Sylvia Plath

1. Sylvia Plath By: Austin Gunnerson, Hannah Kraus, Alex Schmitz, Rachael Vonnahme

2. Sylvia Plath Childhood in Boston • Sylvia Plath was born on October 27th, in 1932 • Born in Boston, Massachusetts • Her father was Otto Emil Plath and her mother was Aurelia Schober Plath •  Her brother Warren was born on April 27th, in 1935 •  The Plath family moved to Winthrop after Warren was born and that is where they raised their kids • Sylvia was familiar with the sea and recognized the power of it

3. Sylvia Growing Up • Syvlia's father Otto Plath worked at the University of Boston • He was a Biology teacher and an expert on bees • He was recognized nationally for his bee studies • Otto Plath died on November 5th, in 1940 from diabetes mellitus when Syvlia was only 8 years old • The Plath family moved to Wellesely, Massachusetts after Otto's death •  Sylvia repeated 5th grade so she could take class with her classmates •  She got straight A's all throughout highschool and excelled in English specifically creative writing • Sylvia published her first poem in the Boston Herald when she was only 8 years old

4. Her Illness • Sylvia Plath’s famousness led her to deep times in her career. • Her critics led her to attempts of suicide but that isn’t her only problem. • Sylvia was thought to have bipolar disease or a sever case of PMS • Her first break down was in collage; she was hospitalized and was treated with shock therapy. • Some weeks  later she had a suicide attempt and was put in intense therapy for a six month program

5. Her Illness Continued • Sylvia's sucicied attempt was when Sylvia took and overdose of sleeping pills • She then hit her head over the gas stove which was running • She was passed out and was hoping that would put her to a painless death • This whole time her two kids were in the other room where Sylvia told them to stay hoping they wouldnt be harmed by the gas stove

6. Sylvia's Adulthood • Sylvia went to Smith College in Massachusetts from 1950-1955 •  After Sylvia graduated she moved to Cambridge, England on a scolarship •  At a party in Cambrige, she met a poet named Ted Hughes • Ted and Sylvia were married shortly after on June 16, 1956 •  They moved back to Massachusetts in 1957 •  Sylvia gave birth to her two children, Frieda and Nicolas, in England in the years 1960 and 1962 •  Ted left Sylvia in 1962 for a German woman named Assia Gutmann Wevill. This caused Sylvia to go into a deep depression • While in a deep depression she wrote peoms for her most iconic book Ariel • In 1963 Sylvia published a semi-autobiographical novel called The Bell Jar •  Sylvia's first collection of poems called Colossus was published in 1960

7. Sylvia's Adulthood • Sylvia's poetic work is known for it's violence and disturbing imagery, but it's also known for it use of alliteration and rhyme •  When Hughes left Sylvia, she wrote letter to her mother, Aurelia Plath, about how Hughes had left her in poverty, but in reality he gave her all their joint savings •  Hughes was accused by people of killing Sylvia after she committed suicide on a gas stove in 1963 •  Hughes created volumes of Sylvia's work and then he published them • These volumes that he published won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize •  Between the years 1950 to 1963 Sylvia wrote nearly a thousand letter to her mother, which were edited by Aurelia Plath and made into Letters Home in 1975 and then published

8. Mirror • Mirror is a work of poetry by Sylvia Plath •  It was written in 1961, one year before her separation from her husband • 2 years before her suicide

9. Mirror   by: Sylvia Plath 1 I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.2 Whatever I see I swallow immediately3Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.4 I am not cruel, only truthful-5The eye of the little god, four cornered.6 Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. 7 It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long8I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.9Faces and darkness separate us over and over.10Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,11 Searching my reaches for what she really is.12 Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.13 I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.14 She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.15 I am important to her. She comes and goes.16 Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.17 In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman18 Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish

10. Literary analysis of Mirror • Mirror is about the way a woman constantly consults her mirror to see how she looks • The poem is told from the point of view of the mirror and a lake • The mirror considers itself like a God because it always gives a clear image without any changes due to judgement. (See lines 1-5) • People consult the mirror to see how they look so they can maintain their physical image.

11. Literary analysis continued • The lake gives a deeper reflection • It talks about a woman that looks into it every morning • It says that candles and the moon are liars because thenlight they give is inadaquate for a proper reflection (line 12) •  The Woman drowns a young girl in the lake saying as a young girl she frequently looks into the lake and puts the reflection of a young girl onto the waters • An old woman rises up toward her day after day meaning even though she is young she sees her reflection as one of an old ugly woman

12. Mirror Final Analysis • Mirror reflects a woman being dissatisfied with her appearance and seeing herself as an old, terrible person even though she is young • Just the interpretation i got from the poem • Many other possible interpretations (Ambiguity)

13. Resources • "SylviaPlathForum:PoetryAnalysis/Discussion:Mirror." UntitledDocumentWeb.10Oct.2011. http://www.sylviaplathforum.com/mirror.html. •  SylviaPlath."Poets.orgPoetry,Poems,Bios &More.Web.3Oct.2011.http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/11. • Lucas,Victoria."SylviaPlath." Www.kirjasto.sci.fi. Web.3Oct.2011. <http://kirjasto.sci.fi/splath.htm>.