A presentation on American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath. takes a look at her life and works. A very good revision resource for English Literature.

1. BY MATTY & JADE

2. BIRTH
Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932. Her mother,
Aurelia Schober Plath, was a first-generation American of
Austrian descent, and her father, Otto Plath, was from
Grabow, Germany. On April 27, 1935, Plath's brother Warren
was born and in 1936 the family moved to 92 Johnson
Avenue, Winthrop, Massachusetts

3. FATHERS DEATH
Otto Plath died on November 5, 1940, a week and a half after
Plath's eighth birthday, of complications following the
amputation of a foot due to untreated diabetes. Raised as a
Christian, Plath experienced a loss of faith after her father's
death, and remained slightly opposed to religion throughout
her life. Her father was buried in Winthrop Cemetery,
Massachusetts. A visit to her father's grave later prompted
Plath to write the poem ‘Electra’.

4. SCHOOL LIFE & NEW
YORK
In 1950, Plath attended Smith College. She became guest
editor at Mademoiselle magazine, during which she spent a
month in New York City. Many things went wrong on her trip,
such as suffering bad illness. A few weeks later she was to
slash her legs to see if she had enough courage to commit
suicide. Following electroconvulsive therapy for depression,
Plath made her first medically documented suicide attempt in
late August 1953 by crawling under her house and taking her
mother's sleeping pills.

5. ENGLAND
Plath obtained a Fulbright scholarship to study at Newnham
College, one of the three women-only colleges of Cambridge
University in England. She continued to actively write poetry
and publish her work in the student newspaper, Varsity. She
spent her first year winter and spring holidays traveling
around Europe.

6. MEETING TED
Plath first met poet Ted Hughes on February 25, 1956, at a
party in Cambridge. Plath described Hughes as "a singer,
story-teller, lion and world-wanderer" with "a voice like the
thunder of God". Only a few months later, the couple married
on June 16, 1956, at St George the Martyr Holborn in the
London Borough of Camden with Plath's mother in
attendance. They then went on to spend their honeymoon in
Benidorm.

7. CHILDREN
The couple had a daughter, Frieda, who was born on April 1,
1960 and in October, Plath published her first collection of
poetry, The Colossus. In February 1961, Plath's second
pregnancy ended in miscarriage and several of her poems,
including Parliament Hill Fields, address this event. In August
she finished her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar
and immediately after this, the family moved to Court Green
in the small market town of North Tawton in Devon. The
couples son Nicholas was born in January 1962.

8. ROCKY ROMANCE
In 1961, the couple rented their flat at Chalcot Square to
Assia and David Wevill. Hughes was immediately struck with
the beautiful Assia, as she was with him. In June 1962, Plath
had had a car accident which she described as one of many
suicide attempts. Only one month later, in July, Plath
discovered Hughes had been having an affair with Assia
Wevill and in September the couple separated.

9. DEATH
A nurse was due to arrive at 9:00 the morning of February 11,
1963 to help Plath with the care of her children. Upon arrival,
she could not get into the flat, but eventually gained access
with the help of a workman, Charles Langridge. They found
Plath dead of carbon monoxide poisoning with her head in
the oven, having sealed the rooms between herself and her
sleeping children with wet towels and cloths. At
approximately 4:30 am, Plath had placed her head in the
oven, with the gas turned on. She was only 30 years old.