Anne Sexton Essay Example

Anne Sexton Essay Anne Sexton’s use of language in her poem Her Kind illustrates a kindred link to other women.   The final line of the first stanza’s illustrates this point, â€Å"I have been her kind† (Sexton line 7).   This relates back to the previous lines in which Sexton is making reference to a witch.   In this case perhaps Sexton does not mean a literal witch, but rather another definition of the word which could be stretched to mean an entity of evil.   In this, Sexton states, â€Å"†¦a possessed with/ haunting the black air†¦dreaming evil†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Sexton, lines 1-3).   It seems also that there is a literal translation in the word choice.   The witch trials which plagues 17th century America are a black mark in history, and the target audience in these ‘shows’ were women.   Thus, Sexton is relating herself to the history of her gender, by labeling herself in the first line a witch.This same stanza however presents the reader wit h an interesting subtle use of words, â€Å"A woman like that is not a woman, quite† (Sexton line 6).   Here, Sexton is suggesting that this fairy tale person manifested in the flesh is not entirely a woman.   This brings forth a fantastical air to the poem in revealing to the readers the fact that although the shape and symbol of the witch is a woman, she is not embodying a woman to the fullest extant.   Thus, the figure of the witch is lacking something which has become a staple trait of femininity.   Perhaps this is where Sexton is telling the reader that the traits that are in design attributed to women such as docility, propriety, and passiveness are not found in the personality shift of the witch.   Instead a witch is arrogant, forthright, and active, the opposite of what a woman is supposed to be in society.   The witch trials singled out women in a village or town who were independent, widowed, and self-sufficient, which meant they did not succumb to such standards of womanhood.   Sexton in the poem then is preserving the thought that a woman who is not categorized into a format of society’s wishes is not considered to be feminine and thus the line, â€Å"not a woman quite† (Sexton line 6).In stanza two Sexton reveals to the audience a setting.   In this setting natural elements are significant such as the woods, caves, and there is a juxtaposition between manmade items and items found in nature.   The development of this second stanza is presenting the reader with elements of a fairy tale.   This is found in her word usage such as, â€Å"fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves† (Sexton line 4).   The further extrapolation of the idea of an independent woman.   The idea of this woman in the second stanza is found in the setting Sexton sets for her reader.   The independence and the distance from society which Sexton reveals is found in the lines, â€Å"I have found the warm caves in the woods †Ã‚   (Sexton line 8).In this cave, in order to bring humanity to the woman whom Sexton described as not being a woman, the reader finds â€Å"skillets, carvings, shelves, closets, silks, innumerable goods† (Sexton lines 9-10).   In revealing these everyday items, these mundane trinkets of the common lives of people, Sexton is leading the reader into the common life of a woman.   Although society has labeled her as a witch, because of her independence and break from society she is an extreme introvert and that’s dangerous for society since they as a collective don’t understand how a person could willingly want to be alone.   In the items listed that the woman is holding in her cave it seems that Sexton is not denying the woman her femininity, as she places in the items she is holding in the cave, â€Å"silks† (Sexton line 10).   With the idea of silk, something soft and entirely woman-centered is conjured up in the reader’s mind.   Sexton goes on to explain the situation of the woman in the woods, how close to nature she is, how far from the buzz of the village and the religious rites and concepts as the woman in the woods is cooking supper for the â€Å"worms and elves† (Sexton line 11).   Sexton goes on to state quite plainly that, â€Å"A woman like that is misunderstood† (Sexton line 13).Stanza three is the quintessential stanza of Sexton’s poem.   In this stanza Sexton is relating the woman in the cave, the witch to the mundane activities of the world.   In this stanza Sexton is saying that even with the woman in the woods there are other women around the town, around the state, and the country the world even that have the disposition to be a witch, to be out of the ordinary in regards to the definitions of society.   Sexton reveals the hidden woman in society who has been a constant figure but whose life has been in accordance to her own ideas, and out of society’s sha dow, she has lived, as Sexton writes, â€Å"I have ridden in your cart, driver, waved my nude arms at villages going by, learning the last bright routes, survivor where your flames still bite my thigh† (Sexton lines 15-18).   Sexton is speaking about he depreciating value of the woman in regards to this time in history, this time of witch trials and backwards thinking in which a woman who was considered independent cannot be a normal function of society but instead is the symbol of evil.This reflection of Sexton’s language and her choice of time period is reflective of The Scarlet Letter in which the main character’s daughter Pearl was considered possessed by the devil because of the way she thought and her mother was considered possessed as well because she was a widow, attractive, and independent from society (Hawthorne Scarlet Letter 2004).   The time period Sexton choose was one in America in which many woman were wrongfully accused of torturing, and kil ling off people in a village.   They were hung, burned at the stake, drowned, and tortured for these accusations that were proven not by fact but through religion and false testimony.   The Salem witch trials proved to be a disparaging moment in history.   However, Sexton gives these women back their identity and brave nature by stating, â€Å"A woman like that is not ashamed to die.† (Sexton line 20).   Sexton ends the poem with, â€Å"I have been her kind† (Sexton line 21) stating that their memory, their way of living drives forth into new generations of independent women.