The Creation of Selfhood

One of the main themes of “Tulips” is the speaker's contemplations on the formation of selfhood. This process is often presented as ironic and paradoxical throughout the poem. At the beginning of the poem, Plath captures the paradoxical nature of selfhood through the declaration, “I am nobody,” pairing what seemingly begins as a positive assertion of self in active voice with the negation of “nobody” (5). Therefore, the opening stanzas emphasize a formation of selfhood in which the speaker actively chooses to shed away parts of her inner life: “I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses / And my history to the anesthetist and my body to the surgeons” (6-7). In this case, Plath imagines selfhood as a chosen negation that culminates in the absence of an identity: joining the dead and transcending into an anonymous existence.

The poem’s...