The Role of the Nativity in "Magi" and "Carol of the Brown King"
What were the Three Wise Men searching for when they followed the North Star? They were obviously seeking the Christ child, but they were also searching for the truth and righteousness that he represents. Sylvia Plath in her poem "Magi" and Langston Hughes in his poem "Carol of the Brown King" discuss the merit of their respective minority groups through allusions to the nativity. Plath uses the journey to discuss both the ignorance of philosophers' quest for the "truth" and its neglect of females, and Hughes uses the righteousness of the nativity to emphasize the importance of blacks.
Plath's poem "Magi" ridicules the intellectual's theory-based search for truth: "They mistake their star, these papery godfolk" (15). Instead of searching for the meaning to life through living, they seek it in inanimate books. Plath says of the abstracts, "They're the real thing, all right: the Good, the True," however, her other references to them are contradictory, indicating that this is mockery (6). When she remarks that they "hover like dull angels," she explains that they are not spoiled with anything "so vulgar as a nose or an eye," and yet, what is a face without features (1-2)? These abstracts are "pure as boiled water, loveless as the multiplication table," but how could something so lifeless describe life (8)? By describing the dullness of the abstracts, Plath indicates their unsuitability to guide the search for truth.
While the abstracts lead the "papery godfolk" to the "crib of some lamp-headed Plato," Plath leads her readers to the crib of a baby girl (16). While the abstracts are "pure as boiled water" the infant is also pure: "the heavy notion of Evil attending her cot is less than a belly ache" (7,13). However, although the theory-filled abstracts are "loveless as the multiplication table," the child is nourished by "Love the mother of milk, no theory" (8,14). The abstracts' truth is founded in theory; the baby's truth is founded in love. Plath is content that the "papery godfolk" do not seek the crib of her baby girl. "What girl ever flourished in such company?" (18). This question attacks the male-dominated hierarchy in which no women of her time prospered. The main message of Plath's poem is that we learn truth in the school of life, but why did she use a baby girl instead of a boy?
The 2006 film The Nativity Story, is a retelling of the birth of Jesus and the events surrounding it. The film takes pieces both from the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke in order to create its narrative. The film takes some of its key scenes as well as aspects of both Mary and Joseph from the Bible. The advantage of using both gospels as a basis for the film is that it allows for the dual perspective of Mary and Joseph instead of being limited to one or the other, and allows for a more complete feeling narrative. It then builds upon how the characters of Mary and Joseph are described in both gospels by giving the audience the chance to connect with them at a human level.
The poem starts with the line, “This girlchild was born as usual,” which suggests that as soon as a girl is born, society already expects her to learn the role she will soon play in when she hits puberty (1). Thus, showing why we are given dolls as little girls to illustrate how we should act and appear according to society. After we learn all the roles we will soon take part in, “the magic of puberty,” hits and girls immediately begin applying the ideals to their own lives (5). As if this attempt to conform is not enough we have other people telling us we are not to perfect. “You have a great big nose and fat legs,” says a classmate to the girl (6). This type of pressure can slowly but surely destroy even the little confidence women do have in themselves.
The first two stanzas, lines 1-10, tell the readers that Plath, for thirty years, has been afraid of her father, so scared that she dares not to “breathe or Achoo.” She has been living in fear, although she announces that he’s already dead. It is obvious that she believes that her father continues to control her life from the grave. She says that she “has had to kill” him, but he’s already dead, indicating her initial promise to forget him. She calls him a “bag full of God,” telling us that she considers her father a very strong, omnipotent being, someone who is superior in her eyes.
Two of the most popular poets of the 19th and 20th centuries are Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath, respectively. These women were born nearly one hundred years apart, but their writing is strikingly similar, especially through the use of the speaker. In fact, in Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy”, she writes about her father and compares him to domineering figures, such as Adolf Hitler, a teacher, and a vampire; and in Emily Dickinson’s poem “She dealt her pretty words like blades—“, she talks about bullies and how they affect a person’s life—another domineering figure. Despite being born in different centuries, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath are parallel in a multitude of ways, such as their choice in story, their choice for themes, and their choice of and as a narrator.
Plath’s difficulties with narrative prose contrasts between her novelistic dreams and her character. Plath’s passion for classic novelists and her own talent made her realize the fitting narrative prose were densely constructed (Hughes 1). Plath’s poetry goes through constant changes (Smith 2). The bee was a motif that was often used (Smith 3).Jerome Mazzaro considers Plath’s achievements in The Bell Jar to be less gendered. Mazzaro also believes Plath’s novel is a statement of fascination of the midcentury (“The Importance…” 2). Marilyn Yalom wrote in Maternity, Morality, and the Literature of Madness that Plath’s novel about her breakdown and her recovery, The Bell Jar, is a pre-feminist disclosure of the effects of the sexist culture. Yalom’s critical view increased from the feminist and psychoanalytic critic of the 1980s (“The Importance…” 1). Plath’s lyricism ranges from simple but effective to a Hopkinsian ode for her beloved (Magill 2223). Her best ability was turning everyday experiences into diary entries (Magill 2225). Plath’s poems from Ariel reflect her fury and sullenness toward life (Draper 2734).
