The Feminine Ideal and Mental Health in The Bell Jar

Essay on The Feminine Ideal in The Bell Jar
Throughout The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath explores a number of themes, particularly regarding the gender roles, and subsequently, the mental health care
system for women. Her 19–year–old protagonist, Esther Greenwood, is the vessel through which Plath poses many probing questions about these
topics to the reader. In the 1950s when the novel was set, women were held to a high standard: to be attractive but pure, intelligent but submissive, and
to generally accept the notion of bettering oneself only in order to make life more comfortable for the significant male in her life. Esther not only deals
with the typical problems faced by women in her time, but she has to experience those things through the lens of mental illness though it is up for...
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Despite this initial attraction to, and appreciation of, Doreen's messy, flirty lifestyle, Esther still remains stuck in a traditional mindset. She turns on
Doreen after she witnesses what she perceives as Doreen's whorish, sloppy behavior in the incident with Lenny, where in which Doreen had drunk
herself sick and acted promiscuously with a man she had met on the street just a few hours before. Esther even states that "[d]eep down, I would be
loyal to Betsey and her innocent friends. It was Betsey I resembled at heart" (22). Earlier in the novel, Doreen and Esther had made fun of Betsey's
wholesome, goody–goody personality, calling her "Pollyanna Cowgirl" (6) behind her back. Even though Esther was originally awed by Doreen's
boldness, she feels naturally compelled to stay true to the clean, innocent lifestyle preferred for women in the 1950s. Esther's judgmental attitude is not
just reserved for her peers. She also makes decisions about the adults she encounters –including her superiors and mentors– based upon their physical
attractiveness. When Esther first brings up Jay Cee, her boss at the magazine, she describes her as "plug–ugly" (6), and then goes on to describe her
accomplishments as if they were much less significant than they really were. Simply because she was unattractive by Esther's standards, her value as a
person was diminished. Esther says, "Jay Cee wanted to teach me something, all the old ladies I ever knew wanted
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"Fiesta 1980вЂќ and вЂњDaddyвЂќ Essay
"Fiesta 1980" and "Daddy" Both poems are about memories of the relationship with their father. However, the experiences are very different. The
children presented in "Fiesta 1980" by Junot Diaz and "Daddy" by Silvia Plath suffers an internal struggle because of their fathers. In "Fiesta 1980"
there is a chance to improve the relationship where as in "Daddy" there is no hope because the father is dead. In "Fiesta 1980" we can tell the story is
told in the first person by and adolescent Latino boy. The story is mainly about the struggles of an immigrant family as they wake up from a nightmare
in Santo Domingo only to find themselves in another nightmare, except this time it's in America. Yunior's dad is abusive and is pretty much a... Show
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When the father takes Yunior on short trips in the van, so Yunior can practice not vomiting, Yunior enjoys the time alone with his dad and feel
loved. It is interesting how Junior only experiences carsickness in the lime green van his father drives. He notes that he "never had trouble with
cars before that van was like my curse". I can assume that since Junior first met his father's mistress during a trip in the van, which leads me to
believe that Yunior associates the vehicle with the crushing emotional distress of learning of his father's infidelity. I feel the poem "Daddy" is a
work of rage and powerlessness of her hate towards her father's death and then how she tried to control this rage by creating a new father in her
husband. Her husband is seen in two metaphors, a Nazi and a vampire. The vampire "drank her blood", which shows his possessiveness over her.
Which correlates once more to how her husband is a model of her father: they both confined her. The metaphor of Nazis brings an understanding of
her personal pain and suppression. In my opinion of the two works the one that seem to deal with the theme in a more constructive, realistic, or
positive way is "Fiesta 1980". Parts of this story are funny, but mostly there is a sense of real tension between the mother and her sons. However later in
the story even this relationship is a source of conflict as Yunior and Rafa must conceal their father's indiscretions. I would argue that the brothers

The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar is a novel written in, 1963 written by Sylvia Plath. It is a story about a girl who under goes many traumatic life events that had the
destiny to make or break her. The things she used to enjoy in life are no longer bringing joy to her life. She can't find anything that gives her the will
to go on. The Bell Jar is a story that will take reader on a journey with a girl who lets the gender roles of 1950s get the best of her. She lets people tell
her what she can and cannot do and loses what it means to become your own person. The Bell Jar teaches the audience about the expectations,
opportunities or restrictions on American Women in the 1950's. As gender roles have become more diverse between a man and awoman, it is still more
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Esther was constantly pushed around by men, which was a stereotype in the 1950's that men controlled the women and were always in charge.
Esther had a relationship with a man named Buddy Willard who was expecting that she was just going to marry him. Men believed that they had
everything a woman may desire, but actually they did not. Women were forced to marry men because of their fortune or family relations. The Bell
Jar teaches us that every opportunity a woman had received in the 1950's was a gift and should be taken immediately. Women had certain
expectations they must meet and ways they must look in order to be accepted by society. Women were compared to the look of models, they were
expected to look just as good as they still are nowadays. For example, " A model named Bettina was known for her tall, slim figure, youthful
movements, short bobbed hair, shapely eyebrows and bright red lipstick" ( Sherrow, Modeling and Models). This shows how women were expected
to be slim, with youthful energy and have short hair. Esther was one of those women who were expected to look like this. She used to have youthful
energy, but events over her life started to take away that energy. Women in the 1950's had to compete with the model's image, women were especially
compared during beauty competitions. "Women in Beauty Pageants were judged basis of physical appearance and named best looking or most
beautiful" (Sherrow, Beauty Pageants). The idea that people would be considered

An Explication of Sylvia Plath8217s 8220Daddy8221 Essay
An Explication of Sylvia Plath8217s 8220Daddy8221 It tends to be the trend for women who have had traumatic childhoods to be attracted to men
who epitomize their emptiness felt as children. Women who have had unaffectionate or absent fathers, adulterous husbands or boyfriends, or relatives
who molested them seem to become involved in relationships with men who, instead of being the opposite of the "monsters" in their lives, are the
exact replicas of these ugly men. Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy" is a perfect example of this unfortunate trend. In this poem, she speaks directly to her
dead father and her husband who has been cheating on her, as the poem so indicates.
The first two stanzas, lines 1–10, tell the readers that ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In stanza 12, she tells us that he has "bit her pretty red heart in two." Next, she states that he died when she was ten, and when she was twenty years
old, she attempted suicide – "...I tried to die, to get back back back to you." In stanza 13 is where she starts talking about her husband. She says that
instead of dying, her friends "stuck her together with glue," and since she could not die to get back to her father, she would marry someone who was
similar.
"I made a model of you, a man in black with a Meinkampf look for a love of the rack and the screw. And I said I do, I do."
These lines are frightening, but unfortunately real. Plath tells us that she has married someone exactly like her father, a man who has a "my struggle"
look, a German look. The third line above seems to mean that her husband, who was poet Ted Hughes, cheated on her, in turn abandoning her. But she
still said "I do" and agreed to be with him.
The last two stanzas are the darkest, and ultimately appear to put some type of closure on Plath's life. She obviously believes that she killed her father
when she was ten years old, stating that "if I've killed one man, I've killed

