Generally, flowers such as tulips are not thought of as being loud or vicious, but all of these characteristics that Plath uses to describe tulips illustrate the paradox. She expresses the opposite of the archetypal meaning with which flowers are associated. The paradox within singular archetypes is clear in the case of good and evil as well as with paradox illustrated in Plath s Tulips. In each case, good and evil must coexist to comprise the whole unit. Dr. Jekyll became familiar with his once repressed element of evil.
Tulips expresses the persona s realization of the evil that dwells within the flower.
Although both tulips and people possess good and evil characteristics, the evil elements seem to transcend over good. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a transformation exists between the good Dr. Jekyll and the evil Mr. Hyde. It is a somewhat unexpected transformation, and Dr. Jekyll is unable to control this metamorphosis while it is in process. Through observation of this transformation, I discovered one of my own original pieces that depicted a similar change. In Shifting Tides, I described the ocean as it changes from low tide to high tide.