Sylvia Plath

The Many Views of Sylvia Plath

Pulitzer Prize winner, Sylvia Plath began her misunderstood life on October 27, 1932, in Jamacia

Plains Massachusetts. She was born to Otto and Aurelia

Plath, who were both teachers (Sylvia Plath).Her father was a professor at Boston University. He studied bees.(Personal Influences) Plath has been seen in a variety of ways; as a tragic poet, the all-American, girl next-door, but, most of all, a heroine of the feminist movement.

Plath’s life was haunted by visions of her past.

Her father died when she was eight from neglected diabetes, after the amputation of a toe, and eventually and entire leg (Personal Influences). “Otto Plath was diabetic, yet chose to ignore doctor's warnings about certain prohibited foods. He projected an arrogant self-confidence as if nothing could defeat him. It was this same arrogance that caused his death.” (Personal

Influences). Plath never fully recovered from her father’s untimely passing (Personal Influences). She felt betrayed, and was consumed by her own guilt. She felt that if he loved her more, he would have taken better care of himself. Otto Plath is a recurring theme in her works. Her poem ,Daddy, expresses her resentment and bitterness toward being deserted by him

(Personal Influences).

After receiving straight A’s throughout high school, Plath attended Smith University. In the summer of 1953, she received the opportunity to go to New York and intern with Mademoiselle. While in New York, Plath suffered an emotional breakdown. She plunged into a deep depression (Sylvia Plath). When she returned home to Boston, where she was living with her mother (whom she hated), she took a handful of sleeping pills, and attempted to end her life (Sylvia Plath). After this, she was sent to McLean Hospital, to be treated for mental illness (Sylvia Plath).

Upon her release from the hospital, she returned to Smith, and then to Cambridge, England to study at

Newnham College. (Sylvia Plath) Here she met, fell in love with, and, after four months, married the future

Poet Laureate of England, Ted Hughes (Gray). The two were together for six years, and produced two children together, Frieda in 1960 and Nicholas in 1962, (Sylvia

Plath). However, Hughes left Plath for Assia Wevil in the winter of 1962 (Sylvia Plath). Desperate and alone, Plath sealed off the doors to her children’s rooms on February 11, 1963, placed her head in a gas oven, and died (Sylvia Plath). Ironically, Assia

Welvill eventually killed herself in the same exact way as Plath (Kirjasto).

Hughes felt that he was powerless to help Plath.

He believed that she was destined to kill herself because of her fixation with her father (Gray). “What happens in the heart simply happens,” Hughes said