...Born and raised in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts during the Great Depression, Sylvia Plath endured an oppressive and depressing childhood. On the surface, Plath appeared to be intelligent, sensitive, and flawless, but inside she was living in misery. Sylvia Plath's emotional life, and her arduous past with her father's death, her tragic break up with Ted Hughes, feminism, and bipolar disorder played an immense part in her career as a poet by inspiring her to create her somber masterpieces. Despite all her troubles, Sylvia Plath excelled as a student at Smith College, won awards, and prizes for her writing, and was a straight a student. Then, she met her future husband and ex-husband, Ted Hughes, whom she would have two children with. Sylvia Plath, was an extremely prodigious poet, she published her first poem, Circus in Three Rings, at age eight. By writing over 121 compelling poems and one stellar novel based on her life experiences, women's rights and injustices, she became the face of 20th century feminism. Sylvia Plath’s poetry is mainly about 20th century feminism and women’s social injustices. "The poem Daddy criticizes the male aggression and depicts men being responsible for all the social injustices" (Hunt). In Sylvia Plath's versification Daddy, she illustrates how men are dominant over women, by comparing herself to Jews, and men to the Nazis. “I may be a bit of a Jew. I have always been scared of you” (Plath, "Daddy"). She outlines how women are a minority, and don’t...
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...SYLVIA PLATH Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She is widely recognized as one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. Her best-known poems are carefully crafted pieces noted for their personal imagery and intense focus. Many concern such themes as alienation, death, and self-destruction. Her vivid imagery, searing tone, and intimate topics cemented her place among the pantheon of great poets. Best known for novel The Bell Jar and her second volume of poetry, Ariel, Plath's reputation has only grown since her death in 1963. She is considered a poet of the confessional movement, which was led by Robert Lowell, but her work transcends this label and speaks to more universal truths than simply her own emotions. Although the sensational nature of her death by suicide has led some critics and readers to conflate the value of her life and art, Sylvia Plath's poetry demonstrates an astonishing capacity to engage with the art of poetry; many of her words and images have become fully entrenched in the literary consciousness. EARLY LIFE Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts to Aurelia Schobert Plath (American of Austrian descent) and Otto Emile Plath (immigrant from Grabow, Germany). Her father was a biology and German professor at Boston University. He was also an author of a book based on bumblebees. There was a stark age difference between Plath’s parents, her mother being twenty one years...
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...Sylvia Plath had a life full of ups and downs. Her lifelong battle with multiple different illnesses is what made her career but also ended it at the same time. Using her research along with the research of other Dr. Jamison was able to make a “literary, biographical, and scientific argument for a compelling association, not to say actual overlap, between two temperaments--the artistic and the manic-depressive—and their relationship to the rhythms and cycles, or temperament, of the natural world.” Plath is just one poet among an extensive list of poets that have suffered from this illness (Butscher 385). Sylvia Plath was born to Otto and Aurelia Plath on October 27, 1932 in Boston Massachusetts. Plath’s father who was a professor at Boston University, the school Plath’s mom was attending, took a bus, boat, and trolley to get to work every morning (Steinberg, “A Celebration”). This dedication proves that Otto...
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...A prominent figure of modern American literature, confessional poet, Sylvia Plath, works hold grand significance, for it lead to the probe of a feminist-martyr to patriarchal society, sex-based roles, and psychiatric care. Noted for the blend of intense imagery and humorous use of alliteration and rhyme, Plath associating her works with her personal battles of anguish and depression, further solidified her mark on American history. Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to an academically well-established family. Her father died when she was eight, marking the beginning of her lifelong internal battles of depression, hence her poem Daddy. Ambitiously driven and exceptional student, from a young age she kept journals, published poems in reginal magazines and newspapers. She later attended Smith and Cambridge University, where she met and married the poet, Ted Hughes, birthing two children. Throughout her life, Plath suffered deep depression and...
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...Jessica Sutherland English 1102 What Does Internal Mean to Eternal Man? The poem “Fever 103°”, written by Sylvia Plath, reveals competing satire and radical takes on the poem. A formal analysis and reader-response will explore the poems two meanings and how they are shaped and built within the work. The work in short is an expression of sex and sensuality versus safe guarding ones purity and oneself. As it opens with Cerberus at the gates of hell, unable to lick clean the feverish tendon, then to love as in the smell of a snuffed candle, next to the smoke breaking the speaker’s neck. The poem continues to compare adulterers to devilish leopards, but in the next stanza she pleads and her sheets grow heavy. The elements of allusion, diction and, imagery come together to highlight the poem’s ambiguity. Its ambiguity, the two views of taking the poem as the speaker being straight forward in presenting the celibate as more godly, and as a result the impure unworthy of them, and the perspective that the speakers god-complex and displayed self-importance is satire to mock the pure who find themselves so mighty. The two takes on the work are hidden from another once it is read within the internal perspective view of the reader. “Fever 103°” is a poem of two foils chosen to created make a mockery of the reader, the views are pinned together to show the human self-servient manner to choose what gives them self-justification...
