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Overcoming trauma essay
Personal essay on sylvia plath
Overcoming trauma essay
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In “Resumé” by Dorothy Parker, she views several different ways to commit suicide, but with every option, she contemplates there is always a problem that comes with it. Dorothy Park writes the poem in the second person point-of-view, so it does not necessarily relate back to Parker. However, it is possible that this poem does reflect what she’s encountered in life. To end the poem, Dorothy says that the trouble it brings is not worth the life you want to conclude.
The poem, “Sylvia’s Death” by Anne Sexton displayed the emotions she felt after Sylvia’s death. In this work, Sexton touched on the social stigmas placed on women while depicting Plath’s decision to end her own life after battling a misfortunate life for so long. She also appeared
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The poem is a reflection on the death of a woman. When she mentioned “the illusion of a Greek necessity,” she’s telling us that the act of suicide is not heroic, but according to the Greeks, it is natural and honorable. Plath states, “We have come so far, it is over… she has folded.” These lines could connect back to Sylvia and how her experiences have led to her final exhaustion and resignation of life. Lastly, her reasoning behind titling the poem “Edge” may perhaps mean the place between life and …show more content…
In the late 1960s, after the death of her friend Sylvia Plath, her illness and suicidal tendencies started affecting her career. By the early 1970s, Sexton committed suicide after returning home one day and locking herself in the garage, poisoning herself from the carbon monoxide of her car engine. Similarly to the previous two, Sylvia Plath experienced a sad childhood and lived life with a troubled mind. Occasionally throughout her life, she would have breakdowns and suicide attempts. Fortunately, during her later years, Plath met Anne Sexton during a poetry course taught by Robert Lowell. Sexton and Lowell became a significant influence in Sylvia’s life. They encouraged her to write about private and personal experiences in life. This form of poetry was known as confessionalism, where poets focused on intimate moments that they’ve encountered in their lifetime. For instance, their personal and severe traumas that society viewed as taboo. Through this style, Plath found a voice where she could express how she felt towards the universe. Successfully and unfortunately, her fight against depression consumed all aspects of her life. By the early 1960s, Plath
Dorothy Rothschild, later to become the famous writer Dorothy Parker, was born on August 22, 1893 to J. Henry Rothschild and Eliza A (Marston) Rothschild in West End, New Jersey. Parker’s father, Mr. Rothschild, was a Jewish business man while Mrs. Rothschild, in contrast, was of Scottish descent. Parker was the youngest of four; her only sister Helen was 12 and her two brothers, Harold and Bertram, were aged 9 and 6, respectively. Just before her fifth birthday, Dorothy’s mother became very ill and died on July 20, 1897. Three years later in 1900, Mr. Rothschild remarried to a 48 year-old spinster widow, Eleanor Frances Lewis, who Dorothy referred to as “the housekeeper.” The new Mrs. Rothschild entered Dorothy in the Blessed Sacrament Convent School, where the Catholic ways of thinking were instilled in her. Fortunately or unfortunately, in 1903 Dorothy’s stepmother dropped dead of an acute cerebral hemorrhage and consequently Dorothy did not have to continue at the Blessed Sacrament Convent. A few years later, in the fall of 1907, Dorothy entered Miss Dana’s school, a junior college, where she studied several different disciplines and was exposed to current events and cultural activities. This environment nourished Dorothy’s intellectual appetite, but this too was short-lived; Miss Dana died in March 1908. Dorothy, now aged 14, was only at the school for one year, the fall of 1907 to the spring of 1908 (Miss Dana’s school had to file for bankruptcy). In 1913, Mr. Rothschild died leaving Dorothy, age 19, to find her own way and support herself.
Sylvia Plath a highly acclaimed twentieth century American poet whose writings were mostly influenced by her life experiences. Her father died shortly after her eighth birthday and her first documented attempt at suicide was in her early twenties. She was married at age twenty-three and when she discovered her husband was having an affair she left him with their two children. Her depression and the abandonment she felt as a child and as a woman is what inspires most of her works. Daddy is a major decision point where Plath decides to overcome her father’s death by telling him she will no longer allow his memory to control her.
"The bell jar hung, suspended, a few feet above my head…” For most people, when the name Sylvia Plath comes to mind, the word “psychotic” is the word that follows; however, there was more to Plath than her demented works. Throughout her shortened life, Plath had a variety of titles bestowed upon her: daughter, sister, student, wife, mother, teacher, author, and poetess However, Sylvia Plath was a haunted soul, as she also had the labels of “manic depressive” and “bipolar.” Her constant struggles with her mental illnesses are evident in her writing, especially her semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar.
Pollitt, Katha. "A Note of Triumph [The Collected Poems]". Critical Essays on Sylvia Plath. Ed. Linda W. Wagner. Boston: G. K. Hall & Company, 1984. 67 - 72.
The highly recognized female novelist and poet, Sylvia Plath, lived a hard and tragic life. Plath was diagnosed with depression, a mood disorder that causes consistent feelings of sadness, at a very young age that made her life complicated in many ways. The battle continued on when she was diagnosed with severe depression later on in life which contributed to her death. Sylvia Plath was a very successful novelist and poet in the thirty short years of her life, however, the achievements were not enough to mask her depression battle that ran and ended her life.
