Analysis Of Sylvia Plath

1180 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theories on Sylvia Plath's poems

ABSTRACT: Sylvia Plath was a prolific writer both in her choice of themes, language and imagery. Most of the times she has been labelled as a ‘confessional’ poet based on reading of a few of her poems-specifically Daddy and Lady Lazarus.A gamut of discussion has already been undertaken by critics and research scholars on the events in the life of this poet-her brilliance, her loss of her father at an early age, her numerous suicide attempts, her desire to fit in and her crumbling down of her marriage to the poet Ted Hughes leading to her untimely and gruesomedeath. However her unique language and imagery, effervescence of emotions refute all traditional concepts and point to the fact that these are outpourings of a brilliant mind in work. …show more content…

Post-war American poetry explicitly addresses the abyss of the self and is a litany of loss, hate and sorrow. The problem of the ‘self’ and not the ‘other’ is addressed by its arrival at speech directly through the imagery it uses. However, Plath with her unique poetic voice entices the reader to look for the ‘other’-the hidden self while at the same time addressing it outwards through interpretable imagery. Plath’s works point to the fact that she had immense belief in the limitless capacities of language. Adrienne Rich’s argument for a female language is echoed in Plath. Helen McNeil writes- “Adrienne Rich……has argued that since social discourse has been taken by men for their own use, women must invent their own ‘common language’. Although Rich like Plath, began her career with formal impersonal lyrics, she has subsequently loosened her poetic form while seeking to develop a recognizably female language” (McNeil, 477). Plath’s use of landscape and seascapes is indeed one of the most characteristic features of her poetry. More so in her collection of poems Crossing the Water.They put their mark on a considerable part of her work and appear throughout her career, linked as they are to her experiences as a woman and as a poet. Plath sought inspiration and raw material for her poetry in different settings. Her poems serve as mirrors for a self in search of …show more content…

Wuthering Heights, Finisterre, Blackberrying, The Surgeon at 2 A.M.are reflections of the change of domicile. Blackberryingoriginally took place on a stretch of North Devon coastline and the lanes last “hook” reveals nothing but the cliff face.
Thus Sylvia Plath’s poems testify to the fact that her surroundings helped her to transact a ‘lived space’, not the physical space. She absorbed her surroundings and the assimilation finds voice in her poems thereby contributing to the real ‘I’.

PSYCHOLOGICAL

Show More
Related

  • 'Conformity In Sylvia Plath's Initiation'

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the short story “Initiation” author Sylvia Plath suggests that conformity, although the societal norm, is not always as grand as it is made out to be, while also suggesting that even though conformity typically hinders one’s self growth, there are times when the fear of conforming can make one’s sense of self stronger. These two ideas together show that Plath uses this short story to convey the message that even though conformity is not inherently a positive thing, it can drive a person to look in on themselves and develop a unique identity. Plath uses symbolism, and character introspection to assert this idea.

    Read More

  • Initiation By Sylvia Plath Analysis

    472 Words  | 1 Pages

    “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.”- Shannon L. Alder, American author. Even with all the temptation and pressure we feel just to fit in today's society, or to be normal, it's crucial that you hold on to your passions, goals, dreams, values, and to hold on to yourself. Being yourself is very hard to do especially in today’s society. Such as the short story “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Individuality In Sylvia Plath's Initiation

    953 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is no shortage of media encouraging adolescents to ‘be themselves’, promoting self-worth regardless as to what others think. While many may be fed this message throughout music and film, rarely ever is it conveyed to actually have a lasting effect on one’s personal views quite like Sylvia Plath’s “Initiation”. Although formulaic, Plath’s uniquely optimistic short story warns against an obsession with belonging, and explores the importance of individuality through the protagonist Millicent Arnold’s gradual character development, from a self-conscious teenage girl to a stronger and more confident individual.

    Read More

  • A Biography on the Life of Sylvia Plath

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were Otto and Aurelia Plath. Plath's father, Otto, immigrated to America from Germany when he was just sixteen years old. He wanted to study ministry at the Northwestern College, which was a small Lutheran school. According to his wife, Aurelia, Otto changed his ambitions because he didn't feel a true "calling" for the ministry. He received a master of the arts from Washington University, and the doctor of science from Harvard. After that, in 1928, he became a biology professor at Boston University. Sylvia's mother, Aurelia, taught German and English at Brookline High School until January of 1932, when she married Otto. She quit teaching because Otto wanted her to be a homemaker. Otto and Aurelia settled in Winthrop, a town near Boston, where Sylvia spent most of her early childhood. Aurelia's immigrant parents from Australia also lived in this town.

