Sylvia Plath Biography

Questions on this topic? Just ask!

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Sylvia Plath

Although most of her creative energies were directed toward poetry, Sylvia Plath produced one novel, The Bell Jar (1963), a striking work which has contributed to her reputation as a significant figure in contemporary American literature. A thinly veiled autobiographical account of the inner conflicts, mental breakdown, and ultimate recovery of a college girl in the 1950s, the novel is one of the earliest to express rebellion against the conventional roles of women, a forerunner of such works as Erica Jong's Fear of Flying (1973) and Marilyn French's The Women's Room (1977). Yet it is more than a feminist document, for it presents the enduring human concerns of the search for identity, the pain of disillusionment, and the refusal to accept defeat. As a novel of growing up, of initiation into adulthood, it is very solidly in the tradition of the Bildungsroman. Technically, The Bell Jar is skillfully written and contains many of the haunting images and symbols that dominate Plath's poetry.

Read the rest of this Biography with our Sylvia Plath Access Pass.