Looking into the World of Sylvia Plath 
A Critical Analysis 


Maybe its an irrelevant
accident that she actually carried out the death 
she predicted...but somehow her death is a part
of the imaginative risk. - Robert Lowell 


Sylvia Plath was seen as one of the most exceptional
confessional poets of her time. Her personal and life 
experinces pour onto her pages making her so popular 
that she has risen to cult status among her readers.

Sylvia Plath's tragic death left many critics wondering
how popular Sylvia's work would have been if she had not
died so early in her career. Her work is so overwhelmingly
intertwined with the life she so painfully lived that by
reading her work one becomes drawn into world she existed 
in. In some circles, she is regarded as a feminist supporter 
due the poems where it appears that she is criticizing the
role that women where expected to fall into during the time
she was writing. However, the truth is that Sylvia openly 
accepted her role as a wife and mother and really had not
intended that her material be seen as such. The poems that
she wrote shortly after her separation are filled with
the anger and betrayal that she felt towards Ted for
having left her alone to care for the children on her
own. In Ariel, the collection she completed shortly
before her death, the pain that she felt over the absence
of Hughes is quite evident; in "For a Fatherless Son", she 
comes to realize how much the children were affected by 
their father not being with them.

Sylvia's work brings to life all the experiences and
background that she attained from her parents heritage.
In several of her poems, her parents German and Austrian
backrounds are reflected as she uses various commentaries
of the Holocaust as she reflects on her on suicidal pact
and obsession with death. In addition, her poetry also
portrays many of her feelings towards her father and his
death. Otto Plath's relationship with his children 
especially towards the end of his life was merely one 
of supervision. He had very low tolerance for young 
children and his main connection with them was based 
on academic performance. Thus, Sylvia was always trying
to obtain is approval by excelling in school. In some 
incidents, it is apparent that she came to resent his 
death (as in "Daddy") because she was not able to achieve
the relationship she so desperately desired to obtain
from him. She felt cheated from being able to get to
know this man, who's love she is so desperately craved 
for. In The Bell Jar, she uses her fictional 
characters to relate with her own experiences with her
father's death and her own desire to join him in that
world.         

It is quite apparent in her work that she had an 
obsession with death and her own mortality and at 
times she claimed "that she felt like her father was
trying to drag her down into the grave with him".
(Hayman 22) Yet, despite her own battles with the
crypt keeper, Sylvia also managed to write about the
joys and sorrows of everyday life. In her confessional 
style she succeeds in capturing the simple pleasures 
she obtained from starting her bee keeping hobby to 
spending summers by the ocean side. 

 
 

Selected Poems to Read


Beekeeper's Daughter
Zookeeper's Wife
Childless Woman
Barren
Stillborn
Child
For a Fatherless Son
Daddy
Last Words
Death & Company
Lady Lazurus
Three Women Voice Play
Mad Girl's Love Song