Sylvia Plath, A Poet And Her Depression

Sylvia Plath, a Poet and Her Depression
When asked about her autobiographical novel, "The Bell Jar", Sylvia plath responded that "the
trouble was, i had been inadequate all along, I simply hadn't thought about it" (Sylvia Plath Quotes).
Plath was the editor for her school newspaper and sent in poems to different magazines (PAL).
Junior year is when her depression started, as she couldn't afford her dream college (PAL). Sylvia
Plath struggled a lifetime of depression that was reflected in her writings.
Sylvia Plath was a troubled young poet who wrote mostly about the difficulties within her family
and marriage. Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27, 1932 and died on February
11, 1963 in London, England. In her early life she faced many obstacles, one being her father
passing away when she was only 8 years old due to complications from diabetes (poets.org). Plath,
herself struggled with depression as she tried to kill herself many times. Therefore these feelings of
hers reflected in her poetry. Having a high expectation to be perfect, Plath's depression was often a
result of writers block (PAL).Plath's poems continued to encourage her large audience of readers
who were facing the same issues with depression and other struggles.(Poetry Foundation). Plath was
a loving wife to Ted Hughes and later a wonderful mother to her two children (poets.org). Plath gave
birth to two children in 1960 and 1962, Frieda and Nicholas Hughes (poets.org). Also in 1962 her
husband, Hughes left her for another women,
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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

Ted Hughes Poem Harlem By Langston Hughes
Hughes' poem, "Harlem," is a short, eleven lined poem, with all but one line composed of questions.
The use of imposing questions throughout the poem is a way to keep the reader engaged and to be
still a sense of power in the reader by allowing him to develop his own answer. The main question
the speaker asks in the poem is "what happens to a dream deferred" (Line 1). The question is posed
in the first line of the poem in a single standing stanza, therefore the break between the first line and
the next stanza allows the reader to contemplate the question for a moment. Hughes then uses
powerful analogies such as, "dry up like a raisin in the sun" (Lines 2–3), "fester like a sore" (Line 3),
or "crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet" (Lines

The Table By Sylvia Plath Tone
The Table, written in 1998 by Ted Hughes, is a free verse poem communicating the idea of loss,
using the death of his wife, Sylvia Plath, as his form of expressing his experiences and
interpretations of the topic. The change of tone from the beginning to the end of the poem assists the
idea of loss, as well as the language used and the strong use of imagery. Ted Hughes' wife, Sylvia
Plath, struggled with depression for most of her life. Hughes seems to be using this poem as an
opportunity to convince the reader of his desire to support her love of writing – but it was through
her writing that she was truly able to express her own grief and loss and to eventually let her long–
dead father back into her life – the result being Hughes losing his wife to her father.
"Feelings of loss and grief can occur after losing someone or something that you care about."
("What is Loss and Grief"). This could include a range of things ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
The poem starts with a seemingly supportive husband, he is positive about helping her pursue her
love and talent of writing so he builds her a table to write on. He shortly transforms into a very
confused and lost man. He doesn't understand what is happening to his wife and doesn't know how
to reach out to her as he can't compete with her father. "I embraced / Lady Death, your rival"
(Hughes, 36–37). Hughes is signifying that he must accept that he has lost his wife, physically and
emotionally and all the plans and dreams they had for their lives. His tone begins to turn to anger
and bitterness after her passing. Hughes explains that he has all the props of a happy life around him
but there is no her, therefore there is no life anymore. He appears to blame the situation on Plath,
saying that the script of their lives is shredded as she allowed her father into their lives, allowed him
to take her away willingly, that she was the one who brought this underlying issue to

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

Sylvia Plath's Influences In Her Life
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 Research Paper
Sylvia Plath once said "Let me live, love, and say it in good sentences." Plath fulfilled this quote
because she did write many "good sentences", seen in her beautiful poetry and novels. Plath is a
very distinguished and well known writer because of those good sentences. And her life was indeed
filled with love, but also filled with tragedy and depression. Although Plath lived a short life, she
wrote prolifically and used the tragedy in her life as inspiration. In fact, Sylvia Plath's depression,
her relationship with Ted Hughes, and her German roots and culture are all reflected in her poetry.
One aspect of Plath's life reflected in her poetry is her depression. Plath became depressed in 1953
when she learned she had not been accepted into ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
One source describes how Sylvia Plath's father, Otto Plath, emigrated to New York from Germany
and later taught German at Boston University. The source continues to say that Aurelia Schober,
Plath's mother, was a German from Austria who taught German at a high school (Bloom). Plath was
raised in a home with strong German influences and her father "ruled the household through the
German concept of Ordnung ("order")" (Meyers). In "Plath, Sylvia", Hobby describes how in 1940,
when Plath was eight, Otto died from untreated diabetes leading to gangrene (Hobby). Plath writes
about her sadness over her father's death in "Electra on Azalea Plath" and says "I brought my love to
bear, and then, you died. / It was the gangrene ate you to the bone / My mother said; you died like
any man." ("Electra on Azalea Plath, lines 38–40). After her father's death, Plath "felt his absence
intensely and remarked to her mother that she would never speak to God again" (Hobby). Plath
describes her anger towards her father for not seeking help in her poem "Daddy" and says "There's a
stake in your fat black heart / And the villagers never liked you. / They are dancing and stamping on
you. / They always knew it was you. / Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through." ("Daddy", lines 76–
80). Not only did Plath eventually try and separate herself from her father, but she grew up during
WWII where being German was looked down

Hsc English: Conflicting Perspectives
The validity of an individual's perspective on the truth regarding situations, events and personalities
throughout their lifetime is subjective.
Conflicting perspectives arise when two individuals experience the same situations, events or
personalities, but take meaning from these experiences in opposing ways. Because of these
contradictory views, we –as the audience – must challenge our assessment of the truth.
We can do this by analysing the viewpoints presented by Ted Hughes' confessional poems, The
Minotaur and Red from his anthology The Birthday Letters (published 1998) and the feature article,
Face of a People Smuggler by Fenella Souter, featured in Good Weekend (April 21, 2012). Through
our analysis, we are able to separate fact ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
This sentence emphasises Plath's excessive anger compared to Hughes' seemingly miniscule blunder
of being late. The break in sentence allows the reader to register the negative connotations of the
word 'demented', before they are able to grasp the fact that Hughes' tardiness was the actual cause of
the fight. In fact Hughes even accuses Plath for starting the fight over something he believed was
insignificant.
But was Plath's unstable emotional state really to blame for the fight escalating? Any reasoning as to
why Hughes was late is excluded from the poem. So how much truth can be taken from his
perspective of how the events unfolded?
Information being excluded from the truth stops it from being fact. Fenella Souter demonstrates this
notion in her feature article The Face of a People Smuggler. Within the article, Souter explores the
way Australian population perceives people smugglers, and juxtaposes this view with the life of
convicted people smuggler, Ali Al Jenabi.
Souter begins her article with her own perception of people smugglers, as she arrives at Al Jenabi's
home stating "People smuggling is said to be a lucrative trade...but this is a tired little fibro cottage
in Sydney's West". The use of the conjunction 'but' and the vivid imagery juxtaposing between the
illusory notion of wealth and the reality of mediocrity, creates the conflicting perspective in regards
to how much a people

