The Life Of Sylvia Plath :: essays research papers fc

The Life of Sylvia PlathSylvia Plaths life, like her manic depression, constantly jumpedbetween Heaven and Hell. Her seemingly gross(a) exterior hid a turbulent anddeeply troubled spirit. A closer look at her childhood and personalexperiences removes some element of mystery from her writings. wiz central character to Sylvia Plaths poems is her father, ProfessorOtto Emile Plath. Otto Plath was diabetic and refused to stay away from foodsrestricted by his doctor. As a result , he developed a thin-skinned on his left foot.Professor Plath ignored the sore, and eventually the foot was overcome withgangrene. The foot and then the entire left leg were amputated in an effort to and his life, but he died in November of 1940, when Sylvia was just eightyears old.     The fact that her father could have prevented his death left SylviaPlath with a feeling of deliberate betrayal. or else of reaching out to otherpeople for comfort, she isolated herself with writing as her on ly expressiveoutlet, and remarkably had a poem published when she was only eight.     Plath keep prolific writing through high school and won ascholarship to Smith College in 1950 where she met her friend Anne Sexton.Sexton often joined Plath for martinis at the Ritz where they shared metrical composition andintellectualized discussions about death. Although they were friends, there wasalso an element of competition between Sexton and Plath. Sylvia Plaths poem "Daddy" was possibly a response to Anne Sextons "My Friend, My Friend." It wasas if Plath was commenting that her writing skills were just a bit better thanSextons. Sexton frequently would express to Robert Lowell in his poetry kindher dissatisfaction with Plaths writing. She said that Plath "dodges the pointin her poetry and hadnt yet found the form that belonged to her." Thecompetitive nature of their relationship continued to the very end.      To all appear ences, Plath appeared normal, her social life similar toother middle class coeds.Many were attracted to Plaths brilliant mind, but fewwere aware of the inner torment that drove her to write, alienating her fromthe rest of society.     Madamoiselle magazine awarded Plath a position as guest editor program thesummer following her junior year at Smith. Friends and family were stunned ather suicide attempt when she returned to college, most believing she hadsuffered a nervous breakdown repayable to the stress at the magazine. Her treatmentwas considered the best the medical world could offer and included electro-shockand psychotherapies. Plath tells her side of the story in the poem LadyLazarus where she likens her experience to a victim of the Holocaust.