Sylvia Plath is an American Writer who Writes Confessional...
Sylvia Plath is an American writer, commonly known for her poetry works. Her poetry can be categorized as "confessional poetry", which are poems
about the poet's personal life. Her two most famous published collections of poems are The Colossus and Other Poemsand Ariel, but it was not until
after Plath's death that The Bell Jarwas published. The Bell Jar is considered a more personal and semi–autobiographical novel. Throughout Sylvia
Plath's lifetime, she suffered mentally since she was a little girl. Her father's death when she was only eight years old estranged her from herself and
others, including her own mother where she felt that she had to act as a happy and successful daughter. This is not the only time in her life where she
had to put on a show. She also had to pretend to be supportive wife in front of her husband's friends due to her mental illness. Because of her
depression, Plath attempted suicide at the age of 20 and failed but ten years later, she eventually died of suicide. Sylvia Plath's background and the
way she lived her life influenced her to depict her inner struggles in life and to express her thoughts through her poetry. Sylvia Plath uses a lot of
symbolism in her poetry as well as many other literary devices, especially in her poem "Ariel". When Plath was younger, she had a horse named
Ariel. Ariel in the poem is meant to symbolize Plath, the rebellious spirit that the female speaker of the poem aspires to be. It also symbolizes the
transcendence

The Dark Stories By Sylvia Plath
Do you ever wish you could take the worst moment of your life and experience it like it never happened? In Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer that is
exactly what happened to five teenagers. These teens attended the Wooden Barn a school for the fragile. Casey, Sierra, Griffin, Marc, and Jam
were all chosen to be in an odd class, Special Topics English. Mrs. Quenell their teacher had chosen the dark stories by Sylvia Plath the only author
they were going to read the semester. When the students finally began to use their journals they were given, they began to experience this state of
Belzhar. The students were whisked back to the time of their life where they had not experienced their trauma. Each of these students went through
something like Sylvia Plath that differentiated them from normal teens but because of Belzhar they were healed emotionally. Sierra's brother was
missing, Jam's boyfriend had died, and Casey is paralyzed but they got through it thanks to Belzhar. Sierra Stokes is from Washington, DC and loves
her little brother AndrГ©. One night he went to the store to buy and never returned. Sierra's family was devastated and Sierra was constantly
contacting the detective even three years later. When Sierra went to Belzhar she experienced time with her brother. Worst of all no one really knew
what she was going through. In Sierra's final time in Belzhar she had to experience losing AndrГ© again and she could not leave him, so she stayed in
Belzhar. Sierra was found in what

Sylvia Plath: The Exemplary Confessional Poet
Emerging in the 1950s and 1960s, confessional poetry was essentially an autobiographical style of writing. Often focusing on topics that were taboo
at the time like mental illness and suicide, it is no surprise that Sylvia Plath wrote poetry in this style. Plath suffered from depression most of her life
and used writing as an outlet (Spinello). In her works "Cut," "I Am Vertical," and "Lady Lazarus," Plath exemplifiesconfessional poetry through the
themes of resentment, death, and mental illness.
To understand why Plath is placed in the literary category that she is, there needs to be knowledge of her personal life. Born in 1932 in
Massachusetts, Plath led a short and tragic life. Even as a young girl she excelled in academics, but her ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Death can also be seen very simply in "I Am Vertical" when one reads, "But I would rather be horizontal," (1) and in "Lady Lazarus" when Plath says,
"Dying/ Is an art, like everything else. /I do it exceptionally well," (43–45).
In her poetry, the reader can often forget that Plath is not the speaker. This is because in her poems, "there is no slippage between the poet and the
voice of the poem" (Kendall 14). The topic of death was not a common theme in poetry at the time Plath was writing. Both of these aspects of her
poetry are what make her writing stand out. In almost all of her works, a reader can find a reference to death. More importantly, a reader can find
Plath's thoughts about death and how she views it. That is what classifies her works as confessional poetry.
By the time she died in 1963, Plath had attempted suicide three times, the final attempt being successful. With that knowledge, it is no surprise that a
common theme in her poetry is mental illness. In the poem "Cut", a poem essentially about self harm, Plath writes, "What a thrill–––/ My thumb
instead of an onion," (1–2). This poem shows the "balance of pain and exhilaration" (Kendall 142) when the "victim and the victimizer are one in the
same" (Spinello). In "I Am Vertical" the speaker seems to be saying that it would be better to be dead when the poem reads, "Thoughts gone dim./ It is
more natural to me, lying down," (16–17). In

Lady Lazarus, by Sylvia Plath
"Lady Lazarus" is a poem by Sylvia Plath, written in 1962 shortly before her death in early 1963, and published posthumously by her husband, poet
Ted Hughes, in 1965 in the collected volume Ariel. "Lady Lazarus" is a poem about suicide as a rebirth, and was in part inspired by Plath's own life
and draws heavily on Plath's lifelong struggle with bipolar depression and suicidal feelings, and uses holocaust imagery to paint a bleak portrait of
suicide and hopelessness. Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1932 to a German immigrant college professor and his graduate
student–turned–wife. The early years of Plath's life were comfortable, spending much of her time near the seaside. After losing her father in 1940, Plath
and her ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The title of the poem, "Lady Lazarus," is a reference to the biblical story of Lazarus of Bethany, a man brought back to life by Christ as a
demonstration of his divine power to non–believing onlookers. (The Holy Bible, King James Version, John 1–44.) The speaker in the poem compares
her near death experience and suicide attempts to a resurrection or rebirth, such as in the story of Lazarus. In the first stanza the speaker declares that
every ten years she dies, drawing an eerie parallel to Plath's own life. At eight, Plath lost her father and this sparked an immense resentment towards
him and strong feelings of alienation throughout the rest of her life; this was her first "death," and the speaker declares this death an accident in stanza
12, lines 2–3. Her second "death" was intentional. (stanza 13) This "death" came at age twenty when Plath attempted suicide for the first time. The
speaker in the poem says that this death was meant to be permanent and she did not wish to be "reborn." (stanza 13, line 2.) The third and final death
was Plath's suicide at age thirty, only a few months after "Lady Lazarus" was written. In a way, Plath hinted at her worsening mental state through this
work. In stanza seven, the speaker says she is only thirty, as was Plath at the time she wrote this poem. The speaker alludes to coming suicide attempts
by comparing herself to a cat with nine lives, indicating that