Ted Hughes Poetry Analysis
Ted Hughes was a very well known poet whose best works are considered by critics to be
'Snowdrop' and 'Hawk Roosting'. Hughes grew up in the countryside where he developed a
fascination with animals and nature which is seen throughout his poetry. Whilst most of Hughes
poetry is based on nature, other poems portray aspects of Hughes' personal experiences, such as his
marriage to Sylvia Plath. Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath got married in 1956. Plath was clinically
depressed for most of her adult life and after being married for seven years, Hughes had an affair
with Assia Gutmann. After finding out about Hughes' affair, Plath committed suicide in 1962 by
gassing herself. Hughes was seen responsible for his wife's suicide and did not write for years as he
focused on promoting Plaths' poetry. Plath's importance in his life is shown through the allusion to
her both explicitly and implicitly through in poems like, 'Daffodils', 'Wind', and 'The Blue Flannel
Suit'. Hughes uses linguistic devices such as imagery, metaphor and simile to symbolise Plath within
his writing. Hughes alludes to Plath and her mental state through his use of linguistic devices. In
'Wind,' the house symbolises the dysfunctional relationship between Hughes and Plath, due to
Plaths' mental state. The metaphor, 'This house has been far out at sea all night,' creates a sense of
isolation, as if the house has been cut off from the rest of the world. The house itself is a metaphor
for Hughes and Plaths'

The Applicant
Although Sylvia's ambiguous proclamation in Ariel enhanced her sense of self–empowerment, she
continued to feel inferior to the male authoritative figures in her life, until 1956 when she met Ted
Hughes. In her poem, Ode for Ted she demonstratively praises her new husband, characterizing him
as a supreme individual of nature. Her perception of him steers closely to majestic, bestowing power
and control unto him: "he with rock splits open/ knobbed quartz; flayed colors ripen/ rich, brown,
sudden in sunlight (10–12, Ode for Ted, Sylvia Plath)". However, in the sense of male versus female
superiority, this poem simultaneously degraded Ted Hughes by sparking a competition. Authors
Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar perceive women writers as "cherishing ... Show more content on
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In The Applicant, Plath characterizes women to be reduced to nothing more than "commodities and
appear robbed of their humanity (p. 185, Poetics of Torture, Lisa Narbeshuber)". The poem begins in
the perspective of a man, questioning the expectations of a female candidate: "First, are you our sort
of a person?/ Do you wear/ A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch,/ A brace or a hook,/ Rubber breasts
or a rubber crotch.... (1–5, The Applicant, Sylvia Plath)." Plath's satirical tone of this poem indicates
her role as a woman in the 1950s, during which men's demands in a wife were glorified. The women
were the demonstrative applicants, assessed by the manner in which they " ....filled [the hand] and
willing/ To bring teacups and roll away headaches/ And do whatever [men] tell it (12–14, The
Applicant, Sylvia Plath)." She emphasizes the degradation of women by labeling them as "it". Prior
to this viewpoint, Plath needed boyfriends – "like mirrors – to give her the identity she wanted,
construed by social norms and personal desires to belong (p. 66, The Sexual Monster)". After
Hughes' betrayal destroyed this outlook, Plath's fig tree theory (p. 77, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath) was
justified by the outcome, "marriage....would threaten her ambition on professional levels (p. 66, The
Sexual Monster)". Her expected confinement in marriage was reasonable, and after her
estrangement from Hughes, she felt her desire to be herself and her inability to live up to his
expectations were at fault (p.71, The Sexual Monster). "Will you marry it? (15,23,41, The Applicant,
Sylvia Plath)" an outside source asks the interviewer of the applicant. The unidentification of
women in the poem display Hughes' sanctions of estrangement from Plath and their children,
stripping Sylvia of her womanhood, motherhood, and

Niobe, By Ted Hughes
"Niobe" is a fascinating tale that demoralizes arrogance, and displays the consequences of those who
boast, brag, or are too proud. William Logan and Ted Hughes have written different renditions of
this topic, and they each add their own unique style into into their works. For instance, Ted Hughes
provides a poetic translation of the original story by Ovid. He also adds his own spice to the tale by
using his tendency to create drama. For example, Hughes states, "Niobe was proud... She reared her
spectacular head, / Her hair coiled and piled like a serpent / Asleep on a heap of jewels. Anger made
her beauty awesome," (Hughes 199). Although I love the imagery that this depiction creates, I
believe that modern day readers, such as myself, would

Bell Jar Sylvia Plath Essay
Sylvia Plath was an English poet and short story writer born in 1900s. She was best known for her
novel, "The Bell Jar," and poems such as "Daddy." Plath's life, including her poetry, her sanity and
her marriage was a cycle of ups and downs. After her death in 1963, Plath's life was depicted in the
2003 film Sylvia, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. By just reading Sylvia Plath's works of writing, it is
apparent that she had an infatuation with portraying negative and brutal thoughts. For example, her
poem "Daddy," she clearly expresses her rage towards her deceased father. The poem is full of
contradiction and the interpretation is up the reader. Pieces like this gives insight into Sylvia's
mental sanity, which was questioned at times. In her early ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net
...
Plath met her lover, fellow poet, Ted Hughes, in 1965 in Cambridge while she was attending the
university. As shown in the film adaptation of her life, their relationship can be described as love at
first site. From the moment they locked eyes at the party they both attended, they felt the intense
connection. Only moments later in the night, while Plath and Hughes were dancing together, Sylvia
had already declared her love for Ted. The couple married in 1956 but their love wasn't always in
the highest place as it was the night they met; their relationship with a turbulent one. Two children
later, the couple still hadn't met a common ground and their relationship was falling apart. After the
birth of their second child in 1962, Hughes left Plath for another woman, which led her to fall
deeper into depression. Soon after, she committed suicide by inhaling gas from a kitchen oven.
Plath's tragic death at just 30 years old, led to Hughes releasing her collection of poems, Ariel,
which is one of her greatest works to this day.
Sylvia Plath's life was one of a troubled woman. Her lack of sanity was deeply reflected in her
works of writing. Her mental state was very much affected by her life experiences such as her
feelings of betrayal towards her father and her instable marriage to Ted Hughes. Plath's poetry, was a
way to explore her mental anguish and share her fixation with death, due to her deathly depression.
Despite Sylvia Plath's crippling life, her poetry was constructed in such an artistic manner in which
it touched the lives of many

