Analysis of Sylvia Plath Poems Essay

Analysis of Sylvia Plath Poems Essay

Stringency: A rigorous imposition of standards; A tightness or constriction; A scarcity of money or credit. Strictness: conscientious attention to rules and details The narrator makes reference to ‘a stake in your fat black heart’ and vampire imagery is clearly used here as vampire can only be killed with a stake through the heart. The stress falling on each word is like each pound and thrust of the stake. In addition, monosyllabic words create force and energy. The sentence is plosive and it is almost as if the heart is going to burst. We can understand the narrator’s possible dislike of domestic chores from her depiction of how ‘a sudden wind funnels at me/Slapping its phantom laundry in my face.’ The personification of the wind makes it come alive and the word ‘slapping’ is particularly explosive. It suggests that the wind is being harsh towards her. The word phantom shows death imagery. The ‘sudden wind could refer to the death of her father or perhaps the sudden discovery of her husband’s affair.