Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath ( ), poet and novelist, explored her obsessions with death, self, and nature. Death and the darkness is a theme often covered in many of her works as Sylvia was very open with her depression and did in fact end her own life in 1963 by sealing the kitchen doors and placing her head inside an oven whilst the gas was still on. In a room nearby her two young children slept soundly and unknowingly. It is said that this suicide was caused by the knowledge of her husbands affair with Assia Wevill, who he later left her for. Hughes has received much abuse on the suicide of Sylvia Plath, and fans of Sylvia even took the liberty of scratching his name off her grave stone. In her lifetime Sylvia wrote around 121 poems and 4 children's books. Her other novel ‘The Bell Jar’, written under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas“ is also very highly acclaimed. Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing. - Sylvia Plath

SYLVIA PLATH TIMELINE Sylvia Plath is born 27/10/1932 Otto Plath (her father)’s leg is amputated 12/10/40 Otto Plath die 5/11/1940 Sylvia starts at Cambridge (Newnham College) as a Fulbright Scholar dies Oct /2/1956 Sylvia meets Hughes at a party (and bites his cheek) 16/6/1956 Sylvia and Hughes marry 1/4/1960 Frieda is born October 1960 Colossus (her first poetry collection) is published 6/2/61 Plath miscarries 28/2/61 Plath has an appendectomy Nicholas is born January 1962 Sylvia drives her car off the road, which was later stated as a suicide attempt, June 1962 Sylvia learns of Hughes’ affair with Assia Wevill, July 1962 Sylvia and Hughes seperate, September 1962 Plath moves from Devon to London and puts Ariel together (41 poems) December 1962 The Bell Jar is published under a pseudonym January 1963 Sylvia Plath commits suicide by locking herself in the kitchen and gassing herself with the kitchen stove while her children sleep in the other room, 11/2/63 The only son of poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes committed suicide on Monday, March 16 th 2009

Ted Hughes, Sylvia’s husband, had an affair with German-born Assia Wevill who he soon left her for. After Sylvias suicide Assia helped Ted to bring up his two younger children and also had a child with him, nicknamed Shura. Six years after the suicide of Sylvia Plath, Assia was still haunted by her death. On March 23, 1969, 41-year-old Assia Wevill murdered her 4-year-old daughter Shura and took her own life in a manner that closely echoed Plath's suicide. Dragging a mattress into the kitchen, Assia sealed the door and window. She then laid her child down on the mattress and dissolved some sleeping pills for herself in a glass of whiskey. Taking the pills, she turned on the gas stove, and lay down next to her daughter. “She wanted the silent heraldry Of the purple beach by the noble wall. He wanted Cabala the ghetto demon With its polythene bag full of ashes.” Ted Hughes in the memory of Assia and Shura Assia Wevill

Is there no way out of the mind? – Sylvia Plath