Sylvia Plath's Dream-like Poetry as the Shelter: A Psychoanalytical Reading

[[abstract]]In the criticisms on Sylvia Plath, especially with regard to the meanings of her poetry, it is a common phenomenon that there are more disagreements than there are agreements. Controversy seems to be an inescapable part of Plath study. Very rarely can we see a critic’s viewpoint accepted by the others without disputes. More often than not, based on a distinctive aspect of Sylvia Plath, the critics manage to offer a different, if not contradictory, interpretation of the selfsame poem. In this respect, the critics’ attitude toward Plath’s poetry differs little from the Freudian dream interpretation. It renders Plath’s poetry into a dream-like work which is capable of yielding a great variety of interpretations. Needless to say, these diverse interpretations would make Plath study even harder because the readers oftentimes find themselves perplexed by the self-contradictory viewpoints of the critics. In this thesis, Sylvia Plath’s poetry will be treated as dream-like work. However, rather than proceeding with interpreting her poetry, I will apply Freudian theory to probing the two dream features in her poetry: 1) the transformation of Plath’s suppressed desires; 2) the accomplishment of the wish fulfillment. On the other hand, I will also examine how Plath’s dream-like poetry shelters her the way dreams guard the dreamer from the outside world. In addition to the Freudian theory, this thesis will also incorporate those of Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault. Their concepts contribute to expanding the domain of dreams from the self to the Other, and from the past to the future. Together with the Freudian theory, the revisions of Lacan and Foucault will serve as the methodology to explore in what way Plath’s dream-like poetry functions as her therapy to cope with the distressing reality in life. Presumably, Plath has conducted this poetry-writing therapy as a ritual till the last day of her life.