Conflicting Perspectives Essay
What is your understanding of " truth" after your study of conflicting perspectives and their
representation?
The notion of truth being a defined reasoning and represented as a one sided argument is
unmistakably how most audiences visualize it. The concept cannot be interpreted in such close
mindedness, as to tell the truth is to speak what appears "truthful" to "you". Conflicting perspectives
arise when the visualization of how feasible or veracious something is differs between individuals.
The controversy surrounding Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, contentious poets of the twenty first
century portray their own reality through their semi–confessional poetry. Sylvia Plath frequently
extends her cereal obsession with her dead father as ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Attempting to purge him self of all blame, supporting his own twisted reality, this particular poem
seems only to deny him that privilege. Taunting and provoking Plath, Hughes puts himself up on a
pedestal of contentment. Throughout The Birthday Letters Hughes renders Plath's death inexorable,
claiming to be a bystander unable to prevent her attraction to the grave. A minotaur, in Greek
mythology is a half man half bull creature that feeds on the flesh it finds within its labyrinth. Hughes
metaphorically describes Plath's slipping into madness as entering a labyrinth, implying that she
would never get out and that 'death' was looming on her from around every corner. The poets use of
sparse punctuality and enjambment make the poem fast paced and audibly interesting while Hughes
uses sharp wit and sarcasm to tie Plath's fury to her unconventional personality and not his tardiness.
The final stanza places strong emphasis on use of personal pronoun "your mother", "your risen
father" and "your own corpse" show an accusatory, forceful tone. The juxtaposition of "Grave of
your risen father" seems to foreshadow Plath's own unavoidable downfall.
Colours signify shift in moods, feelings and beliefs. White denotes purity, humility and marriage.
Blue conveys trust, tranquillity and harmony. Red represents all things intense and passionate. It is
no surprise then as to why Hughes titled one of his works after this symbolism.

Who Is Sylvia Plath's First Suicide
You were known for many things besides your confessional poetry. For some you were known as a
feminist; your words hit heavily in the mind, some psychologist view you and say you had an
Electra complex due to one of your famous poem "Daddy" where it portrayed your father as a
german nazi, however when people hear your name they ponder and remember with a question,
"Wasn't she the lady who killed herself by putting her head in an oven?". Sylvia Plath, your life was
not anything but hard, battling your depression many times. Your first suicide attempt, you were
gone for days, your family scared on where you went; little did they know you right under their feet.
You were found in the cellar of your home, dazed and covered in your own vomit. Your mother,
Aurelia Plath, sent you to a mental institution. There, for the second time you had electroconvulsive
therapy, the first being to try and cure your insomnia, your insomnia was the cause of stress, the
stress of being a failure to everyone around you. You knelt ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net
...
Your husband, whom was also a famous poet and wrote about nature, Ted Hughes. You two secretly
on June 16, 1956, stayed together until your death. However, your life with him was not all romantic
poetry. Ted Hughes was known to be a cheater, fementitis blamed him for your suicide, Ted did
remarry after you died, also had another child, ironically they died the same way you did.
In Daddy you talked about a german nazi father, it was about your father, Otto. Your father was a
professor of German and Biology (Mondragon), died of diabetes when you were eight. Your Electra
complex was claimed to come from the anger and confusion you had of his death, you felt he killed
himself because he could have prevented his own

"Sylvia Plath- Feminine Side of the Feminist...
Sylvia Plath was a typical example of her generation, inpatient and greedy for life but this
description has a bit different meaning. Plath indeed desired artistic fulfilment but she wanted to be
an ideal wife and mother at the same time. When Ted Hughes published his first poetry volume "The
Hawk in the Rain" she was very happy that she will follow his footsteps.
Throughout their marriage she was in the shadow of her husband and we can argue whether it was
her conscious choice and to what extend it was the result of her times.
During the fifties woman who did not feel that her life as a housewife could be satisfactory and
fulfilling was considered strange. At the end of the fifties the average age of marriage had actually
fallen ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Critic Sheryl Meyering states that Sylvia Plath's intense desire to be accepted by men and to
eventually marry and have children was purely a product of the constructive 1950's social mentality
during which the author came to womanhood (xi).
She was considered a feminist writer of great importance . In a book by Ellen Moers, the author of
"Literary Women", writes about Plath: "No writer has meant more to the current feminist movement
"(qtd. In Wagner 5) and even today, Plath is a literary symbol of the women's rights movement.
However, when we search her works in order to find something which would refute this view, there
are some poems in her oeuvre which do so. Her work proves that she came to terms with the role of
the 50's woman. A desire to be a beloved and loving wife and even stronger desire to have children
and become a mother are common themes of her poetry. In 1953, at the age of 20, Plath wrote in her
journal:
I must find a strong potential powerful mate who can counter my vibrant dynamic self: sexual and
intellectual, and while comradely, I must admire him: respect and admiration must equate with the
object of my love (that is where the remnants of paternal, godlike qualities come in). (Journals, 73)
This is not a text, which any feminist would consider pro–feministic. It resembles no sign of hatred
for men, what is more, it is a declaration of feelings of a woman who seeks in men the power to
make her a whole person. She was

Spinster, by Sylvia Plath
"Spinster" by Sylvia Plath is a poem that consists of a persona, who in other words serves as a
"second self" for the author and conveys her innermost feelings. The poem was written in 1956, the
same year as Plath's marriage to Ted Hughes, who was also a poet. The title suggests that the
persona is one who is not fond of marriage and the normal rituals of courtship as a spinster is an
unmarried woman, typically an older woman who is beyond the usual age of marriage and may
never marry. The persona of the poem is a woman who dislikes disorder and chaos and finds
relationships to be as unpredictable as the season of spring, in which there is no sense of uniformity.
In this poem, Plath not only uses a persona to disclose her feelings, but ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
In the winter, nothing is out of proportion and everything is disciplined like the heart, whereas in the
spring when budding relationships and spring fever make the heart out of control. This image of
winter that Plath provides, suggests that the woman is cold emotionally as she has little emotion.
She has the frame of mind that nature like human interaction should be in black and white with as
little color or disarray as possible. Towards the end of the poem, Plath once again discloses the
persona's abhorrence toward spring. She writes, "but here⎯a burgeoning unruly enough to pitch her
five queenly wits into vulgar motley" (19–21). The word "burgeoning", which means growth,
indicates the persona admitting that she knows that growth is uncontrollable: flowers bloom,
relationships develop, and spring occurs every year (19). However, the persona is depressed because
she feels like she has no control and that scares her. Spring is too complex for her to understand and
it falls outside of her comfort zone. Still, by using the phrase "five queenly wits", Plath points out
that the reader feels superior to all that is in disorder (20). Plath explains, "let idiots reel giddy in
bedlam spring: she withdrew neatly", which implies that the persona separates herself from society
and would rather be in solitude (23–24). When one is alone, life is less confusing and everything is
structured like the season of winter. As a result, the persona puts a wall

