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Themes and poetic style of Sylvia Plath
An essay on the life of sylvia plath
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Sylvia Plath was one of the most celebrated female poets of the 20th century. Her works in literature had widely spread all over the world by the time she committed suicide at 30 years of age. She became the first poet in the world to win a "posthumous Pulitzer Prize." Plath was a troubled and talented poet who was known by many for her confessional style of writing (Miller 381). While Plath was studying in Newnham, she met Ted Hughes, a poet who also changed her life tremendously. Her father died when she was eight years of age, and this greatly influenced her life. Plath was affected by a failed marriage, battled with depression and was influenced by the tragic death of her father which later impacted her writing that has portrayed her as the most cherished and celebrated poet in the world. Plath's background is significant in her literature. "Lady Lazarus" for instance, is one of her publications that illustrate her ill motive of craving to commit suicide (Curley 214). The poem is often interpreted as an expression of her attempt to commit suicide and the impulses. The tone of "Lady Lazarus" ranges between scathing and menacing, and the extensive use …show more content…
Her creative energy, however, was a source imaginative and creative power which led to her many literature works are currently used in teaching psychology. Despite the fact that death was a side issue, Plath found it difficult for her to avoid it in her poems especially "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus." Sylvia Plath death was due to the fact that she gambled with life, not caring whether she lost or won, but eventually, she lost at the end (Miller 381). "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" are the poems that reflect her life and the surrounding that she was living in. At times Plath tried to get rid of tension in her life by trying to be the "tension" herself. Additionally, she used history to describe herself and concerning her life encounters with the people that surrounded
The first two stanzas, lines 1-10, tell the readers that Plath, for thirty years, has been afraid of her father, so scared that she dares not to “breathe or Achoo.” She has been living in fear, although she announces that he’s already dead. It is obvious that she believes that her father continues to control her life from the grave. She says that she “has had to kill” him, but he’s already dead, indicating her initial promise to forget him. She calls him a “bag full of God,” telling us that she considers her father a very strong, omnipotent being, someone who is superior in her eyes.
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.
Sylvia Plath was born on 27 October 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. Plath’s father was a very strict man with dictatorial attitudes that stuck with and scarred Plath. Her father died due to complications with his diabetes when Plath was only eight years old, inspiring her poem “Daddy” (Academy of American Poets). “Daddy” is one of her most famous works that basically declares her hatred for her father.
Emily Dickinson is regarded as “America’s most original poet” and was born on December 10th, 1830 (CITATION1). During her life, she spent most of her time alone in her house, spending time with only herself and writing poetry. When she died at the age of fifty-five, her sister decided to publish the 1,800 poems Emily had written. Before her death, Emily had only published ten of her poems. Because of this, she was not widely known before she died, unlike Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath, on the other hand, is a well-known author and poet. She even won the Pulitzer Prize award for Poetry in 1982 (CITATION2). Sylvia was similar to Emily Dickinson in that she was not an outgoing person. In fact, she was often depressed, and eventually took her own life in 1963 (CITATION3). While unfortunate, Sylvia Plath had written many popular poems, such as “Daddy”, short stories, and a semi-autobiographical novel called “The Bell Jar”.
Sylvia Plath, a great American author, focuses mostly on actual experiences. Plath’s poetry displays feelings and emotions. Plath had the ability to transform everyday happenings into poems or diary entries. Plath had a passion for poetry and her work was valued. She was inspired by novelists and her own skills. Her poetry was also very important to readers and critics. Sylvia Plath’s work shows change throughout her lifetime, relates to feelings and emotions, and focuses on day to day experiences.
Plath was born in the seaside town of Winthrop, Massachusetts during the year of 1932. In her first eight years of life, Plath was troubled with the birth of a new sibling, the death of a parent, and the start of a war. These eight years were the calm before the stormy life of Sylvia Plath. As an only child, Plath felt threatened by the new baby in the family. Her new sibling, Warren, sparked a disdain for children that Plath would harbor for the rest of her life. In 1940, Plath’s father died and essentially robbed the children of a proper relationship with their mourning mother. The family moved inland where Plath focused on writing poetry until she began to attend Smith College in 1950.
Sylvia Plath lived a good, yet depressed life. She was born on October 27th 1932, in Boston Massachusetts to Aurelia and Otto Plath. Sylvia grew up with her brother in an ordinary household, under a strict father. Her childhood was happy, until in 1940, a week and a half after her eighth birthday, her father died due to complications of his untreated diabetes. This led to a loss of faith for a young Sylvia that she would never be able to regain and fueled her desire to write poetry and stories when she was ten. During her adolescence, she won many awards and honors for her writings and at age eighteen she received a scholarship to Smith College. That was when Plath’s symptoms of her severe depression began to emerge. In 1953 she attempted to take her own life, by overdosing on sleeping pills. She was hospitalized and given electro-shock therapy, and she fictionalized her experiences in her novel, The Bell Jar. In 1955 Plath moves to Cambridge England on a scholarship and met Ted Hughes, and English Poet...
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 ...
The iconic 13 year old Jason Taylor of David Mitchell’s “Black Swan Green” is a unique character that experiences many traumatic moments involving other characters and various conflicts, which all impact his “fractured” soul. Every moment displays a unique characteristic about him, defining him as a person. Jason's momentous sexual experiences seem to magnify his fractured self the most, including his interaction with Dawn Madden on the tractor, his meeting Sally at the beach, and especially his interaction with Tom Yew and Debbie Crombie under the tree, proving that his immaturity for sex seems to have the greatest impact. In the chapter “Bridle Path”, Jason walks upon his crush, Dawn Madden, who appears to be sitting in a tractor, another
According to Dyne, “Plath borrowed the miracle of Lazarus, the myth of the phoenix, the hype of the circus, and the horror of the holocaust to prophesy for herself a blazing triumph over her feelings of tawdriness and victimization” (397). By using the title of this poem, Sylvia Plath creates an allusion. She refers to the biblical Lazarus, who Jesus raised from the dead. According to one source, “…like the Lazarus of the title, its persona miraculously survives each brush with death” (Maramarco 85). Within this poem, Plath also compares herself to appalling remnants from the Holocaust:“my skin / Bright as a Nazi lampshade / My right foot / A paperweight / My face a featureless, fine / Jew linen” (Rooney). Sylvia imagines that she is a primary victim of the horrific Holocaust just trying to survive day by
After reading the poem “Mad Girl’s Love Song” and doing some research on Plath, I came to find out that the poem was very similar to Plath’s personal life. The poem is basically about a young girl who fell in love and gave her all to a boy who never came back to love her. The young girl fell in a depression and made herself believe that she was making it all up. She still had hope that she and the boy could be happy someday, but it never happened and it drove her insane. Perhaps the boy could have been Plath’s husband, Hughes. Everything about the poem is so similar to her marriage with Hughes; the story makes the reader believe the poem could possibly be about Plath herself.
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.
Death is inevitable and a lifelong process in every individual’s life. Most importantly, we are unaware of when or how it will happen and, because death can come at a time when we least expect it, it allows some individuals to fear death. In both poems, Lady Lazarus and Daddy, by Sylvia Plath, show different ways to view death. In Lady Lazarus, Plath talks about the characters attempts to commit suicide. Throughout the poem, we discover that the first time she tried to commit suicide was an accident while her second and third time were intentional. While Daddy reveals the process of how a girl came to terms with her father’s death. Although some may assert that the poems show rebirth, both poems reveal death as a way to escape from reality.
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.