After watching the video on Plath's life in class and discussing her poems, you must have some theories or opinions on why Plath took her own life or what was troubling her so deeply. Thinking about the poems "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" specifically--or any of her other poems, if you want to do some additional reading--how did her family and her past influence her writing? "Daddy" was one of the last poems she wrote--why do you think she chose her father as the subject? How do you think Plath wanted "Daddy" to be interpreted? How did Plath foreshadow her own death in "Lady Lazarus"? What messages or themes did Plath want to live on after her death?
Write at least two complete paragraphs as a response and please try to respond directly to at least one of your classmates' comments posted prior to your post.
Sylvia Plath documentary
Sylvia Plath documentary
Sylvia Plath reads "Daddy"
Sylvia Plath reads "Lady Lazarus"
Sylvia Plath was an intelligent woman who was a great writer. She was also a depressed woman who was disturbed by some of the events that took place in her life. Plath seems to have a very difficult time from childhood to Adulthood, as she goes through the loss of her father. Although, seen in her poem “daddy” her father seems kind of more of a disciplinary individual, in reference to her quote “daddy I was scare of you”. However, it seems like her father was the most influential person in her life. Although he was discipline, she loved him and so when he died she suffered tremendously. She was hurt, angry and even depressed. It seems like her depression started at an early age, but was triggered as crises arises in her life. This was evidently seen in her works.
ReplyDeleteHer poem’s, “ Lady Lazarus” foreshadow her own death as she attempts to die three times in her character , but keeps coming back to life. While in her own life, she tried to take her own life by attempting suicide, and at last she succeeded by taking her own life. I am not sure what messages “Plath” wanted to send out, but from her poem “Lady Lazarus”, it seems she wanted to rise again and be victorious. So I would assume that she wanted her name to be remembered and her works to be victorious.
Angered, hurt and depressed are only a few words to describe Sylvia Plath. She has been through a lot in her past which she greatly expressed threw her words in the poems she wrote. What she was dealing with made her writing phenomenal and it’s so honest. I believe Sylvia chose to create a poem about her deceased father called "Daddy" to explain some things that maybe she wish she could have said to him. How he treated her and the type of disciplinary parent she remembered.
ReplyDeleteI quote "If I've killed....lie back now" she interpreted to her father as a vampire. Once he passed it also sucked the life from her. It seemed she was angry at her father for leaving her all alone. In her poem "Lady Lazarus" Plath foreshadowed her death from the beginning when she says " The nose....at home on me." She already knew she was approaching death as if she was already dead. Another piece from the poem where she says "Dying is an art... exceptionally well," my thoughts was she talked about herself as just walking dead.
The main message I picked up about Sylvia Plath wanting to live after death was when she said "Herr God...men like air". That statement meant so many things in one. She's leaving her audience with she was here and made a difference. To me it meant she wasn't afraid of anything or anyone. She accepted that and there was no turning back.
Markeya....I love your interpretation of the poem in terms of vampires and zombies....very original. I haven't previously had anyone describe it in these terms but I think it is completely appropriate and very powerful.
DeleteI agree with both comments from Alicia and Marekya. Sylvia Plath came from a strong mother and father who both seemed smart and successful. I am sure she was upset losing her father at such a young age. I can imagine at that time in history as well that her own mother, being a single mom trying to make it with her kids posed a great struggle. I can only think that Sylvia herself put a lot of that stress on losing her dad so early and her experiences with men after losing her Dad at such a young age. I agree specifically with Markey where she states that the poem Daddy seemed to be a reflection of all things good and bad, all the things she wishes she had a chance to say, to see and to experience ultimately contributing probably to her insecurities and depression. I think this is why she chose her father as her final subject, for closure in a way.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem "Lady Lazarus" she sounds upset and angry, imaging herself rising up from the dead like Lazarus because she lived through suicide attempts. She plays with extremes highs and lows, for example by comparing herself as "a smiling women" who has "nine times to die" to almost outrage at the male powers in her life at that time, like the doctor, the enemy, Lucifer and God.
