I spent some time this morning working on some cases from the office. Yes, on a day off. Blame it on the turkey.
I'm reading The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath by Ronald Hayman. Finding it quite interesting. Previously having read Rough Magic with I believe was a very balanced biographical book. In the early chapters of Hayman's book I am struck buy some of the material on Aurelia Schober, Sylvia's mother. So much is made of the relationship between Sylvia and her father and then the relationship between her and Ted Hughes, but there is no denying that Aurelia Plath had a significant impact on the formation of both positive and negative attributes where Sylvia was concerned.
In reading Letters Home (edited by Aurelia and published after Sylvia's death) there is a continual picture of an upbeat young woman who all but worshiped the ground that her mother walked upon. But there is some indication that several of Sylvia's poems were about feelings that reflected a different view of Aurelia. Hayman selects two "simplistic and misleading" ways in which this mother daughter relationship can be summed up:
"A virtuously unselfish mother has an ungrateful and vindictive daughter who not only commits suicide but leaves behind her poems and fiction which portray the mother in an unfavorable light and go on plaguing her for the rest of her life." Or, Sylvia can be seen as, "the helpless victim of a woman who makes important demands not only on herself but on everyone involved with her." But Hayman suggests that "[both] were victims, but neither was a helpless victim, and it's easy to understand why Sylvia had so much difficulty in holding a balance between positive and negative emotions towards Aurelia."
I will likely visit the Plath topic again. I am anxious to get my hands on a copy of Ariel: The Restored Edition.
Michael, I find your reading of Hayman's books quite interesting, as I found there was quite an undercurrent of negativity—if not downright hostility in some instances—towards Plath and/or her work.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right, the Sylvia/Aurelia dynamic has been little examined... It's not hard to see Plath's ambivalence towards her mother. And if you take into account that she essentially repeated her mother's history when she and Hughes split and she had two kids to look after—that must've been so galling to her.
Another little-explored area is her art, her drawings—she was quite accomplished in this arena, too.
Ivy: I hope you didn't assume by my remarks that I have a totally positive view of Hayman's book. I'm way too early into it to tell. I felt Rough Magic, by Paul Alexander was very well balanced biography and I liked the author's approach to Sylvia's works... something that is often left out of the Sylvia equation. If I use Rough Magic as a yardstick, Hayman is going to have to get pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteThe treatment given by Hayman to Aurelia is of interest to me because I have often felt that whatever is attributable to Sylvia's father and Ted Hughes must also be weighed against the impact of her mother.
I believe Sylvia achieved much by way of influence of her mother. This however was likely not without a price.