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    The Arrival of The Bee Box: Critical Analysis

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    The document provides a critical analysis of Sylvia Plath's poem "The Arrival of the Bee Box". It summarizes that Plath was a renowned American poet who struggled with mental illness. The poem uses the metaphor of a bee box to represent the troubled human mind. Through vivid imagery, Plath conveys feelings of helplessness, fear, anger and hope experienced by those suffering from depression and anxiety. She ultimately questions if death is the only means to freedom from mental anguish.

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    The Arrival of The Bee Box: Critical Analysis

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    noor
    837 views3 pages
    The document provides a critical analysis of Sylvia Plath's poem "The Arrival of the Bee Box". It summarizes that Plath was a renowned American poet who struggled with mental illness. The poem uses the metaphor of a bee box to represent the troubled human mind. Through vivid imagery, Plath conveys feelings of helplessness, fear, anger and hope experienced by those suffering from depression and anxiety. She ultimately questions if death is the only means to freedom from mental anguish.

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    The document provides a critical analysis of Sylvia Plath's poem "The Arrival of the Bee Box". It summarizes that Plath was a renowned American poet who struggled with mental illness. The poem uses the metaphor of a bee box to represent the troubled human mind. Through vivid imagery, Plath conveys feelings of helplessness, fear, anger and hope experienced by those suffering from depression and anxiety. She ultimately questions if death is the only means to freedom from mental anguish.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    837 views3 pages

    The Arrival of The Bee Box: Critical Analysis

    Uploaded by

    noor
    The document provides a critical analysis of Sylvia Plath's poem "The Arrival of the Bee Box". It summarizes that Plath was a renowned American poet who struggled with mental illness. The poem uses the metaphor of a bee box to represent the troubled human mind. Through vivid imagery, Plath conveys feelings of helplessness, fear, anger and hope experienced by those suffering from depression and anxiety. She ultimately questions if death is the only means to freedom from mental anguish.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    The Arrival of the Bee Box

    ​Critical Analysis 

    ​ Sylvia Plath is regarded as one of the greatest American poetess. Plath 


    was born in Boston, in the year ​1932​ and her life took an abrupt change after the 
    death of her father in 1940. Plath is known for her brutal ​works that revolve 
    around the genres of death, mental illness and psychological diseases​. Plath 
    herself suffered from anxiety and depression most of her life and ​committed 
    suicide at an early age of 30. 
    The Arrival Of The Bee Box is an amazing poem by Sylvia Plath. Like 
    most of her major writings, this poem also revolves around the genre of 
    psychological diseases and mental illness. The poem can ​be understood in a both, 
    literal and metaphorical sense​,​ depending on the perspective of the reader. 
    Critics who have done critical analysis of bee poems including​ “The 
    Arrival of Bee Box”​ point out that Sylvia Plath has written this poem with 
    confidence. She knew that after completion of bee sequence poems she had 
    become a complete and successful writer/poet. ​She was sure about her genius as 
    revealed by her letter,​ written to her mother in October, 1962. In the letter, she 
    wrote:
    ​ “I am a writer . . . I am a genius of a writer.  
    I have it in me. I am writing the best poems 
    of my life; they will make my name”. 
    ​ ​She wrote bee poems very proficiently​ yet they were not enough to give her 
    fame. If modern world remember her then it is because of “Ariel” and “Lady 
    Lazarus”. 
    ​ ​“The Arrival Of The Bee Box”​ by Sylvia Plath can be read and understood 
    on both the levels, literal as well as metaphorical.​ In the first stanza​, the speaker 
    describes the bee box that has arrived​. The box has been described as a “clean 
    wood box”,​ it is almost too heavy to lift and is square in its form. This imagery of a 
    seemingly normal wooden bee box turns dark in the next few lines, t​he speaker 
    compares the box with a coffin or a square baby​, both the images are horrifying. 
    But she is fast in discarding these options for coffins and death are associated with 
    stillness while the box is filled with bees making intimidating noises.   
    ​In the second stanza​, the​ metaphorical aspect ​is more prominent. The box has 
    been described as dangerous, the speaker has to keep it with her overnight, there 
    are no windows in it so one cannot see what lies inside the box, she has to live with 
    the box that does not have any exit. ​Metaphorically, the box can be seen as 
    human mind troubled with illness. ​The author herself suffered from severe 
    depression and anxiety which makes the comparison of the mind with the box 
    clearly understandable.  
    In the third stanza,​ the speaker tries to look inside the box but can only see 
    darkness, the bees inside seem to be black, agitated and angrily clambering over 
    one other. ​She compares this darkness to the situation of the Africans who were 
    forced into slavery.​ Again, the poet here compares the inside of the box with the 
    suffering human mind where only dark thoughts lurk leading to anger and 
    frustration. The person suffering from depression is a slave to his own mind and 
    thoughts, his situation is just like the Africans who were forced into slavery, there is 
    no escape, just physical and mental degeneration and anger. 
    In the next stanza,​ the speaker yearns (​desire, hunger​)​ to set the bees free but is 
    stuck in a dilemma as to how to accomplish the task. She admits that the 
    unintelligible (​impossible to understand) ​gibberish (​unintelligible or meaningless speech or writing; 
    nonsense) ​, the noise created by these bees is the most irritating of all. 
    Metaphorically, the poet seems to be frustrated by the unwanted noises of her 
    troubling thoughts​ and yearns to set her mind free somehow. 

    The speaker makes an attempt to understand the noise but it might as well 
    be another language, she feels as if the bees are speaking roman. She admits defeat 
    for she is not Caesar and considers the fact that she has ordered a box full of 
    maniacs (​a person exhibiting extreme symptoms of wild behavior, especially when violent and 
    dangerous. ) .​ The speaker reassures herself that the box can be sent back, she does 
    not need to feed the bees, they can die, after all she is the owner, not them. Here, 
    the poet seems to admit defeat for she is not able to understand her own thoughts 
    anymore but she is still strong enough to realize that she can conquer this disease 
    for she is the one who is more powerful, she owns her thoughts and mind, not the 
    other way round. 

    The speaker wonders how hungry the bees are, if she could set the bees free, 
    if they could forget her, she can be saved from the bees by turning into a tree. The 
    poet here portrays her wish to be set free from her thoughts, to be saved from her 
    illness someway. The speaker contemplates freeing the bees again, she says that 
    since she is not a source of honey, there is no reason for the bees to attack her, she 
    will be safe in her beekeeper suit. The speaker says that the bees might ignore her 
    completely. Plath, in the last stanza questions the reason for her suffering and 
    realizes that only death can rid her of her depression. According to Plath, “the box 
    is temporary”, the end of her physical form will also lead to her freedom from 
    mental slavery. 
    This skillful composition by Sylvia Plath brilliantly portrays the horrifying 
    experience of a person suffering from depression and anxiety. ​The notions of 
    helplessness, fear, anger, defeat, hope and strength are articulately conveyed 
    through vivid imagery and excellent use of metaphor. 
    The tone of the poem is calm with the undertone of fear and power play that 
    runs throughout the poem. 
    The Arrival of The Bee Box by Sylvia Plath is​ an amazing composition.​ The 
    poet is successful in articulating ( ​express an idea or feeling)​ the emotions of a person 
    suffering through depression and anxiety through vivid imagery and a skillful use 
    of metaphor. 

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