300 Plath: Poetry as a Journey, not a Form of Shamnism Stefanie Ford Many poets have been stereotyped to have some sort of manic-depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, a combination of a few, and so on and so forth. If being stereotyped in this way is not enough, most poets are viewed as possibly being homosexual and having a large tendency to commit suicide. In Sylvia Plath's case, many believed she exhibited many signs manic depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, and her death was a result of finally having a successful suicide attempt. So, Plath definitely fits our conventional "mold" of what kind of a person a poet is in America. And one of the first things that many people think about when Sylvia Plath is discussed is her dark poetry, depressive nature, and her death by suicide at a young age. In reviewing Plath Profiles, one can see that its contributors discuss her depression, bipolar disorder, and suicide. What Plath has going for her, though, is that she is a world renowned poet for her poetry, not just her suicide. The images, wording, and concepts that live in her poetry are sometimes disturbing, yet, magnificent. Reading Plath Profiles, I came across an article by Ananya Ghosal. 1 Sylvia Plath and her writing have definitely struck Ghosal, but Ghosal proposes that Sylvia Plath is a shaman and/or mystic. Plath's writing was a huge release for the trauma and pain inside of her, and it was very much an emotional journey for her, as well as for the reader. Yet, by giving Plath the title of a "shaman" or "mystic" is utterly preposterous. It is trying to make her into something that she is not. Plath needed a release, an exploration. She needed to test the waters and discover herself. Her writing was a journey to and through her mind. It was not one of a "shamanic journey," but one of pure release and discovery and pain. Anyone can have a "journey." Ghosal claims that Plath is "reduced to and recognized as a morbid and suicidal poet rather than a mystic" (159) and that people often have "too reductive a preoccupation with Plath as a victim" (159-160). I fully disagree with her use of the terms "reduced to" and "too reductive." How can Plath be reduced to being recognized as a morbid and suicidal poet if that is, indeed, what she is? Obviously, she has plenty of other characteristics in her poetry and life, but the morbidity and suicidal characteristics are the most prominent. And if people are 1 http://www.iun.edu/~nwadmin/plath/vol1/ghoshal.pdf
Plath Profiles 301 preoccupied with looking at Plath as a victim, it is because she is a victim! Ghosal chose the three most encompassing characteristics of Plath as those characteristics which Plath has been belittled and reduced. Morbidity, suicide, and victimization are all exhibited through Plath's poetry. These things make up Plath as a person, so by saying that she has been reduced to these things runs parallel to saying that these things are unimportant to the study and reading of Plath. I agree with Ghosal that these are not the only things that exist in Plath and her poetry, but these things are essential to understand before you can understand Plath's journey. You must understand why her way of thinking makes her so suicidal, morbid, and victimized. Once we understand the most prominent characteristics of Plath, then we can use those things to start to more fully understand Plath's poetry. So, people who discuss morbidity and suicide aren't merely reducing Plath to just those characteristics, they are delving into the most noticeable and largest characteristics that form the basis of Sylvia Plath's mind, poetry, and life overall. Ghosal suggests that there is still something hidden within [Plath] (160). "She confronted death and otherness', but what were the ultimate terms of confrontation?" (160). Her terms of confrontation were similar to those of many poets. She had to explore her thoughts and have somewhere to release them. Plath's poetry takes the reader on a journey through her mind. Her confrontation of the psyche and mind were ones of necessity, not just want. Ghosal claims that Plath is some sort of shaman/mystic or has shaman/mystic qualities. She also discusses Ted Hughes' comments about Plath being a shaman. I disagree with both Ghosal and Hughes. Ghosal says that a shaman is supposed to be a healer, a curer of illnesses. He cures himself and others through his "dismemberment and resurrection through the ritual death of the psyche and its eventual rebirth" (160). The psyche was a very powerful thing for Plath, but was she ever reborn? Could the many suicide attempts before Plath's death have led her to new ideas and new concepts for her poetry? I believe that Plath's suicide attempts could have created different ideas and thoughts to write about in her poetry, but this is not a rebirth. Plath was never reborn at all. Alcoholics or drug addicts who go through counseling and mediation and become sober are sometimes said to be "reborn." They have different ideas and ways of thinking after their struggles and changes. Yet, are they shamans? I would have to say that they definitely are not, but they have changed in some sort of way, just as Plath's suicide attempts may have changed her in some ways. Through her suicide attempts, though, the black hole of depression, anger, and rage continued to suck her in and consume her. Although most of
Ford 302 Plath's poems contain some dark and morbid theme or undertone, a person can see how the later of her poems were darker than her earlier works. Her earlier works could easily be noted to portray depression and sadness, but "in the fall months of 1962 [shortly before her death], there appears a notable increase in painful themes. One gets the impression of an emergingly disturbed mental state, most likely manic depression" (Leenaars 627). From her initial suicide attempt o her last, the journey did not take her on a process of "rebirth." Her poetry may have changed in some way, but there was no rebirth of Plath. She was not cured or healed from her illnesses. Both suicide attempts made her even more ill. Other aspects of Ghosal's essay that make me disagree with her analysis of Plath being a shaman or having shamanic characteristics are her contradictions revolving around the use of the word "shaman." She claims that a "shaman" is a spiritual healer and curer, a person who emerges through the psyche and is reborn. Later in her writing, though, she cites Judith Kroll's book Chapters in a Mythology: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath which talks about the "shamanic figures" in Plath's writing (Ghosal 160). Now, Ghosal is straying more from her idea that Plath is an actual shaman to saying that her poetry contains figures that are shamanic. However, the statement regarding "shamanic figures" seems more accurate. The characters may represent or portray a "shamanic figure," but that does not mean that this is true of Plath herself. Ghosal then discusses what shamanism was to Ted Hughes. If Hughes can state what shamanism