Challenging Voice: Study of the Connections Between Sylvia Plath's Poetry and Betty Friedan's Theory" The Feminine Mystique"
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Abstract
This paper analyzes the psychological and societal limits imposed on women in the mid-20th century, concentrating on Plath's poems "The Colossus," "Daddy," and "Lady Lazarus". This study demonstrates commonalities between Sylvia Plath's poetry and Betty Friedan's creative feminist work "The Feminine Mystique" (1963). Friedan's analysis of the feminine mystery which represent the societal myth asserting that women's fulfillment is exclusively linked to household responsibilities which reverberated profoundly with Plath's poetic depictions of enmeshment, degeneration and pantheistic dread. This research illustrates how Plath's depictions of suffocation patriarchal subjugation and fragmented identity resound with Friedan's sociological insights regarding women's constrained aspirations as evidenced in Plath's novel like "The Bell Jar, "as well as her poem's "Daddy," and "Lady Lazarus." By underscoring the psychological and social limitations faced by women in the mid-20th century, this paper examines the connection between Sylvia Plath's poetry and Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. This study examines the concepts of entrapment and identity fragmentation in Plath's work namely The Bell Jar, Daddy, and Lady Lazarus, in relation to Friedan's critique of the domestic ideal.
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