Bell Jar Sylvia Plath Essay

Saying Sylvia Plath was a troubled woman would be an understatement. She was a dark poet, who attempted suicide many times, was hospitalized in a mental institution, was divorced with two children, and wrote confessional poems about fetuses, reflection, duality, and a female perspective on life. Putting her head in an oven and suffocating was probably the happiest moment in her life, considering she had wanted to die since her early twenties. However, one thing that was somewhat consistent throughout her depressing poetry would be the theme of the female perspective. The poems selected for analysis and comparison are, ”A Life”(1960),”You’re”(1960), “Mirror” (1961), “The Courage of Shutting-Up” (1962) and

Sylvia Plath is known as a profound writer, depicted by her lasting works of literature and her suicide which put her poems and novel of debilitating depression into a new perspective. In her poem “Lady Lazarus,” written in 1962, her mental illness is portrayed in a means to convey to her readers the everyday struggle of depression, and how it affects her view of her world, herself, and even those who attempt to tackle her battle with her. This poem, among other poetry pieces and her novel The Bell Jar, identify her multiple suicide attempts, and how the art of dying is something she has become a master of. Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” about her trap of depression and suicide attempts, is effective and thought provoking because of her allusions to WWII Nazi Germany and the feelings of oppression and Nazism that the recurring images evoke.

In 1963 on a cold winter day of February 11th, Sylvia Plath ended her life. She had plugged up her kitchen, sealing up the cracks in doors and windows before she was found with her head inside of her gas oven inhaling the dangerous fumes. She was only thirty years old, a young woman with two small children and an estranged ex-husband. A tragic detail of her life is that this is the second time she had tried to commit suicide. Plagued with mental illness her whole life, which is evident within her poetry. She would write gripping, honest portrayals of mental illnesses. Especially within Ariel, the last poetry book she wrote, right before she took her life. Although it’s hard to find a proper diagnosis for Sylvia Plath, it is almost definite that she at least had clinical depression with her numerous suicide attempts and stays in mental hospitals undergoing electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath is now famously known for her writing and the more tragic parts of her life. Such as the separation from her husband, Ted Hughes, mental illness, etc… Plath may not have intended for her life and art to become inspiration to many people but that has become the end result. Sylvia Plath writing shows symptoms of her suicidal thoughts. To study specific moments in Sylvia Plath’s life, it can be connected to certain writing’s of her’s, such as “Daddy”, The Bell Jar, and “Lady Lazarus”.

Sylvia Plath, a successful confessional style poet, struggled throughout her life with issues revolving around her father’s death, unsuccessful and unfulfilling relationships with men, and her mental illnesses. Throughout her struggles, Plath wrote, sometimes writing as much as 10 drafts a day. Despite welcoming into the world two children, whom she loved dearly, Plath still felt unfulfilled by her duties as a housewife. As she wrote more poems, it became clear she was unhappy in her life and in the grips of a serious mental illness. Sylvia Plath’s writing is deeply influenced by her experience with mental illness and the death of her father in her early life.

Sylvia prided herself as an amazing poet while not receiving the acclaim she wanted. The Colossus was the only major collection of poems before her death. It didn’t receive too much praise until after her death. Most of her poems dealt with her personal life like those of Daddy and Ariel. She wrote most of these poems when she was depressed, so she coped with her depression the only way she knew: writing poems. She wrote about her father, where she claimed to hate her father due to him walking out on her when she was eight. He didn’t actually leave her on purpose, as he died of complications with his diabetes. However, it made for great writing as it was critically acclaimed for it being a magnificent poem. Ariel is also series of poems known for being known as her best work in terms of poetry. The Bell Jar is

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts, to German immigrant, Otto Plath and American-born Aurelia Plath. Otto and Aurelia gave Sylvia Plath an early start in her venture to become an author through their own natural literary gifts and reverence for education (Critical Insights 13, 14). However, tragedy struck only nine days after Sylvia Plath 's eighth birthday when her father died of an embolism of the lung, an event that greatly affected Plath and is alluded to in several of Plath 's works, including The Bell Jar ("The Bell Jar" 23). After Otto Plath 's death, Sylvia Plath and her remaining family moved from the seaside inland to Wellesley, heavily impacting her imagination for the worse, but providing her with a far

