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Sylvia Plath Essays

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In Plath’s poems “Contusion’ and “Edge” there is a central theme and image of death that is liberating and perfect. These themes and images are constant throughout many of Plath’s poetry, but in these two particular poems, the idea of death is more forthcoming. “Edge” the last poem that Plath wrote before she ended her life is also another reason why the poem seems so forthcoming. The poem could also be seen as Plath’s last words to the world before...
2 Pages 880 Words
Sylvia Plath was a confessional poet through her influence, Robert Lowell. “Sylvia Plath explored the themes of death, self, and nature in works that expressed her uncertain attitude toward the universe” (New World Encyclopedia). As Plath's poetry developed, it became more private and personal towards her own life. Her poetry expressed inner demons and showcased themes to justify her reality. Sylvia Plath focused her poetry on her life and the obstacles she faced being a woman in the twentieth century....
2 Pages 1122 Words
It is often easy to suggest that ‘poetry makes a familiar world unfamiliar’ however, the world that the poet writes about is familiar to them. For example, Sylvia Plath’s poetry was highly influenced by her deteriorating mental health and her difficulty with relationships. The world that Plath’s poetry portrayed is a world that was familiar to her. Plath’s short book of poems ‘Ariel’ was a huge insight into how she viewed the world before her death, specifically her poem ‘Stings’....
1 Page 626 Words
The whole poem consists of six stanzas, each stanza is three lines long and there is an alternate long and short sentence to express a rhythmic rocking sound. The rhythm of the poem is related to a lullaby where mothers sing it to their precious baby, which ties into the title of the poem. The poem's first line significantly captures the speaker's hesitant tone by comparing the baby to a 'fat gold watch'. The simile illustrates the child as something...
1 Page 433 Words
The use of brutal and venomous tones us in the poem as would praise of its unadulterated rage towards male dominance, to wariness at its usage of holocaust imagery. These tones are present in the entire poem “Daddy”. In the poem “Daddy” Plath sees that she explains how her life is as she lives with her decease father and how it is for her. Plath starts with “does not do anymore,” and that she feels like she has been a...
2 Pages 938 Words
For years, the collection of poems Ariel By Sylvia Plath has been used for educational purposes and a symbol of American literary. Known for its dark humor and terrorizing experience growing up and in her adulthood, Ariel has taken the world’s literature by surprise, winning at least 3 notable awards worldwide. If you are a sucker for good poems, Ariel might just be the perfect read for you - here are 5 reasons why Ariel is the book for you!...
2 Pages 819 Words
The inconsistent points of view presented that form Hughes’ roles as both a composer and persona in Birthday Letters, are revealed in the interaction with memory and hindsight. In “Fulbright Scholars” this interaction is displayed in the tension that is produced in the opening of the poem from the repetition of the juxtaposition of rhetorical questions which he writes answers to. In particular, when he asks; “Were you among them? I studied it…”, the inquisitive yet unfounded tone in the...
2 Pages 1007 Words
Textual conversations between conflicting texts highlight both the parallels between the composer’s ideologies as well as their conflicting attitudes, underscoring the contrasting outlooks from both parties. Resonating and reaffirming this idea is the contradictory interplay between Sylvia Plath’s poetry collection of ‘Ariel’, authored during an era of gender digression, where women were stereotypically branded as housewives,; and Ted Hughes’ attempts to reconcile and expiate guilt as he confronts the public about his relationship with Sylvia Plath, in his poetry collection...
2 Pages 1030 Words
Fever 103° is a poem first published in 1965 as a component of Sylvia Plath’s anthology entitled Ariel. This poem was written in the autumn of 1962, when Plath was struck by the flu and left alone to care for her young children. “Fever 103°” describes a speaker caught in the hallucinogenic state of a high fever, all the while she transcends into her purest form. One of the predominant themes within this poem is religion. Plath often shares religious...
1 Page 676 Words
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath hounds Esther Greenwood who spends the summer of 1953, “the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs” away from hometown Massachusetts, sent off to intern in New York at a reputable fashion magazine with eleven other lucky girls. She is meant to have the time of her life, be the envy of thousands of college girls just like her all over America but just feels that all her accomplishments she has totted up fizzle into nothing....
2 Pages 937 Words
Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” is considered by some to be one of the best examples of confessional poetry ever published. In the poem, Plath compares the horrors of Nazism to the horrors of her own life, all of which are centered on the death of her father. Although autobiographical in nature, “Daddy” gives detailed insight into Sylvia Plath’s conflicting emotions by intertwining fact and fiction into an alternate reality through the use of metaphors and symbolism. The poem ultimately reveals the...
