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Ali Kilinc – 900235909 – Literary Analysis Essay [RESEARCH]: Draft #6 [FINAL

REVISED]

Ms. Rebecca Alexander

ENG 193: Literature & Composition – 10:30AM – 40423

28 May 2009

Topic #1: Focus on how the author’s [Sylvia Plath] work influenced the text

Sylvia Plath: A Great Depression

Almost every prominent author and poet in the history of modern

literature has had his or her writing heavily influenced by life changing

events. Sylvia Plath, one of the highly praised poets of the twentieth century,

was also an author who was influenced to write because of the events that

happened in her life. She suffered immense difficulties in her life, regardless

of what obstacle that faced her. Similar to many authors, Sylvia Plath’s

writing was mainly influenced by the depression that affected her. In

essence, her poems and stories have inspired, and continue to inspire,

countless people, and have broken new ground in literature. Her semi-

autobiographical writing style pioneered the writing form known today as

simply “confessional poetry”. This endless depression wrecked havoc on her

personal life, especially her marriage, while at the same time being an

instrument in the creation of her extraordinary gothic-styled writing, which

can be observed from her poems “Daddy”, “Tulips”, and “Lady Lazarus”.
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Sylvia Plath suffered all through her personal life. Ironically, her life

begins in the Great Depression. This somewhat reflects upon the start of her

life-long battle with depression. One of the main sources of her depression

was due to the death of her father. Like a horrendous present, exactly one

week after Sylvia Plath’s birthday, her father died. According to the Literary

Encyclopedia, this was while she was at a dreadfully young age, eight, to be

exact (“Sylvia Plath” 2). Unfortunately, she was never able to fully overcome

the pain associated with her father’s death, and so it haunted her for the

remainder of her life. This emotional impact on her writing can be observed

in many of her poems, specifically in her acclaimed poem “Daddy”.

Sylvia Plath continued to have a highly disturbed life from then on,

which turned unrelentingly rocky every time she tried to overcome an

emotional challenge. According to People magazine, she even experienced

problems in her marriage with Ted Hughes, a seemingly compatible partner,

being a fellow poet (Jerome, Richard, et al. 141). Throughout her life, she

attempted suicide, and this emotional trauma also reflected her work,

specifically in her poem “Lady Lazarus”. To add to her suffering, Sylvia

Plath’s horrendous husband institutionalized her. Her institutionalization

combined with other medical “issues” led Plath to reflect upon her emotions

in a poem called “Tulips”. Furthermore, she became highly distressed when

she found out that her husband was cheating on her. Sylvia Plath was never

able to fully recover from the pain that Hughes had inflicted upon her. She

separated from her husband the year she wrote “Tulips”, and the pain that
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she infused into the poem was an element of her suicide, which occurred

only four months later. One must understand that her painful life filled with

suffering did not dissolve in vain, but it spurred and inspired much of her

writing.

While the writing of many authors may have been affected via their

life, this influence goes beyond merely inspiration for others. As stated by

Kennedy, Plath’s poems have not only been affected by her life, but the

meanings of some of her poems have also been slightly distorted due to her

depression (Kennedy 1511). One must note that Sylvia Plath started writing

approximately the same time as her father’s death. Her writing only matured

as she grew older, and increased with emotional force. The more pain she

felt, the more she sensed as if she needed to express that pain. As she

suffered, her desire to convey her emotions exponentially magnified.

Eventually, her depression grew so intense that her poems evolved into

confessions obviously filled with gothic themes of pain, suffering, and death.

She also wrote withan obvious semi-autobiographical theme. Her

unrelenting use of such poetry has given her the title of creating the

pioneering literary movement of “confessional poetry.”

The poem written by Sylvia Plath called Daddy was greatly affected by

her depression. In many ways, her father’s death built a foundation for her

writing. Many years after the death of her father, Sylvia Plath finally decided

to channel her entire struggle to overcome her father’s death in her poem

“Daddy”. This feeling of not being able to let go is observable in the line “You
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died before I had time–” (7). This line in the poem trails off into an empty

thought, observably stating that Plath wanted to spend more time with her

father. “Daddy” tries in many ways to embody her immense feelings of

depression throughout her life in the lines:

I was ten when they buried you.

At twenty I tried to die

And get back, back, back to you.

I thought even the bones would do. (57-60)

Sylvia Plath uses symbolization by substituting events of the Holocaust with

events in her own life, adding to the emotional impact of the poem. She uses

harsh imagery in her poem of her recently separated husband, “man in black

with a Meinkampf look,” so the reader can understand her pain and suffering

(65). The tone in this poem is somewhat different in respect to many of

Sylvia Plath’s other poems. According to Jon Rosenblatt, “Daddy” attempts to

“kill” her obsession with her father, and end her suffering (Rosenblatt 1). She

finishes by giving the false illusion of closure with, “Daddy, daddy, you

bastard, I’m through.” (80). The poem Daddy, in a variety of ways,

encapsulates Plath’s entire life’s worth of depression, which was filled with

pain and suffering, in a dramatic and gothic-styled poem.

