Only the Animals

by

Ceridwen Dovey

Initially, Sprout thinks she’s going to write her piece for Only the Animals, “A Letter to Sylvia Plath,” about Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath’s husband. However, as she revisits his work, she becomes frustrated. She believes that Hughes was so interested in writing about animals because he wanted to justify bad human behavior—and he did this instead of paying attention to Plath, his wife and the mother of his children. Eventually, Sprout allows that she enjoys Hughes’s writing anyway, especially his poem “Moon-Whales.”

Ted Hughes Quotes in Only the Animals

The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by Ted Hughes or refer to Ted Hughes. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Interconnectedness of Humans and Animals Theme Icon
).
A Letter to Sylvia Plath: Soul of Dolphin Quotes

Perhaps you should be asking yourselves different questions. Why do you sometimes treat other people as humans and sometimes as animals? And why do you sometimes treat creatures as animals and sometimes as humans?

Related Characters: The Dolphin/Sprout (speaker), The Cat/Kiki-la-Doucette, Karol, The Bear Prince, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Henri
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis:
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Ted Hughes Quotes in Only the Animals

The Only the Animals quotes below are all either spoken by Ted Hughes or refer to Ted Hughes. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Interconnectedness of Humans and Animals Theme Icon
).
A Letter to Sylvia Plath: Soul of Dolphin Quotes

Perhaps you should be asking yourselves different questions. Why do you sometimes treat other people as humans and sometimes as animals? And why do you sometimes treat creatures as animals and sometimes as humans?

Related Characters: The Dolphin/Sprout (speaker), The Cat/Kiki-la-Doucette, Karol, The Bear Prince, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Henri
Page Number: 206
Explanation and Analysis: