Within the poem “A Pink Wool Knitted Dress”, poet Ted Hughes uses a variety of language and poetic devices to illustrate the mixture of emotion on his wife, Sylvia Plath, and his wedding day.
Throughout the poem, there is a continual reminder of contrasting classes between the couple, in conjunction with a distinct difference between the husband being lower/working class and the wife being upper class, as Hughes writes “daughter’s pedigree dreams…I wore my whole wardrobe”. This quotation suggests that felt inferior to his soon to be wife, as she was from a wealthy family and was a higher class than him, hence making the husband feel dominated by her wishes and dreams. The use of the noun “pedigree” further emphasizes the wife’s pure ancestry and grandeur, resulting in her “pedigree dreams” being too eccentric for his lifestyle, consequently creating one of the first barriers between the couple. The metaphor “I wore my whole wardrobe” implies that the husband doesn’t have many items of clothing, creating the sense that he isn’t wealthy and is of the lower class. This contradicts with the wife’s dreams that she desires as he is unable to fulfil those to her, establishing that they are from two entirely opposite classes, and that their marriage isn’t approved of from some. It also suggests that there are many differences and barriers to come in their marriage due to their paradoxical upbringings. This makes the audience believe that their marriage was peculiar as people from such different classes didn’t usually marry, and the fact that Hughes and his wife did causes the audience to see how special their relationship was. It also provides an insight on how their marriage could fabricate due to the class differences and the struggles the couple will face in the future.
Towards the end of the poem, Hughes delivers the message of two antagonistic reactions – the wife being overjoyed and full of emotion and love, whereas the husband seems tense and obligated to be there. This is shown when Hughes states “you shook, you sobbed with joy, you were ocean depth”. The use of an asyndetic list suggests that the wife’s emotion were continuous moments of happiness, joy and overwhelming love on her wedding day. The metaphor “you were ocean depth” also implies that the wife had endless amounts of mixed emotions that the husband couldn’t discover, as they were too deeply rooted. The wife was full of love and happiness on their wedding day, making the audience happy as well, however three verses down, the husband responds with “I stood subjected to a strange tense: the spellbound future.” Although happy about marrying his wife, the husband seems to express fewer emotions, almost as if it was just another day for him, and it wasn’t special. The noun “subjected” suggests that the husband is stating that he feels compelled to be there, due to his wife being the dominant partner in their relationship, and that the adjective “spellbound” emphasizes the point, as he is entranced to be at their wedding, in such a way that didn’t really want to be there. However, this could have an alternative point in which the husband is mesmerized to be marrying his wife and is “spellbound” by being able to live his life with the women he loves. This, again, reveals to the audience the many differences between the husband and wife, making us as the audience feel perplexed about how peculiar their relationship was, especially on their wedding day when hints of differences and barriers between them have already began to rise.
The structure of this poem tells the audience of how Hughes and Plath’s wedding day proceeded and the process of different emotions. Each stanza represents different emotion and different parts of the day, alternating between the wife and the husband. The first stanza describes the wife’s appearance, and how the husband noticed how perfect she was. Hughes then proceeds to talk about the weather, the husband’s appearance and every other aspect of the day. This shows how overwhelming the day was, as well as how the husband paid attention to tiny details, as if he was on edge and anxious. In the second stanza, Hughes writes about the rain, which is mentioned later in the poem. The rain symbolizes that the couple started off with not a lot of luck, hence creating barriers and the hints of uncertainness from the husband throughout the poem. Finally, the poem concludes with a resolution, as Hughes writes about the wife and how she lovingly stared into her husband’s eyes, describing them like “big jewels”, as the wife’s eyes are full of wonder, hope and love, whereas the husband just stands there and watches his new wife.
Kayleigh Jones 