Sylvia Plath’s poem Tulips is also apparently highly affected as a result

of her depression. The poem reflects upon another extremely influential

aspect of her personality, the postpartum depression (PPD) she experienced

immediately after the birth of her daughter Frieda. When Frieda came, Sylvia
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was not emotionally ready for a new baby, or any child for that matter. All

things usually pleasant turned horrendously disturbing for her after the baby

arrived with the simple example of flowers bothering her. As Diana Curtis

observes, the flowers remind and everything surrounding her birth became a

harsh reality-check of the unpleasant outside world (Curtis 184). These

feelings angst that Sylvia felt can be observed through the speaker of the

poem in lines where the speaker states that she can “…hear them

breath/Lightly, through their swaddlings, like an awful baby.” (37-38). Here,

the tulips are personified because the speaker is intimidated by the flowers.

Furthermore, the tulips are used as symbolization to explain how Sylvia does

not see something that is meant to be beautiful. Her baby, although a

beautiful miracle, is demonized; the tulips, although gorgeous, are shown as

the enemy. Observing all these elements that Plath incorporated into

“Tulips”, it is extremely clear that her deep-settled depression swayed the

poem to a darker, and somewhat gothic theme.

Finally, when observing works of poetry by Sylvia Plath that have been

affected by her depression, it is important not to overlook her celebrated

poem called “Lady Lazarus”. Throughout the poem, Plath uses numerous

forms of imagery to demonstrate her feelings of pain and agony. For

example, in the beginning of the poem, the speaker explains how she has

attempted suicide, “I have done it again,/One year in every ten/I manage it–“

(1-3). As stated by Kennedy, in many ways, these lines fully embody Plath’s
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emotions of distress in an auto-biographical nature (Kennedy 654). Her

detest of life is also symbolized through her use of the Holocaust as imagery:

A sort of walking miracle, my skin

Bright as a Nazi lampshade, My right foot.

A paperweight,

My face a featureless, fine

Jew linen. (4-10).

Plath again boldly compares the experiences that Holocaust victims went

through, to her own emotional challenges. Although highly controversial, it is

a necessary tool that she used to demonstrate her feelings of entrapment

and torture she faced. The poem also conveys her thoughts, creating the

illusion that the only escape from her suffering is to end her own life.

Furthermore, the speaker’s suicidal feelings become heightened when the

reader realizes that Plath literally killed herself mere months subsequent to

writing the poem. It is obvious that this poem has been greatly affected by

Plath’s chronic depression as it embodies many of her feelings of pain and

suffering.

Obviously, Sylvia Plath’s life is filled with tragic stories of hurt and

anguish. The events in her life inspired her writing in every way imaginable.

Her use of semi-autobiographical poems gave insight into her feelings and

gave the world a view on how she faced issues. Because of her work, she

was christened with title of pioneering the writing style known as

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“confessional poetry”. Sylvia Plath’s obsession with death and pain is

apparent in many of her works, and has led her to write extraordinary poems

with a gothic theme. It is evident that she suffered through depression her

entire life. Sylvia Plath’s endless depression caused chaos in her marriage,

destroyed her family, affected her mental being, and ruined her life; yet it

was highly instrumental in the creation of her extraordinarily unique gothic

poems.
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Works Cited

Curtis, Diana. "Plath's TULIPS." Explicator 64.3 (Spring 2006): 184-

186. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. 27 May 2009

Jerome, Richard, Eileen Finan, and Mary Green. "Who Was

Sylvia?." People 60.19 (10 Nov. 2003): 141-143. Academic Search

Complete. EBSCO. Web. 27 May 2009.

Kennedy, X. J, and GIOIA. “Biographical Criticism. ” Literature: an introduction

to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing. Kennedy, X. J, and GIOIA. New

York: Pearson, 2007. 1510-1511. Print.

Kennedy, X. J, and GIOIA. “Poetry and Personal Identity. ” Literature: an

introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and writing. Kennedy, X. J, and

GIOIA. New York: Pearson, 2007. 654-669. Print.

McGill, Sarah Ann. "Sylvia Plath." Sylvia Plath (9781429802918) (Sep. 2005):

1-2. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. 27 May 2009.

Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy. ” Literature: an introduction to fiction, poetry, drama,

and writing. Kennedy, X. J, and GIOIA. New York: Pearson, 2007. 801-

803. Print.

Plath, Sylvia. “Lady Lazarus. ” Literature: an introduction to fiction, poetry,

drama, and writing. Kennedy, X. J, and GIOIA. New York: Pearson, 2007.

655-657. Print.
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Rosenblatt, Jon. “On “Daddy”.” University of North Caroline Press. 1979. 1-2.

Web. 27 May 2009.

<http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/plath/daddy.htm>

“Sylvia Plath.” Literary Encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company

Limited. 17 Sep. 2003. 1-2. Web. 27 May 2009.

“Tulips.” A Wind of Such Violence: The Work of Plath. Angelfire. August 1994.

1-2. Web. 27 May 2009. <http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/>