I think the message she wanted to leave is partly what was mentioned above, that of wanting to let her audience know she was here, she suffered, she rose. I also think she wanted to let the world know that it was ok to feel dark sometimes, to live contrary to the norms of society, in a time and age where marrying and raising a family were what was expected. Maybe that women too are or can be dark, twisted, sad and should have the voice to speak to it and heal from it, rather than ignore it because that's what women are supposed to do.
I agree with you Chang that "Daddy" seem to be the reflection of good and bad in Plath life, but at the same time is she blaming her dad for her troubles? She mention in her poem "Daddy" that her husband seems to be just like her father.I think she felt abandoned by both men. Although I think she loved her father, his memory was so evident that it seems to resemble the image of her husband. The question is was she blaming her father for her suffering, her husband etc. At last in her poem she quoted "daddy, daddy,you bastard, I am through. In this statement it seems like Plath was tired of everything and wanted to detach herself from the memory of all the pain she has endured, as a result of her father and the person who she thought was her life long partner.
ReplyDeleteMy Theory regarding Sylvia Plath:
ReplyDeleteIn life we have our ups and downs, our highs and lows, dark and bright days. What we have to learn is how to learn from every experience be it the positive or negative. For Sylvia, it seems as through she overwhelmed by the dark side of her life, it consumed every fiber of body. She was a brilliant & intelligent young lady who always seemed to be looking through every dark cloud in the air, not seeing the bright and clear cloud right above her head.
The poem "Lady Lazarus" seem to be birthed from the story of Lazarus in the bible. Lazarus was sick and died, his sisters summoned for Jesus, Lazarus rose at the command of His voice. Sylvia conveyed thru her poem that she felt death internally but because of the many failed attempts she continues to rise and has to continue facing the demons she's living with.
The poem "Daddy" speaks to her "love/hate" relationship with her father. She loved her father so much but that love turned to a love/hate because she became mad & bitter for him leaving her. These emotions overwhelmed her and she needed to move daddy from inside to the outside. Unfortunately, the only way to deal with this part of her life was thru death!
Sylvia Plath's writings are wrought with darkness, beauty and a hint to her underlying melancholy, and possible mental illness. She strikes me as pathologically melancholic with suicidal ideation. There is no glamor in real mental illness, despite Hollywood's non-stop proselytizing of dark and disturbing themes. Sylvia Plath meets the criteria for mood disorders according to the DSM-IV-TR for Manic Depressant and/or a Major Depressive Disorder with a possible comorbidity of Bipolar Disorder.
ReplyDeleteThroughout her literature she obsessively infers to a recurrent depression starting in her 20s as well as, possibly experiencing an intense post-partum depression after the birth of her child; unintentional weight loss (anorexia), insomnia, feelings of worthlessness and isolation.
Psychopathology usually lends itself to dysfunctional lifestyle choices, i.e., alcoholism, drug addiction and suicidal tendencies. Intensity, imagination, and attention to her mental illness describe Sylvia Plath's poetry. She wrote about very painful and intense subjects: suicide, self-loathing, Nazis, dysfunctional relationships, to name a few. Some of her better poems such as "Daddy," and "Lady Lazarus," somewhat reflect a sense of control. Yet, the controlled flow of images combined with the rhythm of her poetry draw you into her suffering, of which I find unpleasant, and disconsolate; as her expressions are cloaked in a dense black ambience. Her literature speaks to the darker side of life. Many of her poems I found macabre and somewhat surreal in their imagery creating an unsettling after taste. Her use of parody and black humor rescues some of her poetry from total pathos.
Lolita..Very interesting to have the clinical diagnosis of Plath...if Plath were alive today and seeking treatment for her depression what do you think would be prescribed for her? Would she be put on some kind of ant-depressant? How do u think this would have impacted her writing and creativity? The documentary mentions the amazing volume of work she produced in her last few months....would this have been possible with if she was functioning "normally"?
