ECHO OR REPETITION IN THE POETRY OF SYLVIA PLATH
Keywords:
echo, repetition, psychology, isolation, anger, childlikeAbstract
The aim of this article is to give an insight into the use of the echo or repetition in the poetry of the American poet Sylvia Plath. The echo or repetition covers most of the poems of the poetic volume Ariel, but many questions arise on the use of this technique by Plath. There are different opposing viewpoints that discuss the fact if this technique was used deliberately or not. The reason of using it is most appropriately given by the psychological approach. According to Freud’s case-stories, in “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”, repetitions are done unconsciously and are related to isolation. In most of her poems Plath shows the speaker entrapped in the cage of her mind and in the state of a child, this is also shown by the fact that she continuously repeats words or phrases. Plath, herself, was very addicted to Freud and Jung and very often found herself in their case-stories. Repetitions are mostly used during the last years of Plath’s life during which she became one with the speaker of her poems and this was a way of expressing and controlling her anger in the “shriek” poems. This technique is part of the rebirth and transcendence poems, which are symbols of repetition.
References
Freud, S. (2010). Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Mansfield Centre, Ct: Martino Publishing.
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Plath. S. (2000). Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. Karen Kukil (Ed.). London: Anchor Books Editions
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Rosenblatt, J. (1979). Sylvia Plath: The Poetry of Initiation. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Van Dyne, S. R. (1993). Revising Life. USA: University of North Carolina Press.
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