A Distressed Poet or Just Mentally Unstable?

Sylvia Plath’s life was one of a troubled woman. Her lack of sanity was deeply reflected in her works of writing. Her mental state was very much affected by her life experiences such as her feelings of betrayal towards her father and her instable marriage to Ted Hughes. Plath’s poetry, was a way to explore her mental anguish and share her fixation with death, due to her deathly depression. Despite Sylvia Plath’s crippling life, her poetry was constructed in such an artistic manner in which it touched the lives of many

That’s Not How You Bake a Cake, Sylvia Sylvia Plath was an American Poet known for her confessional style with brilliant wordplay. She had an interesting life filled with love and losses. Sylvia Plath was and is still a major source of controversy. Sylvia had a troublesome childhood plagued with death and

Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27, 1932. Both of her parents were professors, so she was driven to thrive in education. When Plath was eight years old, her father died from complications of diabetes; that had an influence in the poem she wrote later in life, “Daddy”. As she progressed in her schooling, she started to endure severe depression that lead to her first suicide attempt; swallowing sleeping pills. She survived and wrote about her experiences in the novel, The Bell Jar. She went back to study at Cambridge University in England after she recovered, and met her husband, poet Ted Hughes. They were married for six years before Hughes left Plath with two children. Her depression and mental condition continued to get worse. After she created many creative and dark poems in Ariel, which included ‘Lady Lazarus’, she tragically committed suicide by inhaling gas from her open oven. (Poetry Foundation, “Sylvia Plath.”)

Death and Love: The Life Story of Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath is a well known and adroit poet who is recognized for many of her writings including her book ,Ariel, as well as her peculiar interest toward death. Married to Ted Hughes, Plath became the mother of two and wrote many poems during this time period. In addition, she kept a record of journals which can be seen in her book, The Bell Jar (Steinberg). However, many of her poems contain aspects that have a parallel connection to Plath’s personal life. Furthermore, Plath’s life was substantially shaped by the love she had for her family and the depression she faced throughout her life which can be seen in her writings “Daddy”, “Pursuit”, and “Death & Co”.

Sylvia Plath was the first person to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1982,and she is well known for her poems “daddy”. Sadly Plath committed suicide,but before she killed herself she left a note for one of her neighbors to tell them to get a doctor and when they found her she was lying in the oven with wet towels covering the door so her children wouldn't die from the gas to. Plath’s husband Hughes published most of her poems or novels that weren’t published because she had committed suicide at such an early age. It’s because of Hughes publishing her works that she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 but she was too late for her to claim it because she was dead 20 something years or so. Plath achieved this from studying with the one and only Robert Lowwell which she made her famous Colossus

Sylvia Plath’s work is marked with her trademark style, one full of enigmatic analogies and ambiguous metaphors. Sadly though, the life of Sylvia Plath was indeed shorter than anyone expected. Nevertheless, in the thirty years Plath meandered through the world, she left an everlasting impact. Remembered as one of the most dynamic and admired poets of the twentieth century, Plath cultivated a literary community unlike any predecessor. Additionally, since a sizable portion of Plath’s work was read posthumously, her suicide brought the much needed attention to physiological illnesses. Unfortunately though, Sylvia Plath will never know the perennial impact she left from her distinguished works that have touched numerous lives.

Mental Illness' Effects in Sylvia Plath's Life and Work Sylvia Plath was an American author and poet. Her death at the age of 30 by suicide was the end of her long struggle with mental illness throughout her life, chronicled in her most famous work, her fictional, but inspired by her life novel, The Bell Jar, cited for its feminist themes and exploration of mental illness. Plath is considered one of the greatest poets and novelists of the 20th century, whose works were influenced by her mental illnesses, and still have relevance today.

Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on October 27, 1932. Plath’s family moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts when she was four years old. When she was eight, her father, Otto Plath died, this was same year she published her first poem. Plath was a very hardworking, persistent student in high school. She was soon rewarded after her graduation with many published works and successes. Plath attended Smith College with two scholarships. At Smith, she excelled academically and achieved many things in her writing career. In the summer of 1953 she attempted suicide and went through different kinds of therapy. She soon recovered and earned a Fulbright scholarship to Cambridge. There she met her husband Ted Hughes, they soon had children together. Plath had to deal with many difficulties in her past and in her marriage. In 1963 Sylvia Plath attempted suicide once again and succeeded.

She began at the age of eleven until her death at the age of thirty writing journals filled with her poetry as well as her more personal and morbid thoughts. For example, in this quote, “I am afraid. I am not solid, but hollow. I feel behind my eyes a numb, paralyzed cavern, a pit of hell, a mimicking nothingness. I never thought. I never wrote, I never suffered. I want to kill myself, to escape from responsibility, to draw back abjectly into the womb. I do not know who I am, where I am going…” (Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath), Plath discusses her feelings emotional numbness, and of never wanting to have lived or suffered. After her death her journals were published, by her husband, English poet Ted Hughes, along with many other poems she had not yet

Did you ever think that a student who excelled in school and appeared fine on the surface would have severe depression and not only end up dying from that cause, but also one of her main inspirations behind her successful poems? Sylvia Plath was one of the most admired poets of the twentieth century. As a young girl she did great in school, although she did repeat fifth grade to be the same age as her fellow classmates, Plath had gotten straight A’s and excelled in English, specifically creative writing. She was first introduced into poetry at the young age of eight where she wrote poem and it appeared in “The Boston Herald. As Plath grew up she tried to find ways to improve her poetry, she mainly relied on the Thesaurus, she also focussed

American poet Sylvia Plath (October 27 1932 – February 11 1963) was one of the most influential poets of the 20th century. Her semi-autobiographical writing style pioneered the postmodernist form of poetry known commonly as ‘Confessional Poetry’, which emerged from the United State in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The confessional poetry of the mid-twentieth century centred mainly on subject matter that was previously considered taboo in American poetry, such as mental illness and sexuality. Plath battled clinical depression for most of her adult life,

Examining the Life of Sylvia Plath as Seen Within “Lady Lazarus” Sylvia Plath’s poem, “Lady Lazarus”, was greatly about the author’s life: the influence by her suicide attempts, years of troubled mental health, and stressed relationships with her father and husband. The opening lines of “Lady Lazarus” read “I have done it

Sylvia Plath was a gifted writer, poet and verbal artist whose personal anguish and torment visibly manifested itself in her work. Much of her angst stems from her warped relationship with her father. Other factors that influenced her works were her strained views of human sexuality, her sado-masochistic tendencies, self-hatred and her traditional upbringing. She was labeled as a confessional poet and biographical and historical material is absolutely necessary to understand her work.

Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton are two very alike women. Both were born in Massachusetts, both wrote poetry, and both committed suicide. A common factor that particularly stands out in these two women is that they both suffered some form of mental problem, but they used that to transfer it onto their writing. It was because of their depression that they were able to be so successful in their writing careers. But even after having poems and books published, that wasn’t enough to satisfy their happiness. In the end, they searched for a way out, a way to end their mental suffering. To understand their poetry, we must first understand a little bit about their depression and the lives they lived.

Her poetry was known as a confessional type, typically based on her innermost feelings and thoughts, with a twist for the dramatic and sensationalism (“Sylvia Plath,” Biography.com). She also wrote one novel, The Bell Jar, a dark literary work said to parallel much of her own life. In a forward to The Bell Jar, written by Frances McCullough, McCullough states “Although her illness was never diagnosed, several researchers in the field have noted Plath’s unerring description of schizophrenic perception…” (xvi). Perhaps this condition had something to do with Plath’s early demise, for it was not long after publication of The Bell Jar, that Plath made the decision to take her own life.