The life and work of Sylvia Plath

The life and work of Sylvia Plath

II. Sylvia Plath had many accomplishments in her early years that won her awards, got her into college and helped her get published.

A. Sylvia Plath suffered greatly from the loss of her father at an early age.

1. “Born in 1932 in Boston, Plath was the daughter of a German immigrant college professor, Otto Plath, and one of his students, Aurelia Schober. The poet’s early years were spent near the seashore, but her life changed abruptly when her father died in 1940. Some of her most vivid poems including the well-known “daddy,” concern her troubled relationship with her authoritarian father and her feelings of betrayal when he died,” (Gale 1).

2. “On the evening of November 5, shortly after she had returned home from a visit to the hospital, Aurelia Plath received a telephone call from the surgeon. Otto Plath had died of an embolism that struck his lungs as he slept,” (Stevenson 10).

B. She attended Smith College and during her college career she won awards and got published.

1. “Sylvia experienced much success her sophomore year of college.   Not only was every professor who knew her impressed by her but the work she was submitting to national magazines was once again being published.   Seventeen, Annual Anthology of College Poetry, and The Christian Science Monitor were all paying Sylvia for her stories. It was also that year in 1952 that she took first prize in the Mademoiselle Fiction Contest. Even though Sylvia never felt her successes were good enough, she did come to recognize the value of the intuition in her poetry versus the male logic of her father,” (Reuben 4).

2. “Having received several scholarships, Plath entered Smith College in September 1950. She excelled academically, was elected to various student offices, and received awards and prizes for her short stories and poems. In the summer of 1953, she spent a month in New York as one of twenty guest editors for Mademoiselle's college issue.She returned to Smith in...