Sylvia Plath is a twentieth century award winning poet and novelist of The Bell Jar. Plath was born on October 23, 1932 in Jamaica Plain Massachusetts. She suffered from depression for most of her life, starting when she was eight years old after her father died. Plath’s depression is reflected in her works, as she strongly relies on her own feelings to create similar moods, tones and themes in her poems and novel, The Bell Jar.
Sylvia Plath showed interest in writing at a very early age. Plath published her first poem when she was eight years old. Sylvia Plath continued writing and published numerous stories and poems before the age of twenty. After graduation in 1950, Plath received the Olive Higgins Prouty Scholarship from Smith College (Smithipedia). At the private college, Plath managed to excel in school and write over four hundred poems while suffering from depression (allpoetry). It was at Smith College, where she attempted her first suicide. Plath graduated from the school in 1955 and moved to Cambridge, England to continue her studies (AAoP).
While studying in England, Sylvia Plath met Ted Hughes, an English poet. Plath married Hughes on December 7, 1956. Plath and Hughes moved back to the United States in 1957. While in the country, Plath worked as a professor at Smith College teaching English Language and Literature; however in 1959, Plath gave up teaching and moved back to England to continue her writing. In 1960, Hughes and Plath had their first child, Frieda. Two years later, the couple had their son Nicholas. The same year Nicholas was born, Hughes left Plath for another woman. Hughes affair greatly impacted Plath’s writing as well as her other relationships with men such as her father’s. (Smithipedia)
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Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. 1st U.S. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Print.
Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy”...“Sheep of Fog” Academy of American Poets. n.d. Web. 31 June 2014.
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Plath, Sylvia. The bell jar. [1st U.S. ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Print.
The Journals of Sylvia Plath. Ed. Ted Hughes and Frances McCullough. New York: Ballantine, 1982.
Aurelia Schober, Plath’s mother, was studying at Boston University when she fell in love with her professor that taught German and biology, Otto Plath, whom she would marry in January 1932. Later in that same year on October 27, Plath was born to the couple. Plath’s father passed away when she was only eight. (Academy of American Poets) From then on, Plath began publishing her poems. In everything she did, she strived towards being flawless; she had straight A’s, was a good daughter, and earned prestigious prizes (Gilson). Schober aided in pushing her daughter towards excellence and always made sure Plath knew how proud she was of her. In fact, Sylvia’s mother collected her daughter’s achievements and praised her highly for them (Liukkonen). By 1950, she had been given a scholarship to attend Smith College and had hundreds of publications, which she would add to substantially in the time she spent at Smith (Gilson).
Wagner, Linda W., ed. Critical Essays on Sylvia Plath. Boston: G. K. Hall & Company, 1984.
During a time when women didn't have many rights or received much recognition, Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on Oct. 27, 1932 (Rosenberg 10). Her parents would've never expected their daughter would one day become such a success in a male dominated profession of writing. At an early
Sylvia Plath’s novel, “The Bell Jar”, tells a story of a young woman’s descent into mental illness. Esther Greenwood, a 19 year old girl, struggles to find meaning within her life as she sees a distorted version of the world. In Plath’s novel, different elements and themes of symbolism are used to explain the mental downfall of the book’s main character and narrator such as cutting her off from others, forcing her to delve further into her own mind, and casting an air of negativity around her. Plath uses images of rotting fig trees and veils of mist to convey the desperation she feels when confronted with issues of her future. Esther Greenwood feels that she is trapped under a bell jar, which distorts her view of the world around her.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Bell Jar Setting." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 9 May 2014. http://www.shmoop.com/bell-jar/setting.html.
These five poems by Sylvia Plath are all connected by the theme of death, self-loathing, and by the presence of historical and magical concepts. Sylvia Plath uses very powerfully charged imagery of controversial and emotional topics in order to best describe her own life. Most of the poems reflect her own personal life, including the events that she has experienced and, more appropriately, the relationships and emotions that she has felt. Every single one of these five poems uses the word “dead” and the topic of death itself is prevalent in some manner. Of particular interest is the presence of her relationship with her deceased father, and her own reluctance to let go of his memory. Plath's poetry reflects her own self-loathing and disregard for her own existence. Her poems often mention her own attempts at suicide, in addition to her personal experiences with trying to get rid of her suicidal desires. In each of her poems she evokes the images of historical and mythical creatures and concepts linked with the religious and the supernatural. In addition, her poems can be connected by the idea of being held back or held down by some sort of feeling, either of desire for a loved one, escape from mortal existence or of a fantasy world.
Artistic works, including books, tend to reflect their creator. Sylvia Plath authored The Bell Jar shortly before committing suicide. A semi-autobiographical work, many real events became included with names and places changed, though thinly veiled to those who knew her. Published after her death amidst much controversy, the novel follows Esther Greenwood through her depression, suicide attempt, and struggle to recover. While many factual physical events appear in the book, clearly other internal factors affecting Ms. Plath during her final days have representation through the thoughts and feeling of her protagonist. The Bell Jar provides an accurate portrait of the environment and inner struggle of its author in her final days.
Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar is a fascinating account of a young woman’s spiral downward into a bout of “madness” and depression. The Bell Jar was published in England in early 1963, just a few weeks before Plath committed suicide. Sylvia Plath was an American poet, born and raised in Massachusetts, who later lived in England, where she married British poet Ted Hughes and had 2 children. While her poetry collections are highly celebrated, her only novel has reached the status of a modern classic, perhaps due to Plath’s tragic death at the age of 30. The novel reads as an almost fictionalized autobiographical narrative, in which Plath reveals her own experiences of the summer and fall of 1953, just under the guise of false names and details.
Plath, Sylvia. “Mad Girl’s Love Song.” Perrine’s Literature Structure, Sound & Sense. Ed. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson. 11th ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning 2012. 1003-1004. Print.
In Sylvia Plath's.." English Studies 78.1 (1997): 19. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. Phelps, H.C.
Sylvia Plath, an innocent scarred by her memories, shares her story through her considerably dark poems. On October 27, 1932 in
According to “Sylvia Plath” Sylvia Plath struggled with severe depression throughout her life. She first experienced depression during her third year of college because of insecurities and self-esteem issues. Furthermore, Plath’s troubled marriage with Ted Hughes fueled her depression later in life; he had cheated on her with a younger woman and left her to raise their two children. Once again, she was overcome by self-esteem issues and anxiety that led her down a dark path. Plath attempted suicide three times, and she succeeded on her third attempt at the age of thirty. She died
Sylvia Plath." Contemporary Literature Fall 1996: 370-90. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter and Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol. 111. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999. Literature Resource Center. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.