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Analysis of Sylvia Plath
Analysis of Sylvia Plath
Analysis of Sylvia Plath
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She wanted to believe that her hardships were only temporary, so she looked to story book characters as her friends and a refuge from reality. She is very good at vivid description and dialogue as well as her prose- using ordinary language without meter and making it sound beautiful. It creates a mental image in the mind of the reader. She also describes things abnormally, which makes the reader think of whatever is being discussed in a different light. It is very colorful
1. Introduction Published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, The Bell Jar has aroused the interest of scholars all over the world. One of the most often discussed characteristics of The Bell Jar is its use of similes, metaphors, and symbols. Throughout The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath employs rhetorical devices to paint a vivid picture of its protagonist Esther. This essay will discuss how Sylvia Plath uses figurative language to represent Esther’s feelings of insanity, anxiety, and freedom.
In her novel, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses diction and tone to juxtapose the internal strife a character may experience with an an external normalcy. Protagonist Esther Greenwood exemplifies the tear that can occur between society and one of its members. The repetition of the word and idea of death is prevalent throughout the novel, found a majority of the time within Esther’s internal dialogue, portraying that she is obsessed with death, but contains it in her mind to avoid others knowing. Her reason for her secrecy reveals itself to be fear of appearing outside society’s realms. She proves this when each attempted suicide takes places far from the presence of others, such as her basement or any empty beach.
She was taking pills to help her sleep, as well as to help her handle the stressful schedule she placed upon herself. She was always up for another take, just one more try to make things perfect. The pills made her fall into a depression that most never saw. She was always the vivacious woman that everyone fell in love with in public. At home, it was a different story.
The documentary, Makers: Women in Space, details the somewhat treacherous path to the allowance of female astronauts. Women in STEM is one of the most controversial and talked about issues in not only academia, but in the workforce in general. From an early age, girls are discouraged from the STEM fields and geared toward the arts or other stereotypically feminine interests. The recent defunding of the American space progra, mNASA, reflects the uphill climb for women in STEM fields. This is not The film details that in the beginning, women only played supporting roles in the space endeavors of the United States.
The Descent to a Schizophrenic Hell The Bell Jar was originally published in 1963 but Sylvia Plath released the novel under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas in order to protect those whom she discusses in her story in fictionalized terms. It is the only novel written by Plath and is semi-autobiographical in nature where the protagonists’ mental illness is a parallel to the novelists’ own experiences with clinical depression. Sylvia Plath’s depression can be recounted back to the death of her father. During the summer of her junior year at Smith College, having returned from a stay at new York City where she had been a student guest “editor” Sylvia nearly succeeded in killing herself by swallowing sleeping pills.
Liberation in The Bell Jar On the surface, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is an autobiography loosely based on the life of Sylvia Plath herself and her struggle to find her own identity. Because Esther Greenwood's dreams are held back by gender roles in the 1950’s, she must learn to let go of these roles and grow as a person. Esther’s life and thoughts are extremely commonplace in her time period and continue even today, with many people telling women over and over that they can not find any glory in anything but femininity. It is with this notion that Esther and others like her wrestled with: "If a woman had a problem in the 1950's and 1960's, she knew that something must be wrong with her marriage or with herself.”
Sylvia Plath was an American poet known for her unique style. Her life and work continue to captivate readers as she writes about themes of identity, gender roles, and personal struggles. Her poetry is famous for many reasons, including her unique use of language and imagery, her talk about mental illness, and her legacy. Plath has had many influences that have impacted her poetry, such that her challenging relationships, her father's death, and her opinions about women's rights have all been portrayed through her different pieces. Plath's early life was marked by significant influences that would shape her poetry.
(Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar). She sees death as a beautiful thing therefore, she is blinded by the beauty of death, to see the beauty of life. She had failed in life, because she stopped trying, or she never tried at
The present thesis analyzes selected aspects of figurative language in Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar and its translation into Lithuanian by Rasa Akstinienė. The object of the analysis of the present research is the novel The Bell Jar (1971) by Sylvia Plath and its translation into Lithuanian „Stiklo gaubtas“ (2004) by Rasa Akstinienė. According to Jo Gill, Sylvia Plath is considered to be one of the most famous figures in the mind-twentieth century literature and culture who has “consolidated her position as one of her age’s most important and influential writers” (Gill, 2008: ix). Sylvia Plath’s first book, as Linda Martin-Wagner holds, was collection of poems
That comes as no surprise because the author Emily Bronte dealt with a little bit of depression . In a biography about Bronte it states that she dealt with a lot of death in her family. “Brontë 's mother died of cancer; her death came nearly nine months after the birth of her sister, Anne.” (Biography.com). Her mom wasn 't the only one of her family members who died.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a semi-autobiographical novel in which Plath relays her own experiences through protagonist Esther Greenwood by highlighting the struggles she faced in navigating societal expectations, depression, and her own desires. Having spent time in college and later in multiple mental health institutions, Plath tells her story through Esther in a way that blends fiction and reality. Through Esther, we see Plath’s own interpretations of her triumphs, failures, values, and the slow but seemingly inevitable diminishment of her mental health. The story starts with Esther Greenwood in New York City, where she is spending a month working at a magazine because she won a scholarship to a special summer program for female writers.
Esther’s reflection on her mothers misguided suggestion to act as if her breakdown never occurred demonstrates Plath’s conviction that ignoring the many facets of mental illness is consequently ignoring an important aspect of the sufferers identity: “Maybe forgetfulness, like a kind of snow, should numb and cover them. But they were a part of me. They were my landscape” (237). Until this point Esther refused to claim her imperfections. She attempted to repress any part of her personality that could be considered unfavorable.
From the age of eight until her death, Sylvia Plath struggled with mental illness. Along with frequent therapy visits, she wrote poetry to reflect the many events in her life. She wrote about everything, from the things that brought her great joy to the things that drove her to attempt suicide. One recurring topic of her poems is her father, Otto Plath, who she adored until he died of undiagnosed diabetes when she was eight. This event sparked a lifetime of depression and anger towards her father.
Sylvia Plath is considered to be one of the most significant female poets known not only to Americans but also to the whole world. Her death in 1963, followed by an unfortunate and short life did not end her input and influence inliterature, she became an icon to the female literary society. Sylvia's outstanding style of writing and themes which she portrayed in her works such as death, seeking for an identity or oppression on women in a patriarchal society began the feminist movementin America and changed the role of women. This topic is of a great importance because they way that Sylvia Plath was expressing her feelings and showing her negative view on a patriarchal society and oppression on women was a giant leap in the world of a women's liberation movement.