Essay Analysis of Daddy by Sylvia Plath
Analysis of Daddy by Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath uses her poem, Daddy, to express deep emotions toward her father's life and death. With passionate articulation, she verbally turns
over her feelings of rage, abandonment, confusion and grief. Though this work is fraught with ambiguity, a reader can infer Plath's basic story. Her
father was apparently a Nazi soldier killed in World War II while she was young. Her statements about not knowing even remotely where he was
while he was in battle, the only photograph she has left of him and how she chose to marry a man that reminded her of him elude to her grief in
losing her father and missing his presence. She also expresses a dark anger toward him for his political views and actions ... Show more content on
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She also presents a slight rhythm to the reading that allows for smooth reading. In keeping with her open form, there is no set scheme to the rhyme
pattern. However, there is a single ending sound constantly repeated without a set pattern throughout the work. She also connects pairs of lines at
random just for the sake of making connections to make that particular stanza flow. At the same time, she chose blatantly not to rhyme in certain parts
to catch the reader's attention.
There are a few instances where imagery is used to carry out Plath's expression. To cite a particular example that might lead a reader deduce their
own ideas can be found in the last stanza: "And the villagers never liked you. / They are dancing and stamping on you." This undoubtedly expresses
her father's death and burial but more importantly it states a certain humiliation she faced from everyone knowing what her father had died for, along
with her own rage toward him. Another can be found in lines 24–25: "I never could talk to you. / The tongue stuck in my jaw." The picture of someone
being tongue–tied along with her statement in line 41: "I have always been scared of you," demonstrate just that; she was fearful of her father. She
also gives an image that provides the reader a view of how Plath physically viewed her father and chose a man that she states reminds her of him: "A
man in black with a Meinkampf look."

Sylvia Plath 's The Bell Jar
In Sylvia Plath's novel, The Bell Jar, Plath expresses her opposition to the idea of men having complete control over every aspect of women's lives by
utilizing the narrator Esther; a radical feminist, to speak out against conformity in a society run by men. Esther represents everything controversial
about domesticity in the twentieth century. Throughout the novel she touches on taboo subjects such as radicalfeminism, rape, and resistance of
patriarchal dictates, all of which were touchy topics to speak out about for women of this time period. From the beginning of the novel Esther is
constantly torn between what defines her as an individual and what she should conform to because that is what society expects of her as a woman.
Esther has a pessimistic outlook on domesticity and despises the idea of playing the role of a helpless puppet that a man holds the strings to. She is
not completely against the patriarchal dictates placed on her gender but instead wants to put her own twist on the part she will inevitability be forced
to play one day.
Sylvia Plath's personal views on domesticity shine through in narrator Esther Greenwood, Esther's lack of maternal instincts and her desire of freedom
from a man's possession are critical points when examining Esther's choices. Within the novel there are several mentions of motherhood as well as
Esther's lack of material instincts. During the hospital scene, when Esther witness's childbirth she is told by a male doctor before the birth

Sylvia Plath 's Life And Life
American poet Sylvia Plath once stated "eternity bores me, I never wanted it." This quote, from her poem, "Years," expressed that she did not
want to live forever. It even suggested a foreshadowing of her suicide in 1963. This quote is also from one of her many poems, which were greatly
influenced by her life. To learn how Plath's life affected her writing, researchers studied main topics on her life and her works, including her early
life, career, and literary works. To begin with, one of the topics that researchers studied was Plath's early life and her family history, as events that
occurred at an early age had a huge impact on the rest of her life. Sylvia Plath was eight and a half pounds when she was born on October 27, 1932 at
the Massachusetts Memorial Hospital. After she was born, she lived at 24 Prince Street in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts. Plath's parents were
Aurelia Schobert Plath and Otto Emile Plath. Aurelia Plath was an American with Austrian descent, while Otto Plath was an immigrant from Grasbrow,
Germany. Her father worked at the Boston University as a biology and German professor with a specialty on bumblebees. When her parents met at a
class Aurelia attended, instructed by Otto, Plath's mother was twenty–one years younger than her father. Plath's brother, Warren Plath, was born about
two and a half years later on April 27, 1935. Then, in 1936, the family moved to 92 Johnson Avenue in Winthrop, Massachusetts. During the night of
November 5, 1940,

The Comparison and Contrast of Anne Sexton and Sylvia...
LaStacia Bradley
Instructor McBride
English 1023
June 29th, 2012
The Comparison and Contrast of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath 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 ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The tone associated with suicide and bad communication is not positive because these are not happy things and consequently, with Plath mentioning
these, the poem takes on a dark tone which reflects her relationship with her father. On the other hand, Sexton creates a tone that is much lighter by
using words that have neutral or positive connotations. Her choice of diction does not hint either way whether her relationship with her father was
good or bad, it seems to stay neutral which reflects her objective tone throughout the poem. She begins to introduce him as "a born salesman" in line
1 and "a born talker" in line 4, which at most, infers that he was a charismatic person (1,4). Sexton goes on to list everything he was in line 15 stating
he was "a peddler, a hawker, a merchant and an Indian Chief" (15). By these descriptions her father does not appear to be out of the ordinary. He was
just a traveler, committed to his work and not much else. The way she describes him also seems to be observational so possibly her relationship with
him was distanced and unattached. Therefore, the tone echoes the theme that the relationship she had with her father because their relationship was
disconnected and that was the emotion provoked as she remembered him. In addition to structure and tone, the authors both use symbolism to connect
to the theme. In "Daddy", Plath once again mirrors her feelings and relationship with her father by the use of negative symbols such

Essay on Morning Song Analysis
Morning Song В– Sylvia Plath
Morning Song, by Sylvia Plath, was written in February 1961, the same month she suffered a miscarriage.
Morning Song, by Sylvia Plath, explores the physical and emotional links between a mother and child, and Plath's own growing maternal bond with
her child. In the poem, Plath is contemplating her relationship with her new child and it is clear she has mixed emotions of apprehension and awe.
The opening line of the poem introduces her first impressions of the child. "Love set you going like a fat gold watch." This immediately creates a
positive connection with the baby, as she uses the word "Love" as the origin of her child. The simile "fat gold watch" creates a somewhat confusing
image of the child, ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In both pieces she wishes to be detached from love and responsibility, yet as the poem progresses, she has a change of heart, almost an epiphany.
The next stanza moves on to talk about how Plath's apprehension stops her from bonding with he child with these lines: "I'm no more your mother
/ Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow / Effacement at the wind's hand." Here Plath (the В‘cloud') is resenting giving birth to her
image as it reminds her of her own inevitable mortality. The child is the mirror, which reflects the dissipation of the cloud.
Plath seems to then have a change of heart. She creates a fragile, beautiful image of her child; "All night your moth–breath / Flickers among the flat
pink roses." Use of consonance in "moth–breath" and alliteration in the line "Flickers among the flat pink roses" constructs the soft sounds of the infant
's breathing. It is interesting how she utilises the flower imagery which is similar to her other poem, Tulips. In Tulips, the flowers bring her back
from the state of detachment, and here it is the baby's breath, soft as roses, the awakens her love for her child. The awakening of this love is
expressed in the last lines of that stanza; "I wake to listen: A far sea moves in my ear."
However, she stills resents the newfound nocturnal annoyance, evident in how she describes herself as "cow–heavy" as

Essay about Symbolism Within the Bell Jar Novel
Sylvia Plath's novel, "The Bell Jar", tells a story of a young woman's descent into mental illness. Esther Greenwood, a 19 year old girl, struggles to
find meaning within her life as she sees a distorted version of the world. In Plath's novel, different elements and themes of symbolism are used to
explain the mental downfall of the book's main character and narrator such as cutting her off from others, forcing her to delve further into her own
mind, and casting an air of negativity around her. Plath uses images of rotting fig trees and veils of mist to convey the desperation she feels when
confronted with issues of her future. Esther Greenwood feels that she is trapped under a bell jar, which distorts her view of the world around her....
Three days later, she is found and placed in a mental hospital. First assigned to a rich psychiatrist named Dr. Gordon, Esther feels harassed by the
doctors surrounding her. She feels that they do not really care about her; in a sense, they don't. After seeing Esther three times, he states that she is not
improving due to the fact that she has not been able to sleep, read, eat, or write in three weeks. She is moved to his mental asylum, where she suffers
through electroshock therapy for the first time. The procedure is done incorrectly and she is shocked, literally.
Because the method was not implemented correctly, Esther is awake the whole time, feeling the electricity course through her. As her condition
worsens, she is placed in a privately funded asylum. She once again undergoes electroshock therapy, but this time it is done correctly, liftingthe bell jar
off of her. She states that it hangs a few feet above her head. Being under the bell jar is a terrifying experience for Esther. It renders her useless of her
greatest skill, writing. It makes her hate essentially everyone and everything that had once meant something to her. It turns her into a hollow shell. She
makes an attempt to seem normal and portray the talented girl she has always been, up until then. "How did I know that someday – at college, in
Europe, somewhere, anywhere – the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn't descend again" (Plath 241)? Even though

Revenge and Hatred in Sylvia Plath's Daddy Essay
Revenge and Hatred in Plath's Daddy
The power of Plath's Daddy to threaten, shock and move the reader remains undiminished, years after it was written. To the unsuspecting reader, the
experience of first reading "Daddy" is a confusion of discomfort, excitement and guilty pleasure, for the pleasures of revenge are said to be sweet, and
this is a revenge poem of the first rank. Revenge upon whom? Father? Perhaps, more likely, upon her husband. And her aim was true, for if anything
Plath wrote damaged Ted Hughes for posterity, "Daddy" is it. From this poem, we gather our indelible impressions of Hughes as a brute, a wife beater,
a vampire, even an implied racist and murderer (if we extend the Hitler metaphor to its fullest implications) ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
it literally rocked the moral fiber of the world, and we?re still reeling (if more jaded). It was a subject on fire in the public imagination at the time.
Plath?s appropriation of Holocaust imagery for her own ends, which strikes so many as grossly inappropriate, can perhaps be interpreted as
stemming from that initial horrified zeitgeist. Perhaps she felt she was raising consciousness and expressing solidarity of a sort. Her remarks in her
interview with Peter Orr about making her poetry "relevant" can be looked at from such an angle.
Of course, the other point of view is that she was stealing other people's real tragedy and tacking it on to her own little psychic turbulence for shock
value and good visceral punch to the reader's gut. I think we must always keep in mind that Plath, to A. Alvarez, referred to this poem (and "Lady
Lazarus", a piece even more riddled with Holocaust imagery) as "a bit of light verse." Was she being sarcastic? Reading Alvarez's memoir, I think he
felt she was quite serious. So what on earth does that tell us about this poet? I do think it implies a profound self–absorption and narcissism. "Chuffing
me off like a Jew" –– the callousness of this poem, if one stops to think about it (and it's very hard to do so while in the poem's grip), is appalling. Its
ramifications are endless where

The Characterisation of the Heroines in The Bell Jar and...
How does the author's treatment of relationships effect the characterisation of the heroines in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Quicksand by Nella
Larsen?
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know
==============================
How does the author's treatment of relationships effect the characterisation of the heroines in "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath and
"Quicksand" by Nella Larsen?
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
This essay will compare the ways in which the novels "The Bell Jar" by
Sylvia Plath and "Quicksand" by Nella Larsen deal with relationships, paying particular attention to how this aids the characterisation of
Esther Greenwood and Helga Crane, the central characters respectively. ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
There are times when it seems that Helga is unknowingly saying these thoughts out loud, which only serves to add to her idiosyncrasies.
The relationships formed on their journey, however unconvincing or bizarre some may seem, shape the novels and define the impressions on the
reader. "The Bell Jar" is an unsettling account of a young woman's descent into psychosis, where Plath focuses on the individual, whilst exploring how
Esther regards relationships and how they influence her search for her own identity. In a similar fashion, Helga Crane is on a continuous search for a
genuine sense of self, a place she feels that she belongs. Although perhaps to a lesser extent than Plath, Larsen uses the superficial nature of Helga's
relationships with others as a way of expressing her distance from the rest of society. There are several fundamental similarities between the two
characters that are interesting to note: they both feel isolated and misunderstood, they both wish to reject the prejudices of society (whether it be
towards women, African Americans, mulattos, or indeed towards anyone that does not fit the popularly accepted

Biography of Sylvia Plath
Critical Analysis 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. Plath's difficulties with narrative prose contrasts between her
novelistic dreams and her character. Plath's passion for classic novelists and her own talent made her realize the fitting narrative prose were densely...
Sylvia Plath had the ability to get emotional responses through her word–pictures and poems. Plath was also able to create a picture from her trip to
Spain, tied up ships, or even a beautiful beach setting (Magill 2225). Spring of 1959, Plath randomly wrote "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dream," a
first–person short story that is written in a voice that resembles terror (Hughes 1). Plath later work shows the strong dissatisfaction of her dreams. Plath
dreamt of discovering cheerfulness through work, marriage, and family, which was a disappointment, caused by a miscarriage and appendectomy, her
divorce, and mood swings. Plath felt defenseless to men and apocalyptic to natural forces, mainly death (Draper 2734). Plath's post–obituary writings
imitate the persisting importance in her work. Three Women: A Monologue for Three Voices (1968), originally published on British Radio in 1962,
discusses pregnancy of three women (Draper 2735). Plath was inspired to write "The Jailer" which was about her husband who drugged then raped
her. Plath eventually became "The Lever of His Wet Dreams." The exact prodigy occurs in most of her confessional poems, mainly in "Daddy"
(Magill 2224). Plath's tone changes throughout most of her poems (Magill 2228). In "Daddy," Plath tells about herself being rebellious in her poems
(Magill 2229). "No writer has meant more to the current feminist movement." Kath Pollitt described this collection as "a storehouse

