...we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
Sylvia PlathRead
So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about as numb as a slave in a totalitarian state.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the sense of feeling trapped and numb in the roles of marriage and parenthood.
Sylvia Plath's quote highlights the emotional turmoil and sense of loss of autonomy that can come with the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. It suggests that these roles can create a mindset where individuals feel controlled, leading to a numb existence rather than a fulfilling life, likening it to the oppression felt under a totalitarian regime.
Themes
MarriageParenthoodNumbnessAutonomyOppression
In practice
Example use cases
Discussing the challenges of balancing parenthood and personal identity in a support group.
More from Sylvia Plath
All quotes →The hardest thing, I think, is to live richly in the present, without letting it be tainted & spoiled out of fear for the future or regret for a badly-managed past.
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It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative--which ever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it.
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You walked in, laughing, tears welling confused, mingling in your throat. How can you be so many women to so many people, oh you strange girl?
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I keep wanting to crawl back into the womb.
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It's the living, the eating, the sleeping that everyone needs. Ideas don't matter so much after all. My three best friends are Catholic. I can't see their beliefs, but I can see the things they love to do on earth. When you come right down to it, I do believe in the freedom of the individual.
Sylvia PlathRead
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