Sylvia Plath

By: Austin Gunnerson, Hannah Kraus, Alex Schmitz, Rachael Vonnahme

Sylvia Plath Childhood in Boston

• Sylvia Plath was born on October 27th, in 1932• Born in Boston, Massachusetts• Her father was Otto Emil Plath and her mother was

Aurelia Schober Plath•  Her brother Warren was born on April 27th, in

1935•  The Plath family moved to Winthrop after Warren

was born and that is where they raised their kids• Sylvia was familiar with the sea and recognized the

power of it 

Sylvia Growing Up

• Syvlia's father Otto Plath worked at the University of Boston• He was a Biology teacher and an expert on bees• He was recognized nationally for his bee studies• Otto Plath died on November 5th, in 1940 from diabetes mellitus

when Syvlia was only 8 years old• The Plath family moved to Wellesely, Massachusetts after Otto's

death•  Sylvia repeated 5th grade so she could take class with her

classmates•  She got straight A's all throughout highschool and excelled in

English specifically creative writing• Sylvia published her first poem in the Boston Herald when she

was only 8 years old

Her Illness

• Sylvia Plath’s famousness led her to deep times in her career.

• Her critics led her to attempts of suicide but that isn’t her only problem.

• Sylvia was thought to have bipolar disease or a sever case of PMS 

• Her first break down was in collage; she was hospitalized and was treated with shock therapy.

• Some weeks later she had a suicide attempt and was put in intense therapy for a six month program

 

Her Illness Continued

• Sylvia's sucicied attempt was when Sylvia took and overdose of sleeping pills

• She then hit her head over the gas stove which was running

• She was passed out and was hoping that would put her to a painless death

• This whole time her two kids were in the other room where Sylvia told them to stay hoping they wouldnt be harmed by the gas stove

Sylvia's Adulthood

• Sylvia went to Smith College in Massachusetts from 1950-1955 •  After Sylvia graduated she moved to Cambridge, England on a

scolarship •  At a party in Cambrige, she met a poet named Ted Hughes• Ted and Sylvia were married shortly after on June 16, 1956 •  They moved back to Massachusetts in 1957•  Sylvia gave birth to her two children, Frieda and Nicolas, in

England in the years 1960 and 1962 •  Ted left Sylvia in 1962 for a German woman named Assia

Gutmann Wevill. This caused Sylvia to go into a deep depression• While in a deep depression she wrote peoms for her most iconic

book Ariel • In 1963 Sylvia published a semi-autobiographical novel called

The Bell Jar •  Sylvia's first collection of poems called Colossus was published

in 1960 

Sylvia's Adulthood

• Sylvia's poetic work is known for it's violence and disturbing imagery, but it's also known for it use of alliteration and rhyme

•  When Hughes left Sylvia, she wrote letter to her mother, Aurelia Plath, about how Hughes had left her in poverty, but in reality he gave her all their joint savings

•  Hughes was accused by people of killing Sylvia after she committed suicide on a gas stove in 1963

•  Hughes created volumes of Sylvia's work and then he published them

• These volumes that he published won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize •  Between the years 1950 to 1963 Sylvia wrote nearly a thousand

letter to her mother, which were edited by Aurelia Plath and made into Letters Home in 1975 and then published

Mirror

• Mirror is a work of poetry by Sylvia Plath •  It was written in 1961, one year before her

separation from her husband • 2 years before her suicide

Mirror   by: Sylvia Plath

1 I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.2 Whatever I see I swallow immediately3 Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.4 I am not cruel, only truthful-5 The eye of the little god, four cornered.6 Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. 7 It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long8 I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.9 Faces and darkness separate us over and over.10 Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,11 Searching my reaches for what she really is.12 Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.13 I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.14 She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.15 I am important to her. She comes and goes.16 Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.17 In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman18 Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish

Literary analysis of Mirror

• Mirror is about the way a woman constantly consults her mirror to see how she looks

• The poem is told from the point of view of the mirror and a lake

• The mirror considers itself like a God because it always gives a clear image without any changes due to judgement. (See lines 1-5)

• People consult the mirror to see how they look so they can maintain their physical image.

  

Literary analysis continued

• The lake gives a deeper reflection• It talks about a woman that looks into it every morning• It says that candles and the moon are liars because

thenlight they give is inadaquate for a proper reflection (line 12)

•  The Woman drowns a young girl in the lake saying as a young girl she frequently looks into the lake and puts the reflection of a young girl onto the waters

• An old woman rises up toward her day after day meaning even though she is young she sees her reflection as one of an old ugly woman

Mirror Final Analysis

• Mirror reflects a woman being dissatisfied with her appearance and seeing herself as an old, terrible person even though she is young

• Just the interpretation i got from the poem• Many other possible interpretations (Ambiguity)

Resources 

• "SylviaPlathForum:PoetryAnalysis/Discussion:Mirror." UntitledDocumentWeb.10Oct.2011. http://www.sylviaplathforum.com/mirror.html.

•  SylviaPlath."Poets.orgPoetry,Poems,Bios &More.Web.3Oct.2011.http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/11.

• Lucas,Victoria."SylviaPlath." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. Web.3Oct.2011. <http://kirjasto.sci.fi/splath.htm>.

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