Anne Sexton and Deconstructing the Patriarchal Stereotypes in “Her Kind,” “Hurry Up Please It's Time,” “Consorting with Angels,” and “You, Doctor Martin”

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Lecturer- Department of English, Faculty of Arts, South Valley University

Abstract

          This research paper aims to draw a multi-faceted self portrait of the confessional poet Anne Sexton through an in-depth analysis of her most representative poems: “Her Kind,” “Hurry Up Please It's Time,” “Consorting with Angels,” and “You, Doctor Martin.” Together, they expose the poet/speaker as a daughter, a wife, a lover, and a patient--all from a male perspective. The researcher purposefully resorts to the feminist approach to best analyze the poems, and to highlight the interrelationships between Anne Sexton and her personae. The paper finds out that Sexton’s madness and the cruelty of her misogynist society are the reasons behind her hesitation and fluctuation in portraying the liberal woman as is. Sexton’s innermost self is also divulged as she identifies with her personae. She fails to lead the conventional life of a happy housewife, the expected gender role. So, death is the inevitable remedy for a woman like her in a society which believes in sexism. Only through death does she achieve transcendence in a patriarchal world.

Keywords

Main Subjects