Sylvia Plath Essay

Compare the ways in which Philip Larkin and Sylvia Plath explore family relationships. In Ariel and The Whitsun Weddings Sylvia Plath and Philip Larkin often explore family relationships. For Sylvia Plath, the family is an arena of pain, irony and anger. Philip Larkin in contrast, explores the family from a more detached and resigned viewpoint. Medusa is a poem by Sylvia Plath. The title Medusa is very significant because not many people would dare to link their mother to the image of Medusa…

Sylvia Plath’s poem, “The Mirror,” is full of imagery and comparisons. Plath uses these in order to emphasize the point she is trying to make with the poem about beauty, aging, self-image, and the way society views the three. Comparisons are made throughout the poem that convey feelings and ideas that would not have the same affect if they were explicitly stated. The poem is narrated by the mirror itself, which is personified by Plath. According to Aidan Curran, this makes the poem seem both…

often overlooked. Moreover, the “atypical” view of the world inherent in creativity is frequently seen as the root cause of anxiety—and, therefore, the actual causes of anxiety or depression are dismissed as unrelated. The life and works of author Sylvia Plath are a key example of a public figure whose anxiety and depression stem from multiple distinct traumatic events, but are often disregarded in favor of a romantic link between suicide and creativity.…

The Life of Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) The American poet, Sylvia Plath, is considered one of the most highly regarded writers of the 20th century. Her poems are described as “intensely autobiographical, they explore her own mental anguish, her troubled marriage to fellow poet Ted Hughes, her unresolved conflicts with her parents, and her own vision of herself” (“Sylvia Plath”). Struggling with depression and mental anguish, she desperately tried to overcome obstacles in her own consciousness and…

Sylvia Plath “The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence" (Plath). Throughout her life, Sylvia Plath wrote about her hardships and emotions, to contribute to her main theme that death brings the hatred out of people, as reflected in her own life, which allows people to relate to her work and feel as though they are not alone. Sylvia Plath faced a challenging childhood and reflected her emotions within her poems. Otto Plath died on the night of November…

Often described as a perfectionist, Sylvia Plath was an enviable, popular, academically successful college student when her losing battle with depression began. Having published her first poem at eight years old, Plath was a writer at her core, and her journey with mental illness can be revealed and analyzed in her writing which gave Plath a method of coping with and externalizing her many debilitating anxieties. In her many published poems, stories, and essays Plath covers topics on identity,…

Born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath would later be recognized as one of the greatest poets and novelists of the post-war era. Plath was raised in an academically focused environment; her father was a biology professor and her mother was a shorthand teacher. Contrary to the writing style of the time, Plath wrote about genuine emotions experienced by women. Additionally, she wrote about personal life events and the people that surrounded her. The poem, Point Shirley,…

during the twentieth century, is Sylvia Plath. Her poetry is most well known for depicting her emotions and life story in a creative way. Plath is also widely known for committing suicide, and how her depressive feelings that led to her suicide impacted her writing. “Blackberrying,” a poem she wrote close to her death, displays these feelings well, as well as Plath’s desire to return to her childhood years when she was happier. In “Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath, the overall theme of longing to…

Sylvia Plath is known for being a feminist writer before the women’s rights movement. She wrote numerous poems and books including The Bell Jar. The story is about a women that is slowly losing her sanity and includes all of her family and friends. The time frame makes the story more intense because treatment then was very harsh against mental illness. But they didn’t know how much more damage they were actually causing. Mental illness can’t be forced out of a human but it can be helped if the…

Sylvia Plath was an inspiring and gifted young author who used her life experiences as muses for her writings. In the novel The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath portrays mental illness and feminism through Esther. During the 1950’s in America, women were not educated and not expected to go to college. They were not prepared to support themselves and could rely on marriage and children as a predestined fate. Plath and Esther defied these stereotypical views when Plath attended Smith College and exceeded…