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...Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) An American poet and novelist of the 20th century was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Sylvia Plath is best known for her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar and her second volume of poetry collection, Ariel. She was one of the most dynamic and expressive poets of her time. As a student she was successful, won many awards and scholarships ,at the age of 11 she started keeping a journal of her poems of which many were published in her early years itself. However, inspite of such perfections in her academic life she felt anything but perfect in her own skin. Her poems show her deep anguishes with her own life involving her broken marriage with Ted Hughes, unresolved issues with her parents with so much light on the passing of her father when she was only eight and her own vision of herself. At the time of her undergraduate years she has started showing symptoms of severe depression and already had a history of mental illness since childhood which ultimately lead her to her death. Her conditions led her to try to commit suicide not once but twice before she finally succeeded the third time. She had a sort of disturbed mind which can be felt through her much personal poems such as “daddy” which brings out her deep insecurities of being “fatherless” Feminists potrayed Sylvia as a woman driven to madness by a domineering father, unfaithful husband and demanding duties of motherhood. The hardness of her life increased her need to write ,which she could...
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...True Confessions In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Metaphors” there are several references and comparisons that are made between various images and pregnancy. Plath’s life experiences and the perception of women’s roles of the 1950’s shaped her poems and was of particular importance in this poem. As the poem progresses, the reader can infer that her attitude towards her pregnancy is not static. Through her ironic use of various metaphors, Plath is able to convey her feelings of bearing a child, and how her perception and emotions of herself change over the course of her pregnancy. Plath was born in 1932 the first child of Otto and Aurelia Plath in Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents “demanded superior academic performance” and this resulted in Plath...
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...Mirror – Sylvia Plath This poem is by Sylvia Plath and the narrator is a mirror. The mirror is personified and is endowed with many human traits. This poem is about a mirror that reflects only what it is shown and hence the role of the mirror is said to be the revealer of the reality and truthfulness. The mirror is also said to be faithful. The interesting features’ regarding this poem is how the poet changes tones between the two stanzas, which makes the ending impactful. In the first stanza, the mirror and its role is introduced. The mirror is lonely and its only companion is the wall of which it feels it has become a part of. The mirror shows us some of its human characteristics. However in the second stanza the poet brings in human life, a woman and it is also now a lake, which reflects the unsatisfied lady. The second stanza also shows the comparison of when the lady was young and now when she has become old. The factor of age is brought into the poem, which shows that the lady is getting old and that her reflection in the mirror is displeasing her. The woman turns to other objects such as “The candle” and “The moon” to which the author describes as “liars” which means that they don’t show her for who she really is. The author uses the candle as symbolism for life and the triumph over darkness. However the use of these objects could also represent how humans turn away from the actual truth and go seek something to which they might find more pleasant. The...
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...The poem Daddy by Sylvia Plath is about her life and how she lived in a male dominated world. There are many allusions within the poem and how she compares historical events to her own experiences. The first example of allusion is the entire poem and how Sylvia’s past has haunted her. She talks about how she was abused as a child and how her father treated her like a prisoner. She refers to her father as a “Nazi” and herself as a “Jew”, throughout the poem she talks about the significant events that happened in World War 2 such as the concentration camps in Auschwitz and how she feels that she is being kept imprisoned as a Jew in a concentration camp as well as her father acting like a Nazi would towards a Jew. The second example of allusion...
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...Literary Commentary Essay: The Rival The quote, “Too much of anything could destroy you, Simon thought. Too much darkness could kill, but too much light could blind” by Cassandra Clare is significant in understanding the concept revolving around this poem. The speaker seems to have trusted her husband too much that when he cheated on her, it came as a sudden shock. Sylvia Plath’s “The Rival” was designed to portray the poem’s aim, to explain that one shouldn’t trust too much since it can end up shattering one’s life. Too much of anything will only harm us. The most prominent way in which this aim was seen through is narration/structure, literal/figurative meaning and one point of allusion. Narration and structure were both effective in recognizing the poem’s aim. Utilizing the poem’s audience as the poet’s husband’s mistress, as well as using a semicolon stresses the poem’s aim. In stanza 3, the poet discusses the rival’ actions. She claims that the rival’s thoughts are sent with love, yet are also considered poisonous. “White and blank expansive as carbon monoxide” The poet demonstrates that the poem’s audience is the poet’s husband’s mistress through of the use of a simile. White is a carries a connotation of cold and lifeless, while, blank is a motif of death and also without life. Thus, the speaker compares the poem’s audience, her husband’s mistress, to carbon monoxide. Not only comparing her, but comparing the effect of carbon monoxide to the effect of her rival. It is...
