Sylvia Plath Essay

A young woman searching for her very own identity in a society where basic values are less likely to be tampered with. In "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, she faces horrific mental, physical, and emotional breakdowns throughout her life to figure out her purpose. Esther Greenwood's dreams and aspirations are smothered by her demanding environment and impinging madness. Esther is probable to fall into a crisis or two and lose her courage to live life. In "The Bell Jar", Esther seeks out crisis…

expectation but a privilege. The poems, Metaphors and The Applicant by Sylvia Plath would be read and interpreted by a white man in the 1950’s on the basis of expectations appointed by society, whereas a white woman in the 21st century would read and interpret based on own personal expectations. Sylvia Plaths’ Metaphors, is about her pregnancy and how she felt trapped and forced into having children because of society. Plath wrote this poem during her first pregnancy and expressed her feelings…

In Sylvia Plath 's autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, the text takes the reader through the struggles of a young woman Esther, Sylvia Plath’s alter ego, who faces unruly patriarchal oppression which limits her ability to succeed within her community. This drives Esther to attempt suicide in a multitude of ways. Esther is aware of a female 's oppression within the 1950’s and relates imbalance between men and women to the battle between nature and technology. Esther is subject to patriarchal…

The idea of loss is prevalent in both “Stop all the Clocks” by W.H Auden and “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath. Auden employs the narrative voice of a distraught partner to reveal the travesty of death and the consuming emotions which accompany the devastation of physical a loss, whereas, Plath depicts the symbolic loss of identity through the inevitable process of ageing as told from the narration of a mirror. The initial stanza of Auden’s “Stop all the Clocks” introduces the idea of loss by allowing…

The responsibility of the female poet is two pronged: to “give name to the nameless” and “answer the received cultural imagination of the subject with something utterly different.” Sylvia Plath and Gwendolyn Brooks do it exceptionally well. Their poetry tackles subject matter vital to the task of complicating cultural imagined archetypes for women. Almost immediately, first line Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “The Mother” fulfills its responsibility of meeting culturally imagined standards with…

patriarchal society in which the main character lives.” (CITE) Moreover, even though the novel was written before the insurgence of the feminist movement a decade later, it is well recognized as a piece of feminist literature. Knowingly or not, Sylvia Plath quickly gained fame and praising for being a voice against patriarchy. She was called “the accidental feminist” because of her constant discourse about the hardships of being a woman, and even more, a female writer. Her novel is not an…

Being an editor for my publication Unnamed Trademarked Patent Pending has its up and its downs but writing an anthology for Gwendolyn Brookes, Sherman Alexie, Lucille Clifton, Sylvia Plath and Gary Soto was eye opening. These are some of the best poets that I have had the opportunity to read and appreciate in my lifetime. The diversity among the bunch was very fulfilling, from poetry about racial tension, native American culture, women empowerment, depression to young love. Initially the poems…

Sylvia Plath writes to express the things that have happened throughout her life that also affected many young women her age. She also writes to discuss stigmatized or provocative topics. Plath takes to discussing subjects such as depression, double standards, and societal expectations, at length and candidly. Drawing from her own life and battles with depression, Plath herself went through some of the more invasive procedures as described in the novel. For Esther Greenwood, the therapy “took…

convey confronting concepts to the reader and explore human encounters, which the author communicates through poetic language. In Margaret Atwood’s ‘Christmas Carols’ and Sylvia Plath’s ‘Stillborn’ the application of extended metaphor, persuasive language and juxtaposition generates thought and feeling through poetry. In Sylvia Plath’s potent emotive work examines the conflict in her writing process through the metaphor of a stillborn child, while ‘Christmas Carols’ a political piece is…

Women in the 1950s Can Lead to Depression In the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath the nineteen-year-old college student, Esther, wins guest editorship at a fashion magazine called Ladies’ Day. Although she seems to be living her dreams in New York, her plans unexpectedly change. Plath uses the magazine, relationships with men, friends, marriage, and her mother to illustrate that social pressure on women in the 1950s could lead to depression. Plath shows how Esther’s job at Ladies’ Day, the magazine…