Research Paper On 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

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 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 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.

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.

As one of the most multitalented writers of the twentieth century, Sylvia Plath was highly esteemed by fans and fellow writers alike. Sylvia Plath’s parents, Aurelia Schober and Otto Plath, had met when Aurelia became Otto’s student at Boston University. Otto was a biology professor with an infatuation with bees; he had even published a book titled Bumblebees and their ways. Otto and Aurelia married in January of 1932, and by October of the same year Aurelia gave birth in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts to a daughter, Sylvia.

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

Elizabeth Winder’s Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 illuminates different aspects of Sylvia Plath’s life. However, Winder depicts Plath not as the mythologized martyr of a collapsed marriage or the tragic woman poet with a debilitating illness but rather as a young girl wanting to immerse herself in the rich, material culture of her time. Winder’s biography gives insight to the life of an intelligent young woman amidst the gender constraints of mid-century America, a theme that is further explicated in Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar.

Esther has seen or done many things that represent her and show how she has affected those around her. Although there are many other examples, the headlines Joan mentions in chapter 16 are a prime example of how Esther has affected people even those who are strangers. The headlines symbolize Esther’s exposure to the world and her impact on them.

Much of Sylvia Plath's poetry and her only novel, The Bell Jar, reflect her feelings of mental instability. Plath grew up in Massachusetts and was an intelligent and successful writer at a young age. She was living an American dream. However, her idyllic life was more like a nightmare for Sylvia Plath. She drove herself hard; it was important to her to succeed. When she began to doubt herself and the world around her she became mentally ill.

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

American poet Sylvia Plath once said “eternity bores me, I never wanted it.” This quote, from her poem, “Years,” expresses that she did not want to live forever. It might even suggest a foreshadowing of her suicide in 1963. This quote is also from one of her many poems, which are greatly influenced by her life. To learn how Plath’s life affected her writing, researchers study main topics on her life and her works, including her early life, career, and literary works.

“Why can’t I try on different lives, like dresses, to see which one fits me best and is most becoming?” Sylvia Plath once asked in The Journals of Sylvia Plath (Plath 38). Any reader of Sylvia Plath can instantly recognize Plath’s dislike for her life and all that comes with it. Plath grew up with the realities of death in the forefront because of her father’s passing at a young age and her struggles with at least one mental illness. Much like her characters in her many works, Sylvia Plath struggled from mental illnesses, such as depression and, possibly, anxiety. Sylvia Plath is famously known for committing suicide and the “Sylvia Plath Effect”, the term coined by James Kaufman, PhD in 2001. The Sylvia Plath Effect considers the possibility that creative minds, such as writers, poets and artists can be more susceptible to mental illnesses. Though plenty of studies have not found a causal link, popular psychology has come to continue the stereotype that poets are generally depressed or anxious. While Plath is ‘famous’ in a general sense for this more commonly known information, her literary work published throughout her life and posthumously is arguably more impressive.

Sylvia Plath, a great American author, focuses mostly on actual experiences. Plath’s poetry displays feelings and emotions. Plath had the ability to transform everyday happenings into poems or diary entries. Plath had a passion for poetry and her work was valued. She was inspired by novelists and her own skills. Her poetry was also very important to readers and critics. Sylvia Plath’s work shows change throughout her lifetime, relates to feelings and emotions, and focuses on day to day experiences.