Sylvia Plath Analysis

 Quotes from Dairy by Sylvia Plath:

“I have an inner fight that won’t be conquered by a motto or one night’s resolution” (p.666).


“A day in the life—such a gray grit, I feel apart from myself, split, a shadow, and yet when I think of what I have taught and what I will teach, the titles have still a radiant glow and the excitement and not the dead weary plod of today” (p.669).


    After reading these writings from Sylvia’s diary I could clearly see she was struggling in the first part of her teaching students. She wrote this first diary entry to a demon which I believe was the demon she was fighting with inside herself. Sylvia was struggling to talk about her fears and miseries in fear of making it worse for herself. She works really hard to keep going through life, but she looks at it in a negative light. Sylvia even says, “No more knuckling under, groaning, moaning: one gets used to the pain. This hurts. Not being perfect hurts” (p.666). She feels stuck in life; she feels that her flaws are so negative. This can relate to several other women as well. Women struggle with their imperfections. They have this image in their head and they feel like they need to be or look like or act like someone else. I feel that this is a horrible way to look at life. We have to enjoy it and work as hard as we can with what we are given. Everyone has flaws, but they do not have to be looked at negatively. There is a need to focus on yourself and love yourself because it feels horrible going through life in a negative light. At least as Sylvia progresses through the school year, she has a more positive spin on days. She focuses more on the lessons she can teach her students and how impactful that can be on them. She finds positivity in knowing that her teachings have the ability to change the lives of her students.


Word Count: 344

Comments

  1. JyllMarch 24, 2021 at 11:28 AM

    I also thought that when Sylvia was addressing her demons, they were her inner struggles and depression. In my blog I also talked about how she thought she was not good enough and constantly criticized herself. I like how you compared this to present times, as society does enforce a lot of standards on women and they often feel as if they are not enough.

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