Dorothy Parker’s poems in The Portable Dorothy Parker vary from humorous commentary on romance to social critique, but her format holds on to the rigidity of older styles. While several writers choose this time period to step outside of the normal confines of writing norms, Parker retains a vintage format of strict end-rhymes and polished line lengths. Her use of comedic devices lines up with the typical craft choices that emerged in the twentieth century; however, her approach is much different than anything else of her time. She creates a tension between several dimensions—gender and expectations, format and content, humor and serious issues—that makes her work so complex.
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.
"About." Personal Blog, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. [When finding an explanation for the similarities between the writers, it is important to play close attention to biographies. In case the psychoeconomic factors that Ruonco describes are true, then biography constitutes most of the development of the Sylvia Plath affliction. Moreover, the biography provides an insight into the views of the author for a better and more accurate understanding of her poetry. Furthermore, it is imperative to use her auto-statement since she referres to her "muse" as something out of her control which can be traced to Kaufman's
Sylvia Plath may be one of the most remarkable and idolized modern poets of the twentieth century. Sylvia Plath had an emotional life, and a troublesome past with her father's death, insecurities because of self-doubt, a tragic break up with her husband and severe depression, leading to her suicide in 1963. These tragic events in Plath’s life played a vast part in her career as a poet and novelist, by inspiring her to create her melancholy and notorious masterpieces.
Sylvia Plath’s life was full of disappointment, gloominess and resentment. Her relationship status with her parents was hostile and spiteful, especially with her father. Growing up during World War II did not help the mood of the nation either, which was dark and dreary. At age 8 Plath’s father of German ancestry died of diabetes and even though their relationship was never established nor secure, his death took a toll on her. “For Sylvia, who had been his favorite, it was an emotional holocaust and an experience from which she never fully recovered” (Kehoe 90). Since she was so young she never got to work out her unsettled feelings with him. Even at age eight, she hid when he was around because she was fearful of him. When she was in his presence his strict and authoritarian figure had left an overpowering barrier between their relationship. Sadly enough by age eight Plath instead of making memories with her dad playing in the yard she resented him and wanted nothing to do with him (Kehoe). These deep-seated feelings played a major role in Plath’s poetry writings. Along with his “hilterian figure,” her father’s attitude towards women was egotistical and dismissive, uncondemning. This behavior infuriated Plath; she was enraged about the double standard behavior towards women. Plath felt controlled in male-dominated world (Lant). “Because Plath associates power so exclusively with men, her conviction that femininity is suffocating and inhibiting comes as no surprise” (Lant 631). This idea of a male-dominated world also influenced Plath’s writing. Unfortunately, Plath married a man just like her father Ted Hughes. “Hughes abandonment apparently stirred in her the memories and feelings she had struggled with when her ...
Giles, Richard F. “Sylvia Plath.” Magill’s Critical Survey of Poetry. Ed. Frank N. Magill, b. 1875. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1992.
The poem, “Mad Girl’s Love Song”, highlights Sylvia Plath’s struggle with depression and her mental illness. As a form of expression, Sylvia Plath wrote “Mad Girl’s Love Song” in 1953, her last years of her life. Six years into Plath’s marriage with English poet, Ted Hughes, depression started to kick off in her life. Hughes began seeing other women and not responding to Plath as her husband. According to the Poetry Foundation, “She let her writing express elemental forces and primeval fears”. Plath’s poetry slowly became more violent and intense. Many people like to blame Hughes for her mental illness. In 1953 Plath decided to end her life by using her gas oven.
Plath’s father died early in her life leaving her with unresolved feelings, and this brought a lot of troubles later on in life. Sylvia was a great student but when she was overwhelmed with disappointments after a month in New York, she attempted suicide (“Sylvia Plath”). After receiving treatment and recovering, she returned to school and later moved to England where she met her future husband, Ted Hughes (“Sylvia Plath”). Their marriage with two children didn’t last when Ted had an affair. They separated and Ted moved in with the new woman, leaving Sylvia and their two children. Battling depression during this time, Sylvia soon ended her life. She left behind numerous writings that many might see as signs of her depression and suicide attempts.
During the mid-twentieth century, the Postmodernist period flourished through American and English literature. Modernists emphasized abstract beauty and the alienation of an individual. Anne Sexton’s poetry is significant to the period’s artistic and psychic life because she integrates both the similar and conflicting ways of poetry and psychoanalysis portraying thought. Sexton explored the archetypal relationships between people and families and the myths our culture lives and dies by. She was greatly known for her personal poetry and confessional poetry, a genre much identified with poets such as Sexton, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and W.D. Snodgrass.
Through her dark and intense poetry, Sylvia Plath left an eternal mark on the literary community. Her personal struggles with depression, insecurities, and suicidal thoughts influenced her poetry and literary works. As a respected twentieth century writer, Sylvia Plath incorporated various literary techniques to intensify her writing. Her use of personification, metaphors, and allusions in her poems “Ariel,” “Lady Lazarus,” and “Edge”, exemplifies her talent as a poet and the influence her own troubled life had on her poetry. According to “Sylvia Plath” Sylvia Plath struggled with severe depression throughout her life.