The mind is a complicated and sometimes tortured object. Such is the case with Sylvia Plath was an intricate person, as are most artists who use their life experiences for inspiration. She wrote with feeling and heart. Many of her work showed a deep understanding of her emotions and state of mind. Ms. Plath has become more famous after her death than in life, although she did have a following while she was still living.
Sylvia Plath was an American born poet, novelist, and short story writer born in Boston on October 27, 1932 and died on February 11, 1963 at the age of 30. (Biography, 2013) She was the daughter of a German Immigrant professor Otto Plath and one of his students Aurelia Schober. (Poetry Foundation, 2013) Her father died when Sylvia was eight years old, and affected her for the rest of her life. Her poem “Daddy” is based on it.
Early in her life she showed promise she was always writing and started keeping a journal at the age 11. She was published early on in her life she was first published in 1950, in the Christian Science Monitor she had just graduated from High School. (Poetry Foundation, 2013)
She spent her undergrad years at Smith College unfortunately she attempted suicide at 19 with sleeping pills she did recover and was treated with shock therapy. According to her journals she described being Bi-polar and having the manic stages in addition to the debilitating depression stages. During this time there was no medication at the time for the condition. (Biography, 2013) She graduated summa cum laude from Smith College. She then won a Fulbright Scholarship to Cambridge University, England. (Poets, 1997-2013) While at Cambridge she met her future husband, another poet by the name of Ted Hughes, with whom she had two children. They were married in 1956 but divorced in 1962
During her marriage to Hughes she wrote her only book that was published while she was alive. In 1960 she wrote “The Colossus” it was her first collection of poems. (Poetry Foundation, 2013) In 1962 she wrote the “Bell Jar” under a pseudonym Victoria Lucas. This was later published under her own name. It was a work of Fiction but is
