Review "The Willing Domesticity of Sylvia Plath: A Rebuttal

A detailed Summary of Review "The Willing Domesticity of Sylvia Plath: A Rebuttal

Review of Michelle Kinsey-Clinton's 'The Willing Domesticity of Sylvia Plath: A Rebuttal of the Feminist Label'

Critic Michelle Kinsey-Clinton makes claims and offers opinion that Sylvia Plath was not in fact a feminist as many heralded her, but that instead she was content with her domestic role as mother and wife as long as she was able to continue her writing and her companion was no less than equal to her: 'The one provision...she would be a wife, and she would write as well'. Clinton explains the misconception of Plath as a feminist by quoting 'there is little feminist consciousness in Plath's work...(it is) being read...by readers searching for political sustenance, feminist sentiment that the author never held can easily be attributed to her writing'.

Clinton was able to support her claim with plausible evidence such as a 1953 journal entry written by Plath at age 20, which states:

'I must find a strong potential mate who can counter my vibrant dynamic self; sexual and intellectual, and while comradely, I must admire him.'

The ideas and claims offered by Michelle Kinsey-Clinton in her review "The Willing Domesticity of Sylvia Plath: A Rebuttal of the Feminist Label" on the surface appears to be credible and many m

While Clinton's theory of Plath may help us to understand the reasons as to why Plath settled for the typical domestic life set out for a women by the society standards of the time - the loving wife standing at the kitchen sink, a child attached to her hip - it fails to mention that Plath faced much conflict within herself as to whether she would be happiest breaking free from the confines expected of her by society or if instead she would at last feel whole accepting a life of repetitive mundane chores but also the fulfilment of a husband to please and children to nurture. When looked at into great depth, much of Plath's work shows the great turmoil that burnt within her for much of her life. Plath's letters to her mother and her novel "The Bell Jar", make it explicitly clear that Plath was confused and frustrated by the necessity of defining herself as a woman. In 1949, at age seventeen, she wrote: 'I am afraid of getting married. Spare me from cooking three meals a day - spare me from the relentless cage of routine and rote. I want to be free...'. At twenty and a student at Smith, she insisted: 'Graduate school and travel abroad are not going to be stymied by squealing, breastfed brats' but by the time she reached Cambridge, her attitude began to change. Plath began to see motherhood as a chance to 'extend' her 'experience of life' and she began to fear that if she did not marry she would become one of the 'weird old women' she saw as alternatives and she could not bear to go back to the states unmarried.

To bring teacups and roll away headaches

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Approximate Word count = 1146
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English