Essay On Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath’s poor mental health, which subsequently lead to her suicide on February 11th 1963, may be seen to be reflected in her novel, ‘The Bell Jar’. Death may be deemed to have a lack of meaning throughout her novel due to the casual manner in which the protagonist and narrator, Esther Greenwood, deals with death. Esther’s father passed away when she was nine years old, and she feels that his death marked the point at which she changed, resulting in her mental health becoming unstable. However, along with her mother, she ‘had never cried for [her] father’s death’ (p.159). This clearly demonstrates how Esther deals with death; it is a necessary part of life, and to Esther, as aforementioned, her mental health has caused her to view death as more desirable than ‘sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in [her] own sour air’ (p. 178). Moreover, Esther’s numerous attempts at suicide remind the reader that Esther believes the only ‘way out’ is death. For example, in Chapter Thirteen, Esther asks her friend Cal, how he would kill

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”.

In her poem, “Lady Lazarus,” Sylvia Plath uses dark imagery, disturbing diction, and allusions to shameful historical happenings to create a unique and morbid tone that reflects the necessity of life and death. Although the imagery and diction and allusions are all dark and dreary, it seems that the speaker’s attitude towards death is positive. The speaker longs for death, and despises the fact the she is continually raised up out of it.

Sylvia Plath was an American Poet who was renowned for poetry mostly in the United States. She, however lived a difficult and depressing life which led to a few futile suicide attempts, but ultimately led to a successful suicide attempt leaving her children to live on without a mother. This end result was due to a multitude of issues in her life from Sylvia’s sanity. She wasn’t the most stable child. Her marriage also played a role in her suicide. Her successes weren’t acclaimed until after her death, when a majority of her work was released. There were two major aspects to her life: her poetry and her sanity. These three combined make up a majority of Sylvia’s life.

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 attended smith college in Massachusetts, editing The Smith Review, and aspiring for a writing career. During this time she had problems with her depression and attempted suicide. She moves onto Newnham college on a fulbright scholarship continuing the school paper. One of her major published works was The Bell Jar, which was inspired by events surrounding her depression in college. She tried to attempt suicide multiple times and much of her work was published after her death at the age of 30, including Ariel.

Not only has the novel been translated into nearly a dozen different languages, but it is also the only novel under the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. She wrote this novel to resemble her life whenever she was dealing with mental illness. It was published in 1967 and was not published in the United States until 1971. After the first publication in the United Kingdom, Plath committed suicide in a very tragic way.  Even though this novel can be viewed as “dark”, many english classes read this world wide, and includes a broad perspective of ideas through genre, plot, setting, narrative and point of view, characterization, symbols, metaphors, and irony.

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.

In our society, death can bring about emotions of sadness, regret, guilt, or even relief. Human reaction to the loss of a person in one’s life varies depending on how the deceased is lost. For example, death from suicide causes a set of emotions that are different than a death from an ailment, such as cancer. The suicide of Sylvia Plath has been deemed one of the most shocking losses in literary history because of its suddenness and because of who was left behind. People of all statuses and locations have provided their reactions to Plath’s death.

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.

Sylvia Plath was a very interesting woman she was born in Boston, Massachusetts who did have some personal problems she just couldn’t deal with in her everyday life. Sylvia Plath did end up taking her own life when she was only thirty at the time and she left behind an absolute artistic legacy. Plath’s life was intertwined into her poetry, ironically critics weren’t allowed to offer insights into her agony and her work. She was married to Ted Hughes, he became the poet laureate of England and he used copyright control over her works to refuse the biographers permission to quote his wife’s works when her point of view disagreed with his own. Plath was known to be neurotic and very moody that no man could put up with her, the reality isn’t that simple. Plath had a very long history of mental imbalance, three years prior to her actual suicide she previously attempted it by, “leaving a note saying that she had gone for a walk, Sylvia crawled under her house and swallowed a large number of sleeping pills.” (Hall 6). She committed her actual suicide during a horrible winter in England, she was left alone with her two young children while her husband was living with another woman, Assia Wevill. Wevill did give birth to a child with Hughes being the father, and oddly enough Assia killed herself in the same manner as Plath did. Except the difference is that Plath let her two young children live, Assia killed her only child

According to Tomei, Sylvia Plath is subject to depression just like her father (1213). Possibly hereditary, she detaches herself from everyone due to her immense discomfort and displeasure. Moreover, she imprints her feelings and memories in her poems as witnessed in the poem “Mirrors”. Plath initiates her child hood in the narrative when she “meditates on the opposite wall” in her room (6). Although a mirror is personified in the poem, it signifies Plath’s nature as an individual. As lonely as widow, she reposes against the wall, gazes at the divider and muses about her life. This can be due to the fact that Plath felt it was her fault her father died (Freedman 159). Thus, she translates her experiences into a poem and transmutes it literary denotation to figurative language. To conclude, everything happens for a reason and life teaches great lessons.

Sylvia Plath’s depression can be recounted back to the death of her father. During the summer of her junior year at Smith College, having returned from a stay at new York City where she had been a student guest “editor” Sylvia nearly succeeded in killing herself by swallowing sleeping pills. Later on, after a period