Anne Sexton's The Double Image

Anne Sexton loved her children but she was ashamed of who she was, a person who might one day possibly kill her kids. Those thoughts explain her shamefulness and regret. She doesn't want to commit suicide but she’s forced to because her brain won't function properly despite her best efforts. The reader would also come to realize that Sexton felt different toward Linda her older daughter than toward Joyce her younger one. While both Linda and Joyce struggled from their mother’s mental state, the reader would come to find that Linda has suffered more and that pushed her further away from her mother the older she got.
Reading her poem “The Double Image” (p. 86), Sexton takes about her younger daughter Joyce saying “I remember we named you Joyce/so we could call you Joy. I needed you. I didn’t want a boy […] I, who was never quite sure/ about being a girl, needed another life/ another image to remind me. I made you to find me.” Reading this poem shows how much Sexton was happy to have a second daughter. It also reminded sexton who she is and it gave her a since of fulfillment. The …show more content…
In one of Sexton poem (p.348), we find her talking about how Sexton and Linda are growing apart, saying “Linda, you are leaving / your old body now. You’ve picked my pockets clean/ and you’ve racked up all my/ poker chips and left me empty/ and, as the rivers between us arrows”. Reading through the lines the reader can understand how Sexton fells ashamed and saddened that the relationship between her and Linda is getting weaker. This increased the sense of emptiness in Sexton. Treating Linda differently from Joyce in her childhood had come back to hunt Sexton. When sexton would have rage attacks it was Linda who would suffer the backlash. Sexton would mention “I’ve loved Joy, never Linda. Something comes between me and Linda. I hate her