Escapism is the tendency to escape from daily reality by indulging in daydreaming, fantasy, or entertainment. Many characters that we have learned about this semester escape from their real worlds by indulging in extreme distractions. Whether it is Patrick Bateman in "American Psycho" who escapes societies expectations or David in "Giovanni's Room" who escapes from being judged in society, or the women displayed in the poem "Soliloquy of the Solipsist" who escape reality, and finally the character in "Goodbye to All That" who escapes in a physical way, it is safe to call all of them escapists. All of these characters have one thing in common and that is escaping their true identities. They all escape reality in either a mental, emotional or physical approach.
             Let's begin with the "Soliloquy of the Solipsist" by Sylvia Plath. First, it is important to understand what it means to be a solipsist. Solipsism is the theory that the self is all that you know to exist (Webster Dictionary). Solipsists believe that all knowledge that is created outside of an individuals mind is unjustifiable. This relates to escapism because it means that they are escaping from true reality and living in their own reality, which is created in their heads.
             In the poem, each stanza begins with "I" showing that the individual believes she is in control of her own reality. The character in this poem, lives in her own reality but has a sense that there is another world out there. She chooses to ignore it but she does acknowledge the "outside" world a few times.
             In the first stanza she says, "When my eyes shut, these dreaming houses all snuff out"(Plath). This means that when her eyes shut she is extinguishing and letting go of the houses that surround her. Since she says dreaming houses and since she is a clear solipsist it means that the houses are part of a dreaming existence and are not re...