by Raizsa-Daphne Benosa

Created on: October 20, 2009   Last Updated: October 21, 2009

... There's a stake in your fat black heart

And the villagers never liked you.

They are dancing and stamping on you.

They always knew it was you.

Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.

If there is no hope would there be any sense in life? What is left for us to do? Should we escape or face the nothingness of meaning head-on? Is it fitting to take your own life? Or should we just let things be what they are and ignore every circumstance?

The persona of the poem is overwhelmed with despair and grief throughout life because of her experiences that resulted in the denial of her own identity, her human capability which lead her to the suicidal state. She tries to hold on to her faith and well-being but at the end of the day, it seems it is only illusory. Although she tries to enchant herself in a dream, reality always destroys it. There is no one to blame but the horizons she lives in. She has lost trust from the men in her world who she thought were the hope she could hold on to. The shame and sorrow leads her to a downward spiral that ultimately led to her own destruction. Although she tried to kill the ghosts of her past, it always seems to haunt her and assimilate despair in her. With nowhere to run and nowhere to hide and no one to turn to, she chose the path of self-destruction. The world, the persona realized, turned out to be something where selfish evil hearts resides, where fingers have no purpose than to pull triggers and men's souls worship only the god of tragedy.

This poem's writer seems to implicitly narrate the tragedy of her own life using metaphors. Sylvia Plath was an American aspiring writer in Europe. There she met her husband who was also a good poet. During the course of their marriage, Sylvia was filled by pressure, for her husband was a fast-rising poet while she was busy with the household work. However, after some time she was able to write again, but her husband was beginning to be unfaithful. Until such time that she was able to verify that her husband has indeed another woman. What drove her to the suicidal path was not only because of her self-pity and blind innocence, but because of her childhood experiences, which the author implies. What could be grasped by the readers from this piece is that her experience as spouse, as a mother and as a child was no different. She tried to hold on for her children; however, her rationality was clouded by her despair. Probably what drove her to kill herself was the fact that her husband was unfaithful

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