Sylvia Plath

In the “Mirror”, by Sylvia Plath, shows the lack of confidence women face with image/reflection and the hours associated with aging through personification and metaphors. The author is accomplishing numerous forms of figurative language devices. Symbolism to show images only last for a very short time and resulting, the speaker’s attitude toward truthfulness. In the next couple paragraphs I would like to focus on the theme, tone/attitude and figurative language device used in this poem. The…

there in the clear hot water the purer I felt, and when I stepped out at last and wrapped myself in one of the big, soft white hotel bath towels I felt pure and sweet as a new baby” (Plath 49). The aforementioned “purity” is attributed to transformation, the washing away of the dirt as she descends into a cleaner self. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar morphs this idea of sanity and purity twisting it to make us all question if a glass bell jar is looming over our heads. The protagonist of the story…

Plath wrote many of her poems, including “Daddy”, in a autobiographical manner where she expresses the sorrows that life thrusted upon her into works of poetry. From the overwhelming despair Plath was facing over her fathers death, a toxic marriage, and suicide attempts (Wikipedia contributors), she was able to yield an immensely powerful voice. She…

The Bell Jar, written by Sylvia Plath, is an outstanding piece of work that focuses on the story of a young woman developing into adult. However, it does not follow the usual procedures of adolescent development into adulthood. Rather than undergoing the progressive education about the world affairs and making a transitioning into adulthood, Esther takes a step back and regresses into madness. All the beginnings of this lady are usually disastrous and disorienting including her first time in New…

The idea of maintaining an idealistic image of what a woman should be can be daunting for many women. In the novel written by Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar is a feminist classic as it entails the struggle that the main character, Esther Greenwood, faces as she battles relationships, motherhood and the ideal image of women brought to her by the magazine internship she works at, all while slowly losing her sanity. Esther unravels and begins to show signs of her mental illness early on. High-class…

Lunacy: The Portrait of a Student Sylvia Plath once wrote, “The floor seemed wonderfully solid. It was comforting to know I had fallen and could fall no further.” I wish I could say my descent into madness was graceful, but yet that wasn’t the case. I had hit rock bottom. Actually I had cannonballed into it. I was a shadow of a girl then, but I wasn’t always like that. I felt on top of the world, I had graduated 20 out of 639, and I had gotten into my dream school. My collapse taught me that it…

girl has everything that a girl her age would have ever wanted; the opportunity to spend a month in NYC editing a national magazine. One might ask what in the world possibly be the same about them? The main characters in the novels The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger be similar than thought possible. Both Ester from the Bell Jar and Holden from The Catcher in the Rye face many trials that helps them to develop their own views on protection of innocence,…

procreation. The idea of conforming to these gender roles stemmed from the constant reinforced messages in popular culture. However, not all Americans conformed to these norms. Sylvia Plath, an American poet, novelist and short story writer, rebelled against the cultural norms by being a working woman in society. In 1963, Plath…

The Bell Jar is a classic story of feminism in the mid 1900s. Esther Greenwood goes through periods of severe depression, happiness, and boredom. The reader watches her develop as she learns what’s really important in life. The book starts off with Esther working for a New York magazine, where she excels. The problem is that she doesn't fit in with the eleven other girls, causing her to distance herself. Spending a month on the job, she learned a lot about friendship, but she also realized that…

Sylvia Plath, knowledgeable beyond her years, had many complications with her mental health as she grew up. This poem in particular was introduced to the public through a biographical introduction of her novel “The Bell Jar”. Through the villanelle structure, Mad Girl’s Love Song uses seemingly endless repetition, dark personification, and references to mythological creatures to touch base with the complications of the human mind, the toxicity of mental illnesses and disorders, and beyond…