Sylvia Plath Research

Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 during the peak of the great depression when unemployment soared over 20%. Although she was subject to a life filled with hardships and anguish, Sylvia allowed those hardships to shape her as a socially adept young woman. Plath excelled academically, and allowed her writing to be influenced by her rough past. After marrying a fellow poet Ted Hughs and having two children, she published hundreds of works that told of her tragic life and unreasonable thoughts. Soon, poetry wasn’t enough to keep Plath sane after an affair and divorce and she ended her life in 1963 after many failed attempts. Through and through, Sylvia Plath was a very bright, mid-20th century poet who will remain forever famous for her proficient achievements in writing, trying marriage, and history of abuse and suicide. Sylvia Plath hailed from Boston, Massachusetts. Her father, Otto, taught and meticulously studied biology at Boston University. Otto fell extremely ill in the late 1930’s and ended up diagnosing himself with lung cancer. He refused to seek medical advice for his condition because of the lack of advanced medicine. In 1940, after dealing with the horrible aliment for years, Otto was left with no choice but to visit a medical professional because of an advanced and crippling infection in his foot. The doctor visit was a shocking one that revealed Otto had actually been living and poorly cooperating with very advanced diabetes. Otto's leg had to be removed developing gangrene to prevent the infection from spreading, and he lived out the remainder of his days in the hospital in a disappointing condition. Otto Plath passed away on the evening of November 5, 1940. After hearing the news of her beloved father’s death, the mature 8 year-old proclaimed, “I’ll never speak to God again”. The death of her father was the inspiration for much of her later years of poetry. Sylvia Plath’s mother, Aurelia, had a very complicated relationship with her daughter. Sylvia