The Success Of The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath
Ever since her suicide Sylvia Plath has become a well–known female author, her most famous piece of work being The Bell Jar. While the book has
rose in popularity many argue that the sum of the reputation that the book holds is because of the story behind the author, and her own suicide. Yet,
those who argue this fail to see how Plath is a revolutionary author for her time, through this piece of writing. The success of The Bell Jar is not held
accountable to Plath's suicide but on her actual writing, and how she speaks out on topics that authors of her time don't usually write about such as
having a feminist standpoint and on reaching insanity.
Throughout the novel, Plath maintains the theme of feminism, making her main character, Esther, a feminist. She doesn't believe that she needs a
man to be successful or happy, which was an idea many women at the time thrived on. Path separates Esther and these women early on in the book
saying how "...simply hanging around in New York to get married to some career man or other. These girls looked awfully bored to me," (4).
Continuing to separate herself from the status quo Esther states that she "hated the idea of serving men in any way," (76). In her mind, a man holds a
woman back from her own independent success. She makes this idea very clear by incorporating a husband in her envision of her imaginary fig tree.
By having a single fig for a husband alone means that Esther feels as though a husband or any man will hold her back from

The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar (1963) focuses on Esther Greenwood's quest to freedom of oppression. Esther lives in a world where women are objectified
and placed under a figurative bell jar. Buddy Willard as well as other men in the novel place Esther in this bell jar by projecting their negative views of
woman onto her. The bell jar is symbolic throughout the whole novel because it is responsible for much of the trouble that Esther experienced. It
caused her pain, questioned if she could really live up to her potential, and reduced her as a woman. Since she lives under this bell jar Esther's
growth as a person is stunted because she allows Buddy and the negative experiences in her life to rob her of what it is to be a woman, however she
is reborn when she embraces her essence, and uses those negative experiences as stepping–stones that lead to a newfound confidence.
Esther feels like she is less of a woman because of her failed attempts at sex with men. When Esther learns that Buddy has had sex with another
woman, she sees him in a whole new light; he is now a hypocrite. Esther sees that her relationship with Buddy is impossible, and as a result should
not happen. Esther states, " The Jewish man and that nun although of course we weren't Jewish or catholic but Unitarian. We had together under our
own imaginary fig tree, and what we had seen wasn't a bird coming out of an egg but a baby coming out of a woman, and then something awful
happened and we went our separate ways"

Western Civilization and Happiness and Justice
How can Western Civilization avert decline and promote happiness and justice? In a world of political and celebrity scandals from the raunchy to the
greedy, our culture is full of corruption and an obsession with fame. Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and Sylvia Plath's "The Colossus" both explore the
West's moral blindness and our paralysis of feeling and thought in the twentieth century. Western civilization is becoming a wildfire fueled by tragic
ignorance, societal norms and corruption. This must be exposed in order for any cultural epiphany to occur.
Judge Brack is the definition of the colossus in Hedda Gabler. He is someone people trust and build up to be an honorable and insightful leader, but
in the end he is a vulgar and immoral individual full of Dionysian corruption, and lacking any apollonian qualities. Brack throws frequent stag
parties that eventually evolve into wild nights of debauchery. He and the men he invite drink and participate in orgies. While at night he is an
unrefined sexual animal, during the day he is the definition of justice and trust. During his interactions with Hedda he reveals his deep
misogynistic beliefs and his sense of power over her. Instead of letting her display her power through her pistols, he treats her like a child telling her
that "we'll have no more of that kind of fun today," (249). He knows that she feels trapped in the cultural norm of marriage, but he enjoys poking at
her and making her feel weak as a woman. He is allowed to go

Sylvia Plath 's Poetry And Her Sanity
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 prided herself as an amazing poet while not receiving the acclaim
she wanted. The Colossus was the only major collection of poems before her death. It didn't receive too much praise until after her death. Most of
her poems dealt with her personal life like those of Daddy and Ariel. She wrote most of these poems when she was depressed, so she coped with
her depression the only way she knew: writing poems. She wrote about her father, where she claimed to hate her father due to him walking out on
her when she was eight. He didn't actually leave her on purpose, as he died of complications with his diabetes. However, it made for great writing as it
was critically acclaimed for it being a magnificent poem. Ariel is also series of poems known for being known as her best work in terms of poetry.The
Bell Jar is

Breaking Up With Daddy: Sylvia Plath on Human Relations
As is inherent within the tradition of confessional poetry, a subgenre of lyric poetry which was most prominent from the fifties to the seventies
(Moore), Sylvia Plath uses the events of her own tragic life as the basis of creating a persona in order to examine unusual relationships. An excellent
example of this technique is Plath's poem "Daddy" from 1962, in which she skilfully manipulates both diction, trope and, of course, rhetoric to create a
character which, although separate from Plath herself, draws on aspects of her life to illustrate and make points about destructive, interhuman relations.
Firstly that of a father and daughter, but later also that of a wife and her unfaithful husband. Like her fellow confessionals such as Anne... Show more
content on Helpwriting.net ...
And I said I do, I do. (64–67) This again includes an element of Plath's own life, seeing as her husband Ted Hughes cheated on her before they
became divorced. The image of an unfaithful partner is especially amplified if we closely examine the line And a love of the rack and the screw.
(66) and think about the duality of its meaning. Both the words "rack" and "screw" can point towards torture instruments of the middle ages, but
also, especially in more modern times, to certain sexual imagery (Moore). This choice of words with multiple meanings serves to evoke the idea
of a woman deeply tormented by the acts of her cheating lover, which in the case of this poem, simply adds to the anger she feels towards her
father because the husband was intended as a replacement for him. The dominant image of a father figure that we are left with after reading this
poem is far from a loving or pleasant one. In fact, it is rather the opposite. The "Daddy" whom the speaker is addressing in this poem ends up being
portrayed as a vampire, who "the villagers" (77) – perhaps the people surrounding the speaker– never seemed to be fond of. This strengthens the image
of a highly dysfunctional relationship, rather than a "normal," loving one. As readers, we have to ask ourselves about the reliability of Plath's
character; however, seeing as she is clearly emotionally unstable. We learn about at least one suicide attempt in the lines At

Biographical Interpretation Essay
Many people view poems and other pieces of writing in different ways, there is no wrong or right way to interpret a work of someone, it merely
your point of view; your opinions. In Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy", many could say that it was a about a hard relationship she had with her father, but
how do we know? It could be about her father, husband, strong authority figure, or even God. But, as I read "Daddy" I got the strong sense that it was
mostly about her father. The poem suggests that she had either an unhealthy relationship with him or she was angry with him for leaving her. In the
poem, Plath says "I have always been scared of you" (41); I view this as she may not have had the best relationship with him. Maybe he was abusive or
mean. ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
"Daddy" is a poem where Plath expressed her most personal feelings about her father and ultimately her husband also. In the poem, when Plath writes
"And then I knew what to do. / I made a model of you, / A man in black with a Meinkampf look." (63–65). It suggests that she possibly actually went
to her father's grave and maybe she tried to dig up her father's bones to prove to her that he was really dead. Or, possibly these lines mean that she
married someone who was a lot like him. She married someone who she could look at every day and who reminds her of her father. But, if this poem
is about her sad relationship with him, why would she want to be reminded of him every day? This only makes me come to the conclusion that she did
not have a horrible relationship with him, she was just angry with him for leaving her, for dying. As you can tell there can be many different
interpretations for Sylvia Plath's poem "Daddy". I believe that this poem is about Sylvia, who is angry with her father for dying and leaving her
behind, who wants to express her feelings towards this in a poem. She writes deep, dark, meaningful, thoughts on her emotions and her actions to get
back to him. I think that this poem is very unique in the way that she describes her life in the poem; she goes from when he died to when she was
thirty, and along the way uses many analogies to describe her feelings. She also uses many symbolic phrases that could

