Suicide as Cleansing - Death Through Sylvia Plath’s Literary Work
In all of Sylvia Plath’s literary work, the idea of cleanse and rebirth emerge as a central theme. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenworld needs a physical cleansing through bathing. In her poem Ariel, the entire poem is about shedding herself.
So what does dying mean to her? Why is she so compelled with this idea of cleanse and rebirth?
We know The Bell Jar is semi-autobiographical, and I interpret death to Sylvia as start is to new. Death for Sylvia is a chance to start anew, to shed the skin or her life (which probably hints to her depression, etc) and start over. In her poem “Lady Lazaruz”, we can see her mindset on her suicide attempts. In multiple stanzas, she says that every time she comes back from an attempt that she is treated inhumanly. She is treated as a miracle, something to sell, rather than a person. In one of the stanzas, she says that “Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman”. This quote shows how death has become normal to her, but also what she wants from her death. She wants to come back different. The ending of “Lady Lazarus” ends fiery and vengeful and to me, it looks like Sylvia Plath wants her death to mean something, to come back and haunt those who wronged her.
Sylvia Plath seems to view death as a chance to wash away the currents of her life, and start off on the right footing the next time. Sound familiar?
We see this exact metaphor come to life in The Bell Jar when Esther describes her bathtime routine after a night out with Doreen. Prior to her bath, her night out with Doreen was filled with “dirty” actions and thoughts. When she gets into her bath, she says that “Doreen is dissolving, Lenny Shepherd is dissolving, Frankie is dissolving, New York is dissolving, they are all dissolving away and none of them matter anymore. I don’t know them, I have never known them and I am very pure” (20). Esther’s hot bath is not just selfcare at the end of a long day, it’s a way for her to feel pure and cleansed while she washes away the impurities of the outside world and her own experiences. These baths represent a desperate attempt to regain control of her mental state while it deteriorates and also Esther’s need to wash off the bad and escape from her own body, life, and the suffocating Bell Jar she is trapped inside. While bathing offers a temporary front of cleansing for Esther, it ultimately fails to grant her true freedom.
In contrast, “Ariel” by Sylvia Plath offers a more fierce, uncontrollable shedding of herself. The poem, which describes the terror and freedom of a ride on her childhood horse Ariel, models her desire to shed off her skin and transform.
The poem begins with the speaker in a place of darkness where time is frozen in place with nothing but her horse Ariel. She describes Ariel as being “God’s lioness”. As the poem progresses and Ariel begins running, the speaker realizes that both her and the horse are merging (growing together as “one”). The speaker can only see flashes as she clings to the horse's neck as Ariel propels her forward. In the next few lines, Plath’s speaker is being catapulted in past darkness as she is hauled through the air. But, she also notes that while she is hauled through the air that:
“Flakes from my heels.
Thighs, hair;
White
(…)
Deadhands, dead stringencies.
And now I
Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.”
As she rides the horse, flakes are falling from her heels and her body. Her feet are falling apart and the skin is shedding from her body, letting her become something new. The next line, which is simply the word “White” serves as a contrast with the darkness Plath references earlier, casting herself as opposite. She tasted darkness and is coming out of it. The final few lines note her shedding, showing that she has shedded almost everything from foam to wheat, until she’s now a glitter of seas. This ride with her horse is synonymous with suicide. Ariel is charging directly at the sun (almost suicidally), shedding the past self, and heading straight for the new intense light at the end of the tunnel.
I already wrote way too much but I think it’s interesting the way Plath depicts suicide. As an opportunity for rebirth but also a tragedy, showing that in someone’s journey to break off and start anew that they kill themselves in the process as well.
Hi Heidi! I really like the analysis of Plath's poetry you included in this post. I think it adds a lot to see what her ideas of death were outside of The Bell Jar, although these ideas were definitely applicable to the book as well. The theme of rebirth comes up over and over again in Esther's story, and the intensity of that escalates from a simple bath to attempts of suicide. This is a really great deep dive into Esther's mind as she results to death as an escape from her depression and the tragedies of life.
ReplyDeleteHey Heidi, great post! I completely agree that Plath connects suicide and cleansing with rebirth. Esther’s habit of taking baths to clear her mind, followed by her desire to drown in the ocean, strongly reflects this theme. She frequently experiences a loss of identity, so these attempts may represent an escape from the monotony of her life in The Bell Jar. I hadn’t read Ariel before, but it clearly reinforces Plath’s association of suicide with purification.
ReplyDeleteVery nice work with "Ariel" and "Lady Lazarus"! We really should have focused on this aspect more in our discussions, as there are a series of "rebirth" moments throughout _The Bell Jar_: the bath, which you mention; her food-poisoning episode with Betsy, where she emerges "purged" and "clean"; the ski accident, where she feels like she's rushing down the mountain into her own past, starting over as a baby. As you note, "Lady Lazarus" is maybe the most disturbing of all, as she takes this cavalier attitude toward suicide, as if certain she will reemerge on the other side, patched and repaired and somehow empowered by her "monstrous" resuscitation. I hesitate to even mention it, as the topic is morbid and encroaches beyond the art into Plath's personal life, but there is evidence that she perhaps did not intend her suicide attempt in February 1963 to be successful: her two very young children were sleeping in the next room(!), and she ran the oven and filled the kitchen with gas. There was a gas-company service worker scheduled for an appointment at her flat the morning she died (I may have a few of the specifics wrong, off the top of my head), and some have hypothesized that she was intending to be discovered before it was too late. Of course, we are fully in the realm of speculation here, but I'd say "Lady Lazarus" and its oddly triumphant/vengeful tone reflects a kind of casual attitude toward the finality of suicide. We might even say that such an attitude is itself delusional, and therefore possibly an early emerging symptom of her relapse.
ReplyDeleteHi Heidi! I also saw the similarities to Plath's deceptions of death in her more personal poems compared to her description of Esther's state of mind and how she contextualizes suicide. Her attempts at "cleansing herself," as you pointed out, clearly fail, but her inability to gain control in her life leads her down this even further spiral. Your comparison between Esther and Plath and how Plath's feelings seep into Esther's character is fascinating. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHey Heidi! I also found similarities between death and rebirth in Plath's poetry and Esther's mindset. It is clear through her works that Plath wanted to be in control of her life, and that she believed that she could cleanse herself and be reborn in some ways. The way you compare Plath and Esther feels very true, as they are so similar the lines between them have begun to blur.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting topic! The idea that suicide is the most intense form of cleansing for Esther (and Plath) is super interesting, and I think it's a really great connection between the novel and the poetry! I especially like the multiple examples of suicide as cleansing, and how it's not always a controllable thing. This was a great post!
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