Plath + Hughes Context Flashcards
1
Q
Her husband
A
Prior to death of Plath
Misogyny + dehumanisation of women
Women’s rights movement:
- Hughes was targeted and blamed for Plath’s suicide.
‘Come back to Sorrento’ - Neapolitan song
- Some claim the song is a plea to PM Zanardelli to keep his promise to help the impoverished city of Sorrento. The song reflects the beauty of the city’s great surroundings and the love and passion of its citizens.
- It was claimed that the piece was meant to celebrate Zanardelli’s stay.
2
Q
Heptonstall
A
- Plath buried here. Her headstone has been vandalised several time. Hughes’ name has been defaced.
- In Yorkshire, Heptonstall means ‘Hope’ in Anglo-Saxon’.
- Death and decay. Life is a pointless cycle. Melancholy, nihilistic.
3
Q
Thistles
A
- A poem about the futility of violence.
- Hughes’ love of nature stemmed from growing up in the Yorkshire countryside. Born in 17 August 1930 in Mytholmroyd. He was a fisherman and hunter.
- His two years of national service (1949–51) passed comparatively easily. Hughes was stationed as a ground wireless mechanic in the RAF on an isolated three-man station in east Yorkshire.
4
Q
Bayonet Charge
A
- His two years of national service (1949–51) passed comparatively easily. Hughes was stationed as a ground wireless mechanic in the RAF on an isolated three-man station in east Yorkshire.
- ‘880,000 British forces died, 6% of the adult male population and 12.5% of those serving.’
5
Q
The Lovepet
A
- Tempestuous Marriage of Plath + Hughes. The couple married on June 16, 1956. The couple had their first daughter, Frieda, on April 1st, 1960. The next year, Plath miscarried their second child. Plath wrote about Hughes beating her two days before the miscarriage. In 1962, their son Nicholas was born. Plath and Hughes separated in July of 1962 after an affair with Assia Wevill.
- Love is like a stray bought in from the rain.
6
Q
Barley
A
- A feminisation of nature.
- Biblical allusions to the Saviour, Jesus Christ.
- Hughes’ love of nature stemmed from growing up in the Yorkshire countryside. Born in 17 August 1930 in Mytholmroyd. He was a fisherman and hunter.
7
Q
Wind
A
A couple have a rather tempestuous relationship.
- Tempestuous Marriage of Plath + Hughes. The couple married on June 16, 1956. The couple had their first daughter, Frieda, on April 1st, 1960. The next year, Plath miscarried their second child. Plath wrote about Hughes beating her two days before the miscarriage. In 1962, their son Nicholas was born. Plath and Hughes separated in July of 1962 after an affair with Assia Wevill.
8
Q
Rain
A
Frightening power of nature.
- Perhaps we can link to the end of the US involvement in Vietnam.
- Hughes’ love of nature stemmed from growing up in the Yorkshire countryside. Born in 17 August 1930 in Mytholmroyd. He was a fisherman and hunter.
9
Q
Examination at the Womb Door
A
- Hughes was a believer in the supernatural. Astrology and the like. This certainly presented through the idea of a personified death. The ideas of inevitability, fate and astrological justice.
10
Q
The Horses
A
The stoic horses.
-Stoicism is a school of philosophy that hails from ancient Greece and Rome in the early parts of the 3rd century
- Life that maximizes positive emotions, reduces negative emotions and helps individuals to hone their virtues of character.
11
Q
Crossing the Water
A
A poem of transition.
- The allusion to the river Styx, where Acheton the boatman guided the Greek dead. They would pay him with coins left on their eyes when they died.
- Plath was moving from NY to Yorkshire at the time.
12
Q
Daddy
A
- A girl with Electra-complex. Rebellion against parental authority.
- Plath’s father was an Austrian bee-keeper. He was a disciplinarian and had diabetes.
- Electra-complex, the pseudo-sexual desire a girl has for her Father.
- The Holocaust saw 6 million Jews die. The comparisons to Hitler and the Nazi regime.
13
Q
Birthday present
A
- A woman begs to be told the truth.
- Assia Wevil and Ted Hughes had a spicy affair, one which Plath knew of. He confessed in July 1962 and they seperated. Plath looked after the children at Court Green in Devon. It overlooked a graveyard.
14
Q
Lesbos
A
- A woman berates her friend. The horrors of the domestic sphere.
- Assia Wevill and Ted Hughes had a spicy affair, one which Plath knew of. This was with their friend, David Wevill.
- Assia Wevill was a practicing Buddhist
- Lesbos is a Greek island. Sappho the lesbian poet.
15
Q
Ariel
A
A woman finds freedom on the back of her Horse.
- Plath had a horse called Ariel, after the Tempest character.
- Plath’s poem Ariel was significant to the 2nd Wave Feminist movement.
- Lady Godiva - A heroine and the wife of the Lord of Coventry. She rode naked through the town of Coventry in protest of her husband, the Earl of Mercia’s terrible taxation. Out of respect, all of the townsfolk looked away to preserve her modesty. All except ‘Peeping Tom’ who was struck blind.