Essay on slyvia plath
Sylvia Plath's "Mirror," shows a truly thoughtful look into the different sights and feelings a mirror would have if it were a live conscious
being, unable to lie. By showing the thoughts and emotions that a mirror would emit, Plath makes you look inward towards how you present yourself
not only to your mirror but also to yourself. This is an eye–opening poem because of its truthful descriptions of the relationship between the inner
feelings of people and how their outward appearances that they portray of themselves affect them in and out of the public realm. Examples of this are
put throughout the poem "Mirror," and can be found in just about every line of the poem. ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The next section of the poem introduces a woman into the life of the mirror. She look toward the mirror seeking to find what she truly wants to
discover (beauty), and the mirror truthfully reflects back to her what it sees. She turns from the reflection as if to look for the "truth" in
something else, not excepting what she has just seen. Unable to find it, the mirror sees her agitation and depression after seeing her true self within
it. She is always looking into the mirror to make sure everything is perfect and to put everything in it's place, so to speak. In this the mirror, as the
years seemingly pass, sees the young girl transform from her youth into an old woman and lose all that she has fretted over and over about throughout
her life. Each day, she is reminded by the mirror of her lost youth and beauty that was once projected back at her so faithfully.
The mirror in the poem is a representation of the truths in life that as a person is difficult to come to terms with in one's self. The woman's view of
herself and her reluctance to accept her natural and God–given beauty, shows how we all (as a society or as an individual) find it hard to accept
ourselves for who we truly are. How we try to make ourselves into a conformed object of "popular beauty" based upon our outward
appearance, instead of going by how our personal feelings that come from within us.

What Is The Theme Of The Bell Jar
THE BELL JAR The Bell Jar is considered the first American feminist novel by many people.The main character is Esther Greenwood.Esther thinks
that she faces sexual double standards in society.She has stable thoughts about her sexual status.She is a virgin and this constantly weighs on her
mind.As she says ''When I was nineteen, pureness was the great issue. Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or
Republicans and Democrats or white men and black men or even men and women, I saw the world divided into people who had slept with somebody
and people who hadn't, and this seemed the only really significant difference between one person and another.(Slyvia Plath,The Bell Jar,s.66)''She
believes that a woman must be avirgin when she gets married.But she assumes the same for men.But she discovers that Buddy Willard is not a
virgin.He has

Ted Hughes: The Shadow of Sylvia Plath Essay example
As England's Poet Laureate, and recipient of both the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry and T.S. Eliot's prize for poetry, Ted Hughes was an acclaimed
poet. The shadow of Hughes late wife, Sylvia Plath, kept Hughes stagnant in his career, in which he was known as "Her Husband" (Middlebrook).
Hughes most recent collection of poems, Birthday Letters, took him over twenty–five years to write, and contains poems which recount the marriage
of the couple. Hughes wrote the poems as a loving gesture towards Sylvia, but the poems were misinterpreted as "an attempt to adjust the public record
in the wake of her confession and the mass of commentary which has grown up around them" (Spurr 3). Hughes incorporated into his poetry the ideals
of ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
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. Hughes withdrew into seclusion following the suicides of his lovers. He "was an intensely private man in an era when
privacy is not much allowed" (Wagner 17). He stayed out of the spotlight, because, at the time, feminists accused Hughes of causing the suicide of
Plath and Wevill. Even before these events occurred, Hughes viewed the world as: ...a battlefield. His is the world–view of a betrayed Fundamentalist,
who, discovering that God has no care for man's fate, understands the universe to be governed not by divine love but by power. In Hughes's earlier
books, Nature appeared as a field of violent struggle where only the fittest survived. (Hoffman 6)
His father died in World War I, which led to his doubt of religion and his passion for writing about nature. Throughout his life, Hughes felt that the
world was a difficult place to live in and after his lovers died, he refuted this idea.

The Bell Jar Essay
The Bell Jar
People's lives are shaped through their success and failure in their personal relationships with each other. The author Sylvia Plath demonstrates this in
the novel, The Bell Jar. This is the direct result of the loss of support from a loved one, the lack of support and encouragement, and lack of self
confidence and insecurity in Esther's life in the The Bell Jar. It was shaped through her success and failures in her personal relationships between others
and herself.
Through life, we often lose someone we loved and cared deeply for and supported us through life. This is demonstrated by the loss of a loved one
when Esther's father died when she was nine. "My German speaking father, dead since I was nine came from some ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
In framework and talk, you develop behavior patterns and priorities and define framework in terms and languages. Esther did all this in her life. But
then she forgot who she was. She forgot her framework of reference and she talks about success and failures and despair.
Individuals, need encouragement and support from loves ones to guide one through life. This is seen in the lack of support and encouragement
displayed when Esther's mother fails to support and encourage Esther with her aspirations. No matter what Esther had wanted to do with her life, her
Mother had always wanted her to learn the skills of shorthand because she would always have that skill in her life and also that was the one thing her
Mother had experienced in life. As a result, her Mother failed to enhance Esther with her aspirations that she wanted from life.
We need the sustenance and assurance from not only loved ones in life, but also from others. This is demonstrated when Jay Cee, Esther's present
boss asked Esther what she wanted to do with her life. Esther did not have any solid idea as to what she wanted to do with her life. "You'll never get
anywhere like that." (Sylvia Plath page 27)
Esther did not know what she especially wanted with her life. Jay Cee stated to Esther that not having an idea of what she wants, will not get her very
far because Esther is lacking a few skills. Consequently, Esther lacked the support and helpfulness from her friend and

Essay Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus
Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus"
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.
From the title, Plath gives us immediately the theme of the poem. The title is a reference to a man in the New Testament that had been dead for four
days, and was raised to life by Jesus. Plath uses this literary allusion to establish right off the bat that she ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
(5) Plath successfully creates an perfect image of what the speaker's skin looks like as she is reawakened from death, and still manages to tie in a
disturbing historical allusion that conjures up horrible images of death.
Later on, towards the end of the poem Plath makes reference to another set of Nazi actions and by doing so strengthening the image of death and
destruction. In lines 73 thru 78, the speaker says:
Ash, ash– You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there– A cake of soap, A wedding ring, A gold filling.
These images and allusions to horrific crimes against humanity do an excellent job of creating an image of death as a horrible, painful thing. Plath
alludes to the burning of the Jews in large ovens, burning them down to ash, so that nothing was left but "gold fillings," and a "wedding ring," as
well as makes reference to another disturbing report that some Nazi soldiers made soap out of the Jew's as well as lampshades. These terrible
images are designed to paint a wretched view of death. Interestingly enough, these images and ideas that death is a horrible, bad thing runs contrary to
the speakers actual feelings that death is a great way to escape life, and in the end it is all she (the speaker) really wants to do.
Although Plath uses atrocious examples of death and uses the rebirth of Lazarus as the basis of the poem, the underlying tone presented is

