Sylvia Plath's "Medusa": Maternal Influence & Poetic Expression

Sylvia Plath's "Medusa": A Poetic Confrontation

Written just months before Sylvia Plath's death in late 1962, "Medusa" belongs to a period she considered her most prolific, producing "the best poems of her life." Following "Daddy," a poem of exorcism distancing herself from her deceased father's influence, "Medusa" similarly addresses her mother, Aurelia Plath.

Poetic Structure and Devices

The poem consists of eight five-line stanzas, known as quintains, and one concluding single-line stanza. Lines are of irregular length, and there is no regular rhyme scheme. However, Plath masterfully employs a range of poetic devices:

• Enjambment: Evident in lines one and two of the second stanza, creating a continuous flow of thought.
• Repetition: Used for emphasis and to build intensity.
• Assonance: Found in words like 'breath,' 'dead,' and 'moneyless' in stanza six, contributing to the poem's sonic texture.
• Consonance: Present in 'blood' and 'bells,' also in stanza six, adding to the auditory experience.

Thematic Interpretation: Mother as Medusa

Plath's personal journals reveal her persistent feeling of being physically constrained by what she perceived as her mother's constant, scrutinizing gaze. She experienced her mother as an internal, physical presence, even when asserting her own voice, as captured in the line: "in any case, you were always there, tremulous breath."

Within the poem, Medusa is primarily described through intense physical imagery, presented as a collection of disembodied body parts: mouth, eyes, ears, head, umbilicus, placenta. This "whirligig of images" highlights the daughter-speaker's inability to perceive the mother as an individual. Consequently, it becomes easier for her to identify the mother as a monstrous, destructive entity, bent on smothering and drowning her, "paralyzing" and "squeezing the breath from" her until "she could draw no breath," ultimately leaving her "Dead."

Core Thematic Argument

A central thesis emerging from "Medusa" is that a lack of affection from authoritarian figures can profoundly disrupt the relationship with their followers, leading to feelings of suffocation and resentment.

Key Imagery and Symbolism

• "Cobra light, paralyzing and squeezing the breath": This powerful metaphor compares Medusa's hairs to cobras, vividly reflecting the author's negative and suffocating perception of her mother.
• "Old barnacled umbilical, Atlantic cable": The "Atlantic cable" serves as a complex symbol representing both attachment and a desperate, perhaps unwanted, mutual need. Plath suggests this cable stretches across the ocean, signifying a long, distinct, yet enduring and inescapable relationship.
• "Dragging their Jesus hair. Did I escape, I wonder?": This line showcases a significant shift in syntax from third to first person. This direct address highlights the speaker's personal struggle for autonomy and her lingering doubt about having truly escaped her mother's influence.