STARTER: 10 mins
● AT THE BACK OF YOUR COPIES, MAKE A BRAINSTORM ENTITLED ‘POETIC LITERARY
DEVICES’ 8/9/21
● Record the names and explanations of as many key devices/terms associated with poetry. E.g
Simile, metaphor etc.
● Record any key information you know, or THINK you know about Sylvia Plath
● What global issues do you think a 1940s/1950s American poet would be facing?
○ What was happening at the time in American history?
○ How might that have influenced a poet’s work?
○ On a wider scale, what did the world look like during the 1940s/1950s?
TODAY’S LESSON:
- Beginning to explore the work of Sylvia Plath and examine how the world around
her influenced her work
- More focused inquiry on issues surrounding: Identity, societal roles, ‘the norm’
Key Information
- Born 1932 in Boston Massachusetts
- Father died at the age of 8
- Was ill, but refused treatment that would have saved his
life (diabetes, surgical complication having been left so late)
- Plath saw it more than just a death, but a decision he made
to end his own life
- Had a profound impact on her
- She never came to terms with her grief and anger at his
loss, and these feelings resurfaced in her last poems. ● Plath fell into a deep depression-
she began to struggle with her
mental illness
● Her interest in writing emerged at an early age, and she
started out by keeping a journal. After publishing a - She wrote The Bell Jar
number of works, Plath won a scholarship to Smith (1963), her only novel, which
College in 1950. was based on her life and
deals with one young woman's
● Studied abroad in England where she met the poet Ted
mental breakdown.
Hughes. The two married in 1956, they had 2 children,
but had a stormy relationship. Prior to their meeting she
had attempted to take her own life. Their marriage ● She died in February 1963 at the
ended in 1962 when Hughes left her. age of 30
We need to have an
insight/understanding into the
world in which Plath was
writing in!
CONTEXT: THE WORLD AROUND
PLATH/LIFE AT THE TIME
IDENTITY/GENDER ROLES/BELIEFS/VALUES:
- CONTEXT: In the conservative 1940s and 50s girls were meant to be ‘nice’: that is, genteel, polite
and, above all, feminine – certainly not ambitious and intellectual, publicly questioning the status
quo. There was an all-pervasive pressure to conform to society’s expectations.
- PLATH: One problem that she refers to in her letters to her mother and in her journals was
her anxiety to conceal her academic ability from the boys she dated: she felt (probably
rightly) that her popularity would suffer if she upstaged them academically.
- Themes in her work echo the concerns of that era of feminism, in particular the innate
conflicts between female ambition and domesticity as an ideal. Women who felt stifled by
societal norms found the honesty of her dark thoughts and experiences revelatory.
CONTEXT: THE WORLD AROUND
PLATH/LIFE AT THE TIME
IDENTITY/GENDER ROLES/BELIEFS/VALUES:
- CONTEXT: Those suffering from depression/anxiety were subjected to electro-convulsive
shock therapy and were admitted into hospitals for periods at a time
- PLATH: Suffered exhaustion and in turn depression due to her hectic social and academic
life in college - was treated with electro-convulsive shock therapy, which seems to have been
disastrous: far from curing her - led her to try to take her own life. She entered a psychiatric
hospital, where she recovered with the help of a sympathetic psychiatrist.
- Plath’s poems explore her own mental anguish, her troubled marriage to fellow poet Ted
Hughes, her unresolved conflicts with her parents, and her own vision of herself.
PLATH AS A POET - IN LIGHT OF THE WORLD AROUND HER
AND HOW SHE RESPONDED TO THAT
● Her works show the plight of mid-twentieth century women.
○ Plath's significance comes from her role as a poet and the ways in which
her writing opened the door for exploration of a feminist-martyr to
patriarchal society
● Addressed issues surrounding the taboo subject
regarding the treatment of psychiatric patients.
Patriarchal culture In her poems she
shapes the psyche expresses her feelings
of a woman She frequently
relies on aural about patriarchal
imagery in order to figures (her
highlight the life/society)
emotional intensity
in her poems.
Her vivid and obscure
imagery allows readers to
delve into the inner depths
of her psyche and examine
her oscillating mental states.
Plath’s use of imagery does
not just shed an interesting
light on the external world; it
Her poems challenge the reader by also highlights, in an intense
presenting us with an insight into a fashion, the deeply disturbed
dark and troubled mind; a mind inner landscape of the poet’s
troubled soul.
where nothing is free from despair.
Plath herself admitted that The images she creates
her life fluctuated between are deeply personal and
two electric currents, ‘joyous often metaphoric which
positives and despairing offers us an insight to her
negatives’.
talented and troubled
mind.
Her mental states fluctuate
Often focuses on subject
wildly which is reflected matter that was deemed
effectively in her imagery. ‘Taboo’ at the time
- Mental health, gender
roles etc.
Other Relevant/ Key Information
● As a post-World War Two confessional poet, or a poet who wrote based on a personal
attachment to her work, Plath’s life can be explored through her poetry and stories. By aligning
the works of Sylvia Plath alongside the events in her life, one is better able to understand the
poet's importance to American history.
● Before the age of eight, Plath led a socially normal life.
○ However, following the death of her father, the poet's paternal struggles appear in many of
her poems such as “The Colossus,” “The Beekeeper’s Daughter,” and “Daddy,” where
Plath writes, saying, “I have always been scared of you.”
○ Plath did not attend the funeral, and the poet only visited Otto Plath's grave once nineteen
years after his death.
Other Relevant/ Key Information
Smith College where Plath studied in the 50’s was a place where “they were educating
women so there would be educated children.”
● Plath attended in the earlier half of the decade, from 1950 to 1955. During this time period, the
students of Smith were stuck at an awkward juncture between women having re-entered the labor
force and the end of the war when men returned to fill the workforce.
● Many women opted into working a short period after school, then marrying, settling back into the
pre-war role of housewife.
This time in Plath’s life was marked with indecision as the poet was swept up with the
changing society, questioning her abilities to work and marry, writing, “would marriage sap
my creative energy?”
● Sylvia Plath was described as “different” from the typical Smith girl of the time. Describing her
own feelings in comparison to her peers, Plath said she did not plan to fill a “role,” or would
not change for marriage, but would “go on living as an intelligent, mature human being,”
mockingly pointing out the wrongful practice of woman’s “vicarious experience” lifestyle
in marriage.
ACTIVITY 25 MINUTES
In your copy, make the heading
‘Sylvia Plath’ 8/9/21
LO:
● To understand the context in which Plath’s was writing
and how it influenced her work.
● To begin to identify and examine key global issues presented in Plath’s work
ACTIVITY TASK: Go back through the Powerpoint (on Managebac in files under Plath) and over 2 pages
of your copy, NEATLY and in an ORGANIZED fashion, create a revision sheet on Plath
- Pull out the KEY content we need to know about her as a poet in order to assist us with our future
poetry analysis.
- You CAN create a digital copy BUT it must be printed off and stuck into your copy for next lesson
this week!
First poem we will be looking at is called ‘Daddy’
Points to consider:
● The word ‘Daddy’ is quite childlike,
affectionate, a person of comfort
○ Is this reflected in this poem?
○ Is it the same image?
○ Have a glance through the poem,
what words stand out to you the
most?
● Look at the length and structure of the
poem, knowing what you know about
Plath’s personal life, why do you think it
might be so long?