The novel Dracula was written by Bram Stoker and is one of the most popular novels among gothic literature. In any piece of gothic literature there are also gothic motifs which set the mood and tone of the story. A motif is a general theme, idea, or even a dominant symbol that plays a major role in any novel. A gothic motif is the same concept that is seen mostly in gothic literature. In Dracula, the audience will read about many different motifs such as cemeteries, revenants, entrapment, and an unreliable narrator just to name a few. Each of the motifs that are in the novel provide detail and vivid descriptions about the mood and tone of the story. For instance, if one would try to imagine Dracula without motifs like a cemetery or revenance,
In addition, Plath demonstrates the effect that this double standard can have on young women’s emotions when she Esther becomes extremely mindful of her own virginity, “that weighed like a millstone around my neck.” The simile of a “millstone” reflects the weight of these thoughts that are dragging her downwards into depression, and since they are “around [her] neck,” this prevents her from escaping the damaging
She tells the girl to “walk like a lady” (320), “hem a dress when you see the hem coming down”, and “behave in front of boys you don’t know very well” (321), so as not to “become the slut you are so bent on becoming” (320). The repetition of the word “slut” and the multitude of rules that must be obeyed so as not to be perceived as such, indicates that the suppression of sexual desire is a particularly important aspect of being a proper woman in a patriarchal society. The young girl in this poem must deny her sexual desires, a quality intrinsic to human nature, or she will be reprimanded for being a loose woman. These restrictions do not allow her to experience the freedom that her male counterparts
The first impression of Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is disturbing and it proves to have fearful twist. The poem’s theme is one of sadness and lack of a paternal bond with one’s parent. The daughter is finding her closure with her father through this poem. This particular theme is portrayed through the use of dark and depressing imagery. Plath is skillful with her use of detail and emotional pull. The imagery brings up personal feelings which makes it easy to visualize the meanings that Plath intends to portray in the poem “Daddy”.
In the book, Dracula by Bram Stoker there are many characters that display qualities of good verse evil. The Count Dracula is a mysterious character who appears as an odd gentleman but the longer the story goes on Dracula shows his true self. Dracula started infiltrating the lives of anyone who crossed his path and he was not stopping his destruction of others’ lives. Many people were affect by Dracula’s actions but there were two people that Dracula caused an impact on during his rampage. Dracula is an evil, cunning, and selfish character who harms the life of a young man and ruins the future of an innocent woman.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a classic piece of literature that has survived through the ages. Dracula has become a famous villain in countless movies and has been the inspiration for many others. What many people may miss about this book first written in 1897 is the purpose and symbolism behind this famous vampire. To begin to understand the symbolism and theme in the text, first you must understand a little background of the Victorian era in which Stoker lived. Named after Queen Victoria from 1837-190, this era was a time of “…sexual moralism, domestic propriety, and imperialist ambition” (“Dracula & the Fears of Victorian England”). Through these ideals and a declining economy, tensions were on the rise in the working class. Things such as sexual deviance or being improper was seen as a threat to proper Victorian society. Dracula and his mini...
Plath’s work is valuable for its ability to reach today’s reader, because of its concern with the real problems of our culture. In this age of gender conflicts, broken families, and economic inequities, Plath’s forthright language speaks loudly about the anger of being both betrayed and powerless. She was hailed as literary symbol of the women’s rights movement and a feminist writer of great significance. Sylvia Plath began by creating art that imitated life, but ended when life imitated art.
Sylvia Plath’s poetry is well known for its deeply personal and emotional subject matter. Much of Plath’s poetry is confessional and divulges the most intimate parts of her psyche whether through metaphor or openly, without creating a persona through which to project her feelings, and through the use of intense imagery. Plath’s attempt to purge herself of the oppressive male figures in her life is one such deeply personal and fundamental theme in her poetry. In her poem, “Daddy”, which declares her hatred for her father and husband, this attempt is expressed through language, structure, and tone. (Perkins, 591)
Plath uses symbolism to illustrate the theme of death as she describes the death of a woman and her children. Based on her symbolism, Plath does not seem to regret death. She writes “The woman is perfected/Her dead/Body wears the smile of accomplishment.” In this line, Plath is using the actual death of the woman as a symbol of death being the completion of life, as she emphasizes that with death the “woman was perfected” and it was an “accomplishment.” She further conveys the idea of death as she writes “as the petals/Of a rose close” with the closing of the rose being symbolic of death being the closure of life. As the poet explains the woman’s children each being as “one at each little pitcher of milk,” the pitchers of milk are symbolic of a mother feeding her children with milk, and in the past would have been a symbol of life, however in the poem the pitcher of milk is “now empty” thus again suggesting symbolism of death. The dead mother has had feeling of love toward the
To her, the child’s eye is the storage of beauty, and he wish is to be at the same place as beauty. Beauty and happiness is compared to childhood mother’s inability to do much for her child. This gives us the aspect of how she lacked happiness in her life and also lacked to see any positive outcomes. This was one of the last poems that Plath wrote before her death.