Anayltical Essay on Three Poems by Sylvia Plath
Uploaded by bulldawg on Oct 27, 2011
This paper examines three poems by the American writer Sylvia Plath.
I Introduction
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) is a completely original voice in American poetry. It is impossible to compare her to anyone; she is unique. This paper explores three of her poems and tries to find connections among them, in hopes of beginning to understand Plath herself. I believe a study of her works will lead us to the conclusion that she preferred death to living a life she felt was untrue to her deepest desires and abilities.
II General Observations
I began by reading the poems, of course, and was immediately struck by the images of the Nazis and the Holocaust that she uses. I thought the rage expressed in the poems might stem from having been a victim of Hitler’s regime, so I read some short biographies. Was she Jewish? A gypsy? Some sort of “undesirable” who ended up in the camps? But no—Plath was not caught up in the destruction.
Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, and although her father was German, he had immigrated to the United States in 1900, removing him and the entire family from the turmoil of Europe during the first half of the 20th Century. I haven’t found any mention of religion as playing a large part in her life, so it would seem to be logical to conclude that her use of Holocaust imagery is not because of her own faith. She was not one of those persecuted and thrown into a concentration camp, though she writes as though it had happened to her.
This “usurpation” of horrific experiences seems odd—why write as if she herself had been imprisoned? Plath explained by saying "I think that personal experience shouldn't be a kind of shut box and mirror-looking narcissistic experience. I believe it should be generally relevant, to such things as Hiroshima and Dachau, and so on." (“Sylvia Plath,” PG). She used history “to explain herself.” (“Sylvia Plath,” PG).
If this is true, and there seems no other logical explanation, why did she choose such violent, cruel and inhuman imagery? The answer comes when we understand that her work is almost always autobiographical. Nearly every source I found (there are too many to list) used the words “autobiographical” and/or “confessional” to refer to her poetry. She is telling us the story of her life,...