Perhaps the first thought to mind when the name Sylvia Plath is mentioned is pure ironic tragedy. What a destructive death for a woman with a seemingly jubilant life. It is know to most that she was a poet and author beyond her time, beaming with creativity and writing poetry in her early teen years. However, with longing for fame struck the bittersweet reality of holding the title for the most unfortunate life. How can it be, that a woman struck by dire occurrences, leave such an incredible mark in the guest book of all great authors and poets? It seems to be true that many a melancholy poet, tend to be of the male gender; at least those who are greatly remembered and studied. So why is Plath one…
Sylvia Plath poetry is unique because of her use of language and the perspective and themes she explores, creating powerful images and original metaphorical ideas to evoke a strong climax of feelings which express the struggles she experienced in her own personal life. Her poems ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Daddy’ are confessional poems that use contemporary form and respectively a childlike and mocking tone to convey the persona’s mixed sense of emotions . Plath’s poetry utilises unique language to express her anger, hope, desire and disappointment. There is a constant suicidal motif in her poems revealing her personal issues and problems which are linked to male domination in the patriarchal society she resided in. It is unusual that Plath’s poetry is written in a strong female perspective contrary to the passive domesticity which women were meant to abide by in her 1950’s and 1960’s context.…
Sylvia Plath is an American writer whose best-known poems are carefully crafted pieces noted for their personal imagery and intense focus. She was born in Massachusetts in 1932 and began publishing poems and stories as a teenager. By the time she entered Smith College, Plath had won several poetry prizes that led to her becoming a Fulbright Scholar in Cambridge, England. However, on February 11, 1963, Sylvia Plath committed suicide due to problems existing within a troubled marriage. Her novel, The Bell Jar, was first published under her own name in the United States in 1971, despite the protests of her family. Plath's Collected Poems, published in 1981, won the Pulitzer Prize.…
When speaking about Sylvia Plath a word too often use is Tragedy, the tragedy that was her life and the pain that ended it. Plath is known for her cynical twisted writing, but never too far from the truthful pain no one dared to speak about. Plath was far more than just a sad woman who made it an art form. Plath was more than other women on the Ted Hughes list of accomplishments, she was a literary genius and was a face of a movement that 50 years later is still worthy of praise. Sylvia Plath should be known for not only her literary accomplishments but the voice she created for women too not only speak about the unspeakable but to be open about the serious nature of mental illness. Sylvia Plath’s suicide is said to have overshadowed…
Sylvia Plath, an extremely influential and beloved female poet who lived in the mid-20th century, was the author of numerous poems as well as the semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar. Her work, especially that of her adult life, heavily reflects the darkness and depression that she dealt with. Plath, born in October of 1932, began writing at a very young age. Her first published work, titled simply “Poem”, was published before she had even turned ten. Plath wrote many short stories during her early years, and she even won several writing competitions. One of these was a fiction contest that earned her a position as guest editor at Mademoiselle…
Sylvia Plath, who is highly regarded as an acclaimed American poet and story writer, was born to Otto and Aurelia Plath on October 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. Sylvia Plath experienced a great deal of sorrow during her childhood because of her father’s death. Sylvia Plath expresses her ambivalent feelings and complex ideas about her father in her poems. Therefore, the poems reflected Sylvia Plath’s life. Lady Lazarus is Sylvia Plath’s one of her autobiography poems which stems from the author’s mind. The poem is written before her last attempting suicide, which she actually succeeded. The reader can use one’s imagination by reading her images and feelings in her confessional poem. In the poem, she reflected her hardship that she inevitably…
Sylvia Plath’s father died when she was eight years old due to complications of diabetes (Steinberg 2007). He is already dead; Sylvia Plath wrote this poem when she was 30, but in stanza 2 she says “Daddy, I have had to kill you. / You died before I had time—“(lines 6-7). What she is killing is the memories of him; he died too early and has caused a great amount of grief. This poem is angry, perhaps because he left her when he died while she was so young. Throughout the poem Sylvia Plath uses words like “achoo” and “gobbledygoo” giving the poem a childish feel, as it uses these themes of the Holocaust and vampires, adding a contrast. The poem also has an irregular rhyme scheme using the “oo” sound. There is no evidence from sources that Sylvia Plath’s father was ever abusive to her, so one can conclude that the loss was so immense, and caused so much pain, that it was like if she was being tormented.…
