The following thesis aims to give an insight into Anne Sexton's life and work. First, I will give an overview of Anne Sexton's biography, concentrating on her childhood and youth, the beginning of her illness, the marriage and her "other" character as a poet. Further, I will focus on her poetry with special remarks on the motif of suicide. Due to the multiplicity of her works and an even greater amount of diverging analytical approaches, I am going to concentrate on a selection of concepts, including the aspect of guilt, escape from life, society, religion, love and spirituality. I will pay special attention to the poem "Wanting to Die" and examine the representation of suicide along the poem.
Anne Sexton is counted among the most influential American poets of modern times. She was raised in a society in which women could only reach feminine fulfillment by being the perfect suburban housewife: healthy, attractive and only concerned about her husband, children, and the household. A society in which mental disorders and depression were seen as inappropriate behavior or harmless housewife blues. A society in which thousands of women missed to meet those expectations and considered themselves as individual failures. Anne Sexton was one of them. Raised by callous parents, she found herself deeply depressed and overstrained in a household with a husband and two small children. What followed were several suicide attempts, psychiatric treatment and her so-called rebirth at twenty-nine, when she started writing poetry, that was centered on her personal feelings and experiences.
What was intended to serve as a form of self-therapy was soon becoming a poetic confession dealing with topics many women and suicide patients had experienced but had been too afraid to talk about. To do something that was valued by others gave Anne Sexton strong self-esteem, but also created a wide gap between her public representation and her personal state of being. Critics were in disagreement whether she was groundbreaking confessional or narcissistic or completely insane. Or everything at once. Dealing with such a complex personality a variety of questions come to mind: To what extent did Anne Sexton's biography influence her writing? Did writing poetry help her to overcome times of despair or did it even enhance her mental disorder? How is the topic of suicide depicted in her poems? Can Anne Sexton be considered as a forerunner for later feminist movements?
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Main part
2.1 Anne Sexton- A Biography
2.2 Suicide in Anne Sexton's Poetry
2.2.1 Motifs Part I
2.2.2 Wanting to Die
2.2.3 Motifs Part II
2.3 The Personal is Political – Anne Sexton, Confessional Poetry and the Women’s Liberation Movement
3. Conclusion
4. Works Cited
Research Objectives and Core Themes
This thesis explores the intersection of Anne Sexton's biography, her mental health struggles, and her creative process, aiming to analyze how she transformed personal experiences of suicide and societal oppression into confessional poetry that resonated with the feminist movements of the 1970s.
- The influence of Sexton's biography and upbringing on her mental health and literary themes.
- An examination of suicide as a recurring motif, symbol of self-determination, and escape from societal norms.
- The role of "hunger" and its attempted satisfaction through love and religion in Sexton's later work.
- The connection between Sexton's confessional style and the "The personal is political" doctrine within the Women's Liberation Movement.
Excerpt from the Book
2.2.2 Wanting to Die
Since you ask, most of the days I cannot remember. I walk in my clothing, unmarked by that voyage. Then the almost unnameable lust returns.
The first stanza of the poem seems to be the answer to a question, that is not asked in the poem, but can be identified by reading further to be about the origin of the lyrical I's desire for suicide. The lyrical I describes her state of mind as blurred and meaningless, even though she speaks of walking, the first two lines pretend to be somehow static. The first impulse of life emerges in the third line a “unnameable lust returns”, the combination of something, that returns and the “lust” referring to the senses or even to sexuality creates a contradictory vivid expression, even though in he third stanza it becomes explicitly clear, that the lust is contributed to suicide.
Even then I have nothing against life. I know well the grass blades you mention, the furniture you have placed under the sun.
The lyrical I provides a very neutral image of life, perceptive that life has a value for her interlocuter, but reserved in her own prospect. The second stanza suggests that the lyrical I is in a dialogue with someone, who really cares for her.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Presents the complex personality of Anne Sexton and outlines the research questions regarding her biography, poetry, and influence on feminist movements.
2. Main part: Provides a comprehensive biographical overview, followed by an in-depth literary analysis of suicide motifs and the relevance of her work to the "personal is political" concept.
2.1 Anne Sexton – A Biography: Details Sexton's childhood, marriage, mental health struggles, and the subsequent "rebirth" through poetry.
2.2 Suicide in Anne Sexton's Poetry: Analyzes the depiction of death, suicide, guilt, and escape from society in her literary works.
2.2.1 Motifs Part I: Discusses the role of guilt and the theme of escaping meaninglessness in early poems.
2.2.2 Wanting to Die: Offers a close reading of the poem "Wanting to Die" to explore the speaker's ambivalence toward life and death.
2.2.3 Motifs Part II: Examines the concept of "hunger" and its relation to religion and love as coping mechanisms.
2.3 The Personal is Political – Anne Sexton, Confessional Poetry and the Women’s Liberation Movement: Connects Sexton's self-disclosure to the wider societal shifts of the 1970s and the radical feminist discourse.
3. Conclusion: Evaluates the research findings, confirming that Sexton’s poetry bridged the gap between personal suffering and collective political awakening.
4. Works Cited: Lists the academic sources and secondary literature utilized in the paper.
Keywords
Anne Sexton, Confessional Poetry, Suicide, Biography, Feminism, Women's Liberation Movement, The Personal is Political, Mental Health, Narcissism, Motifs, Hunger, Self-therapy, Guilt, American Society, 20th Century Literature.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this paper?
The paper examines the life and work of Anne Sexton, specifically how she utilized her personal struggles, including depression and suicidal ideation, to create influential confessional poetry that challenged social taboos.
What are the central themes discussed in the work?
Central themes include the manifestation of suicide as both a motif and a form of self-determination, the role of guilt in poetic expression, and the search for meaning through love and religion.
What is the primary research objective?
The objective is to explore the extent to which Sexton's life influenced her poetry and to evaluate whether she can be considered a forerunner of the Women's Liberation Movement by analyzing her work through the lens of "the personal is political."
Which scientific methodology is applied?
The author utilizes a close reading and textual analysis of Sexton’s poems, supported by secondary literature on psychology, literary criticism, and feminist theory to contextualize the work within its socio-historical frame.
What topics are covered in the main section?
The main section covers her biographical history, specific motifs within her poetry such as suicide and "hunger," and a critical discussion of her relevance to 1970s feminist political movements.
How would you describe the key characteristics of Sexton's work as identified here?
Her work is characterized by radical self-disclosure, the conversion of private female experiences into collective societal critiques, and a persistent, paradoxical struggle between the desire for death and the hunger for life.
How does the author interpret the concept of "hunger" in Sexton's poetry?
The author, referencing Burton R. Solomon, interprets "hunger" as a central driving force in Sexton's work, which she attempts to satisfy through religious belief and later through romantic relationships, both of which ultimately fail to replace her desire for suicide.
What does the paper conclude about the relationship between Sexton and feminist movements?
It concludes that while Sexton may not have been a traditional political activist, her poetry anticipated the feminist "consciousness-raising" strategies by revealing personal female issues as collective problems, thereby aligning her work with the goals of the Women's Liberation Movement.
- Quote paper
- Elena Mertel (Author), 2015, On the Motif of Suicide in the Poetry of Anne Sexton, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/464318
