The poem begins with an ironic exclamation by the speaker who mocks
the virgin in Klee's etching and the conventional acclamation to
females who choose chastity over sexuality. The speaker refers
to the traditional approval for virginity as being like a "parody of
that mousetrap / Set in the proverbs stitched on samplers."
There is juxtaposition between "moral mousetrap" and "samplers."
On the one hand, virginity is a snare that makes the chaste woman a
victim; on the other, the virgin also presents herself as a typical
prototype, a sampler.
The speaker then describes in stanza two the virgin in a tree as
wearing a "nun-black / Habit"—which alludes to a nun's long
dress—that would "sheathe" herself "In a scabbard of wood," like the
virgin-maiden Daphne, and drive away all pursuers.
When the speaker retreats with mockery, from the third to sixth
stanza, the puritan voice appears to affirm victory of virginity.
The puritan voice intends to celebrate Syrinx and Pitys' chastity.
Unlike Eva, Cleo, and Helen, who had lost their virginity, Syrinx
and Pitys would keep everlasting fame and make their virginity a
“sanctum.”
In the seventh and eighth stanza, the puritan voice disappears and
the speaker comes back to address Klee. First, the speaker
laments the glory that has been historically preserved for "ugly
spinsters and barren sirs." Then, the speaker indicates Klee's
Virgin in a Tree in which he defies tradition by portraying the
virgin as a victim, and virginity as distorted, stern, and bitter.
The virgin in the tree is like the virgin "on her rack"—an
instrument of torture on which people were tied and stretched.
The virgin's tree becomes a scaffold of torment that destroys her
identity and vitality. The description of her gesture ("Lain
splayed") implies a strong suggestion of sexual desire, yet the
virgin becomes an overripe sour fruit for her choice of chastity.
Finally, the last stanza concludes that youthful sexuality should
not be wasted or "all beauty's bright juice sours." The
speaker mirrors the barren virgin as a "gross anatomy" in that her
virginity is not just unnatural and distorting, but also is
eventually destructive. The poem ends with the word "break."
The speaker proclaims that the conventional viewpoint about
virginity must be abolished. This conclusive last word
suggests that the creation of a new viewpoint concerning virginity
must begin with the destruction of the traditional viewpoint.
Pictorial
Background
Klee's 1903 etching Virgin in a Tree is mockery about the
traditional view of chastity. It reveals nineteenth-century imagery
on the nature of woman and her place in society. The etching
is a union of forms through sinuous outlines and linear
continuities. The contours of the virgin are made to fit closely
with the distorted branches of her tree. The congruence of the
tree, the virgin, and the birds that Klee etched purposely create a
particular connection between
them. The contorted tree demonstrates the perverted nature of
virginity. The virgin in the tree is genuinely a virgin belonging
to a part of the tree. The linear physique of her body perfectly
harmonizes with the linear outline of the tree. And the dry,
wilted, lifeless tree echoes the inert, barren, torpid virgin.
Thus, the dead tree is an ironic reflection of the unattractive
virgin. Also, the beast-like birds reflectthe beast in
men, the sensuality. Yet they are not birds of love that can remind
the virgin of a season of mating. The contradiction between the
birds and the virgin manifests the conflict between sensuality and
virginity. Instead of suggesting the pleasure of sensual love, the
pair of birds almost looks like birds of prey ready to fall on the
virgin. To choose to be a virgin indicates a decision to renounce
sexual desires. Thus the birds, the representation of physical
love, would not bring the virgin any joy, but can be dangerous and
destructive.
Mythological,
Biblical and Historical Sources
Daphne:
A nymph with whom Apollo fell in love with. Running away from the
god the chaste maiden cried for her father, the river god Peneus,
who turned her into a bay tree.
Syrinx:
An Arcadian nymph, daughter of the river-god Ladon. She was changed
by her sisters into a reed in her flight from the enamored Pan.
Pitys:
A beautiful nymph. Pan chased her and in order to get away from him
Pitys turned herself into a pine tree.
Eva: or Eve. In the Old Testament (Genesis), she is the wife
of Adam. They are first man and woman and parents of the human
race. Adam was created by God in His image out of dust. Eve (from
the Hebrew word for “mother of all living”) was made by God from one
of Adam's ribs. They were placed in the Garden of Eden, but they
were expelled for eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil.
Cleo: or Cleopatra. She is the last and most famous of the
Macedonian queens of Egypt. She is best remembered for her love
affairs with two Roman rulers, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. After
Caesar's death, she became the lover of Mark Antony. She was with
him at the Battle of Actium, where he was defeated by Octavius for
control of the Roman world. According to legend, after Antony's
death, she killed herself with the bite of an asp.
Helen of Troy: The divinely beautiful daughter of Zeus and
Leda. She was wooed by numbers of suitors, and at length gave her
hand to Menelaus. In the absence of her husband she was carried
away to Troy by Paris the son of Priam, taking with her much
treasure. This was the origin of the Trojan War.
Form
The stanzaic form is rigid with a demanding rhyme scheme of abcde,
which reflect the stern traditional concept. Yet the poem does not
present a sermon or praise for conventional approval of chastity.
Commentary
Sylvia Plath's ekphrastic poem on Klee's Virgin in a Tree
does not simply reflect the subject matter of the etching, but
undertakes a practice to destroy and to re-create the viewpoint of
virginity. As Klee did in his etching, Plath's ekphrastic poem also
demonstrates a social critique and mockery of the conventional
viewpoint about virginity. However, Klee's picture intends to
criticize the truism, but Plath offers more than criticism. First
of all, the theme of the poem is different from the etching. Klee's
etchingintends to mock the ridiculousness of traditional
perceptions about virginity. Plath's poem not only illustrates the
woman as a victim of conventional approval of chastity, and her role
as a weaker sex in society, but also suggests a possibility to
destroy the social bondage and free the virgin from a meaningless
reputation for virginity's sake. Second, the focus is different.
Klee's etching presents a barren virgin in a withered tree to convey
the irony between absurdity and pathos. Plath's poem keeps the
irony; however, the focus is on a disagreement between the
third-person speaker and the puritan voice—a debate about the nature
of virginity. In order to indicate the irony, the speaker in the
poem is both a narrator and a commentator. While the speaker's
sarcasm contradicts the puritan voice's boast, the poem, in fact,
does not deliberately present a portrayal of the virgin in Klee's
etching, but a struggle between sensuality and chastity, between the
woman who prefers to follow her sexual desire and the woman who
chooses to be a nun-like virgin. Also, characters are changed. The
etching displays an inert woman and a pair of languid birds in a
withered tree; Klee uses juxtaposition between them to denote the
destructive nature of virginity. Nevertheless, Plath uses sources
from mythology, history, and the bible to demonstrate the results of
the choice of chastity and sensuality. The change of characters
from birds to female figures helps Plath to emphasize the struggle.
There is an ambiguous irony in Plath's comparison between the
mythological virgins, and the biblical and historical non-virgins.
The praise for the virgins is accompanied with a negative
impression, while relating them with the tree image. Yet the
disapproval of the non-virgins also suggests an understatement that
affirms their strength to determine what they want, but not what the
society approves. Instead of a contrast between a human being and
the beasts as in Klee's etching, Plath uses virgins and non-virgins
to reinforce women's struggle with virginity and sexuality.
Summary
