Saira ; Sylvia Plath, ‘Burning the Letters’ – Ted Hughes, ‘The Thought Fox’

The title ‘Burning the Letters’ itself gives away the main subject of this poem, which is evidently the ‘letters’ whom one would believe would be from Ted, whether they are love letters or simply a letter in which he discloses his affair.

At the very beginning of the poem Plath personifies the letters as, “white fists” indicating that they cause her to feel hurt and the use of “death rattle” illustrates the thought that Plath has read these letters so many times that they are in a bad state. Plath then puts emphasis on her unfulfilled dreams, “a dream of clear water grinned like a getaway car” whilst the letters are burning, therefore allowing the audience to believe that Plath has come to a point of realization where she realizes that she left behind all her dreams to help Ted fulfill his dreams. However, in the second stanza it seems as if Plath wants to stop the burning of the letters “My fingers would enter although they melt and sag”, as if she has doubts on whether she should really allow these letters to be destroyed. Plath then mentions, “here is an end to the writing” which could have an ambiguous meaning; it could be that Plath is literally referring to the writing on the letters, however it could also be that Plath is referring the end of her love. Plath then clearly emphasizes on her lost love, “At least I won't be strung just under the surface” – Plath is no longer under the belief that the love between her and Ted is still existent. Plath also gives her conflict between her dreams and duty an artistic form, “Between this wish and that wish” – Plath is evidently referring to her inner conflict, which consists of her battling herself to become a poet, to write and to fulfill her duty as a wife. Plath then illustrates the ashes of the burnt letters as “carbon birds” and “coal angels” – these ashes provide Plath with a sort of relief. Plath, then goes onto personifies the remaining parts of the letter she is able to save “I flake the papers that breathe like people”, this illustrates the thought of the letters taking a deep breath because they survived. Plath illustrates a revelation that had come to light between the burnt letters, “Between the yellow lettuces and German cabbage, Involved in its weird blue dreams, Involved in a foetus, and a name with black edges” – the yellow lettuces and German cabbage are most likely the burnt edges of the letter, whilst the weird blue dreams would be the burnt ink of the pages. Most importantly, the ‘name with black edges’ indicate towards the name of the person Ted was having an affair with.

At the end of the poem, Plath has not gained any relief, “Warm rain greases my hair, extinguishes nothing” - Plath may have though that burning the letters would give her some relief but in reality it did nothing but make her feel more hurt. Plath then goes to presenting her emotions in the form of an artistic representation, “the dogs are tearing a fox”- Plath represents her hurt in the form of a fox being killed. Lastly, Plath mentions “What Immortality is. That it is immortal.” Plath’s pain of losing her love is immortal.

Just as, in Hughes title ‘The Thought Fox’, Hughes presents his main subject in the illustration of his thoughts as a fox.

At the beginning, Hughes begins with “I imagine this midnight moment’s forest” it is clear that Hughes is imagining this dark and mysterious setting within the depth of his mind. Hughes then goes onto say, “Something else is alive, besides the clocks loneliness, and this blank page where my fingers move” Hughes personifies both the clock and the blank page to put an emphasis on his loneliness, whilst the “something else is alive” brings the mystery within Hughes setting. In the second stanza, Hughes mentions his ‘something’, “Though deeper within darkness, is entering the loneliness” – Hughes has mentioned earlier that something is alive and now it seems clear that Hughes is projecting his loneliness during the night into this imaginary forest, with him as the something. Whilst in the third stanza, Hughes begins to describe the movements of the ‘something’, which turns out to be a fox “a fox’s nose touches twig, two eyes serve a movement, that now, and again now, and now, and now” – Hughes idea of this metaphorical fox is reflecting his thoughts in the time, especially whilst he is writing his poetry, the repetition of ‘now’ puts emphasis on the sudden movements of the ‘fox’. The whole of the fourth stanza is a build-up of the fox and its ‘body’, between the third and the fourth stanza Highs is introducing us to the ‘fox’ in his imagination, which could represent his thoughts or himself – the actions of the fox represent the conflict and mess of thoughts going through Hughes mind. The fifth stanza consists of Hughes reaching the end of is ‘imagination’, “Brilliantly, concentratedly, coming about its own business” Hughes has reached his conclusion and is beginning to end his train of thoughts, along with the poem. In the sixth stanza, Hughes end the poem along with his train of thoughts, “the window is starless still; the clock ticks, the page is printed.” Hughes imagination is over but the reality is still the same – his loneliness and thoughts are still overwhelming him and with that his poetry has been completed.

