Caged Madwomen: Plath and Dickinson’s Resistance

Abstract

This paper explores the “madwoman” in the poetry of Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson. In 19th- and 20th-century America, women held a lowly status, with domesticity as their sole role. Yet Dickinson’s ideas transcended her era, while Plath’s thinking was ahead of the conservative 1950s-1960s. Though separated by a century, their resistance to patriarchy and struggle for female subjectivity were remarkably similar. Their language, imagery, and habits were seen as madness—but this was their chosen rebellion. Plath employs intense, confessional imagery to express dissatisfaction, while Dickinson presents spiritual struggle through reserved verse. This paper first analyzes the dual constraints of patriarchal society. It then examines how “madness” becomes a strategy of resistance in their poems, albeit a vulnerable one given the historical context. Ultimately, both poets turn to the power of poetic language to deconstruct patriarchal symbols. They reconstruct female identity and reclaim female subjectivity, transforming from defined “others” into independent beings. Their efforts are not fully successful, yet they inspire many women to fight for themselves. By comparing these distinct strategies, this paper reveals how female writers use literary forms to critique and break free from oppression.