Analysis Of Her Kind By Anne Sexton - 979 Words

Anne Sexton’s poem ‘Her Kind’ deals with the nature of a woman’s role in society and the alienation that that can bring. The 1950s perceived women as domestic and they were often expected to conform to the role of the housewife. Sexton constructs this idea of a woman with multiple personalities expected to conform to societal rules and norms yet is unable or unwilling to detain herself to these limitations. Throughout, Sexton confesses her role as a woman breaking the mould from societal expectations. The poem opens with â€Å"I have gone out, a possessed witch† (Sexton, 1988, 18); the adjective â€Å"possessed† presenting an ambiguous interpretation. On one hand, it suggests that the writer is not in control of her actions; society has taken over†¦show more content†¦Ending the stanza with the confessional I, â€Å"I have been her kind’ (Ibid, 18) presents a double I. Two points of view are created: the first â€Å"I† of the various personas and the second â€Å"I† of the refrain who â€Å"steps through the frame to witness, interpret and affirm her alter ego† (Middlebrook, 1991). The â€Å"I† is displaced from sufferer to storyteller and Sexton conveys â€Å"the terms on which she wishes to be understood; not victim, but witness and witch† (Ibid, 1991), creating a bondage between women in general and Sexton herself. Sexton’s confession of disregarding the expectations of women is therefore not preoccupied w ith the feeling of sin and guilt, which one might assume with confessional writing, but rather with the feeling of empowerment and satisfaction. Witchcraft imagery continues throughout the poem however; Sexton replaces the sinister imagery of the first stanza with the anarchic but reassuring images of domesticity, depicting ‘warm caves’ and describing ‘skillets’ as ‘innumerable goods’ (Sexton, 18). The confines of domesticity, however, are brought into sharp criticism through Sexton’s careful juxtaposition of location. Placing this domestic scene within the confines of witchcraft reinforces this unwomanly ideal and something of the undesired, whilst the ‘woods’ similarly creates a strong sense of isolation and removalShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Her Kind By Anne Sexton749 Words   |  3 Pagesâ€Å"Her Kind†: The Experience of a Woman The poem â€Å"Her Kind† by Anne Sexton describes different scenarios of a woman. In the poem, Anne Sexton uses three different characters to explain that she has been each of them in some way. Society places a gender role on what women are allowed to be and how they should behave, condemning the women who do not conform, trying to change them into society’s perfect view of what a woman should be. 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