Birthday Letters

Hughes’ ‘The Bee God’ appropriates Plath’s extended metaphor of the bees from her poem ‘The Arrival of the Bee Box’ to offer a similar examination of her mental state. Hughes also uses this to examine the impactful role of Otto Plath on his daughter’s life – specifically his alleged culpability in sparking her mental illness, according to Hughes. Structured in two-line stanzas, ‘The Bee God’ offers short confessions from Hughes’ perspective through a collection of metaphors. However, as always, we should note that Hughes cannot be considered a reliable source as to Plath’s true mentality or emotions – he can only speak to his truth, so it is up to us as responders to evaluate the disparities and resonances between the two.

The title ‘The Bee God’ is a reference to Otto Plath, metaphorically casting him as the almighty captor of Sylvia Plath’s “bees,” representing her wild emotions. This reiterates his monumental role in her life despite his early death. Hughes says initially that Plath “wanted bees,” thereby suggesting that she desired her frivolous emotions and psychosis. He alludes to her poem, ‘Daddy’ in reference to Otto again through in the line “It meant your Daddy had come up out of the well,” implying that the re-emerging memory of her father was what triggered her illness. This motif of the “well” to describe Plath’s subconsciousness was also seen in ‘Fever’ where Hughes used it to symbolise a cold, dark passage of escapism. Here, Hughes suggests that Plath’s yearning for bees is not a simple hobby or fascination, but a symbolic act deeply rooted in her unresolved feelings towards her father, and evidence of her desire to seek oblivion.
 
The imagery of the “old hive” that Hughes scours, while Plath paints it “white, with crimson hearts and flowers, and bluebird,” evokes a tension between danger and innocence. White, often symbolic of purity, is juxtaposed with the crimson of hearts and flowers, symbols of life and blood, as well as with an idyllic bluebird. This vision, adorned by Plath’s hand, is undercut by the darker undercurrents of the poem where bees become agents of power, control, and destruction, much like the figure of Otto Plath. Hughes describes Sylvia Plath as becoming “the Abbess / In the nunnery of the bees,” a metaphor that casts her in a position of religious authority, but also of self-imposed isolation. The connotations of abbess, a figure traditionally associated with asceticism and devotion, suggests that Plath’s relationship with the bees is a profoundly spiritual one. The bees, like the nuns under her care, are devoted to a higher power – the “Bee God” – who represents Otto Plath’s overpowering presence in her life. By becoming the abbess, Plath assumes control over her bees, but it is a control that is not entirely her own, as her father’s influence looms large over her actions. Thus, Hughes implies that Plath’s fixation on her own mental state stems from a subconscious desire to dredge up memories of her father and assert control over them.

Hughes’ sense of alienation is further heightened in the lines: “But you bowed over your bees, / As you bowed over your Daddy.” The image of Plath bowing conveys her submission to her father’s influence, suggesting that she is willingly submitting herself to subjugation and powerlessness. This bowing, a gesture of reverence or submission, underscores the power that Otto Plath continues to wield over her, even in death. Thus, by metaphorically tending to the bees as a manifestation of her father’s presence, Plath is tending to her unresolved trauma and grief associated with him.

As the poem progresses, the bees take on a more menacing and violent role. Hughes recounts an incident where a bee touches his hair, and from that moment, the bees seem to turn on him. He is “flung like a headshot jackrabbit” as the bees sting him with “volts” and “thudding electrodes.” This portrayal of electrical shocks and violence implies the bees are weapons – agents of the Bee God’s wrath – marking Hughes as their target. Hughes thus uses this as a metaphor for his fraught relationship with Plath; from his perspective, he was overwhelmed and hurt by forces beyond his control. Hughes’ helplessness in the face of the bees mirrors his helplessness in the face of Plath’s emotional intensity. Despite Plath’s apparent desire to “save [him] / From what had been decided,” Hughes is ultimately at the mercy of the bees, who operate according to their own “geometric” orders and her “Daddy’s plans,” which are “Prussian” in their rigidity and discipline. The reference to Prussian plans evokes a sense of militaristic precision and control, further reinforcing the idea of Otto Plath’s domineering presence in both Sylvia and Hughes’ lives. The bees, like Otto, are methodical and relentless, carrying out their attack with cold efficiency.

The climax of the poem comes when a “lone bee like a blind arrow” locks onto Hughes’ brow, “calling for helpers,” who arrive as “fanatics for their god, the God of the bees.” This moment is rich with mythological resonance as the bees, now fully personified as followers of a divine power, act with a religious fervour, indifferent to Plath’s pleas for mercy. The bees are the embodiment of Otto Plath’s legacy – one which Sylvia Plath has no control over. In this sense, given her desperate desire to protect Hughes from the bees, this could be interpreted as Hughes positioning both himself and Sylvia as victims of Otto Plath’s cruelty and abandonment. Likewise, the ascerbic line “You did not want me to go but your bees / Had their own ideas” draws a distinction between Plath’s true feelings and the imposed feelings of the bees – a manipulative force that drives a wedge between their marriage. In some sense, this is Hughes acknowledging that Plath is also blameless in suffering from her mental illnesses, though his characterisation of them as an entirely separate entity from her would not be considered a helpful perspective from our contemporary (and much more advanced!) understanding of mental health.

Ultimately, ‘The Bee God’ reveals the deep fractures in Hughes and Plath’s relationship that are rooted in Plath’s unresolved grief and Hughes’ inability to bridge the emotional chasm that separates them.