Sylvia Plath: A Study of Her Work and Writing Advice

Sylvia Plath is best known for her beautiful fig tree analogy when she talks about trying to choose your path in life in her novel The Bell Jar. What has now been tattooed on bookworms around the world, Plath wrote, “I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.” Although I loved The Bell Jar, I was actually first introduced to Plath through another one of her works. In her poem “Mad Girl’s Love Song,” Plath wrote, “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head).” One of the greatest poets of the 20th century, Plath had this uncanny way of baring her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs for people to see and hear, confessing her innermost secrets about herself and the world around her. Best known for her singular novel, The Bell Jar (1963), as well as her poetry collections Ariel and The Colossus and Other Poems, Plath shaped American poetry as we know it, as well as the way society views female poets today. In her short lifetime, she wrote over 400 poems in the span of a few years and left a legacy still observed today. The only author to win a Pulitzer Prize posthumously, Plath’s works are timeless and extraordinarily honest.

Early Writings and Childhood

Born in 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, Plath began writing at an early age and submitted her poetry to contests throughout her childhood. She even published her first poem when she was just eight years old! Her father, Otto Plath, was a German-American professor who served as inspiration for her famous poem “Daddy” in the Ariel collection, which discusses her complicated, albeit short relationship with him (he passed away suddenly when she was a child). Plath had a much closer with her mother, Aurelia Schober, to whom she wrote many letters that were later published posthumously. After earning a scholarship to Smith College, Plath studied and later taught English at the women’s college. During her time in college, Plath pursued an internship as a guest editor at Mademoiselle, a magazine located in New York, in the summer of 1953. This period of time became the basis for her semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, as it chronicled her time in New York and the period after in which she had a mental breakdown and was briefly hospitalized in a psychiatric facility for attempted suicide. After returning to school and graduating with honors, Plath won a Fullbright scholarship to continue her studies at the University of Cambridge in England at Newham College (the women’s college at the university), thus beginning her time in the United Kingdom.

Career As an Expat

While studying at the University of Cambridge, Plath met her soon-to-be husband, English poet and children’s book writer Ted Hughes. One of the most famous and complicated relationships in the literary world, Plath and Hughes hit it off and were wed in 1955, after which they went to the United States where Plath took up teaching at her alma mater. Dissatisfied with her life teaching at Smith College, two years later in 1957 Plath and Hughes packed up and moved back to England, where they both continued writing. Both ended up becoming titans in the literary world in their own right, as Hughes eventually was named Poet Laureate in 1984. Plath and Hughes had two children, Frieda Hughes (born in 1960) and Nicholas Hughes (born in 1962). While in England prior to her death, Plath wrote voraciously in various formats. Letters, short stories, poetry, a radio play— you name it, Plath was writing it. Although much of her work was published after her passing, while she was alive, she wrote and published The Colossus and Other Poems in 1960 and The Bell Jar in 1963. She initially published her works under a pseudonym, Victoria Lucas. After having her son Nicholas in 1962, Plath and Hughes separated as Hughes began having an affair with their neighbor, Assia Wevill, a known translator and copywriter. After battling depression and other mental health issues all of her life, Plath took her own life in 1963 at just 31 years old. She is buried in England with her husband’s name on her headstone, which has been a subject of great controversy with the public and the media since her passing.

Life After Death

After her tragic death, Plath had as much of a booming career as she did during her short lifetime. If anything, Plath rose in popularity and her works dominated the literary scene more after her passing. Hughes, despite their separation prior to her death, became the executor of Plath’s estate after her death and until his own passing, he edited and published many of her works. The public questioned and criticized Hughes as the compiler and editor of her works as it eventually came out that he destroyed her last journals that she had written (with details about their deteriorating marriage) before she died. To this day, even with Hughes and Plath both gone with one living descendant (their daughter), their relationship remains a subject of controversy and gossip. Despite Hughes’ editing and her passing, her works took on another life after her death. For example, some of her works were re-published under her name, specifically The Bell Jar in 1966. With this re-issuing, the book became even more popular, reaching readers all over the world and selling at high rates in the United States and the United Kingdom. Her only children’s book, The It-Doesn’t-Matter Suit, was published that same year. Two small collections of her previously unpublished poems, Crossing the Water and Winter Trees, were published in the 1970s. Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, a combination of short stories and poetry, was published in 1977, and The Collected Poems was published in 1981. The latter work received one of the highest literary achievements, the Pulitzer Prize, in 1982, cementing Plath’s legacy after her death. In 2000, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, spanning the years of 1950 to 1962, was published, allowing her fans to have a unique glimpse into her all-too-complicated life. In 2009, Plath’s radio play entitled Three Women that she wrote in 1962 was staged for the very first time since its broadcast on BBC radio. In 2017, a volume of her letters from 1940-1956 entitled Letters of Sylvia Plath (which was later made into two volumes) was published. As recently as 2019, one of Plath’s works, Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom (initially written in 1952) was published for the first time.

