Sylvia Plath compare to Esther
Sylvia Plath compare to EstherSylvia Plath was born to middle class parents in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts; she published her first poem when she was eight. Her father was a professor of entomology, when he past away he left psychological scars on Sylvia when she was eight. Her mother worked teaching in a medical/secretarial program at Boston University. By the time she entered Smith College on a scholarship in 1950 she already had an impressive list of publications. During the summer following her junior year at Smith, she returned from a stay in New York City where she had been a student ``guest editor'' at Mademoiselle Magazine, Sylvia nearly succeeded in killing herself by swallowing sleeping pills (LW, pg36). After a period of recovery involving electroshock and psychotherapy she was left in the �real word�(GR, pg23). She later described this experience in the novel, The Bell Jar. On February 11, 1963, Sylvia Plath killed herself with cooking gas at the age of 30.
Esther Greenwood attended College on a scholarship, earned top grades and majored in English just like Sylvia. Her life at the beginning seemed to be full of potential and goals, but as her thoughts and emotions are reveal to us; it becomes clear to us that despite all her achievement, Esther�s true state of mind is not in the right place. As the story goes on she has to make a decision, like Sylvia, whether she wants a career or a family (LW, pg. 38). �Esther sees herself as something else than primarily a housewife, and she uses much of her energy to try to avoid marrying the one she is expected- Buddy Willard�(SP, pg3). Like Sylvia, she did a summer internship in New York City, and suffered a mental collapse, and was institutionalized. While
Esther�s future in the novel�s conclusion is still unknown. You can see Esther�s confusion; frustration, paranoia and fear are coming from Sylvia�s life.
Sylvia Plath�s poem, �Mirror�, shows much of how she views her life. Plath discusses the duality of the mirror and difficulty of seeing deeper into one's self in her poem. The speaker is the mirror, which describes itself in human ways throughout the poem (DM, pg. 24). "I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions."(1). The mirror is pure in its reflection of the woman, "Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike I am not cruel, only truthful-" (3-4). Love or dislike cannot change the reflection the mirror and the truth as it is reflected back to the viewer can often be cruel or harsh but it is only truthful. Almost as to say it�s not the mirror's fault but more a job. As the author speaks of the mirror as "The eye of a little god" (5), the power of the mirror is expressed just as it conveys the mirrors omniscient ability to reflect the whole truth...
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