Sylvia Plath Accomplishments

“How frail the human heart must be, a mirrored pool of thought.” - Sylvia Plath (BrainyQuote). Plath has brought to light the large population of depressed and “mentally ill” people across the world. Plath herself struggled to find a way out of the depressed state she felt trapped in. Plath had a very hard life filled with one tragic event after another with few breaks of happiness in between. Plath’s life and poetry have inspired many people to seek help and has shown them they are not alone in their sadness. Plath never saw an end to her suffering, and could not take it anymore. Her tragic life and death, although sad, has helped many people around the world gain a better understanding of life with a “mental illness”. In the first

Plath’s poems have often expressed the unfair standard of perfection put on women by the media. For example, in Plath’s poem ‘The Applicant ‘ one line says “First, are you our sort of a person? Do you wear a glass eye, false teeth or a crutch, a brace or a hook” (Poetry Foundation). This states if you have nothing fake, then you do not fit in society. Another poem called ‘Face Lift’ expresses the pressure put on women by society to look ageless even from a young age. The main line from ‘Face Lift’ that expresses having wrinkles as unattractive is “Now she's done for, the dewlapped lady I watched settle, line by line, in my mirror old sock-face, sagged on a darning egg.” (All Poetry). The poem clearly states throughout it that looking older is undesirable and it is encouraged to get a “face lift” to correct this. In her time being a bigger woman was desirable as stated in her poem ‘Heavy Women’. The first stanza, it states “Irrefutable, beautifully smug as Venus, pedestalled on a half-shell, shawled in blond hair and the salt, scrim of a sea breeze, the women settle in their belling dresses. Over each weighty stomach a face floats calm as a moon or a cloud.” (Internal.org). This paints a picture of the perfect woman to her. I believe her poems helped to bring to light not only society's unfair expectations on women, but many other

It is a message from Plath to her father speaking of everything he has put her through. It expresses Plath’s anger towards her father and to a certain degree, grief because of his death. Plath’s life is rough when she is writing this because she is going through a deep depression and she is having suicidal thoughts. Plath’s father was an authoritative figure in her life and had strict policies which were extreme. ‘Daddy’ has an angry tone which makes one think Plath hated her father. Plath had written this poem shortly before her suicide in 1963 to express her still present grief (Shmoop).The form this poem takes is a ballad. In this poem Plath paints a picture of what her childhood looked like when her father was present and how her life was affected after his death.The poem also paints an image of Plath's father and how he acted. There is this constant theme of loss and grief throughout this poem. One of the sound devices used is slant rhyme in what seems to be once every other stanza. For example, “And a love of the rack and the screw. And I said I do, I do.”. One of the sensory devices used throughout the poem is a paradox. Throughout the first part of the poem Plath describes how it feels to lose her father and how much his death affects her life. It also tells of all the sorrow and pain she seems to be going through because of him. On the contrary, the second part of ‘Daddy’ seems to