| SYLVIA PLATH BIOGRAPHY |
b. October 27, 1932 - d. February 11, 1963 Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts to Otto and Aurelia Plath. Otto was a German who came to study ministry at Northwestern University, but wound up as a biology professor at Boston University (with a Master's Degree in the arts from Washington University and a Ph.D. in science from Harvard) who specialized in bees. Aurelia Plath nee Schober was a German and English teacher at Brookline High School, until she married Otto and became a homemaker. They settled in Winthrop, a town near Boston. The Plath household was very conservative. Otto and Aurelia's relationship was very stable. Sylvia had a brother, Warren. Their family, including extended family, was a very tight unit. Sylvia's childhood was a blissful one, and was instrumental in developing Sylvia as a writer. Much of the imagery in her work is based from memories of Winthrop. When Sylvia was eight years old, Otto passed away, from complications due to undiagnosed diabetes. Her father's death scarred her permanently; theirs was an extraordinarily close, almost Oedipal relationship. Little Sylvia grew. Sylvia was virtually impeccable in every way. She excelled in school, was a popular girl and very intelligent. Sylvia was an active drama student. She sent her work to magazines for publication and edited her school's newspaper. She was a member of the National Honors Society and attended Smith College on a scholarship. Though she was studying creative writing, she also dabbled in graphic arts. In the summer of her third year in college, Sylvia was a guest editor in Mademoiselle Magazine (after much of her work appeared in other publications). Shortly afterward, on August 24, 1953, after losing a bout with depression, Sylvia almost succeeded in taking her life with a mega-dose of sleeping pills. She was treated with intense psychotherapy and electroshock therapy. Rested and somewhat recovered, Sylvia graduated summa cum laude from Smith in 1954. Sylvia's career as a writer began earlier than most of her colleagues. Her first publication was a short couplet she wrote when she was eight years old, published in the Boston Sunday Herald. From then on, she persistently worked to get her poetry printed in major magazines and newspapers. After forty-five rejections, Seventeen Magazine published one of Sylvia's stories. Another piece of fiction by Sylvia was printed in Ladies' Home Journal. In her first year at Smith, Sylvia won third prize in Seventeen Magazine's writing contest. Other assorted works were published in such periodicals as Seventeen, the Christian Science Monitor, The National Poetry Association Anthology and Harper's Weekly. After her initial suicide attempt, Sylvia began to write at a fast and furious pace. Her work became darker, more melancholy. Her work progressed (or rather, regressed) as her life went on. On June 16, 1956, Sylvia married British poet, Ted Hughes. Initially, their marriage was idyllic and generally a happy one. Her home and husband became Sylvia's top priorities. Sylvia felt that she had found her true soulmate in Ted. They lived in England. In 1960, Sylvia's novel The Colossus was published. In the summer of 1962, Sylvia's piece "Three Women" was set to air on the BBC. However, despite the ideal scenario, Ted and Sylvia's marriage fell to shambles less than two years after the birth of their second child, Nicholas (Sylvia gave birth to a daughter, Frieda, in 1960 and miscarried another child in 1961). Sylvia was penniless and lived in a London flat with her two children. During her times of hardship, she wrote heavily at four o'clock in the morning, inspired by the stillness of the early morning and the silence of the city. During this time, Sylvia wrote her most famous work, The Bell Jar. The Bell Jar is a piece of autobiographical fiction about a young writer named Esther Greenwood. She is a guest editor for a women's magazine during the summer. She has many psychological crises and contemplates suicide. This novel allows readers a sort of window into her mind, a sort of reenactment of her emotionally tumultuous college years. Only a few months later, on February 11, 1963, Sylvia Plath committed suicide byinhalation of natural gas. Most of her major works were published posthumously. The poems Sylvia had written only weeks before her death were published in a collection titled Ariel in 1965. The Bell Jar was published in 1963, not long after Sylvia's death. Crossing the Water was published in 1971, as were Lyonesse: Poems by Sylvia Plath and Crystal Gazer and Other Poems. She is an object of curiosity among scholars and critics. They analyze her poetry, hoping for insight into her mind, finding reasons why Sylvia killed herself, why she lived in a constantly fluctuating state of misery. Critics have said Sylvia Plath's work is similar to earlier writers using their writing as a sexual release, to express their views on taboo subjects. In Plath's case, the taboo topic is death. She views death as an escape from the sadism of life. Readers also glimpse her relationship with her father through poetry with Oedipal subtext. Sylvia once said of her father, "He was an autocrat...I adored and despised him, and I probably wished many times that he were dead. When he obliged me and died, I imagined that I had killed him." Indeed, she saw the world through warped glasses. Sylvia also puts a grotesque spin on femininity. She emphasizes loss of self and potential for life through such symbols as miscarriage and menstruation. Infertility is equated to selfishness and worthlessness. Such examples of these ideas are exemplified in "Three Women" and "Childless Woman." Sylvia Plath was a very introspective person, her colleagues knew very little of her while she lived. Ted Hughes was the only person who related to Sylvia, and their relationship wasn't perfect, they divorced after a brief marriage. Still he wrote a book about his experiences with Sylvia "Sylvia Plath's Crossing the Water: Some Reflections." Overall, Sylvia Plath's life was an depressed eccentric, a story of a tortured artist and waste of a brilliant mind. Statistically and considering her background, she would be not be considered at high risk for mental problems. However, she beat the odds in a sense. She was able to get close to people, while detaching herself from all those around her. Her relationships with people strained very easily. Her marriage fell apart, and in the end, her children could not keep her from comitting suicide. She was a dismal person lacking vitality. It came out in her writing and made it exceptional. |