Death Drive in Sylvia Plath's Poetry A

Abstract

This paper analyzes Sylvia Plath's obsession with death as manifested in her life and in her poetry. This paper presents some results of a study that aims to investigate how the psychological state can be conveyed linguistically in the text of a personal nature. Figures of speech, in particular metaphor and metonymy, are generally understood to play important role in the expression of such complex phenomena. Certain Plath's poems "Arial," "Sheep in Fog," "Lady Lazarus," "Daddy" "Edge" and "I Am Vertical" have been selected to outline her various perspectives towards death. It is well known that death is the end of human life but Plath finds death as a rebirth and renewal. Most obvious factors that shaped her attitudes towards death were the early death of her father that left her unsecured, and the unfaithfulness of her husband, Ted Hughes, who left her dejected and melancholic.