militia, ‘A yew hedge of orders,’ also with this image she brings back her supposed vulnerability as a child, talking as if her father was going to send her away, ‘I am guilty of nothing.’ For all her claims of being vulnerable and innocent, she uses many images of Nazism and gore and images of murder, crimes and blackness. On top of her previous images of blindness, deafness and communication, or lack thereof.…

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    * She is very nervous ‘she had twisted her handkerchief into a sweaty rope; when she opened it to wipe her face it was a mass of creases from her hot hands’…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays