Sylvia Plath: A Novelist and her Brief Life

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.

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.

Plath was exceptionally smart and a very talented writer. Plath had published over fifty short stories and poems in magazines and newspapers while she was still in her teenage years. Her first publication was in the Christian Science Monitor, which was published right after she graduated from high school. Upon graduating from high school, Sylvia attended Smith College on a writing scholarship and continued to excel, publishing many works.

When Plath was in college in 1953, her downward spiral began. The spiral started off when Plath’s writing internship was not what she expected it would be. Plath was more of a personal assistant than an actual writer. This realization was a sad reality to her because her goal was to be a write...

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...d changing the tomb to say Plath. Hughes was then criticized even more when his new wife, his mistress, killed herself and their children the same way Plath did six years later.

Plath’s works were known for their extremely feminist and suicidal themes. Plath wrote about whatever came to her mind and used writing as a way to express her feelings. Plath is credited with furthering the genre of confessional poetry. Plath was also the first poet to receive the Pulitzer Prize after death. Although Plath had taken her life, her legacy still lives on in many ways.

Sylvia Plath’s novels and poems are still widely recognized today. All the success of Sylvia Plath was not enough to help her overcome her depression that eventually caused her to take her life. Although Sylvia Plath lived a short life, she still achieved many accomplishments that are still known today.