Motifs: An International Journal of English Studies
Year : 2016, Volume : 2, Issue : 2
First page : ( 98) Last page : ( 101)
Print ISSN : 2454-1745. Online ISSN : 2454-1753.
Article DOI : 10.5958/2454-1753.2016.00013.1

“Apprehensions”: Plath's Gloom and Ted's Retaliation

Rawal Shruti

Assistant Professor, Sophia Girls’ College, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India

Abstract

It is rather strange but not a coincidence that the most controversial yet creative couple of the twentieth century have penned a poem with a common title. There is almost a gap of four centuries in both the poems, Sylvia Plath penned it in 1962 and Ted Hughes's is a part of “Birthday Letters” which came in 1998. They both hold significance, not only in the literary world but also in their mazed relationship and personal life. When Ariel came out, Ted Hughes wrote to his friend, Richard Murphy, “What an insane chance, to have private family struggles turned into bestselling literature of despair and martyrdom, probably a permanent cultural treasure” (Birthday Letters 240). What he was unaware was the fact that this family discord would take enormous proportions later and would scare him for the rest of his life. The paper attempts to read both the poems and analyse the intention of writing these poems. It would be incorrect to say that the poems are written objectively without any “politics” involved. There is always an “intention” and in the context of Plath and Hughes, it becomes more significant and blatantly obvious. The idea is not to judge their lives, but only the thought of these poems as a scholar.

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Keywords

Ted, Sylvia, Apprehensions, Relation, Depression, Couple, Images.

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