An Analysis Of Esther And Plath 's Life
I. Genres
A. Autobiographical novel and Autobiography Literary conventions common to autobiographical works are usually written in the first person, which is
the way in which a person might tell their own story. In this case, Esther is telling her story, first in a series of flashbacks and then in the present tense.
The awful way in which the protagonist, Esther, views the events around her and the gory descriptions she offers, seem to represent not only horrible
events, but also the tortured mind of the writer. The fact that Esther is fixated on suicide and that suicide and death are constant topics in the novel are
the most obvious reasons to see the work as autobiographical. There are specific events that happen to Esther in the novel that have been researched
and have been determine to have happened to Plath in exactly the same manner or are very similar to events in Plath's life. Esther and Plath both had
fathers who died when they were young. Esther and Plath both won writing internships at a magazine in New York City. Esther and Plath both had
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Luke Ferretter, author of Sylvia Plath 's Fiction: A Critical Study, argues that Esther's description of her ECT is a
way for Plath to tell her own story about the experience (21). Another validation of the autobiographical nature of The Bell Jar comes from an
unexpected source in an unexpected way. Literary scholar Lois Ames offers a surprising insight into why many consider

Biography of Sylvia Plath
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.
Sylvia spent her childhood in Winthrop, but after Plath's father died of diabetes, her mother moved her and her brother, Warren, to Wellesley,
Massachusetts which was closer to Plath's grandmother. Aurelia had acquired... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
During this time Plath had begun to search for lodging in London, she was working with the BBC
Plat found an apartment in London fairly quickly. Plath took the children with her to London, where she balanced her career with her family. Plath
would work on her Ariel poems before the children would wake up in the morning. She continued to suffer from sickness, and during the day she
would have to deal with freezing temperatures, and nonfunctional electricity and heating. On top of no heat and power, Plath had to wait for a
telephone that never got installed (Ames 211–215).
Plath's only book, The Bell Jar, revolves around Esther Greenwood, a typical teenage girl aspiring to be an English teacher. The plot, however, is
atypical; instead of Greenwood coming of age with normal, positive scenarios, Greenwood descends into madness and graduates not from college, but
from a mental institution. Greenwood reactions to daily life differ from normal girls her age. She becomes obsessed with oddities like pickled fetuses,
dead bodies, and the execution of the Rosenburgs.
Greenwood scoffs at the notion of no premarital sex, viewing it as hypocritical of boys being able to sleep around while girls are to remain virgins
until marriage. This option is due in part by Buddy, Greenwood's boyfriend, having sex with a coworker repeatedly over the summer while still dating
Greenwood.
Greenwood's subsequent actions cause her to be admitted to a mental institution after her

Analysis Of The Poem ' The Bell Jar '
Esther Greenwood: Normal, as she knew it
In all aspects of the lives we live, normal can not ever be defined as a single idea. If normal is such a thing at all, it is a subjective opinion and can
only be defined on an individual level. Everything we interpret is relative to our upbringing and our environment. Not one person had the same
upbringing or lived in the same environment as another person for even siblings who have lived together their whole lives have different nurturing
experiences. The differentiation between normal and abnormal is a topic of much debate. The meaning of normality varies in many ways such as by
person, time, place, situation, culture and set of values. Normality is usually seen as good and desirable by society and what society thinks while
abnormality may be seen as bad or undesirable (Boundless).
Sylvia Plath, the author of The Bell Jar, writes in a very simple and ordinary but exceptionally unique way. She put her whole young genuine heart and
soul into this semi–autobiography. Her first person point of view allows the reader to really engage with the characters thoughts, specifically Esther
Greenwood and her perspective on everything. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood encounters the coming of many things, including age and mental
illness. While the coming of age is normal for the majority of society, the coming of mental illness is abnormal. With that being said, many may
classify Esther Greenwood as abnormal and deviant but in all reality,

How Did Sylvia Plath Influence Her Works
Sylvia Plath once said, "It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative– whichever is running at
the moment dominates my life, floods it,"(Brainyquote). Sylvia Plath had her despairing negative moments, but she also had her joyous positive
moments. Plath was an extremely talented, unique, and creative writer and her work is still remembered today. Plath influenced literature in a positive
manner because she used her poetry to stand up for woman, she was not afraid to speak the truth, and she threw herself into her work.
Plath's mother Aurelia Scholoer was a student at Boston University when she met Plath's father Otto Plath who happened to be her professor (Poets).
After Aurelia and Otto were married on October 27, 1932 they had ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In 1935, when Plath was three, she welcomed a baby brother, Warren. Shortly after, Plath's little brother was born the family moved to Winthrop,
Massachusetts (thefamouspeople). Sadly when Plath was eight, her father died from complication of diabetes(Poets). After her father's death she lost
her faith in God and remained irresolute about her religion. During this time, she wrote the poem "Electra on Azalea Plath", which was inspired by
visits to her father's grave(Thefamouspeople). Plath continued to make more poetry and earned a scholarship to Smith College in 1950. However,
Plath's junior year in college, she made her first suicide attempt by overdosing on sleeping pills. After six month of intense shock therapy, Plath returned
to Smith College and later earned a Fulbright Scholarshp to Newhnham College in Cambridge.(Wagner–Martin 1). While at Cambridge, Plath met
another poet who she fell

The Post War Era
The zeitgeist of the post war era was change, encompassing both personal, social and political transformation explored by composer's experimentation
with form and subject matter. The dominant discourse of power during the Cold War was the ideological conflict between Capitalism and Communism.
The dominant ways of thinking were profoundly challenged by the emergence of an alternative, youth–driven culture. A composer's disillusionment
with the world in the 'After the Bomb' period acted as a catalyst for them to not only challenge ways of thinking but also the traditional form of
literature. The era saw widespread criticism of government systems and of the military–industrial complex as hegemonic ideas about "America" were
being questioned. There was a widespread perception that society had lost touch with the cornerstone of American values and pillars of democracy and
it was the role of the writers, filmmakers and poets to recapture its emphasis on idealism rights and liberty and challenge the world that rejected these
ideals. The texts which challenged the values and ways of thinking of the time coupled with their exploration of universal themes and the victims
perspective enables these texts to continue to hold enormous significance and influence in today's society. Accordingly a sense of discomfort pervades
confronting texts of the era as composers experiment with subject matter by amplifying humanity's growing dissension with towards the values and
ideas that shaped

