Sylvia Plath was an American poet born in 1932 in Boston. She excelled as a student but suffered mental and emotional exhaustion in her youth. She attempted suicide for the first time after being rejected from a writing program. In 1956 she met and married fellow poet Ted Hughes in England. Their relationship was passionate but tumultuous. In 1962 she discovered his affair and they separated. Deeply depressed, she took her own life in 1963 at the age of 30, leaving behind two young children. She is now regarded as one of the most influential poets of the 20th century.

1. Sylvia
Plath
1932-1963
“The blood jet is
poetry / there is no
stopping it.”

3. a brief biograPhy:
childhood
• Born in Boston on October 27,
1932, to Aurelia Schober and
Otto Plath
• Idolised her father and longed to
please him
• In 1940, when Sylvia was 8, her
father died and she published
her first poem.
• Her mother introduced her to
poetry which she loved
After discovering
poetry, Sylvia said I
“had fallen into a
new way of being
happy.”

4. Sylvia Plath aS
a young woman
• At school she was a top student,
excelling in English
• Suffers mental & emotional
exhaustion
• Is rejected for a Harvard writing
course
• First suicide attempt –overdose.
Receives electric shock treatment.
• She writes about these experiences in
her semi-autobiographical novel The
Bell Jar
“I still do not know myself.
Perhaps I never will. I am
afraid of getting older. I
am afraid of getting
married…I want, I think,
to be omniscient…I think
I would like to call myself
the girl who wanted to be
God. . . . Never, never,
will I reach the perfection
I long for with all my
soul. . . .” (diary, age 17)

5. Sylvia goeS to england
• Wins a Fulbright Scholarship
to England
• 1956 She met Ted Hughes,
a poet, at a Cambridge
University party
• According to her journal, at
this meeting he kissed her
and she bit him on the
cheek, drawing blood.
•
• It was an intense courtship
and they were married within
months.
He was “very simply the
only man I’ve ever met
whom I could never
boss.” (Sylvia to friends)

6. motherhood & writing
• Her and her husband return
to England and begin writing
full-time
• In 1960 Plath had her first
child, Frieda, and published
her first book of poetry, ‘The
Colossus’.
• In 1962, following a traumatic
appendix operation and the
birth of their son Nicholas,
Plath's writing became more
frantic.

7. Sylvia Plath & ted hugheS
• Sylvia & Ted’s relationship was
passionate and tumultuous
• She was attracted to his physical
power, his way with animals esp
owls, his reputation as a poet, and
appreciated his encouragement of
her poetry
• She feared losing him
1962 – the beginning of
the end
• June: 2nd
suicide attempt
– driving car off the road
• July: Discovers Ted’s
affair with Assia Weevill.
• Sept: They separate
• Oct: She writes 26
poems in one month
• Dec: She takes her 2
children and moves into
a maisonette in London
• She prepares Ariel, a
collection of 41 poems

8. the end:
1963• The Bell Jar is published under
a pseudonym and receives
good reviews
• She is depressed, isolated and
mentally unstable
• February 1963, in one of the
coldest winters in English
history, she succeeded in
taking her life
• Her body was discovered the
following morning.
• She was survived by her 2
children.
• 1965: Ariel was published.
• 1982 she is posthumously
awarded the Pulitzer Prize for
Literature.

9. “MiRROR”
• Written in 1961 but
published after her death by
her husband 10 years later.
• It deals with the fear of age
and self-reflection
Literary Device:
Personification
Poem Type: Lyric

10. “MIRROR”
• Written in 1961 but
published after her death by
her husband 10 years later.
• It deals with the fear of age
and self-reflection
Literary Device:
Personification
Poem Type: Lyric