The Thought Fox Figurative Language
"Figurative language is by no means just ornamental, but an important part of guiding cognitive
construal."(Dancygier, 2014 p196) Attention to figurative language when analysing a text is critical
as making judgement on a text can be undetermined when taking in the literal sense, perhaps the text
when taken literally means nothing or has a shallow and uninteresting meaning but when figurative
language is taken into consideration a deeper new meaning can be taken from the text. The aim of
figurative language first and foremost is to force the reader to imagine what it is the writer is trying
to express and to explain the concept in an interesting way. This language is not supposed to be
taken literally and through comparisons to another concept, a deeper undertone is revealed to the
reader. Two of the poems in which make use of figurative language are "Mary's Song" by Sylvia
Plath and Ted Hughes "The Thought Fox" In Plath's "Mary Song" she uses metaphors to portray a
deeper message to the reader. There are three main metaphors all overlapping within Plath's poetry.
This is the goal of figurative language within the text. It is not supposed to be taken for its ... Show
more content on Helpwriting.net ...
The poem can not be taken for its literal mean but instead, it compels the reader to delve deeper into
the immediate. The main connotation is the Fox. Foxes are known worldwide as sly, they do not
attack suddenly but instead, they plan and sneak up slowly on their prey. Hughes is perhaps, using
this image to get the reader to imagine this is how inspiration comes to a writer. As the fox sneaks
into the room so too will inspiration to write.The fox inches in "that now And again now, and now,
and now." The fox moves slowly, carefully, incrementally in a series of steps. It inches in carefully.
Hughes exploits this aspect of a foxes characteristics to establish this deep

Soliloquy Of The Solipsist By Sylvia Plath Literary Devices
"My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me
from it." Sylvia Plath was a poet in the mid–twentieth century who was best known for her dreary
and depressing work. This poem, the Soliloquy of the Solipsist was one of her earlier poems being
written in 1956. This piece takes the theory of solipsism, which was developed by Rene Descartes,
and creates a story of living the life of a solipsist. Sylvia Plath uses imagery, enjambment, and
metaphors in her poem Soliloquy of the Solipsist to express her feelings of isolation and to escape
her powerlessness in daily life as a result of her new, romantic relationship.
Solipsism is the theory that the self is the only thing that can be known to exist. This came from
Rene Descartes, a french philosopher in the early 1600s. He was searching for something that can be
known as a ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
She went from being the star poet of her life to having to share that spotlight with someone else. In
1956 when they met, Hughes was already a developed and famous poet, so not only did Plath have
to struggle to make a name for herself in the first place, but she had to fight against the shadow of
her husband. Their relationship developed very quickly; after meeting at a party in February of
1956, they started a relationship and then got married in June of 1956. Then, that November Plath
wrote Soliloquy of the Solipsist. In a sense, this poem was a coping mechanism to adjust to her
marriage. From the last stanza, we can assume the lover, who is Hughes in this instance, was very
egotistical and created a world for Plath where she felt so helpless, she eventually killed herself.
Plath did attempt suicide before she even met Hughes, so it is obvious some sort of mental illness
was already present. However, Hughes's second wife killed both herself and one of her children, so
he is a factor in both of their

The Importance Of Lust In Philomeda ', 'Tales From Ovid'
Lust is a strong feeling of desire for someone or something which can turn into a dangerous feeling
if it is not handled in the right manner. Lust can cause one to do things that they wouldn't normally
do, especially if it overwhelms one's mind set. It is a hard feeling to ignore, but ignoring it is for the
best because then dangerous situations will be avoided. In the myth "Tereus", Tereus is
overwhelmed by lust for Philomela, which leads him to rape and abuse. In the myth "Castillo and
Arcas", Jupiter has a deep desire for Castillo, so he rapes her and leaves Castillo pregnant and alone.
In the myth "Phaethon", his lust for power causes him to put the entire earth in danger. In Tales
From Ovid, by Ted Hughes, Ovid conveys that when one is consumed by a deep feeling of lust, their
morals shift. In the myth "Tereus", Tereus, the protagonist, is overcome by lust for his wife's sister,
Philomela, which makes him do gruesome things. His wife's only desire was to see her sister. Tereus
was able to fulfill her desires, but the moment he laid eyes on her, he couldn't help his feelings of
lust. This deep and demented feeling of lust drove him to kidnap her, abuse her, and rape her. Ovid
shows his change in morals by saying, "The lust that took hold of him now combined the elemental
forces of his national character and his own" (Hughes page 215). Ovid then goes on to conveys how
strongly he desires Philomela by using the simile, "His lust was like an iron furnace– first black,

Examining The Life Of Sylvia Plath As Seen Within
Examining the Life of Sylvia Plath as Seen Within "Lady Lazarus" Sylvia Plath's poem, "Lady
Lazarus", was greatly about the author's life: the influence by her suicide attempts, years of troubled
mental health, and stressed relationships with her father and husband. The opening lines of "Lady
Lazarus" read "I have done it again. / One year in every ten" (Plath 1–2). These two lines
immediately reference Plath's suicide attempts, her first of three being in 1953 when she was just a
university student, where she took a bottle of sleeping pills, water, and a blanket down to her cellar
and proceeded to down sleeping pills until she became unconscious (Steinberg). Throughout Plath's
life, she seemed to have an interesting relationship with death, ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
/ This is Number Three" (21–22) referring to her first two suicide attempts, the poem being written
only four months before her third and final suicide attempt (Herrman). However, strangely enough,
it is debated as to whether her suicide attempts were supposed to be just that, attempts, and not with
the final goal of ending her life. It is argued that Plath intended to be found, even leaving a note for
her neighbor, whom she knew would be home, listing her doctor's contact information, and hiring a
nanny to look after the children, further exemplifying her strange relationship with death
(Steinberg). However, the gas from the stove, which she used to kill herself, also seeped through the
floor, knocking out her neighbor below (Steinberg). This factor of her suicide attempt was not
planned for, and may have been what ultimately resulted in her death. Though theatrical, it is worth
noting that the women on her father's side had a history of mental health issues (Herrman). Plath
herself even calls out the theatrics: "[i]t's the theatrical // Comeback in broad day / To the same
place, the same face, the same brute / Amused shout: // 'A miracle!' / That knocks me out" (51–56).
Earlier in the poem, she even writes of spectators to these acts: "The peanut–crunching crowd /
Shoves in to see // Them unwrap me hand and foot– / The big strip tease" (26–29). She also talks of
being a large–scale work of