The Bell Jar by Plath
"If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one
mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days" (Plath). Plath was in fact a schizophrenic, never really being cured and only receiving
temporarily relief from her own mind with electroshock therapy. Her novel, The Bell Jar, is almost a self–biography with the veil of fiction over the
story of Plath's own life being so thin that her mother fought its publication (McCann 1631). Nevertheless, Plath's immense hard work paid off and it
was published. Writing was Plath's passion and when she wrote, her life became an enthralling story. Sylvia Plath's late teenage years, time right...
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would chose. I wanted
each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest" (Plath 75).
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).
Throughout the novel, Sylvia Plath emphasizes the curious similarity of physical and mental illness as if to say that both are symbolic of a larger
condition which is our life today. In the novel, Esther noticed that everyone she knows sits under bell jars of a sort. However, Plath is no sentimentalist
and knows quite well that her

Tone in Sylvia Plath's Lady Lazarus Essay
Tone in Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus"
In "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath, the speaker's tone is revealed through many different poetic aspects. Throughout her writing, the speaker's attitude
towards death appears to be happy but, when looking more closely at Plath's use of poetic devices her attitude is bitter. Shown mainly through the
diction, images, sounds and repetition, this depressing tone emphasizes the speaker's feelings about death. First, diction or word choice used throughout
this poem depicts apart the meaning and stresses the tone. Next, the images used to describe the speaker's experiences with death shows the emotions
and thoughts that go through the speaker's mind concerning death. These events the speaker ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
"I manage it––" (3), "sort of" (4), "Do I terrify?––" (12), "underestimate" (72) and "Beware" (80) explain the choice of words by Plath that explains the
doubtful tone of the poem and helps to create the image of death through the shallow voice of this helpless woman.
Also, there are words that describe actions taking place when death attempts occur. For example, "annihilate" (24), "The peanut–crunching crowd
/ Shoves in to see" (26–27), "I rocked shut" (39) and "That knocks me out" (56) shows negative action towards death. First of all, annihilate means to
destroy, which gives a downbeat connotation towards the tone of the poem. Then, the crowd refers to the others and their discouragement in this
woman's life, which leads to disappointment and an unconstructive tone towards death in the poem. Then the last two examples describe the speaker's
feelings towards a hopeless end to life. This type of diction used to accentuate the tone of the poem further supports the pessimistic nature.
Lastly, another use of diction in Plath's poem is words associated with death and therefore, internally affect the tone of the poem. First, in line fourteen
they use the word "vanish" which means to go away and never come back. This word is directly related to what death means and in using this word
suggests that there is death involved in this particular poem, and the attitude towards it is not positive.

Sylvia Plath 's The Bell Jar
Many poets, writers, and artists suffer with the monsters of mental illness, however, Sylvia Plath may be one of the most iconic. Many believe living
with debilitating mental illness can aid in creativity. Throughout Sylvia's short life, she produced brilliant yet immensely troubled writing. Sylvia
Plath's struggle with both Bipolar Disorder and Depression is communicated within her writing through her use of creativity, visceral language, and
emotional rawness. Her inner turmoil can be interpreted in her brilliant and vehemence evoking poetry as well as her novel, The Bell Jar. Although in
Plath's time she was considered tortured, she is held in the highest esteem in today's literary world. Linda Wagner–Martin, a professor of English at
Michigan State University, wrote an enticing bibliography on Sylvia Plath and has published many works among modern literature as well as
women's literature. In her book she covered Sylvia's life from her first breath, to her last. Born in Boston Massachusetts on October 27, 1932 to Otto
and Aurelia Schober Plath, Sylvia Plath was weighing in at a healthy eight and a half pounds even though she was supposedly delivered three weeks
early. (Wagner–Martin 15). At a young age literature surrounded young Sylvia, or "Sivvy" as her mother called her. Her mother, Aurelia spent her
days making up stories for Sylvia while her father began going to school at Northwestern majoring in classical languages. In the spring of 1935
Aurelia gave birth to a

Sylvia Plath Poem Comparison Essay
Sylvia Plath Poem Comparison 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 ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
The last few lines seem to attribute her depression to her age, and maybe the fact that she never got to enjoy her childhood, her young years, and she
despises seeing herself grow old in the reflection of the lake.
"The Courage of Shutting–Up" was written in 1962, a year before Sylvia's end, and uses the ideas of repetition, speech, and censorship to express her
ideas on female obedience and civil censorship. The female perspective here is the idea of not being able to speak out, and living in repetition, with a
defeated tongue– hung up on the wall like a trophy. The poem uses many different types of diction, but most of it is masculine, and war–like, as if Plath
was fighting a war against men. The first stanza of the poem begins with "The courage of the shut mouth, in spite of artillery!" and follows with
bits of diction to describe a record player, with "black disks... of courage..." as to describe Plath's thoughts and feelings just playing over and over
again, "asking to be heard." The second stanza continues with the record player metaphor, "a needle in its groove", and transitions to an overqualified
tattooist in the third stanza, once a surgeon (maybe a metaphor for Sylvia's downgrade from a great poet to a dumpy mother) who repeats the same
overused tattoos over and over, silently, and solemnly. The fourth stanza returns to the metaphor of war, and artillery as well as the record player. The
tongue is introduced, and is described as "indefatigable,

Sylvia Plath's Poem Daddy Essay
Sylvia Plath's Poem "Daddy"
Overbearing fathers who dominant their children's lives dispose of comfort and security and instead cause irreversible damage. Sylvia Plath writes
about her own experiences dealing with her authoritarian father in "Daddy." In this poem, Plath utilizes literary devices like allusion, child–like diction,
and dualistic organization to communicate her bitterness in this theme of resentment and scorn.
Plath's usage of allusion calls the reader to bring their own knowledge to the poem. She uses this device so that the reader can recall information
without Plath needing to fully state the scenario. One of the first allusions which Plath uses is in the first stanza when she writes "black shoe in which I
... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Through allusions, Plath evokes many emotions, symbols, and preconceptions like a cold father and suffering in World War I without actually stating
them specifically.
In addition to allusions to further her theme, Plath employs simple diction to reveal how deep the pain runs. When people suffer from a traumatic
experience, they often go into regression and revert back to a childish state, which is what Plath communicates through her basic word choices. For
example, the title of the poem, "Daddy," a word which is used affectionately towards a father, uncovers her desperate need for love from this
important figure. The repetition of the word throughout the piece stresses this idea further. Also, she uses "Achoo" in the first stanza and later writes
"your gobbledygoo" which shows an infantile approach to her father's damage. This also discloses the lack of understanding of her father and how
he kept her at a distance from his world. Lastly, she mentions how he "stand[s] at the blackboard," an object which is very familiar to children and
which gives an image of him as a ruler or supervisor rather than a source of compassion. Through her employment of child–like diction, Plath conveys
her reversion to childhood and feelings of insignificance when thinking of her father.
Though the majority of

The Feminine Ideal and Mental Health in The Bell Jar

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The Feminine Ideal and Mental Health in The Bell Jar