Plath was therefore caught up in a time where on a very subconscious level she still had the values of an “ideal housewife” infused in her psyche, while she was also a newly empowered young ambitious woman trying to find independent identity and leave a mark in this world. Therefore the same woman who thought that to be deprived of the experience of child birth and motherhood is a “death indeed”, also questions “when and if” is she would feel anything at all for her child. (Plath, Sylvia. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 495, 454)
What made matters worse in Plath’s case— a representation of many women her age— is her instability in her career as well when she became pregnant with Frieda. There was a “gulf between her desires and ambition.”( Plath, Sylvia. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 273). She was still attempting to find and establish herself as a career woman/writer, like many other women she was also trying to find her “calling”.
“I, sitting here as if brainless wanting both a baby and a career but God knows what if it isn’t writing” (Plath, Sylvia. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath,469) …show more content…
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 518) She was still trying to “find herself” and be a “contribution to her marriage and not “a dependent weak half” as most women prior to her generation were, when she became a mother (Plath, Sylvia. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 446). The demands of being a mother limited Plath’s exploration of “self”. Plath’s journals are a testimony to these rather conflicting desires. They reveal a woman who is unstable in both the identities. While she was still working towards becoming a successful woman, she was thrust with the responsibility of being a mother. The journals document the intensely conflicting realities of her life and underscore the motherhood/career
What made matters worse in Plath’s case— a representation of many women her age— is her instability in her career as well when she became pregnant with Frieda. There was a “gulf between her desires and ambition.”( Plath, Sylvia. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 273). She was still attempting to find and establish herself as a career woman/writer, like many other women she was also trying to find her “calling”.
“I, sitting here as if brainless wanting both a baby and a career but God knows what if it isn’t writing” (Plath, Sylvia. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath,469) …show more content…
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 518) She was still trying to “find herself” and be a “contribution to her marriage and not “a dependent weak half” as most women prior to her generation were, when she became a mother (Plath, Sylvia. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 446). The demands of being a mother limited Plath’s exploration of “self”. Plath’s journals are a testimony to these rather conflicting desires. They reveal a woman who is unstable in both the identities. While she was still working towards becoming a successful woman, she was thrust with the responsibility of being a mother. The journals document the intensely conflicting realities of her life and underscore the motherhood/career