Sylvia Likens

Sylvia Plath took her own life in 1963 when she turned on the gas jets of her home’s oven and suffocated herself. Plath’s novel is a piece of lost history; many women never got to share their stories because their mental illnesses were taboo. Even though…

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…

A world full of pain and suffering, and female poet, novelist, and motive Sylvia Plath came to be one of today’s most powerful writers. She is very associated with confessional poetry, which is a style of writing in which authors focus on themselves and detailed issues in their personal lives; she gets as personal as talking about her suicidal thoughts and wishes for death– even upon others! Writers Anne Sexton, Emily Dickinson, and Emily Brontë influenced Plath to pursue a life of writing even…

but were extremely limited in many aspects of their lives. In the late nineteen-fifties, women were pressured into conforming to specific criteria which corresponded to their roles as members of the female gender. Sylvia Plath discusses such roles throughout her literary works. In Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, she employs imagistic motifs in order to confront the issues that…

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,…

One integral metaphor within The Bell Jar is that of the fig tree, which Esther uses to describe her life. She envisions her life as a fig tree spreading out its branches into various futures she could have. One branch symbolizes what society expects of her: to have a husband, children, and a “happy home” (Plath 84). Other branches symbolize a combination of what society expects of her and what she expects of herself: to be a “famous poet,” a “brilliant professor,” or an “amazing editor” (Plath…

In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” Plath discusses her troubling relationships, mostly between her father, that had an enormous impact on her life. Attempting to finally rid herself of her father’s control, Plath uses this poem to metaphorically kill him over and over again while continuing to hold on to bits and pieces of him that she still loves and misses. His psychological control over her took a toll on her mentally as seen through a number of suicide attempts. She uses this to propel her work,…

of emotions that are different than a death from an ailment such as cancer. The suicide of Sylvia Plath has been deemed one of the most shocking losses in literary history because of its suddenness and because of who were left behind. People of all statuses and locations have provided their reactions to Plath’s death. These reactions ranged from death threats to Ted Hughes, the man accused of driving Sylvia Plath to her suicide, to making movies celebrating her courage in facing death on her own…

who finds herself in an unideal situation. A Metaphor is defined as “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison” which is what “Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath is unsurprisingly composed of. The overarching metaphor is subtle, but the meaning and significance is clear. “Metaphors” exemplifies the expression “beating around the bush” as it is understood that the speaker of this Plath poem is a…

“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me” (Ayn Rand). For many years, women have been thrown around like useless trash. They were know for only being good at household chores, keeping up with the kids, or being an typical maid. The men and society had downgraded their self worth and made them believe they didn’t have any power. The women of the mid 1900s were convinced that were weak and dependent. Women did not have the courage to be more than that. Although, it…