After reading Sylvia Plath's poem "The Disquieting Muses" I believe that Plath saw the demons and fears she faced in her mental illness as connected to her mother. As children we are taught so much by our mother's, but the one thing that they never teach us is fear. Because fear is naturally occurring it can be terrifying and baffling for children when their mother cannot "save" them from their fears. Sometimes we may even blame them for their inability to do so. Plath starts the piece by introducing to the narrator's fear that is three faceless women by rhetorically asking her mother what,
"cousin did you so unwisely keep
unasked to my christening, that she
sent these ladies in her stead" (814).
With this I believe Plath is showing how she blames her mother for the experience of this nightmare or fear that could be interpreted as her mental illness. She believes that her mother could prevent her from going through something like this. In an attempt to almost take back or minimize the blame, she questions if her mother could have done something,
"I wonder
whether you saw them, whether you said
words to rid me of these three ladies" (814)
Plath eventually acknowledges that the fear and terror becomes too much for her to handle, "but these ladies broke the panes". This refers to the feeling of safety her mother created for the family. Because her mother was unable to keep the narrator's feelings of fear away, the "ladies" won and were able to have a stronger influence on her life. Later Plath admits how these demons effected her life,
"I could
not life a foot in the twinkle dress
but, heavy-footed, stood aside
In the shadow cast by my dismal-headed
Godmother's, only you cried and cried" (814).
Plath realized that her fears had completely taken over her life, causing her to feel as if she had disappointed her mother. Plath closes the piece by stating how these "ladies", or her fear and mental illness was now constant, "day now, night now, at head, side, feet. They stand their vigil in gowns of stone". The fear is now in the narrators life acting as a mother might. It began to dictate, forcing the narrator to allow it to take over the a mother's role.
I hadn't read your post before I wrote mine, but I really appreciate the connection you outlined here between Plath's mental illness and her mother. The feeling of disappointing her mother and being ashamed stands out in this poem as well as "Medusa," and I think this dynamic in their relationship is crucial to understanding some of Plath's work. Excellent analysis.
ReplyDeletei'm actually not so sure if this poem isn't only about her mental illness, actually.[and let's also keep in mind that mental illnesses aren't always caused by environment; while she might "blame" her mother for her mental illness she could very well be discussing the way her mother reacted to/*didn't* react to them in terms of support or understanding]
ReplyDeletebut putting that aside for now, the way i interpreted it was that her mother had hired her teachers and nannies to try and nurture and tutor plath in multiple childhood hobbies. they read her stories, they tried to teach her ballet and piano, but she failed to learn. and because of this, her mother was disappointed in her.
however, she goes on to say,
"I learned, I learned, I learned elsewhere,
From muses unhired by you, dear mother"
i think part of plath's resentment towards her mother here is the fact that she herself would not teach sylvia; or that maybe sylvia wanted to attempt to grow on her own without her mother's guidance so much as her mother's support.
though i really like your analysis as well; it made me look at it in a different way.
dang it why can't we edit comments? **i'm not so sure this poem IS only about her mental illness."
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting way to look at his poem. I honestly didn't think of it like this and was really confused when reading it. When I was depressed in high school I remember blaming my mother a lot for feeling this way because I felt she was the one that birthed me so it has to be her fault, so I can see why she would blame her mother. I think this is a common thing for people who go through depression because you have no one else to blame but the one who gave birth to you and they can do nothing to "help" or make the feelings go away. I like the way you analyzed this and now I can understand what you are talking about when I read it!
ReplyDelete