Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2017

myself,/ have possessed the enemy, eaten the enemy,’ have taken on his craft, his magic.”

(Stanza 4, poem 5), and “Death’s a sad bone; bruised you’d say,/ and yet she waits for me, year

after year” giving death, the enemy, a male and female persona. In Lady Lazarus Plath makes

a salute to her enemy, which is death. The personification of death adds emphasis to the

dramatic mood and tone both are trying to create, however, it also adds a sense of relatability

and a holistic overview readers can relate to as everyone has their own demons and

personifying them allows readers to metamorphose the ‘enemies’ Plath and Sexton are talking

about, into their own demons and concerns, allowing the poems to be a source of therapy for

not only the poets but also those who read them.

Sexton and Plath both use the theme of suicide vividly in their poems, and paint a detailed

picture of what it does to one’s body and mind. Both poets are unafraid to bare all in their

description, painting graphic images such as in Plath’s Lady Lazarus and Sexton’s Wanting to

Die . Both poems are a direct response to the suicidal thoughts in their lives; a painful reminder

of what it feels like to continue living when one has nothing to live for.

Conclusion

The research gathered in this essay investigates the extent to which Anne Sexton and Sylvia

Plath are ‘bound and fused’ in thematic concerns and literary techniques that stem from their

personal and professional contexts. The identical underlying thematic concern of their

respective deteriorating mental health, was a significant contributor to, and motif in, many of

their poems. Both poets used similar themes to express their inner turmoil, and utilised their

poeticism to convey messages of how disorientating mental health and familial dissolutions

are on the mind. The use of symbolism is a strong and dominant technique that infuses their

personal history into their poems, and unveils their personal issues. Sexton and Plath’s unique