“Every woman adores a Fascist, The boot in the face, the brute Brute heart of a brute like you.”
—Sylvia Plath
The above quote is from ‘Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath. She was an American poet. Mostly known for her poems, novels, and short stories. She is well known for the genre of confessional poetry. Plath’s life can be explored through her writings.
She was born in October of 1932. Her first poem got published when she was eight in 1940. Also in this year her father died. She didn’t attend the funeral. In poems like ‘Daddy’, ‘The Beekeeper’s Daughter’ she described about her paternal struggles.
We can found world war ii scenarios from her poems. She described about World war ii in her poem ‘A Thin People’.
Plath had her works published in her school newspaper, magazines and she began to establish her as a poet. Plath graduated from her high school and begin attending Smith college. In ‘Gloria Steinem on Smith in the 50’s’ she describe smith college by saying, ‘they were educating women so there would be educated children’. Sylvia Plath was described as “different” from the typical Smith girl of the time.
In 1953, Sylvia Plath accepted a guest editorship in New York, working for Mademoiselle Magazine, a prize she won with her short story, “Sunday at the Minton’s.”
Once in her life Plath also has taken electroshock therapy. Because in her time, doctors didn’t monitor heart rates, used higher voltages and were excessive in prescribing it for numerous maladies, including depression. After months of electroshock treatment plath made her first suicide attempt in 1953 24th August. Even she described about her suicide attempt in ‘The Bell Jar’.
In June 1956 Plath got engaged with the poet Hughes. In October of 1960 Plath’s first book of poetry ‘The Colossus’ was published. In February of 1961, Plath had a miscarriage with her second pregnancy, and wrote a poems, called “Barren Woman.”
In 1962 Hughes left Plath. And Plath became more depressed in 1962-1963. During this time she wrote many of her famous poems like “Daddy,” “Lady Lazarus,” and “Ariel” etc.
But the saddest part is she killed herself by putting her head in a gas oven on 11th February 1963. She left her two childrens.
She may have died but we can explore her life, we can know her by reading all his poems. She was a well known poet of her time. ‘The Bell Jar’, ‘Daddy’, ‘A Thin People’ etc is her famous works.
Sharaya Paul
A student of journalism and
mass communication(2nd year),
vidyasagar College.