    Read More

  • A Courage’s Attempt to Take Her Life back in Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”

    1990 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Sylvia Plath: A Novelist and her Brief Life

    703 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Roller Coaster Life of Sylvia Plath

    1378 Words  | 3 Pages

    Often times we look through people and not truly at them. Sylvia Plath was one person who was looked through a lot when she desperately wanted to be noticed. As a striving poet and author in a time period where women were not expected to perform such tasks Sylvia struggled to keep it all together. Although she had her high points, like we all do, it remains apparent that she was battling with a deep inner conflict. Sylvia brings her emotional burden to life in her first novel The Bell Jar. Feminism, communism and a suicide attempt are all intertwined in this biography. The life of a not only a tortured poet but a struggling mother is obvious throughout her work. In order to grasp the lasting impression of Sylvia Plath, we have to understand where she comes from, how the critics and the people of her time viewed her, and the impact she left for the rest us.

    Read More

  • Biography of Sylvia Plath

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Identity in the Works of Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney

    2134 Words  | 5 Pages

    Many times poetry is reflective of the author’s past as well as their personal struggles. One struggle that poets write about is of identity and the creation, as well as loss, of individual identities. Using a passage from the essay Lava Cameo by Eavan Boland, I will show how two poets use their craft to describe their struggle with identity. Eavan Boland and Seamus Heaney both write poems which express an internal struggle with roles of identity and how they recreate their roles to fit their needs. Through retrospection and reflection, both poets come to realize that the roles they led as well as those they reinvented have created their own personal identities. Boland, in her essay Lava Cameo, touches on several emotions (loss, despair, etc) and episodes in her life which capture the essence of her identity. It is this notion of individual identity that is a central theme throughout Boland’s essay and some of her poems. Boland, through retrospection and hindsight, has been able to recognize the roles that society has dictated that she follow. These roles were not necessarily created for any rational reason (ex: female role as subordinate and even as marital property). One passage in particular captures the internal struggles Boland has endured. This passage runs from pages 27 to 29 in Boland’s Object Lessons. It begins by saying, "It may not be that women poets of another generation…" and ends with "…but because of poetry."

    Read More

  • Sylvia Plath

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    A phenomenal writer’s work generates a powerful bond between their words and the reader. This is factual of Sylvia Plath’s poetry. It contains universal, timeless themes of depression and death that, in these dejected days, many people can relate to. Sylvia Plath was a confessional poet whose oppressive life led to her relatable story. She wrote many astonishing poems, such as “cut”, “Among the Narcissi”, and “A Birthday Present” that all chronicle and showcase her struggle for a release from the suppressed world she subsisted in, a world that many remain to live in today. Sylvia Plath’s poetry narrates both her distinct, individual story and yet universal tale of a woman who searches for a way out of her depressed state of mind.

    Read More

  • Sylvia Plath's Life and How It Influenced Her Poetry

    1847 Words  | 4 Pages

    Print. Kehoe, John. " Young, Talented, And Doomed: The Life Of Sylvia Plath."  Biography 3.5 (1999): 88.  Academic Search Complete.

    Read More

  • Redefining Motherhood in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

    1057 Words  | 3 Pages

    Known for her distinctive voice and exploration of dark, violent emotions, Sylvia Plath was one of the most acclaimed poets of the twentieth century. In her poems she discusses many common themes such as family relations, marriage, self-image and death in unique ways. Among these topics, she expresses a particularly original perspective on motherhood and its effect on the individual that often deviates completely from the traditional view of child rearing. In her poems “Moonrise,” “Heavy Woman” and “Morning Song,” Plath conveys the idea that motherhood, although necessary, is a personal as well as physical sacrifice that involves much pain and suffering.

    Read More

  • A Women's Relationship With Men in The Poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sylvia Plath has brought the attention of many Women’s studies supporters while being recognized as a great American poet. Most of her attention has come as a result of her tragic suicide at age thirty, but many of her poems reflect actual events throughout her life, transformed into psychoanalytical readings. One of Plath’s most renowned poems is “Daddy”. In this poem there are ideas about a woman’s relationship with men, a possible insight on aspects of Plath’s life, and possible influences from the theories of Sigmund Freud.

    Read More

  • Anne Sexton Research Paper

    1517 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Sylvia Plath

    1669 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Sylvia Plath

Open Document