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Psychoanalysis of Sylvia plath's poetry
An essay on the life of sylvia plath
Themes and poetic style of Sylvia Plath
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Sylvia Plath was born on October 27th, 1932 to her dad, Otto Plath, who was a professor of Biology (and an expert on bees) and her mother, Aurelia Plath. Her father died when she was eight years old from “surgery-related complications” which may have been linked to his diabetes. Although her father wasn’t particularly nice to her, his death still caused a rupture in her life, which never completely healed from. Plath excelled in school which eventually led to her getting a scholarship to go to Smith College. During her first year, she excelled and had no problem whatsoever with depression. During her second year at Smith she began writing articles in newspaper which caught the eye of many readers. I 953, she got an internship at the magazine
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.
There is no shortage of media encouraging adolescents to ‘be themselves’, promoting self-worth regardless as to what others think. While many may be fed this message throughout music and film, rarely ever is it conveyed to actually have a lasting effect on one’s personal views quite like Sylvia Plath’s “Initiation”. Although formulaic, Plath’s uniquely optimistic short story warns against an obsession with belonging, and explores the importance of individuality through the protagonist Millicent Arnold’s gradual character development, from a self-conscious teenage girl to a stronger and more confident individual.
Even with the differences in relationship with their fathers, both Sylvia Plath and Theodore Roethke struggled with depression and mental illness due to losing a major parental figure like their fathers at young ages. It is difficult to lose someone and you can see in Plath’s and Roethke’s writings that they had complicated relationships with their fathers that shaped and influenced their
Sylvia Plath a highly acclaimed twentieth century American poet whose writings were mostly influenced by her life experiences. Her father died shortly after her eighth birthday and her first documented attempt at suicide was in her early twenties. She was married at age twenty-three and when she discovered her husband was having an affair she left him with their two children. Her depression and the abandonment she felt as a child and as a woman is what inspires most of her works. Daddy is a major decision point where Plath decides to overcome her father’s death by telling him she will no longer allow his memory to control her.
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 age, her writing career started to kick off, as well as the start of many dark events that would become the inspiration for her writings. When I first read "Blackberrying" by Plath, I simply thought that it was a simple story about going to pick blackberries only to then get distracted by the lure of the sea. But after reading it a few more times, I started to pick up on the subtleties that lay within the poem.
"About." Personal Blog, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015. [When finding an explanation for the similarities between the writers, it is important to play close attention to biographies. In case the psychoeconomic factors that Ruonco describes are true, then biography constitutes most of the development of the Sylvia Plath affliction. Moreover, the biography provides an insight into the views of the author for a better and more accurate understanding of her poetry. Furthermore, it is imperative to use her auto-statement since she referres to her "muse" as something out of her control which can be traced to Kaufman's
Before diving into the novel itself, one must have a strong mental image of the mastermind behind this creation. Sylvia Plath was the first child of Aurelia and Otto Plath. Her father was 21 years her mother’s senior and an internationally recognized professor. He sadly passed away when Plath was only eight years old from undiagnosed diabetes which undoubtedly had an effect on young Plath’s childhood. Upon completing high school, Plath obtained a scholarship to study English at Smith College and it was here that her work was recognized by major magazines such as Seventeen and Mademoiselle. After graduation from Smith College as summa cum laude, she began working for Mademoiselle in Manhattan, New York. This is the point at which the novel begins to reflect her life. Sylvia Pla...
Sylvia Plath reflects her pain and suffering from depression in her life in the novel The Bell Jar, and Plath reveals her depression in her two poems, “Mirror” and “Daddy.” Plath had a weakness that was easy to spot but hard to control, “If Plath is to be faulted, this quality is perhaps her greatest weakness: she was not able to project her personae a great distance from herself. Plath was aware of this limitation. She once wrote: ‘I shall perish if I can write about no one but myself’”(Giles). She knew all of her literature was about her personal experiences, most of her writing is very dark and shows the world from a different point of view that not many people have. Plath commonly wrote about death, corpses, the moon, fetuses, and the sea. In “Mirror,” she wrote about hiding her inner self from the rest of the world, while in “Daddy,” she wrote about her selfish father, dying and leaving her to be alone. While critics such as Jeannine Johnson call her only novel, The Bell Jar an obvious “autobiography.”
Butscher, Edward. Sylvia Plath: the Woman and the Work. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1977. Print.
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).
“A complicated literary personality whose biography is nearly impossible to disentangle from her writing,” Sylvia Plath in...
Most people find Sylvia Plath’s life and work depressing, but they need to understand the pressures that she had a well known female writer in that time. Due to the many life crises that Sylvia Plath experienced throughout her lifetime, it is evident on why she wrote the way she did. Between the burden that WWII placed on the country and her own personal issues going on during her life, Sylvia Plath battled depression for many years and eventually committed suicide in 1963. Even though readers have viewed Sylvia Plath’s works as bleak, she has received much recognition for her ability as a female writer. To this day, there is controversy over her writing and legacy. A poem like “Tulips” shows her battle and struggle between life and death and her desire for solitude and escape from her family.
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.
Sylvia Plath, an American poet, confessional writer, an intelligent, though emotional sufferer of depression, and ultimately, a bipolar suicidal, is more famous and recognized in death, than ever in life. Her death brought new and deeper meaning to her poetry, which provided an extremely profound and emotional insight into Plath’s innermost feelings and thoughts. Plath used her poetry to explore and to figure out her own life, but she was ever-haunted by the death of her father when she was 8, and by her husband, Ted Hughes, who both caused her a high degree of emotional distress. It is this, though, this resulted in the powerful, intense, and sensitive poems, which have allowed, or even encouraged Plath to release her inner-most self, and hence, to free herself from the oppression and the metaphorical cage that the memory of her father had trapped her in. “Daddy”, one of Plath’s most famous poems, and “Ariel”, the title poem of Plath’s second book of poetry, are two important stepping stones on Plath’s path to freedom.
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.