Sylvia Plath effect Essays

THE SYLVIA PLATH EFFECT The Sylvia Plath effect is the phenomenon that poets are more susceptible to mental illness than other creative writers. The term was coined in 2001 by psychologist James C. Kaufman. Although many studies (e.g., Andreasen, 1987; Jamison, 1989; Ludwig, 1995) have demonstrated that creative writers are prone to suffer from mental illness, this relationship has not been examined in depth. This early finding has been dubbed "the Sylvia Plath effect", and implications and possibilities

Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She studied at Smith College and Newnham College at the University of Cambridge. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes and had two children with him. Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life and she died after committing suicide in 1963. She used to openly discuss her depression with the poet Robert Lowell and her suicide attempts with Anne Sexton. Both of them led her to write from a more female

(“Suicide”) and Sylvia Plath succeeded in ending her life. Suicide has been a problem for ages, and unfortunately increases yearly. Looking through the eyes of suffering and pain in The Bell Jar, readers are welcomed into Sylvia Plath’s world of a depressing life, the 1900s, and her mental illness. Knowing about Sylvia Plath’s life will aid readers by allowing them to understand how The Bell Jar is parallel to her life. Born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts (“Sylvia”). Her parents Otto

loss at such young ages? Psychology suggests the effects of this kind of loss permeate the child not only for a period of short term grieving, but also for the rest of their lives. American poet Sylvia Plath’s father died when she was eight years old. Subsequently, her later writing contains language and metaphors that are disturbing and puzzling to the reader, but which psychology can easily explain. The diction, imagery, and metaphor Sylvia Plath utilizes in her poem “Daddy” illustrate the common

The Bell Jar is the first and only novel written by poet and writer, Sylvia Plath. Sylvia began writing the Bell Jar in 1961 and it was first published in England, under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, in January 1963. A few weeks after the publication, Sylvia committed suicide. The Bell Jar was not released in America for many years out of respect for the author’s family. Although the novel did not receive much attention immediately upon it’s release, Sylvia’s untimely death created much publicity

Being born of a German immigrant, Sylvia Plath shares an eye-opening poem right before she ended her life in 1963. On October 12th, 1962, Plath wrote a poem called “Daddy”. In this writing, she portrays a speaker that expresses numerous feelings of hate and fear. Though most might think this word actually means father, in german “daddy” means “oh you”. This poem could be related to a person or after all, a father. After reading further, you might notice that she references Natzi’s and Jew’s. Using

straightforward language. Simple and straightforward language is not necessarily one with no figurative or deeper meaning, but is language that does not require extensive analysis to seek out its meaning. In her confessional novel, The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath describes Esther Greenwood’s journey of overcoming her mental illness, and through Esther, demonstrates her concerns about mental illness, the flawed treatments of the 1950s, and the stigmas regarding it. I strongly agree that in the case of The

The Bell Jar is the only novel published by Sylvia Plath, an American writer and poet. It was originally published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas” in 1963 and was claimed to be semi-autobiographical, with only the difference in names and places. Robert Scholes from the New York Times Book Review on The Bell Jar- ‘It is a fine novel, as bitter and remorseless as her last poems… The world in which the events of the novel take place is a world bounded by the Cold War on one side and the sexual

Isolation in the Bell Jar A Bell Jar is a bell-shaped jar that creates a vacuuming effect to cut off an object from the outside world. One with the slightest unevenness of the glass distorts the onlookers view of the object inside. In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the main character Esther Greenwood seems to be the object inside the Bell Jar, with a distorted view of the world around her. Being a woman in the 1950’s, she was expected to act a certain way, however, Esther’s American Dream

Slyvia Plath is an American poet, short story author and novelist who lived between 1932-1963. She is well known for her novel The Bell Jar, and for her poetry collections The Colossus and Ariel. Plath was diagnosed with major depression. The first onset of depression, at the age of 20, was associated with overwork and failure to get into a Harvard. She had psychological treatment for many times. Her emotional troubles were said to occur due to an bad relationship with her mother and the early loss

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

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a semi-autobiography detailing her fall into depression through the character Esther Greenwood. The novel takes place in multiple cities in the northeast during the 1950s as Esther tells her story of struggling with depression. While the novel mainly follows the conditions of being mentally ill during the 1950s, it also highlights the struggles of women at the time, especially those with ambition to be more than a housewife. Plath uses a great amount of intense imagery

downturn towards the end of Sylvia Plath’s life, a lot of literature critics seemed to finally grasp the veiled meanings in Plath’s poetry. Her work displays signs of overwhelming emotion; one can’t help but assume that the vivid language resembles true personal references. There were many repeated themes throughout the collection that suggested how her mental stability exposed to this imagination of her poetry, led to her suicide. It came to terms just how fragile Plath was and the depression that

“Not Waving but Drowning.” In the midst of a good time any person, no matter how happy they may seem, could be fighting an inner turmoil and be crying out for help. Different aspects of Stevie Smith’s life are mirrored in many of the subjects in her poems. Stevie Smith’s early experience with loss and the lack of time to grieve properly not only affected her personal life, but also permeated her work such as in “Not Waving but Drowning” through her style of writing, chosen themes, and various perspectives

Marge Piercy is an American poet, novelist and social activist, born in Detroit, Michigan on March 31st, 1936 into a Jewish family which was deeply affected by the Great Depression. Being the first in her family to attend college, Marge started out as a disinterested student and only began to love books when she was sick with rheumtic fever and could not do much but read. Books taught her that there is a different world out there with horizons that were quite different from what she could see . Because

In the fiction written by Roupenian Kristen "Cat Person," the New Yorker story, concentrated the attention of a storyteller on her hero, an undergraduate of the age twenty years known as Margot. The story is based on the point of view of Margot that Kristen separated this specific story. Margot meets a person known as Robert, two or three years her senior and after that progressively message with him, plays with him, goes ahead to a date with the person, sleeps and finally, says a final farewell

D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover was first published in 1928. However, it was banned in numerous countries for many decades after its publication. In the United Kingdom, the novel was banned until 1960. The setting of Lady Chatterley’s Lover takes place in the English midlands, the coal country, in the aftermath of World War I. Sir Chatterley has returned from the the frontlines of the war with severe injuries and is now confined to a wheelchair, with no hope for recovery. The sudden limitations

Claudia Emerson was an exemplary late-blooming writer. At age 57, Emerson published an expressive collection of poems, which describes the aspects of the past in relation to the present. In Late Wife, her Pulitzer Prize winning collection, she exudes her raw emotions from her personal life in the form of letters. In Emerson’s poems, “Natural History Exhibits” “Artifact,” and “Eight Ball,” she elucidates the aftermaths of divorce and death. Upon getting a divorce, Claudia Emerson initially grieves

Ever wonder what life would be like if a person hid away from society and isolated itself from the whole community? That is exactly what the well-known poet, Emily Dickinson, did for twenty years, and during that time period, she was writing poems that would later have english scholars thinking about the different interpretations of them for years. Emily Dickinson is from a puritan family who wanted her to follow their beliefs, but she decided to break away from her family and society by focusing

The woman’s problem in “A Sorrowful Woman” is made more complex than Faye’s problem in “A Secret Sorrow” as a result of deliberate choices made by the authors. In “A Secret Sorrow”, the main character, Faye, is plagued by the fact that she cannot have children due to internal injuries sustained from a devastating accident. She is in love with a man but has kept this secret from him until one day she is forced to reveal it. He very quickly rebounds from this news and tells her he loves her anyway