Sylvia Plath: Poems Lesson Plan

How does Plath’s reaction to cutting her thumb in “Cut” differ from what you might expect?

A "normal" response to cutting your thumb might be horror, pain, worry, or even panic. Her immediate reaction is to say, “What a thrill…” which is sort of odd right off the bat. She examines her thumb’s appearance and blood more closely than one might expect, since typically one would immediately seek to cover up the cut with a bandaid. “A celebration, this is,” says Plath later, taking a bizarre joy in her injury. Then, instead of saying she perhaps feels pain, she says, “I feel ill,” which is not typically how a cut thumb would feel. She has a “thin, papery feeling” she is trying...