A Comparison of "Two Sisters of Persephone" by Sylvia Plath and the relationship of Mary and Rhoda in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show". Yes, I can still not believe I wrote this.

Essay by superclownCollege, UndergraduateA-, October 2004

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She's having my baby, what a beautiful way to say how much I love you, and I want to gouge out your eyeballs.

A manic comparitive essay

When the name Sylvia Plath is mentioned, the first thing that probably comes to mind is feminist literature, and when the name Mary Tyler Moore is mentioned, the first thing that probably comes to mind is feminist television, but for most people the connection stops there. When the two women are first compared there appears to be few similarities, one is a bubbly actress with personality coming out of her ying yang, and the other is a depressed poet with suicidal tendencies. But when Plath's poetry is compared to plot lines from the greatest sitcom of the 1970's (Assuming that WKRP is considered a 1980's sitcom), there are some striking similarities. Simply using Plath's poem "Two Sisters of Persephone" as the only groundwork for comparison yields several shocking results, especially those revolving around the Mary and Rhoda relationship.

When examined on it's own "Two Sisters of Persephone" is a disturbing allegory depicting one woman's torment caused by confusing feelings about conceiving a child, but when compared to the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" it becomes something completely different.

The similarities between "Two Sisters of Persephone" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" begin with the first line of Plath's poem, which is "Two Girls there are: Within the house" (Line 1), in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" there were two woman who lived within the same house, Mary and Rhoda. The next few lines describe perfectly the differences in Mary and Rhoda's personalities, "Daylong a duet of shade and light plays between these" (Line 3). In the television show, Mary and Rhoda had contrasting natures, Mary was professional workingwoman, while Rhoda was more...