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The poetry of sylvia plath helps us to understand the darker aspects of her life
The poetry of sylvia plath helps us to understand the darker aspects of her life
Use of imagery in sylvia plath poems
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Poem and Poetry Research Paper
“Dying is an art, like everything. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call” – Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on October 27th, 1932 and died in London, United Kingdom on February 11th, 1963 at the age of 31 years old. Sylvia is well known for her astonishing poem such as “Lady Lazarus” and “Daddy”. Her parents were Aurelia Schober, who was a student at Boston University and Otto Plath, who happened to be Aurelia Schober’s professor at the time (Academy of American Poets). “In 1940, when Plath was eight years old, her father died as a result of complications from diabetes. He had been a strict father, and both his authoritarian attitudes and his death drastically defined her relationships and her poems—most notably in her elegiac and infamous poem "Daddy."” (Academy of American Poets).
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In 1950, Plath attended Smith College, she entered a deep depression and attempted suicide in which she almost successfully succeeded. She looked for help and ended up graduating in 1955. After graduation, she moved to England in the year of 1956. She met the famous English poet we know today that goes by the name Ted Hughes. Within that same year they got married in the summer on June 16th (Academy of American Poets). One can notice that Plath didn’t have great relationships with men throughout her life. For example, one can use her strict, very serious father or can even use her husband Ted Hughes. In 1962, Hughes left Plath for another woman. She goes by the name Assia Gutmann Wevill. “Sylvia faced the fact of Hughes's infidelity, expressing herself through increasingly angry--and powerful--poems.” (Two Views on Sylvia Plath’s Life and Career). Later on that year, Sylvia then entered another severe depression, which led her to one of her most famous books, Ariel then followed by The Bell Jar (Academy of American Poets). The Bell Jar was influenced by J.D. Salinger’s, The Catcher in the Rye. (Two views on Sylvia Plath’s Life and Career). Many people believe that she wrote it based on her previous experience and what she went through in life. On February 11th, it is said that Plath, wrote a note to her downstairs neighbor informing him to call the doctor. Then she was found dead because she committed suicide with cooking gas from her oven. (Academy of American Poets). When it comes to Plath’s overall relationships with the two most important people in her life.
One can see that they had a huge impact on who Sylvia Plath was as a writer. “Sylvia Plath’s most famous poem, adored by many sons and daughters, is “Daddy”. It is a poem with an affecting theme, the feelings of the speaker as she regathers pain of her father’s premature death and her persuasion that has betrayed her by dying.” (Howe 1055). Sylvia Plath’s father died at a very young age, she was only eight years old. She always viewed her father as a strict man. Plath even compared her father to a Nazi. (“Panzer-man, panzer-man, O’ You”). This poem is a reflection of how Sylvia feels towards her father and the anger she has for him dying so young. Another example, of how Plath viewed her father as a Nazi according to Irving Howe, “Sylvia Plath tries to enlarge upon the personal plight, give meaning to the personal outcry, by fancying the girl as victim of a Nazi father: “An engine, an engine / Chuffing me off like a Jew. . . .” ( Howe
1055). Another example of Sylvia’s hardships that she faced throughout life will be her famous novel The Bell Jar. Although Plath didn’t use her specific name or other people’s names that she was associated with during her lifetime, one can obviously reflect it on her life. Ester Greenwood is the protagonist in this novel. Ester becomes mentally unstable because of the death of her father, who use to torment her as well as not fitting into the category of womanhood. So she attempted to commit suicide as a form of escape from life. The novel clearly displays Plath’s own experience I her life and how she experienced clinical depression, suicide attempts and psychiatric treatment.
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.
In American society, the common stereotype is that the father has the role of the dominant figure in the household. Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds may come across as two seemingly different poets, however, they are really quite similar, especially in their driving forces behind their writing styles in poetry. The lives of Plath and Olds are both expressive of the realities of a father-dominated family, in which both of these poets lost their fathers at a young age. This is significant because both poets have faced a similar traumatic event that has had everlasting effects on their adult womanhood, which is reflected in their writings. For both these woman, their accesses to father-daughter relationships were denied based on life circumstances. Ironically, their fathers were their muses for writing and are what made them the women they are today.
As is inherent within the tradition of confessional poetry, a subgenre of lyric poetry which was most prominent from the fifties to the seventies (Moore), Sylvia Plath uses the events of her own tragic life as the basis of creating a persona in order to examine unusual relationships. An excellent example of this technique is Plath’s poem “Daddy” from 1962, in which she skilfully manipulates both diction, trope and, of course, rhetoric to create a character which, although separate from Plath herself, draws on aspects of her life to illustrate and make points about destructive, interhuman relations. Firstly that of a father and daughter, but later also that of a wife and her unfaithful husband.
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).
Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27,1932, to Aurelia and Otto Plath. Mr. and Mrs. Plath were both from Germanic backgrounds. Mr. Plath was a professor of biology and German at Boston University who liked discipline and order in his home. According to Mrs. Plath, the day that Sylvia Plath was born Mr. Plath said, "'I hope for one more thing in life-a son, two and a half years from now.' Warren was born April 27, 1935, only two hours off schedule, and Otto was greeted by his colleagues as 'the man who gets what he wants when he wants it' " (Letters 12). In 1936 the Plaths moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts. When Otto Plath became ill with what he feared to be cancer, he refused to see a doctor. What he actually had was diabetes, and by the time he went for treatment there was already permanent damage. He died shortly after Plath's eighth birthday (Austin 411). The impact of her father's death comes through in much of her later poetry, such as "Daddy" and "The Colossus."
Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1932 to a German immigrant college professor and his graduate student-turned-wife. The early years of Plath's life were comfortable, spending much of her time near the seaside. After losing her father in 1940, Plath and her mother found themselves in a more strained financial situation. This led to feelings of betrayal and resentment toward her father, and partially inspired arguably her most well known poem, “Daddy.” Plath was a brilliant writer from a young age and excelled in school, attending Smith College on scholarship. (Poets.org)
Before committing suicide at the age of thirty, Sylvia Plath produced many poems and one novel, most of which are primarily based on her own life. Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, was written only a few years before her suicide, and her poem “Daddy” was composed just weeks before she died. These works both deal with mental illness, feelings of victimization or oppression, and failed relationships with men: aspects of Plath’s life that sprung from the early influence of her father. Sylvia Plath’s relationship with her father and his premature death are expressed in the main character Esther’s relationships with men and eventual suicide attempt in The Bell Jar.
Born in Boston on October 27, 1932 to Otto and Aurelia Plath, Sylvia had a pleasant start in life. She grew up in Winthrop, a seaside town outside of Boston, with her younger brother, Warren. When she was eight years old, her father died as a result of pulmonary embolism following an injury complicated by diabetes. His death had such an impact on her that she eventually became obsessed with dying and wrote many pieces on the subject. In her works, he became a Nazi, a devil, and a demon lover, calling her to the grave. In school, Sylvia proved to be an outstanding writer, winning numerous awards. In 1950, entering college, her first short story, "And Summer Will Not Come Again" was published in Seventeen magazine. She attended Smith College with a double scholarship from Wellesly Smith Club and a private fund endowed by Olive Higgins Prouty. In 1952 she won a guest editorship in Mademoiselle's College Board Co...
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
Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. Plath’s mom met her soul mate while she was a master’s student at Boston University. Sylvia’s mom’s name was Aurelia Schober, and her dad’s name was Otto Plath. When Sylvia was only 8 years old, her father died from problems with diabetes. Her father was very strict and mean. Sylvia’s father’s death and strict authority was the reason for all her poems and stories. She specifically wrote a poem about her father, “Daddy”.
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.
Sylvia Plath, author of “Lady Lazarus”, is “widely considered one of the most emotionally evocative and compelling American poets of the postwar period” (“Plath, Sylvia: Introduction”). Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts and her father died when she was eight. Plath attended Smith College and due to overwhelming conditions, she lapsed into a severe depression and overdosed on sleeping pills. After receiving psychiatric care, Plath enrolled in Newnham College where she met and married English poet Ted Hughes. Subsequent to Hughes affair and their divorce, Plath became progressively despondent and she committed suicide by inhaling gas from her kitchen stove (“Plath, Sylvia: Introduction”). American writer Sylvia Plath had many outstanding works including “Lady Lazarus”. This work illustrates Plath’s use of autobiographical influence, theme, and style, especially her use of imagery.
In “Daddy,” By Sylvia Plath, she expresses her character to have a feeling of love for her father, as well as an obvious sense of hatred and rage towards him. She sets that tone through out the structure of the poem. The poet Sylvia Plath chooses many specific words that demonstrate the characters hatred and hostility towards the men she is living with. In Plath’s “Daddy”, the writer reveals the essential truth of her family relationship, from the control of her father and later in her life her husband. Plath use of certain wordings, metaphors, imagery, repetitions and similes, demonstrated throughout the poem, were phrases worded in a child like manner. There were also many uses of German words, which really help to additionally set the tone of her wishy-washy family relationship. Her figurative language allows for the reader to build connections through what is being conveyed throughout this shady, gloomy family relationship poem.
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.
In Sylvia Plath’s poem, Daddy, she compares the way she was treated to the times of the holocaust. The Holocaust was the largest genocide to ever occur, killing approximately 11 million people, a devastating event that occurred in the 1900’s. Plath’s poem refers to how badly she was treated by her father throughout her childhood years. She explains how he died when she was ten years old and how he has affected her life. She also gives many examples and uses many metaphors to support her points on the ways she was mistreated. Sylvia Plath uses connotation throughout the poem comparing it to the holocaust to show how her father treated her badly.