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Research Paper On Sylvia Plath

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Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1932, Sylvia Plath was the oldest of two children. She studied at Smith College and Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, before receiving acclaim as a poet and writer. It was well known that Plath suffered from depression for much of her adult life, and ultimately lost her battle to the disorder in 1963 and committed suicide. Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing even until this day. Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for her two published collections, The Colossus and Ariel. In 1982, she won an posthumous Pulitzer Prize for the Collected Poems. Plath wrote poetry from the age of eight, with her first …show more content…

Plath composed the poem during her most productive and creative period. It is commonly interpreted as an expression of Plath’s suicide attempts and impulses, as at the time she too had endeavoured to take her own life for the third time. Lady Lazarus’ most recent recovery is presented as a failure, whereas the suicide attempts are presented as accomplishments - "Dying is an art" that she performs "exceptionally well." She seems to believe she will reach a perfection through escaping her body. The poem’s tone veers between menacing and scathing, and it has drawn attention for its use of the biblical character, Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the …show more content…

This structure can be depicted as ironic, as there were three suicide attempts undertaken by Plath – the third being successful. Throughout the poem, there are many examples of perfect rhyme (“hair”, “beware”, “air” in the poems final lines) as well as slant rhyme (“ring”, “filling”). While these various forms of repetitions of sounds occurring through the entirety of the poem, they do not occur in a set rhythm (like a sonnet may). It appears to the reader that the lack of control over Plath’s life juxtaposes with the control she had over her writing, as the poem uses repetition in various places to reinforce these statements: “I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real”, then in lines “it is easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay

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Despite the successful career, Plath’s personal life was not as positive. She married a poet Ted Hughes in 1956 whom she had two children with, but their relationship was not ideal and worsened with time. In 1962, Hughes left his wife for his mistress and this caused Sylvia Plath to fall into a severe depression (“Sylvia Plath Biography”). It is during this time

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Another classmate commented that she liked how the first line seemed to have a completely different meaning when rereading the poem, since it illustrates how killing one’s own inner demons is a cycle. One student also felt disconnected at “with each glance your shadow grows darker”, since the poem is not clear about what this character is glancing at or where this dialogue is coming

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Furthermore, the author conjures further thoughts with the question: “why’d he do that to himself?” The question shows great importance because it is the only interrogative statement in the entire poem. The phrase “do that to himself” is of the utmost importance because it means he claimed his own life which would sadden those that knew him. Suicide is one of the many results of depression. Syntax creates points of focus on the most climatic and terrifying sections of the

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Sylvia Plath takes a very different approach and instead is more open about her attempted suicides, and how she thrives to kill herself in order to get to her father. In her poem 'Daddy ' she mentions her want to 'get back back back to you '. The use of the repeated 'back ' mirrors her three suicide attempts in her life to try get back to her father. In comparison to Lady Macbeth 's suicide, Plath 's suicide attempts and death was very public in her poems. She also say 'daddy, daddy, your bastard, I’m trough. '

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Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar In this summer vocation, I have read THE BELL JAR. It talks about a girl named Esther Greenwood who loves writing poems. When she was 19, she gets a scholarship to college and wins a prize here and there to make a chance practising in a periodical office in New York.

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A reader knowledgeable of Plath’s true life story can easily grasp the foreshadowing at play. The bell jar did descend again and pushed her to take her life in the same house-just a short distance away- from her children. The last three lines of Plath’s “Sheep in Fog” show the poet’s increasing fragility as she approached the date she took her own life. In January 1963, just two weeks before her death, Sylvia wrote “They threaten to let me through to a heaven starless and fatherless, a dark water.” This is an obvious anticipation of her death.

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‘Unwrap me hand and foot, the big strip tease’ conveys the idea that Plath is being de-clothed, which, contextually, could be a metaphor for being stripped of any passion due to the intensity of her depression, an illness which Plath experienced all her life and ultimately led to her death. This image could be Plath emulating the feeling close to death, having nothing and being exposed. This idea of being exposed could then be linked back to the concept of a performance, where her actions are completely open, unprotected, free to be scrutinised by the public and her peers. The title ‘Lazy Lazarus’, is a biblical reference to a figure whom Jesus raised from the dead, and at the end of the poem, shown in the line ‘Out of the ash’, Plath compares herself to a Phoenix, a mythological bird typically linked with the concept of rebirth. This could suggest that her previous suicide attempts were always attempted with the knowledge that she would return, and be reborn.

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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.

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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.

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