3 Pages 1418 Words
Written in 1959, Syliva Plath writes about the feelings of being in the state of pregnancy, in her poem Metaphors. Many of Plath's works have been influenced by her experiences in dealing with maternity and fertility. Her works mirror her experiences with loss, motherhood, and family. Metaphors was one of the first poems Plath had ever written about pregnancy in the same year that Plath was pregnant with her first child.Plath uses the devices of imagery to describe disgust in...
2 Pages 937 Words
Sylvia Plath was widely regarded as “one of the most celebrated and controversial post-war (‘feminists’)” writing in English” [Oates] in the twentieth century. In her ‘Ariel’ collection, Plath explores the gender inequality and expectations that plagued society at that time, and arguably today. Through her poetry, Plath criticises the social norms and values that socially conditioned both men and women to behave in the ‘appropriate’ way. In doing this, she reveals her own personal struggle with existential misery as well...
1 Page 467 Words
Post-world war II period is incomplete without the name of Sylvia Plath. Plath being a significant artist, turned out to be reputable after her suicide in 1963. She has recognized herself because of her famous collection Ariel which hold alarming and acclaimed stanzas. She used bold and wild metaphors, repeatedly disrupting and violent symbolism to summon mythic characteristics in humankind. Her poems speak of social criticism investigating individual and female identity, agony, subjugation and the certainty, inescapable death. Her work...
3 Pages 1502 Words
We are in complete and total control of our thoughts, actions and everyday decisions… whether we choose to believe this is down to us. Throughout my life, I have had several times where I stopped to question myself and my happiness, and what I was doing to feed and maintain it. My curiosity for this sparked when I realised that we, as human beings have this strange need or conditioning to not take responsibility for our own happiness. We expect...
3 Pages 1220 Words
Our collective relationship with the natural world is one fraught with tensions and paradoxes. Through a refusal to identify any form of objective truth, Ariel by Sylvia Plath moves beyond binaries to posit language as a portal into deepened self understanding. In this essay I will discuss… In this essay I will discuss how Plath through an exploration of the tensions between the self and the natural world, denying using a dialogical portrayal of the relationship between the self and...
3 Pages 1187 Words
The bond between a parent and a child is not only one of the strongest, but, it also has the ability to be the most complicated. This intricate bond is exhibited in both “Medusa”, written by Sylvia Plath, as well as Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz.” These two poems are written in first person point view about a child’s feelings towards a far from perfect parent. While both of these poems are about a child’s view on the complex...
3 Pages 1204 Words
First of all, Holden and Esther share the common obstacle of being unable to conform to the standards and expectations formed by society. Holden and Esther are both adolescents in a 1950s United-States, a less progressive time where you had almost no choice but to follow the path set out by society as you enter the adult world. However, neither of them can seem to conform to these standards. Firstly, Esther is torn over the expectation for her to marry...
1 Page 434 Words
Sylvia Plath is an American writer and poet. She did not live an exciting life as others will think. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She had struggled with depression and mental illness throughout various points in her lifetime. Her life influence her works with themes, such as self identity and female roles. It indicates how mental illness can greatly affect lives. In Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, Plath’s experiences with mental illness is depicted in the character,...
6 Pages 2517 Words
'Daddy' is a poem included in the book Ariel, written by Silvia Plath. The poem is framed within the so-called confessional stream, with an autobiographical character, a reflection of the chaos and suffering experienced by the author. 'Daddy' is a poem that reads like an exorcism. It can also be understood as an expression of the Father-Daughter relationship. Plath in the poem reflects the hatred he feels toward the father figure, his desperate attempt to kill his father's memory, the...
2 Pages 743 Words
Sylvia Plath does present the frightening but liberating freedom of the natural world as preferable to the oppressive, patriarchal structures of the manmade world. The poet makes effective use of conceptual landscape and personification in her poetry, and the ‘natural world’ often seems to echo the narrative voice’s mood clearly. But at the same time , there seems to be a lack of sympathy between nature and the voices we hear. The lack of sympathy comes from inflicting harsh and...
2 Pages 883 Words
Plath is considered to be one of the major voices writing about feminine subjects during the 1950s and the 1960s. This was a period when feminists started to acknowledge women’s oppression and the 2nd wave feminist movement began in the early 1960s. Within Plath’s collection of poems, Ariel, published in 1965, two years after her death in 1963, we see her adopt different personas, standpoints and tones. The speakers often begin oppressed and manipulated; their roles in society shaped by...
4 Pages 1682 Words
Throughout an examination of Plath’s poetry, a reader will witness prominent themes of inadequacy and mental anguish. The poet’s lack of self-belief is primarily evident in ‘Mirror’, as the poet struggles to overcome her insecurities. Furthermore, Plath combats her darkest thoughts during ‘Arrival of the Bee Box’ and ‘Poppies in July’ as she confronts her inner demons. But such examples of Plath’s art should not be taken as representative of her entire body of work, which is in many ways...
2 Pages 1139 Words
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