Sylvia Plath
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Sylvia Plath
One would think if someone writes about death in all of their writing, that that person is depressed or crazy. Sylvia Plath was depressed and psychotic in certain stages of her life, which is why people were so fascinated with her. How could a young, beautiful, brilliant woman be so sad and dreary? As one looks at her life one realizes her life was very mournful and dark, which is why darkness and death are constant themes in Sylvia Plaths disturbing, but beautiful works of poetry.
Sylvia Plath lived a happy childhood living off the coast of Boston , close to the sea. Sylvia, later in life would say, “My ocean-childhood is probablythe foundation of my consciousness” (Barnard 13). Sylvia lived with her father; Otto Emil Plath, her mother; Aurelia Plath, and her brother; Warren Plath. Her cultural background was German American; German from her father and American from her mother.
Plath started writing poetry at the very early age of eight. Her first poem was published in the “Boston Heralds” “children section”. Although she produced her first poem at the age of eight it wasnt until junior high when she really started writing. Her mother said, “it was in junior high that she developed work habits and skill in her favorite fields of endeavor, art and writing, winning prizes from the scholastic awards competitions each year” (Barnard 15). After junior high, Sylvia went on to attend Smith College in 1950 with the help of the Nielson scholarship that she was offered. At this time in her life Plath was writing a lot of poems and her mom became her agent. Sylvia went on to enter writing competitions for magazines like Seventeen, Harpers, and Mademoiselle, eventually winning a contest at Mademoiselle. Plath, along with nineteen other young college women were offered the prize to publish Mademoiselles famous college issue and Plath was awarded the role as managing editor. She packed her bags headed for New York City in the summer of 1953. At this time in her life, Plath experienced major anxiety and depression due to lack of perfection. This ended up leading Plath to her first attempted suicide. Plath then entered rehab and went on to graduate Smith College the summer of 1955. Sylvia received the Fulbright Scholarship to Cambridge University, and prepared to leave for England. After she graduated from Cambridge she went back to the states to attend Boston College and became an English instructor at Smith College in June of 1957.
Plath met her match in Ted Hughss, falling madly in love and getting married. Her relationship with him influenced most of her poetry immensely because her marriage with him didnt work out. When her marriage with Hughs ended Plath began to write more and she ended up publishing her first novel, The Bell Jar, in Janurary of 1963 under the name Victoria Lucas. She told her brother, “This is a secret its a pot-boiler and no one must read it” (Barnard 24). The novel was based on Sylvias life from the time she received her guest editorship at Mademoiselle in 1953, to when she returned to college from rehab.
The main character in the book, Esther Greenwood is Sylvia Plaths character and records a time of confusion and renewal in the autobiographical novel. Plaths character, Esther Greenwood, has two images; a split personality. She creates Elly Higginbottom who is the personality half that is wildly sexual and confident. Esther is the other personality half who is insecure and unsure of herself. While in New York, at the time Sylvia was on her internship, this how she felt which is portrayed through Esther and Elly. It is a novel about Esther Greenwoods struggle to connect desire with reality. The Bell Jar became a landmark in contemporary literature and it is sad to say that after it was published Plath tried her second suicide attempt.
Although Plath did publish a novel she was mainly a poet and her passion was poetry. Sylvias poetry is grouped in to three groups, early poetry, transitional poetry, and late poetry. All three groups represent different times in Sylvias life and they gradually change. Plaths early poetry was gathered and published in 1960, in The Colossus and Other Poems. Plath was at the young age of 24 when she wrote the first poem from The Colossus. The poems that are collected in the book were written between 1955 and 1959, the time when Plath traveled to Cambridge to attend school and when she toured the United States in preparation of her return to England (Hall 43). The major works that are recognized are works like “The Beekeepers Daughter” and “Point Shirley”(Hall 44).
“The Beekeepers Daughter” was written at the time when Ted Hughs and Plath lived together in Bostons Beacon Hall. Plath was influenced tremendously by her father Otto Plath. When Plath was a young girl he developed lung cancer and later on developed diabetes mellitus. “The Beekeepers Daughter” was based on a book her father wrote when Plath was a young girl called The Bumblebees and Their Ways. The first four years of Plaths life, he was devoted to writing the novel (Barnard 43). Her poem was based on his story and talks about her love, hate relationship between Plath and him. It was quoted as “the most overt of all incestuous poems written by Plath,” (Gould 125). This poem is a great representation of Plaths early poetry because in her early poems she doesnt express as much hatred as she uses in her later poetry toward her father.
Although Plaths writing toward her father is represented more with love in her early poetry, Plath still uses doom and darkness in these poems. Much of the poems are death directed and often have a gothic setting and landscape. An example of this would be the poem “Two Views”; one of the finest poems in Colossus (Hall 53), Plath describes a girls visit to “the dissecting room” by setting an image of men laid out, “black as burnt turkey” and also tells the reader of “babies in their jars…hands cut out like a cracked heirloom”. These gruesome details become more gruesome as Plaths life takes a turn and show in her later poetry.
A theme that comes up occasionally in her early work also, is Plaths humorous voice. Not the kind of humor that is laugh-out-loud funny, but more of the subtle type that lies underneath the poetry. An example of her humor would be in her poem “A Winters Tale”. Plath creates an amusing picture of the Boston Common at Christmas by poking fun at