Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, in 1932. Her father, Otto, passed away when she was eight years old from advanced, untreated diabetes, which also caused him to have a leg amputated. She did not have a good relationship with her mother, Aurelia, who was a high school teacher. In 1950, Sylvia Plath was awarded a scholarship to Smith College.

Despite achieving academic and professional success in the form of prizes and awards, Sylvia Plath suffered from depression, fear and exhaustion. She was determined to show the world a brave face, but lapsed into withdrawal and was hospitalized in an institution after attempting suicide.

In 1955, she was awarded a Fullbright scholarship to Cambridge University. She met and married Ted Hughes in 1956. In 1957, when she completed her studies at Cambridge, she returned to America and began teaching English at Smith College, but soon became overwhelmed, sick and unhappy.

She sought constant reassurance from Ted and began to secretly see her former therapist, Ruth Boucher, and attended poetry classes given by Robert Lowell.

In 1959, Ted and Sylvia returned to England, where Sylvia worked hard to fulfill a contract to publish The Colossus and energetically persisted with household duties, despite the fact that she was pregnant. In 1960, Sylvia gave birth to Frieda Rebecca and the following year she experienced a miscarriage, which left her depressed.

The family moved to a farm in Devon and in a period of increasing physical and emotional isolation she gave birth to Nicholas Farrar in 1962. In the same year, Ted and Sylvia separated after she learnt of Ted’s affair with Assia Wevill. Most of her Ariel poems were written in the following month.

After returning to London with her children, Sylvia Plath published The Bell Jar under the pseudonym of Victoria Lucas in 1963. She committed suicide in the same year at the age of thirty. Her greatest literary success has been achieved post-humously. Her Collected Poems won the 'Pulitzer Prize' in 1982.

The study map for Selected Poems by Sylvia Plath is a visual representation of all key aspects of the text including:

• Genre
• Structure
• Historical Issues
• Style
• Background Notes
• Summary
• Character Profiles
• Themes and Issues
• Sample Examination Questions
  
  
  

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