Module C Response
Module C Response
Good Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The existence of conflicting perspectives in society can only be enriching. Today, I will present to you how the representation of conflicting perspectives in textual forms creates a mirror to our society. This mirror reflects societal imperfections, the major, on which we will focus today, being obsession. This issue has been particularly documented in the turbulent relationship between poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath and the literary works that have been inspired by them.
To begin, in Ted Hughes’s 1999 poem collection Birthday Letters focuses on the pitfalls of the relationship while offering insight into the conflict’s origin. In Hughes’s poem “The Shot”, he identifies Plath’s obsession with her father’s death as the source of her distress through the use of an extended metaphor, use of imagery and visual structure. He begins by comparing Sylvia’s father to a “God” and her obsession as her “worship” to him as he describes, “Your worship needed a god. Where it lacked one, it found one here”. The religious reference communicates to us the audience the severity of her devotion and also her need to fulfil it with other male figures. Hughes continues to compare Plath’s consequent actions through an extended metaphor of a “bullet”. He describes her “You were gold-jacketed, solid silver, nickel-tipped. Trajectory perfect. ” The detail within the imagery such as “gold”, ”silver” and “nickel” establishes Plath’s high maintenance and her determination through the short syntax of “trajectory perfect”. Therefore, we , the audience is presented with one of the perspectives which establishes the sources of conflict in the relationship.
Also, In Ted Hughes’s poem “Your Paris” we are presented with Hughes’s own source of obsession within the relationship. The poet’s fixation on the difference of opinions creates a superior overtone to the piece, with Hughes juxtaposing his and Plath’s view through use of imagery “...
Good Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The existence of conflicting perspectives in society can only be enriching. Today, I will present to you how the representation of conflicting perspectives in textual forms creates a mirror to our society. This mirror reflects societal imperfections, the major, on which we will focus today, being obsession. This issue has been particularly documented in the turbulent relationship between poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath and the literary works that have been inspired by them.
To begin, in Ted Hughes’s 1999 poem collection Birthday Letters focuses on the pitfalls of the relationship while offering insight into the conflict’s origin. In Hughes’s poem “The Shot”, he identifies Plath’s obsession with her father’s death as the source of her distress through the use of an extended metaphor, use of imagery and visual structure. He begins by comparing Sylvia’s father to a “God” and her obsession as her “worship” to him as he describes, “Your worship needed a god. Where it lacked one, it found one here”. The religious reference communicates to us the audience the severity of her devotion and also her need to fulfil it with other male figures. Hughes continues to compare Plath’s consequent actions through an extended metaphor of a “bullet”. He describes her “You were gold-jacketed, solid silver, nickel-tipped. Trajectory perfect. ” The detail within the imagery such as “gold”, ”silver” and “nickel” establishes Plath’s high maintenance and her determination through the short syntax of “trajectory perfect”. Therefore, we , the audience is presented with one of the perspectives which establishes the sources of conflict in the relationship.
Also, In Ted Hughes’s poem “Your Paris” we are presented with Hughes’s own source of obsession within the relationship. The poet’s fixation on the difference of opinions creates a superior overtone to the piece, with Hughes juxtaposing his and Plath’s view through use of imagery “...