Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2017

Introduction

My research question investigates the extent to which Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath are alike

in context and technique that stems from the similarities present in their personal lives. The

autobiographical undertones in all of Plath’s and Sexton’s poems reveal – to the discriminating

reader - intimate insights into both poets’ lives, pasts, and their working environments. Plath

and Sexton both often draw themes from their own perceptions of society, and society’s

perception of them and their work. As successful, intelligent women, both faced harsh criticism

and were overlooked as poets of critical acclaim, despite the finesse and poignancy of their

work; due to the simple discrimination against women in a male-dominated field. It can be said

that even their own husbands – renowned poet Ted Hughes and businessman Alfred Sexton II

– were threatened by the literary prowess shown by their wives, and their ‘failure’ to fit the

societal standards of domesticity. This intellectual suppression is seen in much of Plath and

Sexton’s work. The thematic concerns of the poems, Tulips, Lady Lazarus, Daddy, Again and

Again and Again, and Wanting to Die all are alike in their insight into social and mental health

issues; such as depression, low self-esteem, and anxiety. The poems bring to light concealed

personal and private thoughts, provoking issues and bringing them to the surface in a blunt,

objective, and uncomfortable way. Hidden underneath the deliberate technique of symbolism

lies the pain and blunt realness of each poets’ heartache in life. Arguably the 1950s and 1960s

in America were a decade fuelled by patriarchy. As female poets, Plath and Sexton did not

receive their deserved recognition; leading to their festering insecurity and self-doubt. Both

women tragically committed suicide at young ages, in a response to the betrayal they felt by

society. Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath take their readers on a tour through ‘hell’, depicting the

duplicity they have endured through their personal lives and careers and portraying their

deepest emotions in graphic and expressive poems.