Essay Questions

How does Linda Pastan confirm that she is not agoraphobic? What is the implication of the confirmation?

Linda Pastan affirms, “What I mean is this house/follows all the laws of lintel and ridgepole, /obeys the commandments of broom /and of needle, custom and grace./It is not fear that holds me here but passion /and the uncrossable moat of moonlight/ outside the bolted doors.” This affirmation influences the construal of the title. According to the lines, Pastan’s preference for her house is ascribed to passionate preference and not phobia. The house makes her feel as contented as a baby in his/ her mother’s womb. Pastan debunks the generalization that a predilection for ‘bolted doors’ is a signal of agoraphobia.

Analyze the first stanza of “The Answering Machine” using Lacanian psychoanalysis.

Linda Pastan elucidates, “I call and hear your voice/on the answering machine/weeks after your death,/a fledgling ghost still longing/for human messages.” Holding that Linda Pastan is the speaker, she has adopted Imaginary Order for she perceives the voices of the dead addressee in ‘the answering machine.’ The voices are in her delusional unconscious, but she presumes that they are from the answering machine. The voices accord her the illusions of discoursing with the deceased addressee. The Imaginary Order presumes that discourse between the existing individuals and the dead is practicable. However, the Symbolic Order would not certify such a delusional dialogue.