Treatment of Motherhood in Sylvia Plath's Poetry

Abstract

In this research work, I have studied some of the poems by Sylvia Plath and the unusual portrayal of motherhood in her poems. With the help of the tool of modern feminism, I found the conclusion that liberation from motherhood is the ultimate wish of the modern mothers. Plath seeks the escape from mothering and shows hatred towards motherhood. All the poems that I have gone through carry the core issue of negative concept of the poet toward motherhood. The poet’s psyche and the influence of the contemporary busy life of the modern mothers and the lack of maternal life hold the unusual portrayal of motherhood. The modern feminist Plath is aware of herself identity and conscious about the career. In her own life too, she had the lack of motherly passion. So she expresses her anger, frustration and pain through the creation of the literary works. She is the female writer who is different from the stereotypical mother writer and upholds modern opinion regarding the identity of a woman. Unlike the traditional mothers, Plath sees completion of ‘identity’ only through the escape and freedom rather than mere maternal love and duties. She also uses the modern literary tropes to uplift her themes. Thus Plath is a modern feminist.