A Birthday Present Sylvia Plath Analysis

Within “Tulips” and “A Birthday Present”, Sylvia Plath explores the critical decision of choosing between life and death. Through her inclusion of rhetorical devices, the personification of common-day objects symbolize the return to existence and biblical allusions mock the salvation others receive through religious means. Written in the last few months of her life, the two poems showcase the battle between consciousness and death and while it may seem easier to lose oneself in the bland darkness, the two extremities are frighteningly close. Primarily, in Plath’s poems, personification brings inanimate objects to life in order to create a distinction between the speaker’s past lifestyle and the present one she is struggling to escape from

The inclusion of both objects as each poem’s respective titles also draw out each article’s message as it is the first word the reader looks at. In “A Birthday Present”, the present itself is shrouded in mystery, but its sinister characterizations lure Plath in with its “black eye-pits and a scar” (line 6). While the poem continues, the relationship between the present and its symbolism for death becomes increasingly apparent especially in the last 7 stanzas where it is unclear whether Plath is describing the present or death itself. In the lines, “It stands at my window, big as the sky. It breathes from my sheets, the cold dead center…”, the present, death, attempts to grab Plath away and to lift the “veil” mentioned multiple times throughout the poem which is the thin layer separating her from the underworld. The irony in the situation is that while it is Plath’s birthday, she wishes for a gift of death, in order to make her feel reborn again. The animated present and situation reflects Plath’s theme that the association between life and death is of a closer proximity than is generally measured. On the other hand, “Tulips” personifies the object in the perspective opposite of the one seen in “A Birthday Present”.

While “Birthday Present” refers to Biblical events, “Tulips” centers more on the actions Christians perform, such as “communion” (line 35), and baptism referenced in line 27. The religious allusions in “Birthday Present” are also in a closer accordance with Jesus’ life, notably marking his birth through the Virgin Mary’s “annunciation” (line 9) and his death at the “last supper” (line 26). Through these allusions, Plath’s tone is one of scorn and disbelief, using them to guide her own ironic actions of wanting death for a birthday present. As many people turn towards religion as hope for a new life, Plath’s rejection of those sources emphasizes her resolve on not turning back, as seen in her suicide in 1963. This draws attention on Plath’s message of paying attention to both extremities in life and death and weighing the costs and benefits before solidifying one’s decision. Likewise in “Tulips”, the focus on the physical actions believers perform doesn’t necessarily mark their strength in faith. Plath, noting that she strives to “lie with [her] hands turned up and be utterly empty”, is referencing Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, but in terms of the reverse as she wants to be reborn through death. The reference to the baptism and communion tablet