Gender and Sexuality in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath

Resumo

This paper analyses the manner in which Sylvia Plath's poems portray gender
relations and, more specifically, how the construction of gender based on
hierarchy and inequality becomes an obstacle to harmonious relationships
between people. In the poems analyzed, the ideals of love and intimacy are
always driven away because of gender inequality that still today continues to
serve as the basis to interpersonal relations. In this context, Plath's poetry
depicts sexuality as a central tool in the perpetuation of male dominance and
female submission, a fact that makes the relations between men and women
even more difficult.