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Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath. October 27, 1932 - February 11, 1963. Family Background…. Born in Boston, Mass Mother, Aurelia married Otto, 21 years her senior Aurelia-high school teacher Otto-professor of Entomology at Boston University. Brother Warren, born April 27, 1935. Functionally Dysfunctional.

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Sylvia Plath

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  1. Sylvia Plath October 27, 1932 - February 11, 1963

  2. Family Background… • Born in Boston, Mass • Mother, Aurelia married Otto, 21 years her senior • Aurelia-high school teacher • Otto-professor of Entomology at Boston University. • Brother Warren, born April 27, 1935

  3. Functionally Dysfunctional • 1940-Otto Plath dies of an embolism following the amputation of his leg. His toe had become gangrenous from undiagnosed diabetes. • Aurelia was said to be a controlling mother who sometimes smothered Sylvia. • Sylvia and Otto had a husband-wife routine that suggested an Oedipal relationship.

  4. Sylvia’s Young Life • Attended Smith College (’50-’55) • Fall of 1952: shows physical signs of depression • Worked as a guest editor at Mademoiselle during her junior year in 1953. • Also in 1953, Sylvia received bipolar electro-convulsive shock treatments • August 24, 1953-she attempts suicide: “…she crawled into a dark, dirty space underneath her mother’s house, where she swallowed pills…”

  5. More from Junior & Senior Year… • Sylvia returned to Smith in February of ‘54 (she took a semester off) • June 6, 1955: graduated with honors (summa cum laude) in English and won a Fulbright scholarship to Cambridge • By the time she left for Cambridge, Sylvia’s view on male/female relationships had greatly shifted, but she felt England would provide the tall, handsome husband she wanted.

  6. As a young woman, Sylvia was an alluring figure. It’s no surprise that during her studies at Cambridge, she drew the attention of…

  7. …Ted Hughes:“With his manly brow, angular jaw and unruly hair, Hughes cut a handsome figure…”

  8. A brief Interview Sylvia Plath (14 min)

  9. Sylvia and Ted--met on February 25, 1956 and married on June 16 Daughter Frieda (April 1st, 1960) and son Nicholas (January 17th, 1962) Sylvia and Ted separated in October 1962 The “love affair” begins… *some insight into her relationship with Hughes

  10. The Movie… In 2003, Gwyneth Paltrow starred as Plath in the film Sylvia, co-starring Daniel Craig as Ted Hughes (that’s right… James Bond).

  11. The Bell Jar-published in1963 Her collection of poems titled Colossus was published in October 1960 Collected Poems won Pulitzer for poetry posthumously Plath’s literary and poetic achievements…

  12. These poems are often called the “October Poems,” written just after her separation from Ted. A new version of Ariel was recently published with the poems organized as Plath wished them to be.“Daddy” “Ariel”“Lady Lazarus”The Bee Poems (5 of them) Ariel (1965)

  13. Ironically, Assia Wevill, took her own life (and her daughter’s) in the same fashion as Sylvia. Sylvia committed suicide on February 11, 1963. She was only 30 years old. Her children were sleeping in the next room.

  14. Even her death gives rise to conflict and contemplation of human experiences abound! The gravestone that was repeatedly defaced… Groups battling over the gravestone include, but are not limited to: -Feminists for Plath -Masculinists for Ted Hughes -Foreign dignitaries As well as many others…

  15. Reoccurring symbols/themes in Plath’s poetry… • Bees: Otto wrote his dissertation on bees titled “Bumblebees and their Ways” • Sea: Sylvia spent time with her grandfather exploring the sea; the sea as salvation. • The struggle to manage womanhood, motherhood, marriage, and writing.

  16. Reoccurring symbols/themes in Plath’s poetry… • Man’s cruelty, loss and betrayal, dealing with depression. • Elements of nature; seasonal changes reflecting mood and emotion; sunrise as a progression of time and change. • Shadows: symbolic of the mind, darkness, inner-turmoil

  17. How do we define Confessional Poetry? • Label was first used by the critic M.L. Rosenthal, who referred to Robert Lowell as a poet who reveals to his readers aspects of his private life that would conventionally be kept hidden, unless one were confessing to a priest (or in therapy with a psychiatrist) • Reaction against impersonality of the High-Modernists • Emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the works of Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, and Allen Ginsberg (among others)

  18. How do we define Confessional Poetry? • Autobiographical manner of addressing personal experiences: depression, relationships, confusion, death, trauma, psychological breakdowns, etc. • The “I” transforms into a completely personal, speaking “I” • Careful attention and use of prosody--the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry • Poems are created to be read and listened to aloud (resists footnotes, dictionary, visual aspects on a page) • Different uses of register: formal, colloquial, etc.

  19. Plath as Confessor “I think my poems immediately come out of the sensuous and emotional experiences I have, but I must say I cannot sympathize with these cries from the heart that are informed by nothing except a needle or a knife, or whatever it is. I believe that one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrifying, like madness, being tortured, this sort of experience, and one should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and intelligent mind” (Modern American Poetry).

  20. Poetic terminology – be in the know! There will be an exam on Plath – biographical information – and poetic terminology. Be prepared to explain excerpts from her poems (the ones we studies in class this semester)

  21. IBDP2 Recommended Supplemental Readings are posted to my webpage… but these are a few for you to check out: Sylvia Plath: A Biography by Linda Wagner-Martin Sylvia Plath: A Literary Life by Linda Wagner- Martin Works Consulted Modern American Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelson. Oxford University Press, 2000 http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/m_r/plath Wagner-Martin, Linda. Sylvia Plath: A Biography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.

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