How Did Sylvia Plath Misunderstood
Sylvia Plath was a American Poet that lived a life of betrayal,depression,and madness. Some People
say Plath's works are really good because of her depression and madness. Plath is misunderstood
because of her poems and because people don't see the meaning of her poems. Yet sadly people look
away because it is "too dark" or "too depression" and miss the hidden deep meaning behind it all.
Sylvia Plath was born in Boston,Massachusetts in October, 1932. Sylvia was a top tier student that
got accepted into University of Smith. "When Sylvia graduated she was second in her high school
class."("Neurotic Poets." – Sylvia Plath. )While Sylvia was in college she also had a summer job as
a guest managing editor, but she suffered nervous breakdown and

The Life Of Sylvia Path
Born and raised in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, she tolerated an unpleasant and depressing
childhood. Sylvia Path was born on October 27,1932 to Aurelia Schobert Plath and Otto Emile
Plath. Her father was an author and professor, who taught at Boston University. There was a
significant age difference between Plath's parents; her mother was twenty–one years younger to her
father. "The couple met when her mother was attaining Master's Degree in teaching and opted one of
his father's course". "The grandparents of Otto wanted him to become a Lutheran minister and for
the same reason he separated from them". Three years later, her brother Warren was born.
Afterward, her family had moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts in 1936. Most of Plath's childhood
was spent on Johnson Avenue. Eventually, her father, Otto Plath died on 5 November 1940 attending
subtraction of the foot because of untreated diabetes. Her father fell sick soon after his close friend
deceased of lung cancer. "Otto used to compare the symptoms of his disease from that of his friend,
and as a result was convinced that he too had lung cancer". "This was why he did attain any
treatment until the level of diabetes had increased greatly". Otto Plath was eventually buried in
Winthrop Cemetery. "Post her father's death in 1942, the family moved to 26 Elmwood Road,
Wellesley, Massachusetts". Throughout her upbringing, her family was devoted to Christianity.
After, her father had passed away she lost faith in God. Plath

Neil Mccaw's Context Analysis
Neil McCaw distinguishes four types of contexts as four ways of reading a text: genre, literary
history, history, and authorial biography (McCaw, 2008:82). He claims that these contexts have a
key role in understanding a text from different perspectives (McCaw, 2008: 82). This section
includes two subsections which discuss the following types of contexts: socio–historical and
biographical contexts and literary context of Sylvia Plath's writing. The contexts are in accordance
with Neil McCaw's classification of contexts. The socio–historical and biographical contexts chosen
for the present analysis correspond to history and authorial biography as proposed by Neil McCaw.
Similarly, literary context may include both genre and literary history. ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
Patricia Stanley writes that in the 1950 Sylvia Plath won a scholarship to Smith College (Stanley,
2006: 396). Regardless of the success in her studies, Sylvia Plath suffered her first depression when
she returned from her guest editorship in the Mademoiselle magazine (Stanley, 2006: 397). Linda
Wagner–Martin explains that The Bell Jar depicts the "continuous decline into depression" which
began when Plath was a guest editor in the Mademoiselle magazine (Wagner–Martin, 2003: 33).
Connie Ann Kirk holds that the depression led to her first unsuccessful suicide attempt, which
happened in August 1953 (Kirk, 2009: 78). After electroconvulsive treatment, Plath showed signs of
recovery and soon after that she went back to Smith College to continue her studies. After Plath
finished her studies in Smith College, she was accepted to Cambridge University on Fulbright
scholarship where she met her future husband and a poet, Ted Hughes, whom she married in June
1956 (Kirk, 2009: 86). Steven Gould Axelrod holds that Plath's marriage affected her creative life
because frequent unhappiness "inhibited her writing in which she could not give herself credit even
for the poems and stories that she did write" (Axelrod, 1990:

A Brief Look at Ted Hughes
"What happens in the heart simply happens" is a famous quote from Ted Hughes. Ted Hughes was a
man of love. Hughes was known for many of his children books and famous poems. Hughes is also
greatly known for holding the title of British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death. Love was an
important aspect of Ted Hughes life and two poems: Love Song and September. Ted Hughes was
born August 17, 1930 in Yorkshire, England. His parents were Edith Hughes and William Henry. His
father was a carpenter. Hughes had two siblings Owlyn and Gerald Hughes. At the age 7 Hughes
family moved to Mexborough and Hughes began collecting toy lead creatures.(1–1) After high
school Hughes entered the Royal Air Force where he served two years as a ground wireless
mechanic. Once Hughes was discharged from the Air Force he attended Pembroke College where he
studied English on an academic scholarship. Hughes met Sylvia Plath while attending Pembroke. He
graduated in 1954 and married Plath two years later.(1–2) Plath encouraged most of Hughes works
and was a very supportive wife. Plath and Hughes had their first child Frieda in 1960.(1–3) Two
years later their second child Nichols was born. In 1962 Hughes divorced Plath for Assia Gutmann
Wevill. Less than a year later, Plath committed suicide. In 1965 Assia gave birth to her and Hughes
only child Shura. In 1969 Assia committed suicide, also killing Shura.(2–1) In 1970 Hughes met and
married Carol Orchard.(2–2) They stayed happily married until his

The Tragic Life of Sylvia Plath Essays
Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath, an open minded, free spirited author and poet of a variety of many pieces.
All of Plath's poems are inspired by her personal life and how she viewed it.
According to Plath, "It is a feeling that no matter what the ideas or conduct of others, there is a
unique rightness and beauty to life which can be shared in openness, in wind and sunlight, with a
fellow human being who believes in the same basic principles" (Sylvia Quotes).
Reveals and proves how free spirited and understanding she was. It conveys that people in your life
can be influential, but only to a certain extent; then, it is up to the individual, to find the beauty and
love in your life, and to find that in another human being is beautiful. ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
In the year 1940, Plath's father died due to the gangrene in his leg that was caused by untreated and
possibly an unrecognizable form of diabetes. Plath was greatly affected by the loss of her father,
which inspired her to move to Wellesley, Massachusetts. Plath achieved a full scholarship to Smith
College; however, prior to attending Smith College, she had already published a story, "And
Summer Will not Come Again," and a poem, "Ode on a Bitten Plum," which was published in
Seventeen Magazine.
As time progressed, Plath fought many inner, deep battles within herself, which involved marriage,
sexuality, chastity, and her career, thus leading to her mental breakdown. Her morale did not
improve any further or at all when she was rejected from a summer writing course at Harvard. On
April 1, 1960, her daughter, Freida was born. Now that she had a child, she found very little time to
write. She felt like there was no exit and that she was being held down with nowhere to go and
nobody to talk to. To make matters worse, her husband, Ted Hughes, kept publishing articles,
poems, and books. By Hughes continuation of publication, he was indirectly rubbing it in Plath's
face. With Plath's deteriorating health and severe depression, she had a miscarriage while pregnant
with her second child in February of 1961. The following year, she tried for another, and her son
Nicholas Farr was born. Meanwhile,