Overall, Hughes ‘The Thought Fox’ has been about Hughes writing poetry and what goes through his mind when writing poetry. This idea of his poem began at his imagination of a ‘fox’ – this ‘fox’ can have many ambiguous meaning; it could be a metaphorical fox for himself; his thoughts; or maybe even the idea of the poem.

Even though I found it difficult to find the conflict between the two poems, I clearly understood the points that;

• ·         Plath’s ‘Burning the Letters’ is about getting rid of poetry/ words that re meaningful – Whilst, Hughes ‘The Thought Fox’ is about creating poetry/ words.
• ·         A similarity of both Plath and Hughes would be that; Plath speaks of loss of love, whilst Hughes speaks of loneliness – both are alone.
• ·         In Plath’s fourth stanza she mentions “the dogs are tearing a fox” in which she represents all her hurt and grief – this ‘fox’ may be related to Hughes ‘The Thought Fox’.

Emma- Burning the letters and Thought fox

Both are written in the first person, so both are writing about themselves. Plath's poem seems distressing not for just the reader but for Plath herself as she is writing about burning her own life or old letters from perhaps Ted Hughes she wants them to be destroyed as even the attic is not peaceful with them there. 

While Path's poem seems to be distressing, Hughes poem is calm, romantic and full of nature as he writes about imagining a fox, which seems like a symbol for imagination itself as from the beginning we know Hughes is imagining 'I imagine this midnight moment's forest:' he seems to imagining a fox as he can't express his own feelings and would rather use the fox. 

While Hughes uses a Fox as the main focus of the poem, foxes are known for their cunning and mischievous ways so perhaps Hughes connected his own thoughts with that of a fox? Unlike Hughes Plath uses a main focus of the fire, 'I made a fire.' She uses a fire because fire is known for its permanent destructive ways, Plath obviously wants to permanently destroy these letters. Although, when she destroys the letters she still can't find peace 'extinguishes nothing'  

Plath while destroying the letters/ writing is having a conflict between her own writing and her life as a house wife. Plath did everything to keep her family a float and also try to keep her poetry alive. Plath is tired of having this conflict 'being tired' 'I was tired' and as soon as she starts to get rid of the letters the poem starts to have some striking imagery of birds 'Rising and flying, but blinded. They would flutter off, black and glittering, they would be coal angels'. as though something has lifted from her. But again even though the letters are gone the memories are still there. 

I am unsure of the conflict that connects the two poems as Hughes is having a conflict with his imagination and how he really feels and Plath who is having conflict in everything in her life

I am also unsure about why Plath writes at the end 'That is immortal.' 

Is she saying that nature is immortal? 

'Telling the particles of the clouds, the leaves, the water what immortality is.' 

Nafeesa-burning the letters+thought fox

Plath is tired of the boredom in her life as she begins with 'I made a fire;being tired' , but she is also tired of men and the letters that she has. She is not doing anything with her life and she is tired of love. Plath personifies the letters as they 'rattle'. This illustrates the irritation of the letters existence to her. Plath then burns the letters and regrets burning them as she tries to take them out with her bare hands but they are told 'do not touch'. Plath kept the letters in the attic,  so now that the letters are gone the attic can be a peaceful and 'good place now'.  Also she won't be strung along the lies of her husband. The name of her husband's lover was on them letters as she writes 'a name with black edges wilts at my foot'.  Even though the letters are burnt it has not resolved anything or has made her feel better 'warm rain greases my hair,extinguishes nothing'.  Plath illustrates at the end of her poem that her pain in her life will never go away as it is 'immortal'. 

The thought fox shows how Hughes is writing this poem at night as it is midnight. He uses the clock to emphasise his loneliness. Hughes has trouble with expressing his own feelings so instead he writes about a fox he uses the fox to express his confusion of what he is doing with his life.  The Fox joins him with his loneliness 'though deeper within darkness is entering the loneliness'.  At the then end Hughes has finished writing his poem as he ends with 'the page is printed'. 

Both Plath and Hughes are lonely, Plath is burning letters whilst Hughes is writing letters/poems. Hughes poem is more simple than Plath's, as she goes into more detail about her pain with burning these letters that maybe are from him. I am not sure what the conflict between the two are.

Icarus and Gatsby comparison- Jessica

Icarus and Gatsby comparison

In some aspects Gatsby and Icarus can be compared to one another but they also have their differences. Both Gatsby's and Icarus' ambition was the cause of their downfall and they both had dreams that could never be reached. Icarus desperately wanted to fly close to the sun causing his wings to burn and leaving him to fall into the sea and drown. Gatsby intensely desired the standing the the upper class would give him. He had everything that would give him the ability to be in the upperclass, the money, the wealth, the power but the one thing he didn't have was the last name. 