DeleteI do not know much about poetry and to have listened Sylvia Plath's reading in the documentary was deep. Her legacy is her creative writing and the natural ability to create dark beautiful poems from the soul.
ReplyDeleteShe opened the door for women in the future because in those years when there was so much going on, the war for one, and society not viewing females as anything but housewives. I think she is one person that set a platform to recognize other talents women do have.
At the same time I feel poetry was the way she told her own story with a twist. As I heard her reading of Daddy, I sensed anger in her but also sadness to have lost her father and later her husband. If I did not know about her mental problems and suicide attempts, I would say Lady Lazarous is a cold but beautiful poem where she basically told God and Satan to look out for her, she is coming with her red hair, it is scary how a sick mind thinks. It must be terrible to live a life of sadness, depression and anger as she did.
All including me in the blog agree in the fact that she was mentally sick but let's not forget the natural talent she had and the doors she open for us females to express ourselves and move up in an era dominated by males.
She was a feminist and talented writer.
Karla I agree that she used poetry as a way to express her grief and feelings regarding her personal experiences in life. Being educated gave Sylvia a greater advantage at presenting her thoughts and emotions with clarity, which is one of the reasons she became such a great poet. However, her education and accomplishments could not bring her to a mindset of emotional freedom, to where she could enjoy life, if not for herself at least for her children.
DeleteI'm not sure if Plath would have thought of herself as feminist...she died before what would be considered the start of the feminist movement. She was, however, definitely shaped and in some way limited by what the prevailing expectations were for women at the time--that women should get married and become mothers. Yet Plath seems regret having become a mother...do you think she would have been happier if she hadn't had children? Was her creativity enhanced or hindered by being a mother?
DeleteI believe that “Daddy” was one of the last poems Plath wrote because she was in some ways coming to terms with her feelings about her father. For many years she idolized him and that was her way of coping with the loss of him at a very young age, She never coped with his death well and found herself even renouncing religion because she had been overcome with grief. She was in essence killing him all over again. Her father a Nazi and she was part Jewish so the undertone of destroying an oppressor in very evident there as well. I think it was after this poem that she finally felt like she was free and that’s why she could successfully take her life.
ReplyDeleteShe foreshowed her suicide in “Lady Lazarus”. in the poem she mentioned that every decade or so she would try and take her own life. She mentioned in the poem that the doctors kept reviving her and that is was an unwanted rebirth. She referenced a Phoenix which is a mythical bird that would always be reborn after bursting into flames. She was angry she kept being brought back and said the only way that she would ever get what she wanted is by eating all mean. Which is why she had to write Daddy for that was the last man she had to “eat” in order to truly be free.
I agree with Alicia she was very bright and smart but had some deep issues she didn't know how to handle and deal with. She was a very beautiful and intelligent women but had no one to turn to. I feel she couldn't make it work with her husband because she never got over the grief from her dad. I think she wrote that poem to her dad to relieve her from the pain that she had for him.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree personally I also feel like her struggle began with the death of her father, and the fact that she never let go and carried the weight around contributed to her unhappy marriage and trouble accepting her duties as a mother. I also feel that the poem "Daddy" was her way of letting go.
DeleteI believe Syliva took her own life as a 'slap to her father's face'. A way to show him that she was able to control the one thing he could in his life, death. In her poem daddy i think she was trying to show how she really didn't like her father that she was scared of him. He was a very strict controlling man which I think is why his death shocked her. How does a strict controlling and scary man die. Lady Lazarus was basically Plath's plan for her own death. She was letting everyone know what she was going to do and how she was going to do it. I think Syliva wanted everyone to see the world the way she did. Blackwell had a very good comparison with saying Plath's father was like a vampire.
