Mirrors by Sylvia Plath

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

Furthermore, the author uses personification to develop the message by making it seem like the stars can move around and cause commotion. For example, Plath says, “The stars drop silently.” (Plath 4). As a result, the author makes us think of stars as if they are people who move around and make noise, causing the audience to see stars in a different perspective. Plath also makes it seem as if the river is an uncontrollable kid by using, “But tonight they have discovered this

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.

Similarly, Plath’s poem ‘Edge’ illustrates how patriarchy seizes the identity of woman, leaving them to be nothing but sexual entities. ‘The woman has been perfected’, society has shaped her into being socially and sexually pleasing. She has been moulded, making her ‘perfect’ to the naked eye, a ‘flower’, a ‘rose’, a ‘Greek necessity’ with no identity. In the second stanza the speaker states that the ‘body wears the smile of accomplishment’ she is now socially accepted.

The spacing out of these words in a stanza creates a structure that makes the reader think deeply about the meaning of each word before reading the next word, rather than reading the words all together and letting the meanings fade away into the sentence. Also, with breaks between these words it helps the reader develop a sterner, preaching tone, which helps grasp the serious and meaningful tone of this poem. Metaphors are when an author compares two things without using the words “like” or “as”. In “what the mirror said” you see the use of metaphors instantly in the first two lines. The poem reads “you a wonder”, “you a city”, and “you got a geography “.

Plath first uses imagery to develop her point and to create an image in the reader’s mind. For instance, the author says, “Stars are dropping thick as stones” (Plath 1). With this phrase the author develops the image of stars slowly disappearing in the night sky, it makes us have a peculiar image of stars as if they drop here and there, instead of them hanging in the night sky 24/7. The author also causes us to have an image of how everything outside is quiet and calm, she demonstrates this by using the phrase, “Than the dark of the sky because it is quite starless. The woods are a well. The stars drop silently.” (Plath 3-4). This phrase develops an image of how the woods are never ending, how the stars dipping away in the night sky, and makes the audience have a new perspective of how nature is never ending. In addition, the author creates an image of how the stars hang only by a thread in the night sky, the author demonstrates this by saying, “Hanging shyly under the studded

Inner conflicts often dictate what the narrator wants, but cannot have, which creates the overall attitude of the poem. The narrator struggles to look at this woman because his "eyes take no delight to range/ about the gleam which on your face do grow" (3-4). He is not able to look at her even though she is beautiful due to the heartbreak that she left him with. This attitude carries on throughout the poem where he acknowledges her beauty but is unwilling to be hurt by her again. He is in agony from the emotions that she inflicts, and the readers see his mental process of working through it as he comes to the conclusion that he will "wink or else hold down my head" because it is her eyes that cause his "bale" (14-15). His attitude changes from being at war with his inner feelings to being accepted to the fact that if he looks at her he will be in danger of being hurt a second time. The irony being applied shows how his conflicted attitude is made clear by acknowledging that he will not give in to his desire despite what his repressed emotions are saying. Irony can be highly influential in discovering the narrator's hidden agenda and purposes, and the words chosen to reveal these purposes have an impact on the overall attitude of a piece of

Through Olds imagery, one can imagine being with that child, still bitter about her cruel grandfather and unsympathetic Grandmother. As the poem continues, the images of this man grow stronger “The firelight on his cold harsh face reflecting extra on his glass eye” (19). The poem goes on to discuss his glass eye father, calling it a

Sylvia Plath cannot bear the truth and begins to cry; she constantly wants something else to make her feel good about herself, she longs to be young. “I am important to her. She comes and goes. Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. She goes back to the lake for answers every morning and the lake is pleased to see her. The poem ends by the lake saying “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” This shows Sylvia Plath’s dislike of how old she looks. Sylvia Plath has been looking in this mirror every day for a long period of time, and she is realizing that she is getting older and she cannot do anything about it.

Introduction: Conflicting perspectives are different points of view expressed and influenced by ones context and values. “Birthday Letters” by Ted Hughes is an anthology of poems challenging the accusation that he was responsible for his wife, Sylvia Plath’s death. The three poems The Minotaur, Your Paris, and Red are an insight into Hughes justification of the death of Plath using a very subjective and emotive poetic form. The poems possess many deliberate techniques such as extended metaphors, connotations, diction and juxtaposition to encourage the audience to accept his argument that he was not the one to blame for this world renown tragedy. The poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath also displays conflicting perspectives of the

Even at a young age, Sylvia Plath was motivated and determined to be successful. She was only eight years old when her first poem “What I See and Hear on Hot Summer Nights” was published in The Boston Herold. After the death of her father, the family was forced to move from their home near the ocean as a result of financial problems. Caroline King Barnard Hall states that:

When reading any works by Sylvia Plath, it is easy to focus on the depression of her writing. However, it is important to understand why she wrote most her works about depression. Plath based her works on her own life experiences. Sylvia Plath’s most commonly known book, The Bell Jar, is thought to be an autobiography. Aurelia Plath, Sylvia’s mother, published the book Letters Home, a collection of all the letters Sylvia wrote to her mother. The letters she wrote to her mother prove the similarities between Plath’s own life and the life of the main character in the The Bell Jar. When looking into Plath’s life, it is easy to recognize the events that led Plath to her thoughts of depression and suicide. Her lack of confidence and the role feminism played major responsibilities throughout her lifetime which caused her to experience her depression. Plath used these difficulties to express her feelings, not only to her loving mother, but also to readers through her books and poems.

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