Sylvia

A mental illness can arouse in any human due to a plethora of factors. It can impair one’s behaviour, thinking, mood, perception, and social environment causing a person to emotionally deteriorate in their life. In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther Greenwood’s mental illness is sparked by her father’s absence, her attempt to fit into society’s expectations, and her rejection towards forming intimate relationships. Esther’s initial spark to her depression is caused by her father’s absence…

While reading the poem, one can perceive that Mrs. Plath is blossoming from a child into an adult. Symbolism plays a vital role in order to perceive her aging process. In the first stanza, it mentions a black shoe that she lives in. One can observe and compare this to the children’s nursery rhyme, “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe”. Another example of her childhood within stanza one is in line five when she says, “Achoo”. Most adults would say sneeze, but to a child, it is acceptable…

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…

self-doubt”, another, simpler definition is “instability” (“Insecurity”). The connotation associated with insecurities is that they are rooted from uncertainty of society’s views. This is interesting because society’s opinions can also be deemed unstable. Sylvia Plath comments on this relationship in her novel, The Bell Jar. By telling the relatable story of a protagonist, Esther, who faces society-induced depression, the author highlights the idea that words tend to make an impression on…

Society, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “a social circle or a group of social circles having a clearly marked identity.” Obtaining a clearly marked identity is easier said than done. The Bell Jar, written by Sylvia Plath, is a novel about nineteen year-old Esther Greenwood struggling to find her place in society. In her struggle, Esther falls into a deep depression and attempts suicide, causing her to be admitted to a mental hospital. Societal expectations of everyone, women…

Idea: Grief is soul destroying Poems: Sylvia Plath's Mirror and W. H Auden's Stop all the Clocks Although the poems 'Mirror' by Sylvia Plath and 'Stop all the Clocks' by W. H Auden reflect different experiences of grief, they both convey that its repercussions are devastating. Plath's extended metaphor focuses on the pain of aging, whereas Auden's elegy explores the grief of the physical loss of a loved one. The idea of overwhelming grief is evident in the beginning stanza of Stop all the…

Transitioning into adulthood is hard for any gender but it was especially difficult during the 1950s, a socially conservative time. As a woman in the 1950s, transitioning to adulthood was difficult and for Esther it was nearly impossible. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar provides the opportunity to view a young woman's journey into early adulthood during a period where gender roles, double standards, and social norms severely restricted the options and opportunities available to women. Further, when…

simply closing our eyes could free us from suffering. Sylvia Plath in “Mad Girl’s Love Song,” illustrates just this desire. With a dark, depressing tone and vivid descriptions, the speaker expresses the suffering that lost love can bring. As a result, she chooses to believe that all her love and pain may just be a figment of her imagination. Despite her longing to forget him, the pain of unfulfilled love forces her to keep him present. Sylvia Plath 's "Mad Girl 's Love Song" examines the…

In Lady Lazarus quite a few literary devices are used. One of the devices used, that stood out to me was imagery. Imagery is visually descriptive or figurative language. Throughout the poem, Plath used imagery to set the tone of the poem and to make the meaning of the poem stronger. I believe she wanted the tone of the poem to be glum, and depressing and there are many instances in where she uses imagery to get that point across. I think the meaning of the poem is that it is about death or…

Mental illness was a seldom talked about topic in the 1960s when Sylvia Plath penned The Bell Jar. In the essence of her book Plath shows the already present gap between someone's mind and their body and how depression, or any mental illness, can widen the space even further. Symbolism pertaining to the gap is described when main character Esther Greenwood uses objects and metaphors as representations of her depression. The story follows Esther from the onset of her illness all the way to her…