Sadly she 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

Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 27th, 1932 (“Sylvia Plath” 1). She was an only child for just two years when her brother Warren was born, and it was at this time, her family moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts due to financial reasons. Winthrop is located on a peninsula and it was days spent on the docks where Plath became infatuated by the sea, which is apparent in her novel, The Bell Jar (Steinberg 1). Plath’s parents were Otto Emil Plath and Aurelia Schober Plath. Otto taught Biology and German at Boston University and was also a distinguished author. Unfortunately in 1940, he suddenly died of cancer, which ultimately haunted Sylvia and scarred her for the rest of her life. Due to the loss of income, Plath’s mother, Aurelia, began

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 is one of the most popular poets during her time of living. She wrote many poems and even wrote one single novel. She was able to take events in her life to influence the way she wrote. Sylvia Plath even based the main character of the only novel she got to write The Bell Jar on herself and her own experiences. Sylvia Plath suffered through many events that had to do with her health, but she was able to recover from those and it inspired her writing. Much of her writing reflects the suffering that she went through emotionally, physically, and definitely mentally. With her writing and personal life the author of The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath, is able to develop the theme of being successful and overcoming the hard parts of life no matter what the obstacles are.

Perhaps the most famous work of Sylvia Plath’s is The Bell Jar -- a book that follows the mental deterioration of a nineteen-year-old girl named Esther through the narration of Esther herself. Although Sylvia Plath hated life in general and committed suicide at the age of 32 after her husband left her, the myriad autobiographical elements, metaphors, and motifs that appear throughout her works produce a beautifully vivid representation of people, the world, and life itself (“Sylvia Plath”).

Sylvia Plath was influenced to write poems early on in her life. One of the biggest influences within her writing include her father, Otto Plath. Otto Plath had died from an illness caused by diabetes in 1940. After this traumatizing event, Plath had written very vivid poems explaining her problematic relationship with her father, and her feelings after he had died. She wrote a poem named Daddy (“Sylvia Plath” Poetry). Daddy is a poem including a characteristic person representing Plath’s father in real life. Her father in the poem is a dark person that Sylvia Plath has to “kill” (Ardagh, Emily). Plath was very upset about this sudden death of her father, so she thought the perfect idea was to write a poem about him. Another important person

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Anne Sexton (1928-1974) both explored similar themes such as tone, structure, and symbolism. Many of their poems were cries for help, which resulted into metal illness, depression, and suicide. In 1958, Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath met, and much to their surprise had a few things in common. They both were fascinated with death and suicide. Both Sexton’s and Plath’s poetry are considered as confessional poetry in which they were very honest, depressed, and had suicidal or homicidal tendencies. Sylvia and Anne’s views on what happened in their life and on independence, are what nearly separates them from other confessional poets. Sexton and Plath’s poetry range over a variety of topics such as death, suicide, rage, and mourning. They both utilize a convincing use of symbolism, deep image, metaphors, and soul-searching. Plath’s “The Colossus”, “Full Fathom Five”, “Daddy”, and Sexton’s “And one for My Dame” and “All My Pretty Ones”, are very enraged and different feminist perspectives, giving different views on the relationships with a father and a husband.

According to Allen Ginsberg’s quote, “poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does”, the common poet “makes the private world public”, or in other words, processes his or her personal life into stanzas of interconnected words. Bearing this in mind, Sylvia Plath, alias Victoria Lucas, was an American poet who portrayed an entire life soiled with problems regarding Ted Hughes (her ex-husband), Otto Plath (her father), and herself in between the verses of her poetry through the use of literary devices. In order to understand the subjects, language, tone, and purpose of her poetry in maximum depth, readers

Some of the dark negative emotions Sylvia Plath shares in this poem can make anyone have sympathy on her feelings. Especially, when she writes,