“A Letter to Sylvia Plath” by Ceridwen
Dovey
In A Letter to Sylvia Plath, the Dolphintells her
autobiography to Sylvia and establishes a connection between them both. The
letter is written ten years after the death of the Dolphin, and she narrates
her life story of serving in the Navy. The Dolphin establishes a connection
between them, from a woman to a woman living under the shadow of men.
For Sylvia, she was married to Ted Hughes, a
seemingly great writer, whom Sylvia loved dearly and was not willing to leave
even after knowing his indiscretions. It might be that in the beginning, it was
love that made her stay, then it may have been loyalty, but when she did leave
him because of his cruelty and affairs, she committed suicide. The Dolphin
relates to her in the way that she was under the command of the US Navy, and
although her trainer, Officer Bloomington, was a good man, she faced hardships
while serving.
She said that the people who were supposed to
care for her made her kill another man, even though it’s not in a dolphin’s
nature to harm a human. The Dolphin says that this was what killed her. She was
offered freedom which she rejected but then killed a man. It might be that
Sylvia and the Dolphin are connected through the bond of being alone and being
mentally tortured for many years. They were supposed to be free but we're bound
by the men around them.
Considering the context of the text, A letter to Sylvia Plath, it appears that humans
tend to harm all living and non-living things around them. Humans captured the
free creatures of the sea, the dolphins, brutally trained them to serve in the
Navy, bred them in aquariums, or sold them as if they were their property. They
took them away from their natural habitat and made them live in captivity.
During wars, they deployed dolphins to eliminate the threats humans faced and
did not care if they died in a war that was not the dolphins in the first
place.
A letter to Sylvia Plath is an
autobiography and a depiction of men in society. It narrates the story of a
patriarchal society that always bounds women and does not allow them to live
freely. It also shows that humans and people alike are entrapped in the rules
and norms of a culture that has made a prisoner of them. They are a part of a
society that does not allow them to live a free life and does not care if they live
or die as long as they serve their purpose.
It is shown through the character of the
Dolphin, who was forced to kill a man, something not in their nature. It is
shown in Sylvia Plath’s life that she was loving and living with a man who did
not love her in return. She did that because she was supposed to do that, and
when she did leave her husband, when she did try to get out from the social
restraints and tried to be free from the harsh clutches of her slavery to a
man, she was left standing alone, just like the Dolphin.
