blackbirdhunting-blog

[blackbirdhunting-blog]

fundamentals of feminism

Sylvia Plath is one of the biggest icons used for feminists in a argument. I say “used” because that is a accurate discription of it. As for many famous writers and woman of influence are seen or portrayed as a symbol of feminine progression. I take Sylvia Plath as a example, because the story that surrounded her life was a tragic one. Many biografies are based of only one side of the story; that of Sylvia’s. They speak of her as the victim in a marriage that had poisened her (litteraly), but they conviently leave out the aspect her husband Ted Hughes. Now Ted Hughes was a awknoledged poem writer who came into Sylvia’s life, rather being enchanted by her. It is discribed as a meeting of two adults being opposed of eachoters existance, but also being insignificant if not togheter. As a second birth, but with the knowledge of inevitable death. He discribed her as a black magic woman, almost with a sense of helplessness. Ted saw her potential in her talent for writing poems, and motivated her to do so. It is said that Sylvia felt down when she wasn’t recognized by significant writers of publishers, dispite her efforts to create her best pieces. While Ted had allready been published and reviewed far before they met, which made Sylvia jealous in some ways. Ted always kept pushing her, because he knew it would take time and commitment for people to actually see her work pay off. They spend days separate; writing in their rooms. It later would show that Ted succeeded in his efforts to make Sylvia express her talents to the world, as she so desperately wanted. Sylvia and Ted weren’t involved in a healthy marriage as most people know. There wasn’t a lot of communication outside the fact of a passionate one, either being consumed by their love (alsmost obsessed) or completely lost in a dark parallel of eachothers lives. There wasn’t a calm balance in it, which only fed their words and poems. They were a muze for eachother in a poisoned way. It is reflected in their work, which ironicly opened up their closed marriage to the world. And people, as their nature is, concluded and chose which side they were on. Right before Sylvia commited suicide by poisoning herself with carbon monoxide in her kitchen by turning on the gas of the stove, she wrote “Ariel” for her children. It is a poem filled with her deep love, but with a sensible core of injustice. She made sure that her son and daughter weren’t killed in her attempt of suicide by making sure she cracked their bedroom window and covered up the doors with towls. Ted was devistated by the loss of his wife and muze. Many think he was relieved to be released of her grip, but he had a great and commited love for her. A love that eventually progressively made him into a man he didn’t recognize. He fell in love with other woman, but they were a sheer shadow or parallel universe of the woman he couldn’t live without. When Ted died it became known that he had been writing a book since the beginning of his relationship with Sylvia. This book was released after his death, containing a fraction of his heart. This book called “Crow” is one of which only Ted can understand the weight of his words. It is as if people want him to be the senseless man without conciousness. A man that only is a prop in the story of Sylvia Plath. Accept the fact that this is not a story, but a duet. It is two people being perfectly imperfect for eachother.

Sylvia wasn’t a victim and Ted wasn’t a agressor. The only victim in this duet was the lack of a good ending, and the absolute victory of a sacrefice in the name of poetry.

Slyvia never asked to be a argument in a debate she never even was involved in. She wasn’t a symbol of “man hate”. Making her into a way to use her for a argument she never was involved in might be worse than her experiances. It bagitalises her life and her marriage, making her life choices judged and rediculed. It makes a fool out of a man who was much more than people read about or can ever imagine. It is another statue in the hall of powerless woman who feel the need to make strong woman of history seem weak. It is a ironic and selfish thing to make other woman a staircase to a world in which woman can not be respected.