The Disquieting Muses

“The Disquieting Muses” begins with a repetition: “Mother, mother” (Line 1), which immediately sets up the conversational, confessional quality of the poem. It also draws attention right from the opening to its central theme. The opening line acts as a parallel to another of Sylvia Plath’s confessional poems, “Daddy.” This poem was written around the same time and has aspects in common with “The Disquieting Muses”; however, in an interesting reversal, the double repetition “Daddy, daddy” in that one comes at the very last line of the poem. Here, it is the very first line.

The speaker begins by asking their mother a question: who did you exclude from the invitation list to my christening? What shameful family member did you so naively forget? This is a direct allusion to the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, in which all the fairies of the kingdom are invited to Princess Briar Rose’s christening except for one. By using this literary device, the speaker compares the constant company of the faceless figures to an unjust curse over which they have no control. It also suggests that it is the speaker’s mother, and not the slighted relative, who is the true root of their misery.