As a child Sylvia had a lot of affection for her father. She was eight when he died, and this made her delusional towards religion. She was brought up in a middle class lifestyle and received her education in Winthrop Public School System. It might be due to the fact that her intellectual genius became apparent at such a young age that she was heralded to become someone important. She attended Smith College and it was here that her mental problems first came to sight. She managed to fight with these problems and return to complete her college education. She married Ted Hughes in 1956 after meeting him in a student party a year earlier (Barry Kyle 16-32).
Plath had only one literary work in print before her death most of her works were published after her tragic death.
Plaths work is categorized by many of her peers and critics as confessional. This is has been said to arise in her with associations with Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. Confessional poetry in simple terms is the poetry of the self. She uses this form of expression to show her real feelings of love and hate about life. Plaths poems are distinguished from those of Lowells on the basis of the kind of person under the spotlight. Lowell wanted the reader to have a sense of truth when he read his work. Plaths reasoning for this is contrary to Lowells. She makes use of generalized figures and uses them for her own sanctity. Critics have made some interesting comments on her work that it contains elaborate use of violence and shows disturbed imagery that spring out from her own life. After much light has been shed on her private life, many have commented that she did this to added abstracted resemblance of her life into her writings. She only added her autobiographic detail to generate more drama to the feelings of pain and misery in her work (Barry Kyle 114). She has been regarded amongst the foremost confessional poetess of her time due to her embodiment in all of her poems. She puts herself in her poems in such a way that she puts her own failings on the conventional shoulders of the era. The psychological distress in her is based in her from the death of her father at a very young age.
If we dive in to Plaths poetry we find that it is confessional in the truest of forms and we see the beauty of her work. Colossus is her only piece of work that was published while she was alive, but it does not take any credit away from her status as a prolific poet. After her death Ted Hughes, her ex-husband published Ariel and her three other works. A volume of her poems was published in 1982 under the title of The Collected Poems. This work of her led to the award of 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She has the distinction of being the first poet who was awarded the prize after her death.
Looking at Plaths work we see that it is not merely an activity of recording the life experiences and the emotions on paper, but it also takes into account the skill of structure in it. Shocking to the readers back in the time, this form of poetry showed the skill of the poet as they paid special attention to prosody and its use.
Daddy might be one of Sylvia Plaths most famous confessional poems. In this poem Plath addresses her father and talks to her. She narrates her emotions in the poem about his death and the effects it had on her. The high point of the poem can be considered to be the use of sing-song rhythms that show her childhood state of mind (Erica Wagner 56). An excerpt of the poem is below
Daddy, I have had to kill you.You died before I had time--Marble-heavy, a bag full of God, Ghastly statue with one gray toeBig as a Frisco seal
Colossus- was her first published work. It was published first by the Methuen Press in England and then in United States by Alfred A. Knopf. It was her narration of personal pains and womens problems. Compared to her other published works, Colossus has the distinction of being much more formal then the rest. The release of the collection coincided with the deteriorating personal life of Plath. Her marriage was falling with Ted Hughes and was desperately seeking separation. She was broke with two kids to feed and no source of income (Anne Stevenson 56).
If we take a look at her archive poems we get excellent example of her poetry. She exhibits an arresting style in her works accompanied by an unbiased examination of herself and the socio-economic conditions of the day. She wrote Parliament Hill Fields after her miscarriage in 1962. She exhibits the ability to dive in to the external landscape of the environment while not letting go of her own psychic disturbance. Her opening comments about the poem suggest that it is not about her but about a third party. This is often regarded as contradictory to her confessional writing style (Erica Wagner 62).
The use of dramatic monologue is often present in her poems. The Applicant in this regard is a very good example. This is her take on the experience of conventional marriage. She uses the modern commerce practices to prove her point of view, manipulating the pathetic situation of an applicant in the process.
Both the poems, Parliament Hill Fields and The Applicant reveal Plaths abilities to use the sound of language to her use. The Parliament Hill Fields exhibits the creation of a rich place high above from the clutches of the usual malpractices of society. The Applicant on the other hand uses small lines to show the aggressive tone of the poem. This is showcased by the extensive use of the pronoun it.
On January 1963, William Heinemann Ltd. in London publishedThe Bell Jar. It was published under the name Victoria Lucas. It received a lot of favorable reviews from the critics ironically she never got the chance to read them. Under the permission of Ted Hughes, Heinemann revealed the identity of the author. She wrote the novel under the pseudonym as she did not want to associate with the novel. She knew it might hurt the feelings of people back home in USA. She also did not want the novel to reflect on her poetry. The book is unusual in the essence that it had two first editions in England and one in USA a total of three first edition for the book. This book takes a lot from her personal life. The character of Buddy in The Bell Jar is inspired by Dick Norton. Plath had a love affair with Norton when in her junior year (Joyce Carol Oates 48). The opening events of the book are also taken from her experiences in New York, when she was awarded the position of a guest editor at the Mademoisellemagazine.
Letters Homes was edited by her mother and the volume made her way to the readers in 1975. Letters Home can be considered to her own self portrait. She narrates her experiences and ambitions while at Smith College. While always considered as a prodigy, the mental toll on her was severe and this is narrated in the poem.
The death of Sylvia Plath led to a lot of controversy. Many accused Ted Hughes to be the reason for her death. After a long wait Ted Hughes published his book Birthday Letters (1998) to set the story straight. He wanted an end to accusations connecting him to Sylvia Plaths death. Ted and Sylvia had a strained marriage, which eventually ended in 1962 since its ill conception in 1956. Sylvias followers have always accused him of her death and the mental problems she had. Teds book shows his side of the story and its his attempt to clear up the nonsense related to Sylvias death. However, its the tragic death of Plath that has marked both her and Ted in the history books.
In the Birthday Letters Ted Hughes dive into his past and, he uses his life story to clear up his name. He has used his intellectual wisdom to its extent in order to save his face and clear up the complications that arose in Sylvias life leading to her tragic death (David Smith 12). What Ted Hughes says in his book can be considered controversial and has been labeled as lies by many of his detractors, but this is an undeniable fact that Sylvia Plath had a history of mental illnesses. And it was a result of this that she succumbed to suicide twice, which led to her demise in 1963.
It can be stated that Plath had a short life in conventional terms. The statement might be right in all truthfulness but she managed to lead a life that was rich in experiences and achievements. The awarding of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is as big a feat as most of us will ever come close to (Joyce Carol Oates).
She had different roles and fulfilled them with the sincerity of her thoughts. She was a teacher, mother, sister, student wife and a brave daughter. She continues to influence people in their lives and motivate them with her literary excellence. She had a drive for excellence and she managed to fulfill it without the help of others. Whilst people on the outside dont know about her problems, only those who were close to her have an idea about how troubled her life was. Suicidal or not Sylvia Plath made herself immortal by her lifes work.
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