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...Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” There is no doubt that Sylvia Plath is definitely one of the most diverse controversial poets of our time. Sylvia Plath was born October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts and unfortunately passed away on February 11, 1963 in London, England due to her battle with suicide. The poem relates to her life and also her perspective of the world. As a matter of fact, critics often characterized her as “extreme,” due to the deep emotional issues that she would write about. As time has passed, Plath is often referred to as a “cult figure.” “Lady Lazarus” is one of Plath’s most popular works. To make it simple this poem is about death and her suicidal experiences. (Sanazaro) “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath is a very complex poem. Sylvia Plath wrote this intense poem during her most fruitful and imaginative period. “Lady Lazarus” has been a topic of a lot of literary criticism since it was published. It is mostly understood as a collection of Plath’s thoughts, suicidal efforts and urges. (“SYLVIA LADY LAZARUS REVISITED”) The tone in this poem veers between threatening and scornful; it draws attention to itself for its use of Holocaust imagery, reading this poem anybody could figure out that the character and even Plath is not happy with her life and obviously has some deep emotional resentment that unfortunately she never got to resolve. In 1970, M. L. Rosenthal wrote an essay entitled “Sylvia Plath and Confessional Poetry” for Charles’ Newman’s collection...
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...Cryptically confronting and subtly depressive, Sylvia Plath’s poetry caught the minds of young writers and poetry enthusiasts whilst disgruntling older, more traditional generations of poetry readers. Her use of imagery depicting a world tarnished, the war of a dysfunctional family and a depressive mind and imagination took the poetry world by storm and even after 55 years, Sylvia Plath is a prominent figure throughout the world of literature. Plath’s work is heavily influenced by, and imbedded in, the confessional poetry movement. A movement between the 1950’s and 60’s, that witnessed the rise of personal or first person writing, “I”, and highly private or emotional subject matter such as trauma, death and depression, all of which can be found in much of Plath’s writing. This element of her work, already ‘outrageous’ for many was heightened by the fact that she was a woman. This movement allowed her to openly and bluntly address and express the outrage she and many other women felt to the periods’ societal and gender norms. Her use of language and poetic technique are lost when not read aloud, most prominently in “daddy” where the poem takes on a sing-song, lullaby rhythm that amplifies the meaning and connotations within...
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...Sylvia Plath and Her Poetry Sylvia Plath was a short story writer and poet who was mostly known for her collections of poetry. Plath is considered the emancipator of “confessional poetry”: poetry that focuses around personal trauma (“A Brief Guide to Confessional Poetry”). In her lifetime, she wrote many poems that were gathered together into seven collections; only one of them published before she committed suicide in 1963. It was very obvious that the struggles in Plath’s life such as the passing of her father, her severe depression, and a vicious divorce, heavily influenced her poetry (Mays). Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 27th, 1932. Her mother was a student at Boston University and her father was a German immigrant...
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...Mad Girl’s Love Song Mad Girl’s Love Song is written in 1951, by Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. She was born on October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts and she died on February 11, 1963 in London, England. Mad Girl’s Love Song is a poem, Sylvia Plath wrote while she was a student at Smith College. The poem has a theme of suicide as an escape. There are many places where the theme of suicide appears in the poem. The poem is about a girl who spent her whole life waiting for a man she gave herself to, against her beliefs, who was never to return. There is one phrase in the poem that which has a big importance. I think I made you up inside my head This phrase is repeated a few times and that makes us thinks that the girl is wishing that this man is made up, and she is trying to convince herself of it. The phrase is kind of a quote which signifies that these are thoughts to her, and not out loud, which can means that she is trying to convince herself it is true. Sylvia wished that she would overcome her depression and grow out of the despair she was living in. I fancied you’d return the way you said, but I grow old and I forget your name But in fact, her wishes and search for her happiness had driven her insane. She had been lost for so long that she didn't remember what it was like to truly be happy so therefore she would never be able to identify it if she were to regain control of her life. I think I made you...
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...Sylvia Plath’s Mirror: A Reflection Misty Williams ENG125 Introduction to Literature Instructor Stephen Rogers July 22, 2013 I was drawn to Sylvia Plath’s poem Mirror because of her use of figurative language. I am also drawn to her dark style of writing. Personification, symbolism and metaphors used were key elements in attracting my attention. The personification of the mirror gives the point of view of an impartial bystander observing a woman as she struggles with her changing image and self-esteem. The simile is used to show a woman who is unable to accept who she really is. The use of metaphor explains how something as small as a mirror can have much control over how we view ourselves. Personification occurs when inanimate objects, animals or ideas are assigned human characteristics. In the first four lines the mirror is given human traits with the use of the word “I”, “Whatever I see, I swallow…” gives the ability to see and swallow, and “I am not cruel, only truthful” gives the mirror a sense of truth and honesty. (As cited by Clugston, 2010, 12.2) The use of personification brings into effect past, present and future. This different perspective allowed me to “see” what the mirror sees and not get involved in the emotions of the woman and how she views herself. The mirror and reflection are metaphors representing the exact truth. The mirror is "unmisted" by prejudice human "preconceptions" and reveals "only" the "truthful" viewpoints...
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