A prominent figure of modern American literature, confessional poet, Sylvia Plath, works hold grand significance, for it lead to the probe of a feminist-martyr to patriarchal society, sex-based roles, and psychiatric care. Noted for the blend of intense imagery and humorous use of alliteration and rhyme, Plath associating her works with her personal battles of anguish and depression, further solidified her mark on American history.
Sylvia Plath was born in 1932 in Winthrop, Massachusetts, to an academically well-established family. Her father died when she was eight, marking the beginning of her lifelong internal battles of depression, hence her poem Daddy. Ambitiously driven and exceptional student, from a young age she kept journals, published poems in reginal magazines and newspapers. She later attended Smith and Cambridge University, where she met and married the poet, Ted Hughes, birthing two children. Throughout her life, Plath suffered deep depression and …show more content…
Set during American Conformism in the 1950s, Esther Greenwood, an individualistic young woman, struggles within a society largely shaped by conservative values and patriarchic structures, where women are subjected to the ideal housewife role. Esther intends to defy and eject this conventional model of womanhood, consequently the repetition or “I Am I Am I Am” (Plath 158). In the midst of this, Esther’s battles psychological downward spiral, resulting in suicide attempts and depression. Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Marymount Manhattan College, Susan J. Behrens, describers Plath’s “alter ego is Esther Greenwood… both existed on the verge of major changes in women’s roles in society. Both had college educations and talents enough to land a competitive internship; and they both bristled at being locked into traditional female roles” (240-