Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

By: Jacob Cooper

The Life of Sylvia Plath:

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• Born: 10/27/1932 in Boston, MA
• Father- German, Mother- American
• Father died in 1940
• 1st poem published in 1940
• Sold 1st poem to The Christian Science Monitor in high school
• Sold 1st short story in high school to Seventeen Magazine

The Life of Syliva Plath Pt. 2

• Smith College -1951
• Severe depression, attempted suicide, hospitalization
• Cambridge-Fulbright
• Husband, party,Ted Hughes, married 6/6/1956
• 1957-Massachusetts, studied w/ Robert Lowell
• 1960- published "The Colossus"

Poem above

Life of Sylvia Plath Pt. 3

• 1960: 1st child, Freida. 1962: 2nd child, Nicholas
• 1962: Ted leaves Sylvia, affair
• Winter of '62: "Ariel" is written
• 1963: Wrote The Bell Jar, first novel
• 2/11/1963: Died from Carbon Minoxide poisoning- oven
• Ted Hughes (ex) published many of Plath's pieces (The Bell Jar, "Ariel", etc.).
• Recieved Pulitzer Prize in 1982- The Collected Poems

Annotated Poem

The Takeaways: Poem 1

• Plath is angry that she cannot kill her father, herself.
• She spits out her anger and resentment toward her father in a controlled and calm manner.
• Plath is comparing the injustice of not being able to kill her father, herself, to the Jews lack of freedom during The Holocaust

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The Takeaways: Poem 2

• Plath is trying to compare the tribulations of her life to that of a Jew in The Holocaust.
• Plath believes that what her father did to her (abandonement) cannot be as bad as what she wants to do to him (kill him)
• The connection of life and death she makes in Plath’s poem, “Daddy.”

About Sylvia Plath

While studying Plath, I learned that she held major resentment toward her father. She also utilized the events of her life at the time in her writing. Her in depth pieces revolving around real life events is what helped herself gained her popularity.

About Myself

Through studying Plath, I learned that one should be able to express themselves however they please. They should never hold themselves to restrictions limiting their creativity and livelihood. Plath's writing exemplifies these things, which hopefully indicates an ill-fated ending.

Thanks!