The_Shot

The Shot In Ted Hughes poem “The Shot” there are many different conflicting perspectives, all represented by sophisticated poetic techniques. Two of these conflicting perspectives are Ted Hughes perspective on Sylvia Plath opposed with Ted Hughes perspective of the publics perspective of Plath. Another perspective is the opinion that Sylvia Plath was in control of her life opposed with the idea expressed that Plath was in fact out of control. The conflicting perspective of Hughes’s perspective on Plath opposed to Ted Hughes’s perspective of the public’s perspective of Plath can be seen through out the poem. In the line “Under your hair done this way and done that way” through the use of the repetition we can see Hughes’s perspective on Plath. In this line we can see that Hughes believes that Plath is hiding her true personality from the world and hiding her suicidal side. This is opposed with Hughes’s perspective of the Publics perspective of Plath as seen in the line “Godless, Happy, Quiet”. Through the use of accumulation we are able to see the terms that Hughes believes that the public would describe Plath as. He believes this is not her true personality and she is infact hiding the truth from everyone. We must remember however that he is writing this after subsequent knowledge, in particular Plath’s suicide. Another conflicting perspective seen in “The Shot” is that of Sylvia Plath in control of her life opposed with Plath out of control, both in Hughes’s perspective. An example of Hughes believing that Plath was in control is “To bury yourself”. This is Hughes claiming that she was in control and it came down to her choice to commit suicide. He is claiming that she was in control of her own fate and could have changed it if she truly wanted to. This is conflicting however with the line “You ricocheted” which through the use of Bullet Imagery claims that Plath had lost control of her life and was on a path that no one could of guessed. Another example of Hughes claiming that Sylvia Plath was in control of her life is the line “Served as a rifling groove to keep you true”. This line also uses Bullet Imagery to express the idea that Plath was still in control and on a path; this path was a path straight at Hughes.