“Dying is an art, like everything. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call” – Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on October 27th, 1932 and died in London, United Kingdom on February 11th, 1963 at the age of 31 years old. Sylvia is well known for her astonishing poem such as “The Bell Jar” and “Daddy”. Her parents were Aurelia Schober, who was a student at Boston University and Otto Plath, who happened to be Aurelia Schober’s professor at the time (Academy of American Poets). “In 1940, when Plath was eight years old, her father died as a result of complications from diabetes. He had been a strict father, and both his authoritarian attitudes and his death drastically defined her relationships and her poems—most notably in her elegiac and infamous poem "Daddy."” (Academy of American Poets).…
Sylvia Plath was born to middle class family in Massachusetts. Plath published her first poem when she was 8.She was bright, sensitive, was a perfectionist at everything she attempted. She was a brilliant kid, getting A grades in school, winning the top prizes. She was a model daughter. By 1950 when she joined Smith College she already had an remarkable list of publication.…
Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. She lived with her parents Otto Emil Plath and Aurelia Schober Plath and later her brother Warren in the suburbs of Boston (Steinberg). Plath published her first poem at eight years old and was very intelligent. Some would even call her a model daughter because of her straight A’s, popularity in school, and her thrive to be perfect at everything (Gilson).…
Sylvia Plath’s troubled life began on October 27, 1932 when she was born to Otto and Aurelia Plath in Boston, Massachusetts (Mondragon). Plath developed a talent for literature from a very young age, and published her first poem at eight years old. Also at age eight, Plath suffered the traumatic loss of her father (Mondragon). He died on the night of November 5, 1940, and when Plath learned of her father’s death she announced, “I’ll never speak to God again” (Mondragon). Her strong feelings of anger, grief, and love from the loss of her father would shadow Plath for the rest of her life and appear in poems such as the famed “Daddy” (Mondragon). Plath continued to write throughout her school years and was featured in several magazine articles. However, Plath received numerous publication rejections throughout her life which caused her own belief in her talent to waver and gave her the feeling of being a failure. Plath also fell into a pattern where severe stress would cause physical ailments, which then led to cycles of depression and further stress…
Sylvia Plath? Have you heard of her? Well, Sylvia Plath is a well-known poet, novelist and author. Plath was born during the great depression influencing her writing style. At a very young age she lost her father and since then she began lose faith. She also became ambivalent about religion all throughout her life. Plath was a very smart student and was accepted into Smith College in America. During her stay in college she was accepted as an editor for a magazine, during she spent time in New York. Plath started to write the bell jar in which during this time she started to feel depressed. She tried electroconvulsive therapy but it did not work. She decided to commit suicide by overdosing herself but failed. Later on her life she then tries to commit suicide and then succeeded by inhaling gas from the gas oven and suffocated.…
Sylvia Plath was a gifted, troubled poet, known for her confessional style work. Winning a scholarship to Smith College in 1950, she eventually went on to work as an editor for Mademoiselle magazine. After her husband Ted Hughes cheated on her, she fell into a deep depression. Before committing suicide at age 30, Plath had written hundreds of poems and a novel about mental breakdown, The Bell Jar.…
Death is very much a universal theme and one present in numerous poems written by Sylvia Plath. The subject of death, and consequently Plath’s work, can therefore relate to everyone as it is relevant to all humanity, nobody is exempt. It can be seen that Plath had a preoccupation with death, it has been said that she was attracted to it like “moths to an electric light bulb” . Indeed, Plath attempted suicide on several occasions throughout her life, finally succumbing to her “passionate flirtation” with death in February 1963. Both “Edge” and “Lady Lazarus” were written close to the end of her life and they both explore the idea of death, yet do so from different perspectives.…
3) Gerisch, B. (1998). `This is not death, it is something safer': A psychodynamic approach to Sylvia Plath. Death Studies, 22(8), 735.…