In the middle of class today, I had this huge revelation today about Esther's last name a possibly why Plath chose it. This also couldn't have came at a better time considering we are talking about paradoxes and as I thought about the name Greenwood I began to think about "green wood" and how the green could be the mold or moss growing along the "wood" which signifies Esther and this decay of the wood is the instability of her sanity unravels. So, as a contradictory point that makes this whole thing a paradox is that green wood can also be considered as a freshly cut slab of wood that is still resistant to oxidation and fire. Therefore, this new piece of green wood can symbolize the beginning of her life and how she is a totally new and different person after her experience with depression and the extents she travels in attempts to kill herself.
To sum this up for people who dont really understand what i'm talking about because a majority of the time I dont make sense, it is a paradox because her name symbolizes new life, but death at the same time (feel free to think of some play on words [Shira] kinda like some of the ones we made up in class today).
I think that this paradox seems to work pretty well. I agree her name is contradictory to itself since it is symbolizing life and death, and do think that Plath probably was attempting to make a point something along the lines of what you are trying to convey. The one part that I am wondering about is how this can be elaborated into different ideas of an essay.
ReplyDeleteWell I totally agree that most of the time you don't make sense, but i do think that you might be on to something. Ester starts green and you could definitely include how she wanted to be innocent in the beginning of the book by going into water. Also you might add that fresh water rots wood.
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