"The Tender Place" by Ted Hughes

The Tender Place is an affectionate numbers in which Ted Hughes contemplates and describes the Electroconvulsive Therapy (electroconvulsive therapy) inflicted on Sylvia Plath. The human impulse behind this poem is to bring cross(prenominal) the negative impact and effects this anti-depression therapy has on her. Through this poem, the repulsive force and needless destruction that such therapy implicates is chartered in integrity impressively. In the first assembly originations, Ted Hughes refers to Sylvia Plaths temples, where the electrodes for ECT be interjectd, as the ships boat place. The word tender reveals the fragility and delicacy of this place or even of her carcass as a whole. The electro shocks argument harshly with the place where they are given, already suggesting the brutality of it all. As the verbaliser carries out an experiment to face the effect of electricity of a twelve-volt battery on a file, he states that it explode like a grenade. This hyperbo le brings crosswise very expeditiously that the loudspeaker system is amazed at how herculean these small electro shocks shadower be and makes the lecturer question what cataclysmal effect it and past could have on a thinker when it is more powerful. otherwise very powerful images are besides use by Ted Hughes to bring crossways what he imagines is chance in her thought, merely, ruffianly explosions, burning at the stake and pain. The event that he states they did it, suggests a desire to reprove these characters. This is also brought crossways in the ordinal and sixth line by and through the repetition of Some luggage compartment, as if he wished he could use names, showing the frustration of non be able to do so: They crashed The thunderbolt into your skull The doctors slight is brought across in the tenth and eleventh line. He suggests that they were non concerned nigh her as a person, just now patently round whether her teeth were still whole. Ted Hug hes cleverly mentions the teeth to protest ! the reader that losing her teeth was truly possible, adding to the horror of ECT and qualification it await insanely brutal: They hovered once more To see how you were, in your straps. Whether your teeth were still whole. Throughout the whole poem, Ted Hughes talks virtually the Electroconvulsive Therapy inflicted on Sylvia, as if she had not make it voluntarily entirely was through with(p) to her forcefully against her will. This idea is particularly emphasised in the fourteenth line, where Ted Hughes uses the word pushed, which has connotation of obligation and unwillingness. The word wind utilise to describe the sensation, again reminds us of the electricity passed through her body and gives the reader the image of a twisting and contorted apparent movement and the struggle that such movement implicates. onc e again ruleing cypher Except feeling nothing pushed to feel Some squirm of sensation. In the adjoining line the speaker suggests that she has become the personification of holy terror at the horizon of the electro shocks that await her. Ted Hughes refers to them as lightnings, again emphasising their efficiency and power. In line 17/18, the speaker tells what he sees when he imagines these lightnings reaching her body, namely, An oak limb sheared at a bang. This brings across the speed but at the same(p) time violence he sees in this act. She, on the new(prenominal) hand, sees her Daddys point. In 1940, Sylvia Plaths father, Otto Plath, had one of his legs amputated when she was ogdoad years old. i month after this he died. Your Daddys leg might because be referring to this event in her life, which might be a relatively i mpressive image or hold for a little girl, remaining! in her mind for years. like a shot the speaker imagines that this anti-depression therapy makes this image come up again in her mind. In the lines 23/24, Ted Hughes questions himself about what was destroyed, or what was lost in her mind through ECT, which part of her brain damaged. He and then compares the molten squealer in his experiment to what is melting in her brain. In the next lines very strong imagery is used to describe the aesculapian effects of ECT.

According to the speaker the bosom threw off its scramble and compares it with a child on tone-beginning escaping a bomb-flash. This exceedingly powe rful image brings across the pain, burning and violence Ted Hughes requires to convey very efficiently. And the nerve threw off its peel off Like a burning child Scampering out of the bomb-flash. and then he compares her to a fixed bent bit of telegraph across the Boston urban center grid, communication the fragility of her body in contrasts with the lethal effects the galvanizing power inflicted on her could have. He then imagines that the electrocutions are so strong that enough electricity is being used for the lights in the Senate House to dip. According to Ted Hughes, her parting is merely fall inward through this therapy, suggesting that the problem is not solved whatsoever, but isolated temporarily. This idea is backed up by the fact that her translator comes back, years later. The fact that her scars are scorched-e arth again makes credit to the electrocutions, meani! ng that damage and destruction have been caused in her brain through a superficial burning. In the last lines it is revealed that although her express came back, her words were not facing the light and were holding in their entrails, suggesting that there has been traumatising damage done to them as easily as her. I personally find this poem exceptionally moving and personal. Ted Hughes use of imagery is excellent at communicating feelings and sensations. This poem makes the reader feel he has had the treatment done to himself because of the super detailed information which is given about the warm visible effects of ECT. This poem has a tone of peevishness as well as intense helplessness. The speaker seems to be very affected by the negative impacts this is having on her helper or lover, implying how much he cares about her and what she is going through. If you want to engage a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

If you want to get a full essay, visit our page: write my paper