Ted_Hughes'__Your_Paris,_Sylvia_Plath's_Journal_Entreis

Paris is thought to be the most beautiful and romantic city in the world, however this was not the case for Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, who spent their honeymoon covering their true feelings for the city. They both wrote about Paris and due to the fact that they are writing from their own point of view, it led to conflicting perspectives. Hughes’ poem “Your Paris”, from his anthology of poems entitled “Birthday Letters”, is his representation of their time in Paris, as it shows his perspective on the city and on each other. Plath’s journal entries from March 6 and 26, 1956 show her perspective and purpose of her first visit to Paris, which was without Hughes to resume a relationship with an ex-lover (Richard Sassoon). Both texts show each composer’s outlook on their visit to Paris and the experiences that have shaped their perspective on Paris. The purpose of Ted Hughes’ “Birthday Letters” was to “open a direct, private, inner contact” with Sylvia Plath and to “evoke her presence” to himself. The series of 88 poems, in which all but two are addressed to Plath, were written around 30 years after Plath committed suicide. The poems show Hughes’ raw emotion, passion and personal opinion on their relationship, showing why he has chosen the form of poetry to show us his thoughts. However, Plath’s journal entries show her reflecting on what happened on her first trip to Paris and how this has influenced her attitude on their honeymoon. Her journal entries are also very personal and she used them as a therapeutic method of coping with the difficulties she faced in life. The title of Hughes’ poem “Your Paris” refers to Plath and her perspective of Paris. He first thinks that Plath’s perspective on Paris “was American” but then realises that he was wrong, that the “shatter of exclamations” and “spontaneous combustion” was a façade Plath created to cover up the fact that she had visited Paris before and ended up alone. The poem contrasts their two views on Paris as he then says “My Paris was only just not German”, referring to the fact that the city had recently undergone terrible suffering and deprivation after World War II. He then alludes to his “dog-nosed pondering analysis” as “the dog in me” sniffing out Paris’ horrible past, and also refers to himself as a “ghostwatcher” as he associates himself with his obsession with the city’s ghostly past. He then refers to Plath’s “anecdotal aesthetic touch” as she was searching for the beauty of the place like an artist with her “immaculate palate”, only looking for the beauty present. He uses the extended metaphor of her “aflame” and “scorched up” to show the contrast between himself and Plath with their views on the city. The first part of the poem shows Hughes exploring their different responses to Paris, she as a detached art voyeur and he an investigative realist. In the next part of the poem, Hughes acknowledges that he knows Plath has been to Paris before and that she hid in a “chamber” to escape the rejection she felt. When he says “your practised lips” he is telling us how she was lying to him when she acting “spontaneous”, as though she and never seen Paris before, when he found out after reading her journal that she had. He represents Plath’s problems and her life as a “labyrinth” as she felt as though was lost and the “minotaur” was out to get her. In the final lines of the poem, Hughes is telling us how her “drawing” while they were in Paris is what kept her sane and able to cope while remembering the rejection she faced the last time she visited the city. It also shows that she tried to draw “me” (Hughes) as he had, again, survived it all. In “Your Paris” Hughes explores the conflict between appearances and reality, that is the truth is hidden beneath the surface and therefore people are not always what they seem. Plath’s journal entry on March 6, 1956 shows her reflecting on her feelings for Richard Sassoon. She begins with “Break through the barriers” which shows her determination and purpose. She then says “I am in great pain” and that she is “shattered” by how much she wants Richard back. She says “I love him to hell and back and heaven and back” which is a hyperbole and keeps her same tone of determination of wanting to see him. When she says “you weigh more than he” she is building up her confidence and metaphorically means that she is more important than him. She then decides she must visit Paris, where he lives, and believes that her “will and love can melt doors”, meaning that love can achieve the impossible. The last image is of a “guillotine” which donates her feelings of tragic consequences that would follow her visit. In Plath’s journal entry on March 26, 1956 she explores her feelings of rejection as she went to visit Sassoon in Paris but he had left. She begins with accumulation of happy and vibrant images like “it is a glorious blue day” and “miraculously”, showing her confidence at the beginning of the day. She then tells us of a “sleepless holocaust night with Ted” which left her with a “purple bruise from Ted”, showing a horror experience for her. She had a “disastrous impulse to run to Sassoon” and that is what she did the next day. However, she then tells us that “Sassoon was not back nor would he back probably until after Easter” which sounded rehearsed and as though he did not want to see her. She felt “terribly alone” and “wrote and wrote” as a way of therapeutically calming herself and dealing with the rejection. The final line “the chorus does about a tragedy” shows her tragic dilemma between the choice of love and duty, as she loved Sassoon but was in a relationship with Hughes. Ted Hughes’ poem “Your Paris” and Sylvia Plath’s journal entries from March 6 and 26, 1956 are about their differing perspectives of Paris. Hughes’ perspective was influenced by its war-stricken past whereas Plath’s perspective was influenced by her rejection of her first visit to Paris. All this considered, we are positioned to feel sorry for Plath with the troubles she faced in her life, and to see Hughes as the heroic man who tried to help her.