Dear HSC students
Truth. Is there any such thing? Truth can be manipulated or deliberately changed and misinterpreted depending on the one presenting it. No version of the truth is more greater than the other and through the study of the poetry by Ted Hughes in Birthday letters Fulbright scholars and Sam in contrast with Sylvia Plath’s 1954 Gordon Lemeyer photograph and her poem “ Whiteness I remember” we realise that the truth is not static entity it can change with different perspectives and representations as we discover that truth is never pure and rarely simple.
Ted Hughes “Fulbright scholars” demonstrates how truth can morph with time. It is the first poem in his collection “birthday letters”. It describes a day in London where Hughes as a young man saw a photograph of the new Fulbright scholars. We see the day through the eyes of Hughes and are taken back into time by his memory. Does Hughes faulty memory influence his perspective of the truth? This porm is a recollection which establishes plath as manipulative and fake and Hughes as naïve. The saterical tone in his coment about her hair “: it would appear to be blonde” shows how Plaths image and persona was fake and a matter of fact.
Through the use of flashback we are given a double perspective, one of the young Hughes and one of the old Hughes. The young Hughes sees nothing but a photograph where as the old Hughes looks beyond the surface to his memory of being Plaths husband. Does this knowledge influence his perspective of truth? Hughes is aware of the part Plath played in his life. This poem portrays that perspectives change with time and how truth is affected by memory.
Hughes remembers parts of the day, whilst questioning other parts of his memory” I remember that though” and it’s ...