In addition to living on through her works, Plath has also become a cultural icon and has been depicted in books, films, and more through biopics and other characters loosely resembling her famous traits. For instance, in 2003, Gwyneth Paltrow portrayed Plath in the movie Sylvia, alongside Daniel Craig who portrayed Hughes. Similarly, a BBC article from a few years ago described Plath’s legacy since her untimely passing, “Since then, her name has become a by-word for female angst.” As Plath has become the symbol for young rebellious girls who are sad, lonely, and confused, she is referenced in movies like 10 Things I Hate About You by the surly and iconic female protagonist, Kat Stratford. Plath’s writing about loneliness, womanhood, and mental health in combination with the tragically famous story of her death led her to be immortalized through a stereotype that is often the basis for many female characters in film and television.

Writing Tips

Plath was an incredible writer who was able to write about ordinary concepts and objects in an extraordinary way. Although she didn’t exactly give her fans or any aspiring authors direct writing advice, there’s much to be said about her writing process and style, and what we can learn from it. As an avid writer all of her life, Plath’s tips and tricks when coming up with ideas, writing, and editing are timeless and proven to work.

Firstly, watch the world around you. Plath’s works were as much about her own experiences internally as the external world around her, and the people within it. She often referenced other characters, historical, biographical, or fictional, in her works. On the topic of people watching and how it can inform and inspire your writing, when discussing her view of this particular subject, she once wrote in her journal, “I love people. Everybody. I love them, I think, as a stamp collector loves his collection. Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me.” Sort of like a journalist, Plath took specific snippets of her life and put them into her writing, making the people and events in her world characters in her works.

Secondly, Plath wrote almost directly from her own experiences 90% of the time. It’s important to remember as writers to write from our own experiences and look into the art of journaling. Plath was an avid journal-keeper and wrote in diaries throughout her childhood well into adulthood. It’s these journals that served to illuminate and expand her writing.

Thirdly, beyond the self and your lived experience, Plath also wrote about bigger themes, and it’s important to remember that when writing, especially trying your hand at poetry. Readers need something to relate to and apply to their own lives, relevant circumstances, and the world around them. In an interview with Peter Orr in 1962, Plath said, “I believe that one should be able to control and manipulate experiences, even the most terrific – like madness, being tortured, that sort of experience – and one should be able to manipulate these experiences with an informed and an intelligent mind. I think that personal experience is very important, but certainly it shouldn’t be a kind of shut-box or mirror-looking, narcissistic experience. I believe it should be relevant, and relevant to the larger things, the bigger things such as Hiroshima and Dachau and so on.” Her poem “Lady Lazarus” is a prime example of this, as she is articulating her experience with depression, suicidal ideation, and outside intervention, but also references World War II and the Nazi party, as well as women’s healthcare and woman’s place in society.

Most of all, Plath’s works are a key reminder to write from the heart, not your head. Although well-worded paragraphs, intricate metaphors, complex rhyming, and fancy alliteration are all impressive eye-catching brainteasers, at the end of the day, the content of your writing is what’s most important. The feelings are what capture the reader and in turn, are what they can relate to the most. While a reader in Spain may have lived a completely different life than Plath, it’s her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about life, love, loss, and more that they can internalize and at some level, relate to, despite differing circumstances and a language barrier. In all of Plath’s incredibly vulnerable works, although her use of language and prose is unparalleled and beyond impressive, what truly shines through is her heart and the struggles she dealt with within.

Sylvia Plath is one of the most well-known voices of the 20th century, and one of the best-known female poets in history. While she is best known for her various poetry collections and The Bell Jar, she is also known for her poems “Lady Lazarus,” “Mad Girl’s Love Song,” “The Applicant,” “Daddy,” and so many more. In capturing her own feelings and putting them on paper, Plath also captured the feelings of other women in the mid-20th century. Plath is recognized as one of the most renowned American poets, and specifically one of the best writers of the 20th century. Her writing style is like no other, deeply confessional prose that lets you into the corners of her soul, widening your view of the world and the people who live within it. The choices we make, or do not make, and the depths of the human experience are all subjects that Plath explores in her various works.