reality vs facade

• Plath: '"Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children"'
• Paradox of expectation of 'perfect'

  To be beautiful you cannot have children and vice versa. The reality of fitting into the standard of beauty standards is the ultimate sacrifice of fertility.
• Plath: '"in their sulphur loveliness, in their smiles"'
• "Sulphur"

  Often associates with the devil and the pits of hell. Juxtaposes 'smiles', showing the contrast between the reality and the facade.
• Plath: '"Munich, morgue between Paris and Rome"'
• Munich's facade

  One of up-and-coming fashion etc., yet the reality is that it's killing the 'mannequins' with the expectations of society.
• Plath: '"The baby lace, the green-leaved confectionary"'
• Superficiality and decorative nature of society


  Presents the idea society is always presenting a positive facade.
• Plath: '"Glittering and digesting Voicelessness. The snow has no voice."'
• Reality between the 'glittering' facade


  These women were silenced, unable to do nothing more than 'digest'. The reality is the 'mannequins' were hardly human.
• Plath: '"Dame kindness, she is so nice!"'
• Facade of polite niceties

  Insinuated to be fake through satirical tone and use punctuation.
• Plath: '"...smoke In the windows, the mirrors are filling with smiles"'
• "Smoke" in "mirrors"


  Infers kindness is an illusion, lacking substance, 'kindness' is a trick or facade.
• Plath: '"sugar can cure everything, so kindness says"'
• Implying speaker doesn't believe it

  The reality is that acts of kindness cannot 'cure everything', 'sugar' also hints that kindness is sickly sweet.
• Plath: '"O kindness, kindness Sweetly picking up pieces!"'
• Acts of kindness are superficial


  Simply tidies reality away and doesn't fix anything, creating a facade of perfection. The '!' implies the speaker doesn't appreciate the help.
• Plath: '"here you come, with a cup of tea Wreathed in steam"'
• Imagery of a funeral

  Implying that kindness is disingenuous and superficial. 'steam' can also be linked back to the illusion of smoke in mirrors.
• Plath: '"You hand me two children, two roses"'
• Criticising the reality of having children

  'Roses' are beautiful and precious however they have the repeated Plath motif of 'thorns', which break down the healing illusion of motherhood.
• Celia: '"Please, I want him to think I can do it on my own, I want him to think I'm ... worth the trouble"'
• ...'want him to think i'm worth the trouble'

  Trying to comply with societal expectations of women despite physically being different due to her appearance and dress sense.
• Celia's house

  Appearing grand well-kept and intimidating, the mess is instead hidden + everything is dusty, creating a sense of stagnation and a lack of potential.
• The Mimosa tree metaphor


  Represents Celia's repressed hatred of the gender norms that she has internalized - Guilty about her inability to give her husband a baby, she imprisons herself in her home to increase her chances of carrying the baby to term. She creates a lie to herself that she will become a mother in hopes of complying with societal standards, yet the reality is she is infertile and unable to have children.
• Celia has a miscarriage


  Minny has a sincere reaction + reassures Celia yet struggles herself – sisterhood forming + crossing barriers of race. A facade is built that Minny purely works for Celia despite their ever-growing relationship.
• Minny lies to Celia

  That Johnny doesn't know about the fact Celia is attempting to put up the facade that she is able to naturally cook and be the 'perfect' housewife.
• Minny: '"In her pink satin nightgown. She's got a fire poker in her hand, heavy, sharp" "blood splattered across her pink, satin nightgown."'
• Women stepping into their power


  Links to tools quote, still feminine despite fighting back, contrasts to original representation of incapable.
• Minny being pregnant acts like a shield of abuse
• Minny: '"Lord help me if he finds out what I'm doing w/ Miss Skeeter"'
• Black men represented as beastly and abusive

  Builds tension and shows danger within the home and black-on-black crime. Minny is stuck in a cycle of abuse, her father and now husband are drunks and abusive.
• Minny: '"The cut on my eyebrow breaks open again, the hot blood stinging like a razor. Usually my bruises don't show"'
• Celia brings out her more vulnerable side

  Leaving her unable to hide.
• Hilly: '"disease-preventative bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the coloured help"'
• Hilly's home heath sanitation initiative

  The help can CLEAN their BATHROOM.
• Hilly's garden filled w/ toilets, humiliating her
• Hilly's 'benefit'

  Discussed and planned to raise funds to "help" needy children in Africa. This is a false generosity meant to raise her class status as a charitable woman as she's not capable of understanding that black domestic workers are truly the ones "helping" their white employers, rather than the other way around.
• Elizabeth asks Aibileen to cover up an 'L-shaped' scratch on her dining table when setting it for guests