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ReplyDeleteSylvia Plath seemed to be taken over by darkness and depression. In the poem, “Lady Lazarus” Plath welcomed the idea and reality of death. Death became an obsession; she enjoyed death just has much, as some would enjoy life. The doctors that brought her back to life after every attempt of suicide became Sylvia’s worst enemies. Plath was not too worried about the doctor’s attempt at repairing her physical appearance because she knew no one could change her mind and the way she felt about death. Sylvia often referred to her life, to that of a cat because of the saying a cat has nine lives. It seems Sylvia was going to make as many attempts at suicide until she accomplishes her mission of dying.
ReplyDeleteSylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” reflects the start of her obsession with death and ironically, it was the last poem she wrote. The Poem “Daddy” tells of her innermost emotional connection to her father’s death. Plath seems to exhibit hatred, anger, and resentment towards life. Therefore, death became the perfect escape from this depression. Although, Sylvia accomplished a lot in life at an early age, she was overtaken by the darkness of death. Nevertheless, Sylvia Plath left behind an insight into great writing that inspired many poetic writers that came after she was long gone.
Plath's work is profitable for its complex achievements -it’s merging of comic and genuine components, its indecent forming of close and inclination rhymes in a free structure, its sharp voicing of topics that have time after time been dealt before. Time after time, readers saw Plath as a dark writer and many question her love hate relationship with death as well as why she always referred to holocaust in her pieces. I personally have a love hate attitude towards her work. I adore her expression, because she did not allow herself to be limited by political correctness. In my opinion her work has not much to do with the holocaust, she channeled it however as a way to describe a feeling of insufferable torture and helplessness. I could see how some people might find this offensive, but writing was her therapy.
ReplyDeleteFor me, Plath's disregard of the individuals who watch over her has dependably been clear in this piece- “Lady Lazarus”, her disappointment at their failure to comprehend her despondency and unwillingness to continue with her life, or undoubtedly start an alternate one (giving birth)...each time she "climbs" from a sort of death (her suicide endeavors) she is overpowered by individuals constraining her as she returns tediously to the 'same spot, the same place' and tries to begin once more.
There was so much more to her than being a mother; there was so much more to her than being a poet - and I think that that is what her “daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” poems indicate. I understand her frustration, she was part of a world that accepted men’s multiple facets of their character but a woman should be one dimensional and she was not a one dimensional personal.
There's no doubt that Sylvia Plath was deeply troubled. Like many others the main question that continues to run through my mind is "what was it that took over her?". After reading and analyzing her work, I imagined the most miserable person, not only in the mental state but physical appearance as well. However, after watching the film she didn't really portray her self as such it only showed through her writings. She was beautiful, at times full of life, and furthermore very intelligent. Matter of fact based on what I saw she was living life like any other person. But what was it that was it that was bothering Sylvia, was life becoming overwhelming? Maybe she had demons that she had been fighting for so long and she finally gave up. Everyone experiences some sort of depression within their life span, yet Sylvia's way of expressing thoughts differs her from any case of depression.
ReplyDelete"Lady Lazarus" one of many poems in her collection Ariel. This complex, dark, brutal poem is mostly understood as her attempts on suicide. While reading the poem you get the impression that she's bragging about escaping the fates of death, yet stating a prophecy on her life.
Sylvia Plath's past really had a negative impact on her, her father died when she was just eight years old. At that age such a tragedy can be devastating which lead to Sylvia's struggle with depression, suicidal tendencies, an unhappy marriage, and accepting her duties as a mother. Sylvia's struggle definitely reflected in her writing in her particular poem "daddy" personally I got the impression that her father's death really had an impact on her and she resented him for not being around.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't really put my finger on it, but it seems like Sylvia constantly struggled with the thought of her father not being around when she needed him. All her thoughts and her image of him tortured her and she resented him for it. Plath's suicidal path is clearly reflected in her poem "lady Lazarus", she was frustrated and wanted a way out but her attempts were constantly interrupted.