The Amazing Individuality of the Life and Works of Sylvia Plath.

Mia Vieira

English III G/T-1

Mrs. Navarro

12 April 2003

The Amazing Individuality of the Life and Works of Sylvia Plath

Until her death in 1963, Sylvia Plath’s life could be described as quite successful. Plath was a true accomplished writer, wife, and mother of two. Her story began on the 27th of October of 1932, where she was born in Boston, Massachusetts. However, her life tragically ended in February 11, 1963, on a very cold winter day when her second suicide attempt was unfortunately successful.

When Plath was about eight years old, her first poem was published. A few years later, her career in writing commenced and she rapidly began to write many great poems still affecting readers and critics today. Her poems were published in several different collections, which each volume reflected on a different stage in her life. Even Plath’s own friends were often surprised with the effect of anger, isolation, and confusion instilled in The Colossus, Ariel, Crossing the Water, and Winter Trees, her four volumes of poetry (Martin 2). Her style of writing, which was used in all her works, included the use of rhyme, versatility of form, and a vast word choice. Amazingly enough, Sylvia Plath was able to enrich us with a semi-fictional novel, The Bell Jar, which reflected Plath’s life and hardships through a fictional character, Esther Greenwood. The Bell Jar was finally published in 1963, a month before her death, under the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas. Plath had written under that pseudonym due to the fact that she

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did not think the novel was serious work. After reviewing the novel, Plath was accused of being careless and self-centered (Hardwick 1).

Her book was said to have been too brutal about certain people, including Plath’s father (Howe 1). The Bell Jar sets an obvious example of Plath’s writing styles and techniques. Plath had once stated that each time she wrote a poem she had a “magnificent experience.” Sometimes she would go onto writing rampages and write about two to three poems a day, and other times her poems would take weeks. “Mirror,” was by far one of the best poems written to illustrate the American theme of the search for freedom and individuality. In every literary work, especially in The Bell Jar, the struggle for identity and liberty is quite illustrated. Plath was one of the few women that refused to follow the tradition of most women writers. She did not disguise her aggression, hostility, and despair in her art. She was a true pioneer and pathfinder (Martin 5).

The Bell Jar depicted the life of Esther Greenwood and her rite of passage from girl to woman. This novel was one of the few that fearlessly chronicled the life of an intelligent woman who struggled in the world to discover the function of existence (Martin 2). The story began with Esther as an intern at a fashion magazine, quite parallel to Plath’s internship at Mademoiselle. As the story progressed, Esther decided that she needed to live life on her own and was drastically devastated when she came home to Boston and learned that she had not been accepted to ...

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