In the poem Plath or a persona she has invented — the “Hanging Man” of the title — is tortured by ‘some god’: hence she writes,‘By the roots of my hair some god got hold of me. I sizzled in his blue volts like a desert prophet’. One interpretation is that this refers to the electro-convulsive therapy Plath underwent in America following her suicide attempt.

Plath speculates that this ‘god’, in his ‘vulturous boredom’, would torment her. It is a reference to the world that oppresses and causes suffering. This follows a theme of an unsympathetic society that weaves throughout much of Plath’s poetry. ‘The Applicant’ is a good example.

Plath drew her inspiration from two possible sources; the Tarot card pack and Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’:

In ‘The Tempest’ Ariel is imprisoned in a tree by the witch Sycorax. He is rescued by Prospero, but only to be enslaved by him until ultimately freed. This could be an allusion to Plath’s feelings of entrapment by society and the oppressive culture of the time.

Secondly, the Hanging Man is a mystical Tarot card; the figure is in a trance-like state. Various meanings have been ascribed to this figure, including ‘turning inwards’ emotionally as Plath has done.

Note that TS Eliot, in ‘The Waste Land’ writes:

And here is the one-eyed merchant, and  this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see.  I do not find
The Hanged Man.   Fear death by water.” (Line 52-55)

Structure
The poem is unusually short — three couplets. Also unusually it has a complex, fiendishly clever rhyme scheme; AB CB AC.

Language and Imagery
The imagery is also complex. As indicated above, there are references to Tarot cards, Ariel in ‘The Tempest, but also a hint at Plath’s future suicide.