Analysis Of Hughes 's Poem ' Light Of This '
However, the ambiguity of Hughes 's poetry may be derived not so much from a desire to obscure
truthful representation, but from the inherently traumatic impact of this act of writing. In light of
this, Hughes 's fragmentary syntax and the episodic construction of the Birthday Letters sequence,
may well be understood as a literal manifestation of his attempt to pull together a "scattered,
dispersed, or lost" series of recollections (Freeman, 30); the trauma of which constantly resists any
easy assimilation into language. Usually within the discourse of psychoanalysis, it is simply the
process of describing a traumatic experience, representing it within language, which forces it to be
externalized, contained and thus assuaged. While Hughes certainly seeks to attain this same
catharsis, through a kind of "scriptotherapy" (Henke, xxii) his poetic style simultaneously invokes
the raw and uncooled processes of its own production. As John Carey writes in a review for the
Sunday Times, "The language is like lava, its molten turmoils hardening into jagged shapes, still hot
from the earth 's core." ("Fatal Attraction"). In order to understand Hughes 's magmatic poetry more
effectively, it is useful to consider Julia Kristeva 's conception of the "signifying process" (84) as
proposed in Revolution in Poetic Language (1979). Kristeva conceives of communicative acts as
composed of a balance between "symbolic" and "semiotic" aspects (95, The Kristeva Reader). The
"symbolic" may be

Sha’Lynn Ayler . Mrs. Cowan. Honor English 12 4Th Block.
Sha'Lynn Ayler
Mrs. Cowan
Honor English 12 4th Block
20 February 2017
The Life of Ted Hughes In the "The Hawk in the Rain," Ted Hughes writes, "I drown in the
drumming ploughland, I drag up / Heel after heel from the swallowing of the earth's mouth, / From
clay that clutches my each step to the ankle / With the habit of the dogged grave, but the hawk/
Effortlessly at height hangs his still eye" ("News about Ted Hughes"). This is Hughes' first and most
accomplished collection to this day. During the twentieth century Hughes produced some of his
most important works that became influential in todays' society. Hughes was famous for his animal
poems that was written for both adolescence and adult audiences. Ted Hughes' works were ... Show
more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Throughout Ted Hughes' works his fascination with animals is vastly prevalent. During Hughes'
childhood his family moved to Mexborough when he was seven years old. The Hughes' family
resided in rural area. Hughes as well as his childhood friends would often interact with the animals
within the community. He would capture birds, foxes, and fish for loaches. He developed a passion
for animals at the early age of four when he was given a photographic book of animals on his fourth
birthday. The book had descriptions of the animal's history which was rather advanced for a young
child. Hughes attempted to draw and copy the pictures within the book. He relished collecting living
creatures, such as mice (Feinstein 8–9). In addition, with the influence of his brother Gerald Hughes,
Ted Hughes had a desire for hunting and shooting animals, uncommon among the others that live in
the village. According to London Times contributor Thomas Nye, Hughes once confessed "that he
began writing poems adolescence, in his earlier years he had a passion for hunting animals, whether
the animal was dead or trapped Hughes had an attraction to animals. He wanted to capture not just
live animals, but the aliveness of animals in their nature state: their wildness, quiddity, the fox–ness
of the fox and the crow–ness of the crow" ("Ted Hughes, Poetry"). In Hughes' poems animals mirror
mans' inner turbulence. In his poem

Daddy By Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath's poetry is well known for its deeply personal and emotional subject matter. Much of
Plath's poetry is confessional and divulges the most intimate parts of her psyche whether through
metaphor or openly, without creating a persona through which to project her feelings, and through
the use of intense imagery. Plath's attempt to purge herself of the oppressive male figures in her life
is one such deeply personal and fundamental theme in her poetry. In her poem, "Daddy", which
declares her hatred for her father and husband, this attempt is expressed through language, structure,
and tone. (Perkins, 591)
Sylvia's father, Otto Plath, was a German immigrant and an entomologist who specialized in
bumblebees. Plath described him to a ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
(Perkins, 594) The frequent use of the word black throughout the poem also conveys a feeling of
gloom and suffocation.
Plath felt oppressed and stifled by men throughout her life. The first stanza of "Daddy" conveys her
feelings of domination by her father:
You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.
Plath uses similes and metaphors to describe herself as a foot being cowed by a black shoe– her
father– in which she barely dares to move. Other very intense similes and metaphors such as
"Chuffing me off like a Jew. A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belson," and "I think I
may well be a Jew" clearly show the feelings of anguish and hopelessness she felt under her
father's control.
Strong images are presented throughout the poem. The words "marble–heavy, a bag full of
God" convey the omniscience of her father's authority and the weight it imposed on her
throughout her life. Another strong image is the comparison of Plath's husband to a vampire: "The
vampire who said he was you / And drank my blood for a year, / Seven years, if you want to know."
This stanza accounts the way Plath's husband stripped her of her sense of self. Plath gave Hughes
her trust and he gained total control over her, which he used to his advantage, thus "drinking her
blood." Additionally, Hughes and Plath were married for exactly seven years before he left

"What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well–educated, brilliantly promising, and
fading out into an indifferent middle age." (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, 2000)
American poet Sylvia Plath (October 27 1932 – February 11 1963) was one of the most influential
poets of the 20th century. Her semi–autobiographical writing style pioneered the postmodernist form
of poetry known commonly as 'Confessional Poetry', which emerged from the United State in the
late 1950's and early 1960's. The confessional poetry of the mid–twentieth century centred mainly
on subject matter that was previously considered taboo in American poetry, such as mental illness
and sexuality. Plath battled clinical depression for most of her adult life, ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
"The bag of green apples" is an allusion from the Bible.
"To the woman he said,
I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; With painful labour you will give birth to
children."
(Genesis 3:3)
At the time this poem was written, Plath had a rising academic career and motherhood would limit
her literary work. It was expected that the mother would give up her career to stay home with the
children. Plath envied her husband, Ted Hughes, because he was free from all these domestic
responsibilities and was able to dedicate his time to writing. The result is discontent and bitterness
towards children and her husband.
When observing how Sylvia Plath's life affected her poetry, it is important not to overlook her
distinguished poem 'Lady Lazarus'. Plath uses numerous forms of imagery to establish her emotions
of pain and agony. Throughout the poem, Plath brazenly associates her depression and oppression to
the experiences of Holocaust victims. Her hatred of life is also represented through her use of the
Holocaust as imagery:
"A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi

Did you ever think that a student who excelled in school and appeared fine on the surface would
have severe depression and not only end up dying from that cause, but also one of her main
inspirations behind her successful poems? Sylvia Plath was one of the most admired poets of the
twentieth century. As a young girl she did great in school, although she did repeat fifth grade to be
the same age as her fellow classmates, Plath had gotten straight A's and excelled in English,
specifically creative writing. She was first introduced into poetry at the young age of eight where
she wrote poem and it appeared in "The Boston Herald. As Plath grew up she tried to find ways to
improve her poetry, she mainly relied on the Thesaurus, she also focussed ... Show more content on
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Plath's main influences were behind other important people in her life and major events that affected
her life. Towards the ending portion of Plath's career her poems became more about her personal
life, especially nature and also a huge negative experience that impacted her life such as her divorce
to another poet Ted Hughes. Nature played a big part of her inspiration in her poems especially after
she married her husband Ted Hughes and moved to New York. New York is where she wrote most
of her nature inspired poems such as "Dark Wood, Dark Water" . In "Dark Wood, Dark Water" Plath
vividly describes nature with many uses of imagery such as a lake thick with fish". Another event
that had a influence was her divorce. She had first met her husband, fellow poet Ted Hughes at a
party, since then they hit it off, he helped her gain most of her poetic voice and they both influenced
each others poems. So when they divorced it mainly played a part in her late career of poetry and
also a key of tone in her poems. In her poem "Ariel" Plath describes some of her feeling and
depression she had after she got a divorce to her husband Ted Hughes. For example some lines that
described her depression were "And I Am the arrow, the dew that flies, suicidal, at one with the
drive into the red eye." Not only did these events influence her but also other key people were part
of her inspiration of Plath's

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.

It is said that without melancholy there is no art, and there is no better embodiment of that than
beloved poet and author, Sylvia Plath. Often referred to as one of the most dynamic poets of the
1900's, Plath had no limits on her expression through poetry. Her poems ranged from flowing verses
on nature to unconventional commentary on the social restrictions placed on individuals. She is
most known for her poetic expression of her own mental anguish, never shying away from topics of
death and despair. Born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts in 1932, Plath was the daughter of Aurelia
Schober, high school teacher and student at Boston University , and Otto Plath, German immigrant
and Boston University professor. At the age of eight, Plath lost her father due to complications from
diabetes, which had a drastic affect on her emotionally. From the way she talks of her father in her
poems it is easy to tell that Otto Plath had been a strict father, and both his overbearing relationship
with his daughter and death heavily influenced her future relationships and her poetry. In one of her
more famous poems, "Daddy", Plath uses multiple ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
She began at the age of eleven until her death at the age of thirty writing journals filled with her
poetry as well as her more personal and morbid thoughts. For example, in this quote, "I am afraid. I
am not solid, but hollow. I feel behind my eyes a numb, paralyzed cavern, a pit of hell, a mimicking
nothingness. I never thought. I never wrote, I never suffered. I want to kill myself, to escape from
responsibility, to draw back abjectly into the womb. I do not know who I am, where I am going..."
(Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath), Plath discusses her feelings emotional
numbness, and of never wanting to have lived or suffered. After her death her journals were
published, by her husband, English poet Ted Hughes, along with many other poems she had not yet

Sylvia Plath 's ' The Bell Jar, And Her Other Works
"I desire the things which will destroy me in the end" (Goodreads). In Sylvia Plath's final days, the
things she desired, did in fact annihilate her. Sylvia Plath desired perfectionism and the need to feel
like she acquired a meaning. As interpreted in the novel, The Bell Jar, and her other works; Sylvia
Plath parallels her own traumatic path throughout her life and her downward spiral during the 1950s,
explaining her struggle with her mental suffocation and the inexorable depression that contaminated
her mind. Sylvia Plath's emotional turmoil began at a fairly early age; from the time of her father's
death, to her inability to form a meaningful relationship. Sylvia Plath was born the eldest child of
Otto and Aurelia Schoeber Plath on October 27, 1932. When Plath was eight–years–old her father, a
professor of Entomology and German at Boston University, died. "...I adored and despised him, and
I probably wished many times that he were dead. When he obliged me and died, I imagined that I
had killed him" (Steiner 45). Plath's work was heavily influenced on the passing of her father, the
grief that consumed the pages of The Bell Jar and many of Plath's other works was the pent–up
heartache that Plath felt for the loss of her father. Plath felt that her "...guilty love...may have caused
the loss" and was deeply burdened by it (Ramazani 5). She wrote many different kinds of works;
including but not all, The Bell Jar, The Colossus and Other Poems, and Ariel. The Bell Jar was

Sylvia Plath Accomplishments
Sylvia Plath the famous American writer from Boston, Massachusetts accomplished many great
poems and short stories in her short life. One of the greatest quotes and a personal favorite is"If you
expect nothing from anybody, you're never disappointed." By this quote she helped people rely more
on themselves than on others. Even though Plath life was tragically cut short due to suicide, she
made great accomplishments in todays life and her work is still used in everyday life. In many
classrooms throughout the world. Sylvia Plath was born on October twenty–seventh 1932 in Boston,
Massachusetts. She was raised in a middle class family. Plath started writing at a young age. She
published her first book at the age of eight. Once Sylvia graduated high school, she went to Smith
college in 1950. Her junior year of college, Plath got awarded ... Show more content on
Helpwriting.net ...
After Plath got released from the rehab she published a book called The Bell Jar in 1963 it took her
over two and a half years just to finish her story and to published the book. The Bell Jar was one of
her most famous works. The bell jar was in an inverted glass jar, generally used to display an object
of scientific curiosity, contain a certain kind of gas, or a maintain a vacuum(Sam Adam). For Esther,
the bell jar symbolized madness. When gripped by insanity, she feels as if she is inside an airless jar
that distorts her perspective on a world and prevents her from connecting with the people around her
(Adam). At the end of the novel, the bell jar has lifted, but she can sense's going to drop at any
moment and it described the relationships she had with other guys. The theme of the story is a
young woman coming of age but does not follow the usual trajectory development of childhood.
The style of the poem was a flashback with Esther's past and the relationship with Buddy

