An Analysis of Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was born on the 27th of October 1932, in Boston Massachusetts. She was raised well by both of her parents until her father caught an illness and died when Sylvia was only eight years old (Newman 15). This catastrophe left the family penniless and her mother had to work as a school teacher in order to support the two children. Meanwhile, Sylvia did very well in school and got straight A’s all through high school and went on to attend Smith College, an all girls school in North Hampton, Massachusetts (Newman 15). She was an excellent writer all through college especially in creative writing. A while after, she met her husband Ted Hughes and had one miscarriage and gave birth to two children. Hughes would end up leaving her and have her take care of the children, this is what set Sylvia to the beginning her depression period. Living in London and mothering two infants that needed a great deal of attention while going through the worst winter in a number of years was making it worst for Plath and she could not bear it any longer. Before her death, Sylvia would go to her downstairs neighbor and claim that she was going to die. In a biography of Sylvia Plath Ronald Hayman states “She stood there with bloodsho
t eyes tears running down her face: In this poem the mirror is straight forward to the old lady and it is cruel to her and makes her grief for her youth is now gone. If there was no mirror than the old woman would not be grieving because the old woman would not have to look at the grotesque face she sees staring back at her. Therefore, there is no real use for the mirror, but the mere fact that it likes it when it gives the old woman pain and suffering and it feeds off of her. The mirror is presented as truthful and unaffected by any emotion to the subjective experience of the woman’s distress at the sight of her reflection ( Hayman 163). “I’m going to die. . . and who will take care of my children” (Hayman 3). Finally, On February 11th of 1963 Sylvia Plath committed suicide by consuming sleeping pills and gas inhalation. In Conclusion, as you can see this poem was a question about time and how it just hits you so suddenly, and you’ll stare into mirror and realize that your whole life has just flashed before your eyes. Years and years will pass by and you will not realize it until you take that one glimpse into the mirror only to learn the youth that was once inside you is now gone and unable to be replaced. This poem was written in 1961, just two years before Plath’s suicide, which in this two year period she was the most productive in her literary career. When you first take a look at the poem it is very light-hearted, but once the second stanza comes along it shows a whole other side of Plath, the darker side which was usually held inside her. The way she would let out her emotions was through her poems that’s why it happens to be that she wrote most of her work right before she committed suicide because she was the most emotional during that period and she just had to burst one way or the other.
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Approximate Word count = 1399
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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