...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
To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a sense of confinement and despair, portraying a distorted perception of reality.
In this quote, Sylvia Plath uses the metaphor of a 'bell jar' to illustrate the feeling of being trapped in a suffocating environment. The imagery of a 'dead baby' suggests lifelessness and hopelessness, conveying how the person experiences the world as an oppressive and nightmarish reality. It highlights the struggles of mental illness and the isolation that often accompanies it, as well as the distortion of reality that can occur when one feels trapped in their own mind.
Themes
DepressionIsolationMental HealthPerceptionHopelessness
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about mental health awareness, this quote could be used to illustrate the feeling of despair experienced by those suffering from depression.
More from Sylvia Plath
All quotes βThe 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.
Sylvia PlathRead
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.
Sylvia PlathRead
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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