Sylvia Plath And Anne Sexton

There are many resemblances between the lives of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. Both were raised in New England and wrote most of their works, generally poetry, in the late 20th century, and both committed suicide. Despite the controversy that arises when a great writer commits suicide, the significance and appreciation of both women’s works should not be curtailed. Substantial events occurred in the lives of Plath and Sexton that feasibly impacted their decisions to take their lives. Plath’s father died when she was eight and she suffered from depression for most of her life (Sylvia Plath). In 1962, Plath’s husband, Ted Hughes, left Plath for the woman whom he engaged in an affair with (Sylvia Plath). The next year, Plath committed suicide by suffocating in her gas oven. Similarly, Anne Sexton suffered from depression and had multiple mental breakdowns throughout her life. The first was in 1954, a year after the birth of her child, and she was admitted to a neuropsychiatric hospital (Anne Sexton). She suffered another mental breakdown in 1955, after the birth of her second daughter, and attempted suicide that same year (Anne Sexton). In 1974, Sexton committed suicide by asphyxiation of carbon dioxide in her garage. Despite the similarities of their lives, the tone of their poetry often differed. Sylvia Plath elevated the idea of suicide, while Anne Sexton perceived herself as a coward for such thoughts. In Plath’s poem “Nick and the Candlestick”, Plath searches for her

The two poems, “And One for My Dame” by Anne Sexton and “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath, both explore similar themes through the use of literary elements such as structure, tone and symbolism. Structures in each poem are alike with length but differ with the actual form. The tone Plath conveys is negative one while Sexton’s is more neutral. The symbolism in “Daddy” was also negative with symbols of the devil but Sexton used a nursery rhyme as a symbol. The connotations of these elements reflect the image the daughters had of their fathers but also the relationships. These poems also both deal with the theme of

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”.

After the affair Plath grew increasingly depressed and eventually committed suicide. He said that “Plaths death was inevitable, she had been on that track most of her life,” but he could not contend with the additional suicide of Wevill in 1969, which he said was “utterly within her power, and it was an outcome of her reaction to Sylvia’s action,” which led to Wevill’s suicide.” These past horrific experiences strongly affected Hughes future relationships and poetry.

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.

In Sylvia Plath’s free verse poem, “Daddy,” she describes her hatred towards her deceased father. Plath uses tone, figures of speech, and symbols to illustrate her extreme anger and female protest towards the man that raised her. Sylvia Plath has a dark, bitter tone in “Daddy.” She recalls all the pain that her father has put her through, even after his death.

M. L. Rosenthal, a critic, might be responsible for the labeling of Anne's writing as ‘confessional poetry'. Whoever intended it, it was a term both helpful and too limited, and very possibly the conception of a confessional school has by now done a certain amount of damage (Hall 33). "All the confessional poets suffered mental illness. Most spent time in mental hospitals. Some committed suicide" (Hall 35). According to Rosenthal, breakdown and suicide are parts

Most of the time poems are written to have a deeper meaning rather than only having a literal meaning which allows the writer to tell an idea or reveal deeper emotions they have. Several poems written by Sylvia Plath were written with a deeper meaning as a way to admit her profound emotions. Throughout Plath's life she suffered from severe depression which in turn impacted many of her poems. Her husband, Ted Hughes, was also having an affair with another woman which worsened her depression. A year later Plath's depression got the best of her and she committed suicide in 1963. Her poem "Cut" was written close to her death and thus contains her pain and deep emotions. Within "Cut" Plath details the experience of cutting her thumb, she compares the pain she felt to the pain she has had throughout her life and the pain people suffered from during events

All of them experienced feelings of sadness and anguish, but each one of them also seemed to express an additional feeling towards Plath’s death in their poetry, which makes the closer look into their reactions interesting. By each poet expressing this additional feeling, we can further explore the complications of death by suicide. The poets multifaceted reactions continue to show us that death is not something that is dealt with in the same way, not every person reacts similarly to tragedy. By comparing the reactions of people in all various stages of relationship with Plath, we can better understand the true impact of her death. The outside world did not truly understand what it meant for a family to lose their lifeline, which makes it problematic for the average person to understand what her death truly meant to her loved ones.

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 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.”)

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

“The world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it.” (Kaur, 185) This excerpt from Rupi Kaur’s collection of confessional poems, Milk and Honey, shows her feelings towards poetry as an art. It explains how the confessional style of poetry allows artists to transform their pain and feelings into art. Art is always changing, new ideas are brought about, artists create with different purposes. The art of poetry is constantly evolving, poets introduce different ideas and styles based on the message they are trying to portray. The confessional style of poetry is one that allows the poet to speak freely; it is personal and allows the author to share emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Within the last decade the confessional style of poetry has changed because of the growth of certain social issues. It has become a way for poets to express their feelings towards topics like these or describe their personal experiences in a poetic way. Writing in the confessional style of poetry has allowed poets to have more freedom in recent years to discuss and write their feelings towards specific, pressing topics such as feminism and mental illnesses.

Sylvia Plath was American short-story writer, poet and novelist that was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts and died on February 11, 1963. Sylvia Plath is best known for, her books of poems, “The Colossus and Other Poems Collection” and the “Ariel Collection” of Poems.Plath’s poetry was known for its rhyme, alliteration and disturbing and violent imagery. Plath’s poetry is considered part of the Confessional movement, which became very popular in the United States during the 1950s through the 1960s. It is considered a type of poetry about “of the personal”. Confessional poems are more associated with the subject matter of sexuality, mental illness and suicide.

The major themes of Sylvia Plath’s poetry include the anxiety, depression, resentment with the prescribed roles, dissatisfaction with femininity, mirroring the self, the reflection over