Comparison Of Ariel And Sheep In Fog

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A journey is the act of travelling from one place to another. Both Plath and Larkin portray this in a literal and metaphorical sense. I will analyse and compare ways in which Plath and Larkin portray their ideas about what a journey is to them. ‘Ariel’ and ‘Sheep in Fog’ by Plath portray the idea of a journey as a metaphorical escape as she struggles with her own insecurities and paranoia and contemplates death as the end to her journey. ‘Here’ and ‘Whitsun Weddings’ by Larkin portray a journey as an escape from the bustles of life and the oppressions of Capitalism in a consumerist environment to feel bliss in the solitude of his own thoughts. Plath’s journeys seem to have a metaphorical undertone; often the literal journeys she describes depict an internal journey. This is especially true for Ariel, which in essence is a representation of her thoughts portrayed through her journey on horseback. Although the protagonist is riding towards ‘morning’, the morning could also represent the journey that her writing took her on, as she would work before dawn and this may have been one of the only times Plath truly felt like she could escape. This is shown as Plath "foams into wheat", a metaphor for the ecstasy she felt from the release writing gave her, but also proving how her protagonist’s journey with the horse, speeding through the fields away from darkness, gave her a sense of freedom and empowerment. Plath is so utterly consumed by her internal escape that even her "child’s cry" cannot disturb her, it simply “melts in the wall”, a powerful statement that represents the way in which Plath's worries disintegrate as the protagonist rides towards the sun. In Here, Larkin is also moving away from darkness; the darkness being the "rich ... ... middle of paper ... ... onwards, Larkin uses enjambment; "The lemons, mauves, and olive-ochers that/Marked off the girls unreally from the rest." This is clearly intentional as Larkin repeats this several times throughout the rest of the poem, showing how Larkin gets so consumed in his judgments that the structure of the poem becomes almost frantic. In conclusion, I have found that both poets are successful in presenting their particular ideas about what a journey is to them. For Plath, a journey represents a desire for freedom and a metaphorical escape from the insecurities within her own life and it is clear to us that her escape is pivotal in her journey of self acceptance. Larkin has also shown that journeys are an escape from life, but unlike Plath he is running away from society and the oppressions he feels bound by, whereas Plath wants to escape from the shackles of her thoughts.

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