Edgar Allan Poe’s much quoted assessment that “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world” (Poe 1846, 165) opens a much-discussed dialogue that leads to two main questions. Why is it death, and in particular the death of a woman that is considered thus poetical, and, as I want to add, political? With this B.A. thesis, I want to try and answer these questions, while especially focusing on female death in the form of suicide. I want to consider in how much suicide is employed as a means to criticise women’s restrictions in patriarchal society. How can the most passive state of death be employed as a means of rebellion or liberation? Can the employment of suicide in the writings of female authors be considered a form of subversion on their parts or on the parts of their characters? Are factors like art and writing, mythical conceptions of the role of a woman and the male gaze playing a part in this discussion? My analysis …show more content…
I have chosen to focus on Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) as it represents a late phase of her work, right before her own suicide, and is thus filled with topics such as death, repression, and depression. The novel is especially interesting in this regard, as it constitutes what can be seen as coming close to an autobiography of Sylvia Plath’s younger years and her failed suicide attempt. Furthermore, I chose to analyse her poem “The Disquieting Muses” as it offers interesting insights in respect to female writing, as well as “Lady Lazarus”, which helps understand Plath’s conception of