SYLVIA PLATH

¡§Conversation Among the Ruins¡¨

Study Guide

Summary ¡U Pictorial Background ¡U Mythological Source

Form ¡U Commentary

n Summary:

In the first stanza (the octave), the speaker illustrates a vivid description of the male destruction. The furious man intrudes into the woman¡¦s orderly life, smashing her dream of love. The conception of the blasting whirlwind denotes the male lover's ravaging power. Images, such as "elegant house," "garlands of fruit / And the fabulous lutes and peacocks," "rich order of walls," which represent female elegance, contrast with images of male vulgarity, such as "wild furies," "whirlwind," and "stormy eyes."

The second stanza (the sestet) presents a ruptured relationship. The man who stands "heroic in coat and tie" finds no emotional interaction with the woman who sits "Composed in Grecian tunic and psyche-knot." There is no communication between them, since no "ceremony of words can patch the havoc." The poem is not a conversation between two persons; rather, it is a resentful monologue of a female speaker.

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n Pictorial Background:

The poem is based on Giorgio de Chirico¡¦s 1927 painting with the same title. The painting presents a man and a woman in a room with an open door and without walls. Outside the room is a barren landscape. The blurred boundaries create a disturbing atmosphere. While the inside is also the outside, the landscape becomes part of the room. As the woman looks nostalgically beyond the suitor toward the Greek hero in the clockface above¡Xnotice how the hero's head is slanted in the same position as the man below¡Xit seems the man represents an inferior demonstration of the Greek hero. And the discrepancy between modern and ancient indicates the conflict between the man in his untidy contemporary suit and the woman in her tasteful Grecian garment. De Chirico implicitly uses the view to suggest a psychologically disharmonious male-female relationship. These differences predict an inevitable failure of the ¡§conversation.¡¨

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n Mythological Source:

The term ¡§psyche-knot¡¨ not only illustrates a hairstyle, but also suggests a mythological source. In Greek mythology, Psyche is the personification of the human soul as the being beloved by Eros (Cupid)¡Xthe god of love. She is represented as a butterfly, or as a young maiden with butterfly's wings, sometimes as being pursued by Eros in various ways, or revenging herself on him, or united with him in the tenderest love. Apuleius (a Latin writer of the second century A.D.) in his tale of the Golden Ass makes Eros and Psyche a loving couple. The love-god causes the charming Psyche, the youngest of the three daughters of a king, to be carried off by Zephyrus, the West Wind, to a secluded spot, where he visits her at night alone, without being seen or recognized by her. Persuaded by her sisters, she transgresses his command, and wishes to see him, when the god immediately vanishes. Amid innumerable troubles and appalling trials she seeks her lover. At length, purified by the sufferings she has endured, she finds him again, and is united to him forever. In Plath¡¦s poem, the speaker, on the one hand, presents the man as a god-like figure and herself as a frail human being; on the other, she manifests the suffering she experiences, as Psyche, for their love.

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n Form:

The poem is a sonnet containing an octave (an eight-line stanza) and a sestet (a six-line stanza) with irregular meter and slant rhyme (abbaabba, abbaba). The sounds of "k" and "t" that go through the whole poem may demonstrate not only the breaking noise of the devastating damage, but also the hard relationship between the lovers.

n Commentary:
Sylvia Plath's ekphrastic poem on Giorgio de Chirico¡¦s painting expands the theme of the picture and establishes a vision of the devastating effect of a male lover on the female persona. Both de Chirico's painting and Plath's poem indicate similar themes about male-female relationships, yet the focus is conspicuously different. The painting portrays the irretrievable affinity. However, the poem not only illustrates the barren landscape to reveal the mind of characters, as the painting presents, but also emphasizes images of a destructive, powerful male and an oppressed, fragile female. While Plath adds other imageries (such as "garlands," "lutes," "peacocks," "whirlwind" and "rooks") to reinforce a conflict between the man and the woman, she actually presents a victimized female under the dominant male.

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