Derek Mahon

Sylvia Plath has written poetry that fully explores the profound depth of the human psyche. Through her use of confessional poetry and psychic landscape, her poetry delves into the multifaceted layers of the human condition. Plath herself came across as a very complicated and perplexing individual, and in her style of writing, she conveys the inner state of her mind. To read her poetry without the context of her mental state, few readers could comprehend the intensity and compelling suffering which lies at the core of her work. In her poem ''The Arrival of The Bee Box'', Plath uses an extended metaphor to discuss her distressed state of mind. In the second stanza, there is a vivid description of this box, the box comes to represent Plath’s own mind. She refers to it as “dangerous”, but she is irrevocably drawn to it. ''(She) has to live with it overnight. And...can't keep away from it.'' There is a constant state of unrest in Plath's mind, and no escape from her terrifying thoughts. The psychic landscape set in this poem helps to convey the tone of claustrophobia and powerlessness. Plath uses the peculiar comparison of the bees ''with the swarmy feeling of African hands minute and shrunk for export.'' This bizarre juxtaposition sets a dark tone and is used to disclose her fear of being taken against her will. In stanza four, Plath evaluates the view that if she opens up her mind to really feel her subconscious thoughts, they will be ''like a Roman mob'' and uses the…

No human is perfect; the balance of willpower and necessary self-indulgence is such a fine one that even the most perfect of people occasionally make mistakes. True, the most noble of us have more finely tuned the system of giving up the wants and retaining the needs, but isn’t it said that the highest have the furthest to fall? Aristotle once said that bravery was most valuable when it is strength against wants but least valuable when it is strength against enemies. Throughout literature, many…

As Hamlet’s story begins, we see that he consciously slips into madness; After some time, we can see that his hallucinations start getting more and more real, which we can assume as to him becoming actually mad. We could say that in his eyes, the means justified the ends, and he had his ends very clearly objectified, but as the progress of achieving the ends occurs, the ends became blurry and his actions insane, which lead me to believe he was a little.. off and, undoubtedly, depressed even…

The soliloquy of act 2 scene 2 is focused on inner struggles with revenge. Earlier in this scene, Hamlet asks the actors to recite the story of Priam. While viewing this play hamlet realized the flaw in all that he has been doing, or hasn’t been doing, to act revenge on Claudius. Claudius killed Hamlet's father and stole the crown and hamlet is the only one who knows so he hatches a plan. He has made a few attempts of Claudius' life but failed. He is beating himself up at this point. As the play…

things together. When spring rolled around each year during my seventh, eighth, and ninth grade years, I signed up to play on the modified softball team. While playing modified softball I got the chance to play many positions, but I found myself consistently pitching or playing shortstop. During those years I found that I enjoyed playing shortstop and that pitching was not really my thing. Even though I really wasn’t that bad, I did not like feeling as if my teammates were depending on me and…

Throughout time, humans have displayed many positive and negative life experiences. These experiences can be categorized under various themes, ranging from; love even onto betrayal, and through these themes human emotions and experiences can be studied. “Hamlet,” by William Shakespeare, and “Death of a Salesman,” by Arthur Miller, are two well written plays, displaying a both very tragic and thematic approach. Although, they take place in two very different time periods, under two very…

One’s sanity is not something you can control. Without sanity comes madness, but it is within our minds and grows over time if not released or helped. For Hamlet, he chooses to give the appearance as if he is mad I order to find the truth about his father’s death. At the beginning of his plan, everything is going good but as time goes by Hamlet is slowly losing control of his madness, and his mind begins to spin out of control. Something that started as an act of insanity or antic disposition…

In William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Hamlet, a young prince must avenge his father’s death by killing his uncle who murdered his father and married his widowed mother. This is not a simple task as Hamlet is no murderer, yet by circumstance and chance he is led down a path of no return in which he becomes a murderer, albeit a rightful one, like his uncle. The complex character of Hamlet that develops throughout the play aids in conveying the message of what true nobility is and also helps set…

In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the title character Hamlet’s mind is violently pulled in divergent directions about the morals of murder. He feels an obligation to avenge his father’s death and thinks that it may be excused, since it is a case of “an eye of an eye.” But he is conflicted because the Bible has also taught him that murder is a sin and revenge should be left to God. Hamlet’s struggle to interpret this moral dilemma and his indecision together, are the ultimate cause of…

Throughout the play “Hamlet”, Ophelia grows mad as a result of constant tragedies that she is afflicted with. Act 4, Scene 5 is knows as “Ophelia’s mad scene” because it is in this scene where suddenly begins to go mad. In the scene, she speaks about her father’s death and how he lays in the cold ground. As learned earlier in the play, Hamlet killed Ophelia’s father, Polonius, with the intention of killing his own Uncle. Instead he takes the life of one of the most important people in Ophelia’s…