What can I say about this poetry collection by Sylvia Plath? Shall I say, come and see the beauty in suffering? Because that’s what it is. In every written line, you hear the cry of despair of a woman who struggled her whole life with clinical depression, was raised by a pushy, unsympathetic mother, lived through an abusive marriage, struggled with separation and single motherhood, and finally, willfully embraced death to escape from all misery.
The collection is confessional, yet rich in creativity. Plath uses visceral and extreme metaphors and alludes to mythology and history in her verses. These tools have helped Plath to bring psychological dynamics into her poetry. The themes were extremely personal to Plath, and she had explored them through raw, passionate, and powerful verses that deeply disturb the reader. Yet their tragic beauty also has a certain fascination for the reader. I believe it’s her exceptional skill and creative power that have done the trick.
Plath felt herself a victim of patriarchy. Her poor mental health made her unfit to fight the man’s game in the man’s world. In her famous poem Daddy, Plath caricatures her father and husband to show how male dominance oppresses women and drains out their vitality. She felt alienated from this patriarchal world, received no warmth and support, and had a strained relationship with her mother. In The Moon and the Yew Tree, Plath compares her mother to the bright, yet cold and unloving moon. “The moon is my mother. She is not sweet like Mary.” Her father, long since dead – died in her childhood, is portrayed as a deathly still yew tree who can offer no comfort but “blackness and silence”.
Despite the black emptiness surrounding her, however, Plath had truly felt the glory and warmth of motherhood. In poems like, Morning Song, Night Dances, Nick and the Candlestick, Letter in November, and You’re, she expresses her maternal happiness notwithstanding her bleak, unstable life. At a time when the world was ignorant and unsympathetic toward those who struggled with mental issues, Plath had a rough time fighting for survival. In poems like Ariel, Wintering, and The Bee Meeting, she speaks of hope and survival. It is heartbreaking to know that she felt completely defeated at the end, that she didn’t want to continue with her suffering.
Ariel is not a collection that one can lightly read. There is a lot of soul poured into every line. It is tragic, it is disturbing. The dark and desolate voice of despair can be unsettling and overwhelming. Knowing about Plath’s struggles with mental health is helpful, but that doesn’t ease the reading experience. But to anyone who can stomach it, I’d say read Ariel and hear the desperation of a bleeding soul.
Rating: 4/5
