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Photo of Sylvia with her mother (Aurelia Plath)  and father (Otto Plath) 

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Sylvia Plath was born in Massachusetts in 1932, 8 years later her father passed away due to medical complications. After his death, her family moved east, from Boston to a town called Wellesley. The death of Slyvias father highly impacted her, leading to her depression and influencing her to write. In Plath's poem “The Colossus” she expresses how she feels about her father “The sun rises under the pillar of your tongue” (Plath 27). In this line Sylvia expresses how she is forever under the influence of her father and his actions, how severely he has impacted her life.

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Being Admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital 

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Being Admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital 

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Following after her first real editorial job for Mademoiselle in New York, Sylvia attempted to commit suicide, “On 24 August 1953 she hid herself in the cellar of her home after taking about forty sleeping pills” (Bryfonski, Dedria “Depression in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.” Greenhaven Press p. 22).  Due to her attempt, Plath was admitted to the Massachusetts General Hospital. This is where she met Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton who were also patients at the time. She connected with Lowell and Sexton, discussing her experiences with them. These two encouraged her to write from her personal experience.

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Copy of the Erie Daily Times from June 20, 1953

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In the era of Sylvia Plath, execution by electrical shock was on the rise. Plath was clearly impacted by this, mentioning it in her work. It's even included in the first line of her book “The Bell Jar.” The book is written in the perspective of a young woman named Esther, the opening line is as follows: “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs” (Plath 1).  Esther goes on to revisit this topic throughout the book, the topic clearly weighs on the characters mind.

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Sylvia's works often have an occurring strain of references to WWI and Nazi Germany. She “[uses] history to explain herself, writing about the Nazi concentration camps as though she had been imprisoned there” (“Sylvia Plath” The Poetry Foundation p. 4). In her well known poem “Daddy” Plath compares her relationship with her father to that of a Jewish person and a Nazi “I have always been scared of you / with your Luftwaffe” (Plath 41-42). She talks of being scared of her father and alludes to the Luftwaffe, a Nazi bombing force.

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A recurring theme in Sylvias writing is depression. “The Bell Jar” is arguably Sylvia's prominent  literary work. Following the story of a girl named Esther, “The Bell Jar” is similar to Sylvia's life. Esther moves to New York, securing a modeling job which she feels displaced. Esther struggles with depression and goes through an attempt similar to Sylvia herself who ended up committing suicide at 30 years old. “The Bell Jar” explores Esther's recovery after she is admitted to a mental hospital, again, alluding to Sylvia's personal life. The book ends abruptly when Esther is finally released from her institution.

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In Lady Lazarus, Sylvia depicts a woman and compares her to Lazarus who is a character in the bible. Lazarus is mentioned in the New Testament of the bible and his life is restored by Jesus four days after his death. The poem illustrates different ways the woman has attempted and leads with, “I have done it again / One year in every ten” (Plath 1-2).  Lady Lazarus was published after Sylvia's death which is ironic, due to the alluding to Plath's previous suicide attempts. It's inferred Sylvia is referring to her attempts to end her life that have repeatedly failed.

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Handwritten _ edit of Sylvia Plath’s Lady Lazarus_

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Sylvia Plath has been known to include topics in her writing that have been seen as  controversial. Shanagher references Plath's poem “Ariel” mentioning “her blatant racism and disrespect for black people” (Shanagher, Lily “Holding Sylvia Plath accountable” The Oxford Blue p. 3). It’s inferred that Shanagher is talking about line 10 of “Ariel” where Plath says the n-word. Many points have been made against Plath, most including her alluding to the Holocaust when talking about her problems, it's clear some of Sylvia's work is contestable but it's important to acknowledge that not all of her works include these themes.

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Photo of Sylvia on the Yorkshire Moors with Her Typewriter (1956) 

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Apart from Sylvia's “controversial” themes, she's been hit hard by critics due to her writing style “Having read the whole novel [“The Bell Jar”], I can confirm that Sylvia Plath doesn't understand how paragraphs work” (Gabbert, Elisa “Against Completism: On Sylvia Plath's New Short Story” The Paris Review p. 3). Gabbert refers to Sylvia's work and makes comments like “Plath's journals and letters are often unintentionally funny in their absurd dramatics” (Gabbert p. 2). Sylvia's wide range of works and themes has led critics to many different interpretations of her work and the way it was meant to be received.