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 inserts both her feelings and life experiences into her literature- and was also highly influenced by Dickinson herself- but especially into her novel The Bell Jar. Plath uses parallelism to her benefit when she first attempted suicide in 1953, it is stated in the book just as Plath recalls the predicament and Plath admitted to saying herself that the attempt of suicide with her mother’s sleeping pills was “ blissfully succumbed to the whirling blackness to the eternal oblivion”(“Sylvia Plath”. Project Gutenberg) and goes into very immense detail of her thought process before the attempt to meet death. Stating this and reliving this in her novel only help her become new. Plath wanted to be better, so writing about it not only

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

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.

October 27th in 1932, Sylvia Plath was born, to parents Otto Plath and Aurelia Schober Plath. One of the

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.

To make matters worse, when she arrived home a letter awaited her saying that she had been rejected from Frank O'Connor's short story class. She was almost positive that she would get in and was deeply devastated when she received the rejection letter. Both the disappointment of New York and the rejection from the coveted writing class that she counted on started a deep spiral into clinical depression. Pressure was building up between her mom pushing her to return to her old self and her inability to sleep or read. Plath felt despondent. She even had an unsuccessful attempt at suicide by hiding herself away in the crawl space of her cellar and taking an overdose of sleeping pills. However, Plath was found and immediately institutionalized. Plath described this time as the blackest in her life saying in A Birthday Present “I would have killed myself gladly that time any possible way” (Malmsheimer 531).

Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts in 1932. She started writing poetry at a young age, and had her work published in some periodicals. Her father died in 1940 when she was only 8, and his

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.

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Her love for poetry started young as her father, Otto Plath, suddenly passed away after Sylvia’s 8th birthday, dying from undiagnosed diabetes. This would greatly influence her later works. After his passing, her mother, Aurelia, took Sylvia and her brother, Warren, to Wellesley Massachusetts to live with the grandparents. She had good memories when her father was around, this inspired her to write her first poem, that was published in The Boston Traveller. She wrote all throughout her childhood and eventually started writing short stories to be published in magazines. For example, she wrote a total of 45 pieces of work to the magazine and they eventually published

Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston Massachusetts and died on February 11, 1963. She married a British poet named Ted Hughes and had two children, but heir relationship later ended in a divorce. She was a troubled but gifted poet; her love for poetry started at a young age because she kept a journal. Plath was accepted into Smith College once some of her works were published. She spent time in New York working for Mademoiselle magazine as a guest editor. She tried to kill herself by taking sleeping pills, but later recovered in a mental hospital. Her husband left her another woman in 1962; she fell into depression. While she was struggling with her illness, she wrote The Bell Jar. She also wrote a collection of poems they were

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.

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.