is to him, and place Plath into that category, then I can simply say what shamanism is to me and put myself into that category. There you have it! I'm a shaman, too! It seems preposterous. If that was not enough to make me disagree with Ghosal's analysis, she then goes on to state for herself that "in a broad sense shamanism can be described as a set of practices concerned with metaphysical or psyche processes" (162). So, what exactly is she trying to say? In what sense, then, is Plath a shaman? At the beginning of Ghosal's essay, she says that Plath was a shaman in the sense that she had healing powers and could dismember her psyche and be reborn. Now she explains that a shaman can be anything that includes metaphysical or psychic processes. Ghosal's analysis travels from a very complex one to an extremely broad one. The wavering and wide definition of what aspect exactly Plath fits with regard to shamanism persuades me to disagree with Ghosal's analysis. So, no, I do not believe that Plath was a shaman or a mystic. I do not believe that she had psychic or healing powers, but, I do believe that she was on a journey, a journey with her mind. Now, a shaman does take a journey of the psyche, but he or she is eventually
Plath Profiles 303 reborn. Plath never was reborn. She was never resurrected. The spiral of morbidity, loneliness, and depression finally swallowed her whole. Poetry takes many people on journeys, and for some it is more painstaking than it is for others. I believe that Plath's poetry was a release for her inner struggles. Her struggles and pain, though, were things that, ultimately, she could never escape from. Writing is truly something that takes people on a journey. Anyone is able to pick up a pen and paper and jump on the ride. Some people's journeys are more interesting and enticing to read than others, though. And this is the case that we have with Sylvia Plath. Her life was full of so much depression, heartache, and tragedy. She did not feel loved by her mother, and she lost her father at a young age. A reader can see in Plath's "Daddy" that she has tragic and painful thoughts about who her father was, but also about losing her father before she was ready to say "good-bye." Plath also was left by her husband. So, we can see that her feelings of abandonment and loss are huge issues that reside inside of Plath. Each time Plath touched her pen to a piece of paper, I could imagine that it would have felt like a breath of fresh air. Writing was merely an expression of her thoughts, not something in which would change her true being or personality. With each breath, she could continue on with the spirals and curls that the pen's ink created. Painful thoughts and emotions always spread across the pages. Plath takes the reader to many different places in her poetry, but the most powerful and prominent place that she takes us to and through is her mind. Her poetry is painful and heart-wrenching. But with so much tragedy, how could her poetry not evoke such emotion? When we set our eyes on a page of Plath's poetry, we are taken inside her mind. We are taken to a place where we feel as if we are Plath sitting there, pen in hand, writing what haunted her insides. Nevertheless, the writing that she did produce during her short lifetime illustrates her journey. Plath's poetry shows the effects of writing. It is a process. A journey. A difficult journey that is without "shamanism" or ideology, or propaganda! Writing is therapy outside of academia! Now, in no way am I trying to compare myself to Plath. Yet, she shares in the poetical journey that writing has taken me on. It is not mystical. It is not shamanistic. It is just writing a journal. It is like putting your mind on a piece of paper. Just as Plath put all of her thoughts down on paper, I have done the same. For instance, I have always been a writer. I've written before I can even remember. I would scribble stories and pictures with crayons in elementary school. At home, I wrote about my day, sketching short stories, or merely just writing about my
Ford 304 day. As I grew older, I still continued to write. In between customers at work at Seattle's Best Café and in free time in college classes, I would write. On whatever piece of scrap paper I could get my hands on, I would write. New paper or old, it did not matter. If there were words already printed on the paper, I would write in between them. My thoughts, my values, what I wanted to share with the world, what I wanted to share with myself. My feelings. My escape. Writing took me to a different place, a place where I could feel I do not have to watch what I say. I can let my guard down. For example, in the fall of 2010, I took a poetry writing course and a British poetry course. To this day, they have been two of the best classes that I have taken during my college career. In the British poetry class, I was exposed to new poets that I had not previously had the chance to read. I was able to take their journey, to see what they thought about and what their ideals were. I walked into my writing poetry course and was handed a syllabus with multiple writing assignments. I was overwhelmed, but when I got started, it was the best feeling that I ever had. I made a chapbook for that class, and I titled it "Destination: Unknown." I had no idea where I was going with my poetry or what I would find. But, I found myself on a great journey. I discovered suppressed feelings, things that had been upsetting and depressing me. I also discovered how many happy and loving feelings that I had. As soon as I put my pen to the piece of paper, my feelings and thoughts came pouring out. I was an open book. I was vulnerable and naked, my poetry portraying my life's past, present, and future journeys. Writing is a magnificent thing, and anyone can partake on the journey that writing begins. Like many others and myself, Plath had taken the reader and herself on the journey of her life, mind, thoughts, and feelings. I am not a shaman or mystic after taking my journey, and neither is she. But, writers like Plath have all taken their writing journeys. Not every writer may have had such a horrific and depressing life as Plath did, but every writer has thoughts, feelings, and something to say. And even if you do not consider yourself a writer, you can also take the same journey as Plath and I have. Start with whatever writing utensil you have around you and whatever you can find to write on. Just start writing. You may not feel like a shaman. You may not feel healed, resurrected, or reborn. But you will begin your journey, your journey through your mind and inner feelings and truth. You will express your life. Put your pen to the piece of paper, and like Plath and myself, begin now.
Plath Profiles 305 Works Cited Ghosal, Ananya. "Is there a shaman in Sylvia? Sylvia's redemptive Imagination." Plath Profiles 1. (2008) 159-174. Web. 23 November 2010. Leenars, Antoon A. & Susanne Wenckstern. "Sylvia Plath: A Protocol Analysis of her Last Poems." Death Studies. 22 (1998): 615-635. Web. 23 November 2010.