Sylvia Plath Research Paper

My love for Sylvia Plath’s poetry piqued my interested in her semi-autobiographical novel, in which she recounts the earlier years of her life through the protagonist, Esther Greenwood. I regarded the book as an opportunity to examine her disposition and how it might’ve influenced her writing.
The first person point of view fixates the reader with the narrator in the electrotherapy room and in the asylums. We are able to feel her fear and anxiety shroud her judgment with cynicism and mistrust page by page. Yet through Esther’s eyes, I could still see beautiful things. The way Plath describes what she sees with intricate similes and satisfying images, even in the sinister of times demonstrate her poetic credence.
With a witty and thoughtful tone, Sylvia Plath spirals the reader into a depressive mindset. The bildungsroman story reminded me of Holden Caulfield's experiences in The Catcher in the Rye. It is reflective of society’s cruel demands and expectations for a young adult to be mentally healthy and appropriately experienced when they are actually afraid of their uncertain, pending adulthood. …show more content…
Along with her morbid demeanor are very honest, self-criticizing traits that are usually responsible for her self-destructive actions. The basis of Plath’s coming of age story is not only naive and confused Esther dwelling into madness and returning as more educated and self-reliant but also holding society accountable for constituting a part of her illness. However, society’s standards ultimately shapes her into an independent mind, responsible for her own life, beginning with Esther rebelling against

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