E! True Hollywood Story

Poet and novelist, Sylvia Plath, was born during the Great Depression in Massachusetts. Plath and her brother, Warren were raised to be Unitarian Christian, however, Plath was uncertain about her religious views. There are numerous parallels between Plath’s life and her writing, predominantly The Bell Jar. In her novel, the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, suffered from grave depression and lived an unfulfilled life in which she was hospitalized many times. The countless parallels in The Bell Jar, and Plath’s life, classify the novel as semi-autobiographical. Plath attended Smith College and interned at a magazine in New York City, this was also the plot of the beginning of The Bell Jar. Esther Greenwood’s untreated mental illness lead to her suicide at the end of The Bell Jar, this tragically foresaw Plath’s suicide at the early age of 30. Plath’s life parallels were also seen in her other works aside from The Bell Jar. Plath became pregnant with her husband, Ted Hughes, however Plath had a miscarriage. Several of Plath’s poems were about her unbearable miscarriage. Plath’s depression had a deadly grasp on her life which created the tone for most of her writing. Her poems are associated with the literary movement of confessional poetry. Confessional poetry is a style that lays emphasis on the poet’s personal and private lifestyle. There were many other confessional poets during this era in addition to Plath.