Sylvia Plath Research Paper

Sylvia Plath’s ‘gothic’ and realistic writing style captured readers with either interest and curiosity or shock and unease. Marie Ahearn wrote that Plath used her themes to relate her “particular view of fear, of the unknown reaches of the mind, of madness.” Starting her writing career at a young age, her poems developed from cheerful poems based on nature into an authentic view of her life and struggles. Becoming more in touch with herself and suffering from mental illness contributed greatly to how she matured as a poet.
Her love for writing was apparent from a young age, as she keep a journal and had many works published before attending college. One of Plath’s earliest poems to be published “I thought that I could not be hurt” was published in the children’s section of a magazine. The poem showed two different perspectives of her life. Speaking of how her world was “warm with April sun (6)” then suddenly transitioning to how her “world turned gray,... and darkness wiped aside my joy. A dull and aching void was left…(21-23 Plath)” The opposing forces in the …show more content…
The poem “Tulips” was written after her stay at a mental health treatment center for a suicide attempt, which was also the basis for her only novel, “The Bell Jar.” The poem goes into more depth about how the hospital made her feel free from her life and troubles until the ‘tulips’ are made present in the story. The feeling of freedom is from the distance away from her distant and unloving husband, while the restricting feeling that comes from the tulips is from the ‘presence’ of her husband during what was her time of freedom. Plath’s husband, Ted Hughes, was also the main inspiration for other poems by her, such as “The Rabbit Catcher”. He was a very negative presence in her life, while leaving her for another woman, that was one of the reasons Plath's depression worsened and led to her