Sylvia Plath

My life, I feel, will not be lived until there are books and stories which relive it perpetually in time.

The above line is from Sylvia Plath’s journals called “The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath”. The line reflects her desire for her life to be immortalized through literature, emphasizing the importance of storytelling and writing in capturing and perpetuating the essence of her experiences.

Plath was a remarkable poet, novelist and short story writer of 20th century America. She is often cited as a leading voice in Confessional Poetry, a genre characterized by its candid exploration of personal experiences, emotions, and inner struggles. She had an extraordinary talent for expressing her thoughts and emotions through her works. Her life was both brilliant and tumultuous, marked by academic achievements, personal struggles, and a relentless pursuit of self-expression.

Early Life

Plath was born in 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts to highly intelligent parents. Her father, Otto Plath was a German immigrant and a professor of entomology at Boston University. Her mother, Aurelia, was the daughter of Austrian immigrants and taught high school German and English. From her early childhood Sylvia was an ambitious student. At the age of eight Sylvia published her first poem. The same year, 1940, her father died of gangrene caused by untreated diabetes. His death had a profound impact on the young poet.

Throughout her childhood and adolescence, Sylvia continued to publish poetry and fiction in regional newspapers and magazines, and published her first National piece in the Christian Science Monitor in 1950. Sylvia Plath’s academic journey is marked by exceptional brightness and unwavering determination. She excelled not only at Wellesley High School but also later at Smith College, where she pursued her studies on a scholarship. She also served as a guest editor at Mademoiselle Magazine in New York. Her experiences during this period became the inspiration for her autobiographical work “The Bell Jar”. It was also during this phase she made her initial suicide attempt, leading to her admission to a private psychiatric hospital for a six-month duration.

Her Relationship with Ted Hughes

Sylvia was greatly impressed by Hughes’ poetry that she read in a magazine. Soon, she met him in a celebration party of one of his poem. The couple quickly became infatuated and married shortly thereafter on June 16, 1956. Their relationship was intense and was marked by a shared passion for poetry. However, their marriage faced challenges, including Hughes’s affair with Assia Wevill, which ultimately led to their separation in September 1962.

Her Relationship with Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton

Plath developed close relationships with fellow poets Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell during her time in Boston University. They encouraged her to write from her personal experiences, particularly her struggles with depression and suicide attempts.

Plath openly discussed about her mental health with Lowell and shared her more female perspective with Sexton. This exchange influenced her to consider herself a more serious and focussed poet and short story writer.

Her Loneliness and Mental Illness

Sylvia Plath often grappled with a sense of isolation. This sentiment is reflected in her poetry and prose, where she explored themes of alienation and the search for connection. She writes “I need a father. I need a mother. I need some older, wiser being to cry to. I talk to God, but the sky is empty.” Throughout her life, she battled with mental health issues, particularly depression. Her works serve as poignant reflections of her internal struggles. In her semi-autobiographical novel, she expresses her loneliness: “The silence depressed me. It wasn’t the silence of silence. It was my own silence.”

Plath’s battle with loneliness and depression lead to multiple suicide attempts, including overdosing on sleeping pills in 1953 and a car accident in 1962. In addition to these attempts, there is a notable instance where she engaged in self-harm as she tries to slash her leg to see if she had enough courage to kill herself. Tragically, she took her own life on February 11, 1963, at the age of 30 by inhaling gas from an oven in her London flat.

In the final months of her life (October 1962), Plath experienced a burst of creativity, writing poems that would later be part of her posthumous collection, “Ariel”, for which she was awarded with Pulitzer Prize of 1965.

You might want to know more about Ted Hughes.

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