However they differ because Gatsby didn't have the voice of reason and the mora compas that icaurs had. Icarus' father repeatedly told him not to fly to close to the sun because it is dangerous yet he ignored him. Gatsby did not have this. Nick was one of his few friends in the novel and he actively encouraged Gatsby to pursue Daisy, which was Gatsbys way in to the upper class. She was Gatsby's sun. 

Shafia-Why Daisy cries over the shirts.

In the chapters I have read so far, I have been able to deduce that Daisy wishes to portray herself as a materialistic person and she succeeds in doing so at first. However, I think she longs for more than materialistic items but chooses to hide this to avoid getting hurt like she has done in the past. She may have chosen to do this as a defence mechanism.

 Her tears over Gatsby’s shirts and claim of never having seen “such beautiful shirts” in her life are indeed false. She is married to the very wealthy Tom Buchanan so we know that this cannot be the case. I think that the shirts hold some sort of sentimental value for her as they represent everything that she once had but can no longer have (at least not openly and freely) as she is a married woman.

Daisy’s tears may also be of regret at not pursuing her relationship with Gatsby when she was free to do so and for settling for a man who is almost his equal in terms of wealth and status but who cannot provide her with the one thing she longs for-love. Tom’s shirts are described as being “shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel” which have been brought from “a man in England” who buys his clothes. Daisy’s tears could also be as a result of her realisation of the sharp contrast between Tom and Gatsby. Tom is an uncultured and ill-informed brute of a man whereas Gatsby a sophisticated gentleman and his shirts act as a symbolism of how cultured he is.

Daisy is not a “beautiful little fool” yet she wishes for her daughter to be so that she may be saved from the complexities and harshness of reality. However, if her daughter is a fool, she would not be intelligent so she may not have the capability to imagine and therefore long for things such as a greater meaning to her existence. She wishes for her daughter to be content with materialism, although she is not and that is the reason for much of her sadness and anger at her life with Tom.

Thought piece 3 - Jessica

In the ending of chapter five, when the three characters Daisy, Gatsby and Nick are at Gatsby’s mansion they go into a cupboard where Gatsby begins throwing his shirts around the room. This causes Daisy to cry at claiming she has never seen ‘such beautiful shirts before’. Daisy does this because she is broken although the she is clever she has been hurt and has never fully recovered. Her character is unique because she knows how to hold the power in relationships whether it be friendships or more, there are only few she sees as her equal. Daisy cries because she regrets aspects of her life such as her marriage to Tom and ignoring his betrayal. She regrets not going and being with Gatsby when she received the letter on her wedding day. Although it can be argued that Daisy has the lifestyle that was idealised in the 20’s so she should be happy. However, she does not have what she truly wants and that's to love unconditionally and be loved and adored in return. 

When she says that ‘it makes me sad because I've never seen such – such beautiful shirts’ she blatantly lies, because her lifestyle with Tom, it provides her with the ability to the same kinds of shirts in a daily basis. However it presents the regret she has of not going to Gatsby when she received his letter. The shirts that Gatsby throws around the room show his now higher social standing, he throws shirts made of ‘sheer linen and thick silk’ around the room with no such thought to them ripping. He doesn't need to worry about them ripping because he can just buy more. He's rich enough to not care about these pieces of material. She didn't go to him because he was of a lower social standing to her and although they were ‘in love’, as some suggest, it would have been unacceptable. The traditions of the period were that you could only love and marry someone of the same social standing. Daisy regrets not waiting because then she could have married the man she believes she truly loves. Therefore I think her tears are in fact tears of regret.

Thought piece 2 - Jessica

I agree that Fitzgerald achieved his goal of writing something ‘extraordinary and beautiful’ and one of the ways he did this was making the majority of the characters he wrote unpleasant. He makes the audience acknowledge that they are horrible characters but they all individually highlight the problems of the age such as the belief of their own superiority and the lack of priorities. He has characters such as the three ‘Mr Mumbles’ that are only present when talking about Gatsby and the rumours that help make his name. Fitzgerald only identifies these characters to either drop in some information to add to the story or they are simply background noise for the setting. The characters however frustratingly pretentious and arrogant they are, are still part of what makes the writing brilliant. 

Fitzgerald wanted to write something new for the age, a novel that represented what it was about. The Great Gatsby does this perfectly . He presents the characters to be unpleasant because throughout the 1920’s that's the way people were. They idealised class social standings and the materialistic lifestyle of ‘the American Dream’. Mannerisms were simply overlooked, if they had enough money treating people with respect was not necessary.  He tested the boundaries of the presentation of people but subtly he never bluntly says the characters are crude and annoying but they are.