11th February 1963, the day respected poet and writer, Sylvia Plath, died aged 30, and this week marks the 63rd anniversary of that tragedy and yet her work endures. Many people focus on Plath’s tragic death, but she was so much more than this. Known as a pioneer of confessional poetry, particularly exploring darker and taboo themes for a mid 20th century audience such as mental illness, trauma and the female experience. Her writings shed a light on the realities of mental health and explored feminist critiques of the expectations and roles of women in the 1940’s and 50’s. But what was her life actually like?
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1932, Plath had her first experiences with tragedy and loss at a very early age. Her father, with whom she has a troubled relationship, died when she was 8-years-old, leaving Plath with anger towards her authoritarian father and feelings of betrayal over his death. Following this tragedy, the family was struck by financial troubles, forcing them to move to Wellesley, Massachusetts. Plath was a gifted student in her teens, winning numerous awards and published stories and poetry in magazines that lead to gaining a scholarship to Smith College. However, during her time as an undergraduate, Plath started to suffer from severe depression, which lead to an attempted suicide by swallowing of sleeping pills at age 20. The attempt lead to her hospitalisation and treatment via electroshock therapy.
Plath utilised this troubled past as inspiration for many of her works, including her major creations of The Bell Jar and the Colossus. Throughout all her works, key themes reoccur that correspond with her own personal experiences and feeling, such as: mental illness and hospitalisation, death of family, patriarchy and social conformity, and marriage and motherhood.
Plath relates her won experience battling depression and poor mental health within The Bell Jar, which serves as a semi autobiographical text about her time in hospital receiving electroshock therapy. Mental illness also occurs in poems such as Tulips and In Plaster, illustrating how Plath potentially used poetry as a therapeutic outlet to process her depression and experience in hospital.
The death of Plath’s father has also been mentioned in some of her works, such as The Colossus and Daddy, with Plath processing her feelings about the death of a family member who she had a complex and contentious relationship. Her poems work through the layered emotions she felt because of her death, portraying a theme of oppression and freedom after his death.
Three women and some of Plath’s later poems commented on her feelings about a patriarchal society and the social conformity forced upon women. America in the 1940’s and 50’s geared society towards family, with women feeling the pressure of the ultimate aim of marriage and US marriage rating reaching an all time high. Plath picked up on these dynamics and the restricted opportunities for women in this time, using her work as a poet and writer to critique the limited roles presented to women and how they were encouraged into constrained domestic roles serving the family.
The final theme Plath employs within her works is the theme of marriage and motherhood, and this relates to her turbulent marriage with Ted Hughes (a fellow poet). Plath married Hughes in 1956, and what was originally a relationship of mutual intellectual stimulation ultimately lead to betrayal. Hughes started up an affair with a friend of the couple, Assia Wevill, in the summer of 1962. When Plath discovered this deceit, Hughes refused to end the affair, and this lead to the end of their marriage in autumn 1962. Creatively, this lead Plath into a creative surge and she produced a large quantity of exceptional poetry and writing, despite the heartbreak. In 2017, an interesting yet heartbreaking series of letters that were written in the week before Sylvia Plath’s death were discovered. Plath wrote several confidential letters to her therapist stating that Hughes physically and psychologically abused her in the final years of their marriage. Overall, this damaging relationship may have propelled Plath into a creative swell, but it may have been the final straw that lead to her death.
On the 11th February 1963, Plath tucked her 2 children into bed, went into the kitchen and committed suicide by inhaling the gas from the kitchen oven. She died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Plath’s death was an incredibly tragic event, taking away a talented life so young. However, the legacy of life and work continue to be celebrated, she was a poet who provided the literary world with thought-provoking and unique pieces of literature that reflected her personal views on themes that are becoming more and more relevant in today’s society.