Of Moons and Mirrors: Sylvia Plath’s Poetry and the Rejection of the Feminine Double Anonymous College

With the twentieth century now receded, students and scholars will return time and again to contributors of this century’s literary canon. In the realm of poetry, there are several candidates to consider, but one forceful contender for the list of important American poets in this age is certainly Sylvia Plath. Writing in the post World War II era of the 1950s and 60s, Plath’s often haunting, macabre and grim works, which characteristically featured images such as the moon, blood, hospitals, fetuses, and skulls, contrast the universal picture of the optimism of her era. Plath’s work coincides with the era of the baby boom generation, and Plath distinctively seems to be the stand-alone reluctant bride and mother, who instead proved to have an unwavering commitment to writing and an ambivalent commitment to domesticity. What’s more, she wrote before women traditionally had jobs, and was the first to address the conflict between the domestic and professional balance. “Plath frequently explores what it means to be a woman in terms of the traditional conflict between family and career. Plath’s life and writing are filled with anxiety and despair over her refusal to choose and instead try to have…both” (Dobbs, 11).

The young woman...