Sylvia Plath's Battle With Depression

There has been a war raging for thousands of years, a silent war, the war within ourselves. Depression is a serious issue, it has taken thousands of lives. Depression has caused men to soar to greatest heights just as it has crippled others. Some of the most famous people in history have secretly battled with depression, which has made them do extraordinary things. Two such people with amazing talents were Sylvia Plath and Kurt Cobain. Sylvia Plath was a great author who wrote various poems, while Kurt Cobain was a talented musician that wrote many songs in a poetic style. One of Sylvia Plath’s greatest works was a poem named “Daddy”, most scholars agree this poem was actually an autobiography of her own battle with depression. Kurt Cobain’s autobiographical song “Something In The Way” was also a reflection of his battle with depression. Both Cobain and Plath were prisoners of themselves, and their great works demonstrate how much depression had a grip on them and how their art indicates something was in the way of their becoming happy with themselves. Sylvia Plath opens Daddy with a bang. Plath does not hold back. She makes it known to the reader immediately how she feels in the opening stanza, which sets the tone for
Plath wrote “and then I knew what to do/I made a model of you,” (lines 64-65). Plath was talking about how her husband had replaced her father from the emotional abuse and pain that she suffered. Just like Kurt Cobain wrote, “And all the animals I’ve trapped/Have all become my pets” (lines 3-4). Cobain wrote this as a metaphor for his self-destructive relationship with Courtney Love. Cobain wanted to unconsciously keep the abusive relationship because all he had even known was pain, it was familiar to him. Just as with Plath all she had ever known was pain from her father and it was more accepting to have an abusive husband than a sweet loving