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

Sylvia Plath's Life
Sylvia Plath's Biography: Sylvia was born in Boston on 27th October 1932. She has grown up in a
family environment which supports self–improvement and literal works. Sylvia's father, Otto was a
dominant presence in the house. He died when she was eight years old because of pulmonary
embolism after an amputation surgery. After Otto's death Aurelia worked too much to ensure a good
living for her children. They moved from one place to another for many times. This situation caused
an unstable family life for both children. Sylvia's first published poem was published after her
father's death. She was a motivated and successful student at school. She earned a scholarship from
Smith College in 1950 and continued to read ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Personality Theories: The first theory that is going to be used to explain Sylvia's personality
dynamics and development is the "Psychosocial Development Theory" of Erik Erikson. According
to Erikson, individuals differ according to the ego strengths that they obtained after resolution of
different stages during life. During this process family, society, biological differences and cognitive
thought processes effect the personality dynamics and development. Sylvia Plath's career choices,
literary works, interpersonal relationships are going to be analysed by using the psychosocial
development lenses of Erikson. The second theory that is going to be used is the Karen Horney's
"Object Relations Theory". According to Horney, individuals differ according to the way they
showed themselves in relationships. There are different interpersonal orientations and the way the
person uses these orientations are determined by parenting, society and cognitive processes.
Through the lenses of Karen Horney, I am going to examine the relationships of Sylvia Plath with
her parents and other people and her career choices as a woman in

People 's Love At First Sight By Sylvia Plath
People dream of falling in love at first sight. Sylvia Plath, an American writer, experienced the
desirable moment the first time she saw Ted Hughes, an English poet (Middlebrook). The romantic
relationship between Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath grew instantly. They both shared a love of
writing, but yet their relationship began to go downhill five years after their marriage (Popova). The
marriage between Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath was destructive because of Sylvia's unstable mental
health and Ted's unfaithfulness, but it was also beneficial because of their strong writing
relationship. Sylvia Plath, an American poet, was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston,
Massachusetts ("Sylvia Plath Biography"). When Sylvia was eight years old, she ... Show more
content on Helpwriting.net ...
The "Wild West" was one of the first poems he wrote that was published in his school magazine
("Ted Hughes Biography"). When Hughes entered college, he studied English, but then changed to
archeology and anthropology at Pembroke College. Even as an archeologist and anthropology
major, Ted continued to wow people with his poetry ("Ted Hughes Biography"). When people read
his poetry, it was like they "[entered] a world dominated by nature, especially by animals" ("Ted
Hughes"). His love for animals led him to become a poet and inspired him to write The Hawk in the
Rain in 1957 and Wolfwatching and Moortown Diary in 1989 ("Ted Hughes"). On February 26,
1956, Ted Hughes and other poets hosted a poetry party for the St. Botolph's Review (Popova).
Sylvia arrived at the party and was immediately drawn to the "'big, dark, hunky boy,'" later known
as Ted Hughes (Popova). Sylvia's first words to Ted were quotes from poems that he had written and
published. Despite the amount of drinks she had consumed, she remembered her first encounter with
Ted (Popova). She recorded the first day they met and it is "now one of the most famous
[encounters] in all literary history" (Popova). Four months after they met, they got married and had
two kids named Frieda and Nicholas ("Sylvia Plath Biography"). The beginning years of their
marriage were very successful and they both continued to write poetry ("Ted Hughes

Audra Etcheson
3.27.15
ELA 3
Sylvia Plath
To become a successful writer, you have to have a lot of knowledge of the English writing. Usually,
it takes a lot of time to work on and become a famous American literature writer, but not for Sylvia
Plath. By the time that Plath took her life, she already had a following in the literary community.
Many of the readers that she attracted were because of her attempt to list despair, violent emotion,
and her obsession with death. Plath's poems explore her mental pain, her troubled marriage to poet
Ted Hughes, her unsolved conflicts with her parents, and how she saw herself. Whether Plath wrote
about nature or someone else, she excluded the polite surface. She tore apart the appearance of the
American ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
Sylvia Plath was born October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Otto Plath who was a
professor at Boston University where he met his wife and fellow student, Aurelia Schober.
When Plath was only eight years old, her father died from complications of diabetes. He was a strict
father and both his attitude and death defined many of Plath's poems, including one of her best,
"Daddy" ("Sylvia Plath"). Sylvia Plath was always determined to succeed. She kept a journal from
the age eleven and published many stories and poems in regional magazines and newspapers. The
first poem that was published in a national magazine was in 1950 just after she graduated high
school. Plath was a gifted student who won many awards and published many stories and poems in
national magazines while still in her teens. She attended Smith College on scholarship and
continued to excel in her writing ("Sylvia Plath").
During her undergraduate years, she began to suffer from depression. She described her feelings as
positive and negative currents and whichever one is feeling the strongest, it takes over her body.
This was also described as bipolar disorder and in Plath's lifetime, there were no medications that
were available. In 1953, when Plath was only nineteen years old,

Sylvia came into the world on October 27, 1932, in Boston, Massachusetts. Sylvia Plath had been
writing since she was a child. She started writing by starting a journal. But when she was eight years
her father died. Sylvia and her father did not have the best relationship. She said that he was a
horrible father to her and compared him to the Nazis in her poem "Daddy". In this poem she talked
about hating her father and how she wanted him to die. She also wrote this poem to cope with the
grief and mixture of feelings she experiences when her father suddenly died of diabetes. Her mother,
Aurelia Plath, soon moved the family after his death and came to Wellesley, Massachusetts. Sylvia's
poems that she wrote in her teens were published in regional newspapers and articles. (Academy of
American Poets). Soon ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...
In college, Sylvia Plath worked for Mademoiselle magazine as a guest editor. Soon after, Plath went
into a depression because she missed the chance to meet her idol, Dylan Thomas, and she was
rejected from attending Harvard's summer program for writing. She tried to commit suicide by
hiding under her bed and taking her mother's pills but she was found before she died. She went to a
mental facility and eventually recovered from her depression. Plath returned to Smith and finished
her degree in 1955 (Biography).
Sylvia Plath received a scholarship after Smith to attend Newnham College in England. She met her
husband, Ted Hughes, there. Ted Hughes was not a very good husband and they went through a
tough relationship. In the end, he left her for another woman, eventually leading her to the
depression that ended her life. While studying at the university's Newnham College, she met Ted
Hughes. Plath published her first poetry collection, The Colossus in 1960, and during the same year,
she gave birth to her daughter, Frieda, and two years later gave birth to her son,

Sylvia Plath, A Poet And Her Depression

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Sylvia Plath, A Poet And Her Depression