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SYLVIA PLATH
¡§Virgin in a Tree¡¨
Study Guide
Summary ¡U Pictorial Background
Mythological, Biblical and Historical Sources
¡U Form ¡U Commentary
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Summary:
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"¡Xwhich alludes to a nun's long dress¡Xthat 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"¡Xan 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.
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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 reflect the 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.
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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.
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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.
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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 etching intends
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¡Xa 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.
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