The Shot ~ Ted Hughes Commentary by Mel Mc Guinness

It is worthwhile to explore Plaths Ariel and Daddy in conjunction with this poem. Within this poem Hughes draws on ideas from two of Plaths poems, with particular reference to the role of her father in her life. The title refers to a shot from a gun. There is interplay between this idea and Plaths use of the image of an arrow in Ariel. Ariels arrow has connotations of direction, focus, force and swift movement, becomes Hughess shot which is lethal and destroys that which it encounters. Plaths states: And I /Am the arrow, /The dew that flies/Suicidal. This is a reference to herself and her suicidal tendencies. In The Shot Hughes states For a long time/ Vague as mist, I didnt even know/I had been hit. The contrast here is that In Ariel, Plath sees herself as the target but in Hughess poem he sets himself up as the target of a bullet. The Shot commences with a sharp focus on Plath and the way in which she had an obsessive need to deify the men in her life. Hughes addresses her directly with the opening word Your which is aggressive and angry. This is conveyed by the use of the word s worship and needed. The use of the word worship takes the dimension of their relationship to a different level altogether. It implies that she had a habit of deifying the men in her life. Thus setting them up for failure because they were mere mortals, they could never live up to her ideal of them as gods. The second line immediately alerts the reader to the dominating role of Plaths father in their lives- Where it lacked one, it found one. This tells us that the absence of her father she filled with her worship of Hughes. Hughes uses binary opposition to set up the tension between the way that Plath fuses the two men in her life. The third line implies that Plath had the ability to make gods out of ordinary men- such was her power of infatuation- albeit negative and destructive. Towards the end of this stanza Hughes makes direct reference to both her father and her poem Daddy saying that her fathers death touched the trigger of her instability and that her poem Daddy indicates this. The alliterative effect of the repeatedt suggests an explosive sound. He states that Otto Plaths death set the course for Sylvias tragic life. Within these lines he establishes the extended metaphor of Plath as a lethal shot or bullet. This metaphor continues throughout the poem and is developed into an image of destruction, danger and force. Hughes uses hyperbole to express the effect that Plath had on the lives of the men in her life The elect/More or less died on impact-. He sets himself up as a mere mortal who was not able to be the ideal man nor able to cope with her insecurities and problems. They were too mortal. later becomes I did not even know through a heavy reliance on you and your in the first two stanzas of the poem, Hughes sets up the opposing/conflicting perspectives on you vs me. The last two stanzas are short and rely heavily on the personal pronouns I and my. In effect, Hughes becomes the victim of this lethal bullet-like force which is Plath. In the second half of stanza 2, Hughes paints a picture of a woman who was not what she appeared to be. He uses the words inside (your sob-sodden Kleenex) and under ((your hair done this way and that to imply concealment. Both these prepositions suggest that something was hidden. There is a contradiction in the line And the cascade of cries diminuendo. Cascade implies a rushing flow while diminuendo implies that which is diminishing. The word diminuendo is usually associated with musical scores. So what is Hughes saying about Plaths crying? A literal interpretation would be that her cries/tears rushed musically, diminishing- this idea is incongruent with the earlier picture that he establishes. Plath, according to this description, seemed vulnerable but was not, she was gold-jacketed, solid silver

in the latter stages of the poem Hughes suggests that her real target was her father but that she projected these emotions onto him, thus straining their relationship. He sets himself up as a victim through the line I did not even know. The use of the word even makes him appear innocent and vulnerable. Without this word the meaning of the sentence is significantly altered. Through the use of the word witchdoctor, Hughes suggests that right person to calm Plath would have needed supernatural powers which he did not have. He suggests that he only managed to experience fragments of her and her life. The poem is structurally fragmented perhaps reflecting the erratic nature of the relationship, Plaths unpredictability or her erratic nature. Throughout this poem it is clear that Plath is the offender and Hughes is the victim.