Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath

Paper Summary:

This paper describes that both Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath were victims of the 1950 middle-class woman's assumed passivity; both of these women reveal in their work the inner-turmoil of being choked by a masculine world. The paper states that Sexton and Plath are classified as confessional poets because their writings detail with honesty the journey from discontent to mental instability with few societal constraints impacting their works. The author believes that the poetry of both Sexton and Plath is a catharsis of their Electra complexes and reflects their struggles to accept their womanhood amid worlds dominated by their fathers.

From the Paper:

"Plath's experiences as a masculine sacrifice are conveyed in her writings with much more hostility than are Sexton's, her involvement with the father-daughter relationship of the Electra complex a deeply-rooted emotional disturbance that affected her marriage as well. Consumed by an overwhelming guilt, Plath resents anyone who has power over her, at the same time despising herself for her vulnerability. Unlike Sexton, Plath is neither able to laugh about her role in the Electra complex nor tease about the sexuality of it, for the emotions bombarding her are too complicated, especially since, as her poetry indicates, she loathes her cold, stern, dark father."

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