Sylvia

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Lore & Background

Plath’s early life was defined by a strict patriarchal structure under her father, Otto Plath, an entomologist who died in 1940 from untreated diabetes complications. His death left her mother, Aurelia, as the managing figure while Plath felt her "sky is empty." This dynamic fueled deep emotional trauma reflected in poems like "Daddy," where her father becomes an oppressive "god." By age eight, she published her first poem in the Boston Herald; by eleven, she began journaling. Her academic brilliance was evident at Smith College, where she graduated summa cum laude with a Phi Beta Kappa membership and an IQ around 160. A pivotal summer as a guest editor at Mademoiselle magazine in New York City inspired The Bell Jar, particularly after she missed meeting Dylan Thomas and attempted suicide by crawling under her porch to take sleeping pills on August 24, 1953.

In Their Own Story

In February 1956, Plath met Ted Hughes at a party for St. Botolph's Review, describing him as having "a voice like the thunder of God." They married four months later in London with her mother as the sole witness. The couple spent their honeymoon in Paris and Benidorm, Spain, before moving to the United States in 1957. Plath taught at Smith College but struggled to balance teaching and writing, prompting a move to Boston in mid-1958. There, she worked as a receptionist at Massachusetts General Hospital while attending Robert Lowell’s creative writing seminar alongside Anne Sexton and George Starbuck. It was here that the trio gravitated toward confessional poetry, using direct address and personal experience. Plath openly discussed her depression with Lowell and her suicide attempt with Sexton, who encouraged her to write from a female perspective. After returning to England in winter 1959, she gave birth to Frieda and later Nicholas before separating from Hughes in 1962.

Reader's Guide

Fans exploring Plath’s work should focus on her key publications: The Colossus and Other Poems (1960), The Bell Jar (published January 1963), and Ariel (1965). Her posthumous collection, The Collected Poems (1981), included previously unpublished works and earned her the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982, making her the fourth person to receive this honor after death. Her poetry uniquely portrays womanhood and how women collude with patriarchy, diverging from contemporaries. For biographical context, examine her journals and letters which detail her time at Newnham College under Dorothea Krook, her travels across Europe, and her treatment history involving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) at McLean Hospital funded by Olive Higgins Prouty. The poem "Electra on Azalea Path" was written after visiting her father’s grave in Winthrop Cemetery.

Did You Know?

• Sylvia Plath received a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she lived in Whitstead.
• In 1953, after being rejected from a Harvard writing seminar, Plath made her first medically documented suicide attempt by taking sleeping pills under her front porch.
• Plath was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1982 for The Collected Poems, becoming only the fourth person to win posthumously.
• She attended Robert Lowell’s creative writing seminar at Boston University alongside Anne Sexton and George Starbuck, where they collectively shaped the confessional poetry style.