Do Now: 1.Have you ever been in a dangerous situation?

You do not need to give specific details, but describe your emotions at the time, and also what you were thinking.

2.Have your homework out. If I see anyone writing on their homework

prior to checking, they will be administered a zero.

3.Be Quiet and listen to the song, “Sylvia Plath,” by Ryan Adams.

Worksheet Recap

The trip with the Willard’s

• What causes Esther to cry?

• Why does Mr.Willard think she’s crying?

• Why is she really crying?

Dialogue on P.93-94

• Esther:“Remember how you asked me where I like to live best, the country or the city?”Buddy: “And you said…”

Esther: “And I said I wanted to live in the country and in the city both?” Esther: “And you, I continued with a sudden force, “laughed and said I have the perfect setup of a true neurotic and that the question came from some questionnaire you’d had in psychology class that week?” Buddy smiled dimly. Esther: “Well, you were right. I am neurotic. I could never settledown in the country or the city” (Plath 93-94).

Neuroticism Defined

• Neurotic-abnormally anxious, obsessive, tense• mental and emotional disorder that affects only

part of the personality, is accompanied by a less distorted perception of reality than in a psychosis, does not result in disturbance of the use of language, and is accompanied by various physical, physiological, and mental disturbances (as visceral symptoms, anxieties, or phobias) (Webster)

Do you think Esther is neurotic or is she just confused?

• “If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, I’m neurotic as hell. I’ll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.” (Plath 94)

As readers, are we too early in diagnosing Esther with anything?

• Take a moment to think about this question (look through past notes, chapters, worksheets)

The Ski Incident: The Ride Down

• “The interior voice nagging me not to be a fool-to save my skin and take of my skis and walk down, camouflaged by the scrub pines bordering the slope—fled like a disconsolate mosquito. The thought that I might kill myself formed in my mind coolly as a tree or a flower” (p.97).”

The Crash

• “A dispassionate white sun shone at the summit of the sky. I wanted to hone myself on it till I grew saintly and thin and essential as the blade of a knife”

And then Esther said, with her broken leg:“I’m going up,” I said. “I’m going to do it again”

(Plath 98)

The Photo shoot

“I didn’t want my picture taken because I was going to cry. I didn’t know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of my throat and I’d cry for a week” (Plath 101)- What is causing Esther to cry? Do we know?

Marco

• Who is Marco?

• “Marco’s small, flickering smile reminded me of a snake I’d teased in the Bronx Zoo. When I tapped my finger on the stout cage glass the snake had opened its clockwork jaws and seemed to smile. Then it struck and struck and struck at the invisible pane till I moved off”

• “I could tell Marco was a woman-hater, because in spite of all the models and TV starlets in room that night he paid attention to nobody but me” (Plath 106).

• What makes Esther different from other girls?

The Attack Scene

• What happened?

• How do you think Esther felt after the incident?

• By the time Esther arrives at the Amazon, how does she look?

• Where does she go at the end of the chapter?

Exit Slip

• Do you think Esther’s ski accident was a suicide attempt? Provide textual evidence (a quote from the novel).

• Is Esther going to recover from the Marco incident easily, or will it be difficult? Will she recover at all?

*Please write in complete sentences.